Original ‘Real World: Los Angeles’ Stars Tami Roman & David Edwards Try — And Fail— to Resolve Their 1993 Drama During ‘Homecoming’ Reunion

“See you in another 28 years!”

Trigger Warning: Disordered Eating

The second season of MTV’s The Real World had more than its fair share of firsts and controversies. Originally filmed and aired in 1993, the show featured one cast member leaving to get married, one having an abortion, and one getting kicked out of the house. That eviction– and the incident that led up to it—are covered in the first episode of The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles, which debuted this week on Paramount+.

As OG ‘Real World’ fans will remember, during the original series, David Edwards dragged Tami Akbar (now Tami Roman Youngblood) out of her bed and down the hall of their house when Tami was only wearing underwear. That incident led to David getting kicked out of the house in the following episode, a first for ‘The Real World’ franchise.

During the first episode of ‘Homecoming,’ the reunited housemates (which, in addition to David and Tami, also include Beth Anthony, Jon Brennan, Irene Berrera-Kearns, Glen Naessens, and Beth Stolarczyk) were asked to discuss what David did to Tami back in 1993.

In case you forgot what went down in ’93…

“We knew they would be discussing it in reference to some of these current issues that we’re all talking about now, in terms of, what is consent, which is not something that was as much in the world…” co-creator Jonathan Murray told Variety.

For Tami, going back to the incident means addressing the body dysmorphia and eating disorder she dealt with while filming the 1993 show.

“You can’t understand the magnitude of why I was like, ‘Don’t pull these damn covers off.’ In my personal life, you all did not see my popping laxatives. You did not hear me throwing up. You all did not know I was battling body dysmorphia,” she continued. “Nobody understood why I got my mouth wired, was because I’m a person who no matter when I look at myself, I feel like I’m 300 pounds,” she said in the first episode, as reported by TooFab.

David’s focus in revisiting what happened in 1993 is the impact it had on his stand-up comedy career.

“I didn’t know the whole blanket incident, the word rape getting thrown around, how that was going to affect my career, but it made me hungry, like I have to go nail some s**t before this drops. I had read-throughs that morning, they were airing commercials, ‘Are you dragging a girl down a hall with a blanket?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it’s f**king starting.’ The word rape getting thrown around, phone stopped ringing and s**t,” he said in the first ‘Homecoming’ episode.

While both David and Tami have come to terms with what happened in 1993, Tami hinted that they have not yet made amends.

“Almost three decades later and I’m still not laughing, Davey!”

In an interview for Entertainment Tonight, Kevin Frazier asked Tami if she’d forgiven David for what happened.

“I think we all kind of came into this moment wanting to right wrongs. Sometimes things go the way you hope they do and sometimes they don’t,” the former Basketball Wives and Marriage Bootcamp star said.

During that same interview, David stormed out twice, once when he saw Tami’s husband, entrepreneur and former football player Reggie Youngblood (who appears on ‘Homecoming’), and again when challenged by Kevin Frazier for his combativeness.

David later told Kevin that the current drama between him and Tami is “really real.”

“I came [on ‘Homecoming’] to set some things straight. [I’ve been waiting] 28 years for this,” he said, adding that he’d be willing to do another season with the roommates…”minus maybe one person.”

Both Tami and David shared links to the Entertainment Tonight interview on social media.

“So this happened on @entertainmenttonight,” Tami posted to Instagram on Sunday.

David shared the video to his Facebook page on Nov. 19, commenting, “Lmao.”

New episodes of The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles debut Wednesdays on Paramount Plus.

You can rewatch the infamous “Tami-dragging” scene in the video below. (Scroll to the 8:00-minute mark to see the incident and the aftermath.)

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(Photos: MTV; Paramount+)

Dev

12 Comments

  1. Rape

    noun
    unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the consent of the victim.

    He definitely did it.

    stay lit


  2. Regardless if Tami had body issues or not, it wasn’t ok to haul Tami into the hall in her underwear. That wasn’t consent and a boundary crossed. David thought it was a joke and funny and still today, is only concerned about how it affected him and his “comedy career”. 30 years later and he still doesn’t think what he did was wrong.


  3. Ugh, I remember watching MTV when they played music during the shows like that. So good. The Real World was so interesting when it first came out. Anyone else remember when Steven slapped Irene during the Seattle season? I still remember that, I couldn’t believe it.


      1. LOL yessss, there is even a clip of it on YouTube. My favorite part of that season was David going psycho over the casting director who got fired for dating him. Didn’t they argue all crazy in her truck or something? Lol, such drama


        1. Oh man, such memories! I remember watching that then thinking, “Man, he must really love her”

          Now I’m all, “She’s dumb to ruin her job and do it so publicly, and he’s a freaking psycho” 😅


  4. That scene has always hit me different. Like, I stay under a cover if I can. I don’t like feeling open.

    Is Tami ok? She looks really thin. I never knew she had any kinds of body issues til now.

    I always liked Tami. She was my favorite that season.


    1. I always thought David got a raw deal. Even more so now. How was he supposed to know she had body issues? She was saying he had to leave because she ” didn’t feel safe” they were always playing back and forth.
      Well it certainly explains her abortion, she didn’t want to gain weight!


      1. David play too much. That’s all.

        I don’t think hes a terrible guy and it was so long ago. Its just time to move on. Both of them.


        1. I agree with this. I wasn’t ever a fan of Dave, I think he did cross the line (and kept going!) but I remember when the “rape” got thrown around being very confused as a kid.

          Looking back it feels like MTV and the group just wasn’t prepared for something like that to occur. Now as a society we are a lot more open to discuss things like this and I think we are more educated on such topics compared to then. But I’d venture to say if these two couldn’t have come to some sort of understanding about this in the past 30 years, it wasn’t going to magically happen now with cameras shoved in their face

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