The Real World: San Francisco is the third season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It is the second season of The Real World to be filmed in the Pacific States region of the United States, specifically in California after The Real World: Los Angeles.

The season featured a total of eight cast members over the course of the season, as one cast member was evicted and replaced. This is the first season to be filmed in San Francisco, a location later used in the twenty-ninth season, Real World: Ex-Plosion.

The Real World: San Francisco is noteworthy for the depiction of Pedro Zamora's struggle with AIDS, and his and other cast members' confrontations with David "Puck" Rainey, which led to Rainey's eviction. These conflicts provided what Entertainment Weekly called emotional high points for the season,Fretts, Bruce. (July 21, 1995). "The British Invasion The Real World returns for fourth season — The MTV hit invades London" . Entertainment Weekly. Page 1 of 4 and are credited with making The Real World a hit. It was ranked #7 on Time magazine's list of 32 Epic Moments in Reality-TV History.Webley, Kayla. "32 Epic Moments in Reality-TV History: 7. The Real World: Puck vs. Pedro". Time magazine. Retrieved April 9, 2011. The season is also notable for featuring the first-ever same-sex commitment ceremony on TV, between Zamora and his partner, Sean Sasser.Duke, Alan; Carter, Chelsea, J. (August 8, 2013). "Sean Sasser, whose ceremony with partner on 'Real World' was TV first, dies". CNN.

Casting This season was the first to feature a castmember, Pedro Zamora, dealing with a life-threatening illness. Future seasons would feature castmembers dealing with other illnesses, such as Lyme disease and cystic fibrosis. This is also the first season to feature an Asian American, Pam Ling, and two Hispanic Americans, Pedro Zamora and Rachel Campos.

Singer Jewel stated in a 2017 interview that she was offered an opportunity to be a cast member but declined, fearing it would be the wrong path for her career.

Casting was completed by January 1994, by which time the cast was informed that one of their housemates would be HIV-positive, though they did not learn which one it was until the day they moved into their Russian Hill house, on February 12, 1994. The cast was filmed until they moved out on June 19.Winick, Judd (2000). Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss and What I Learned. Henry Holt. pp. 61, 63–67 and 119. The season premiered on June 30 of that year and consisted of 20 episodes.The Real World: San Francisco: Full Episode Synopses and Recaps. MTV. Retrieved December 1, 2011.

The residence The cast lived in a house at 949Although sources such as Real World Houses give the door number as 953, castmate Cory Murphy notes the door number as 949 when first arriving there with Pedro Zamora in the season premiere. This page at Real World Houses explains that one entrance to the house that leads to the second floor bears the number 949, and an adjacent door, the one facing the street, which leads to the third and fourth floors, bears the numbers 951 and 953. Lombard Street in San Francisco, California from February 12 to June 19, 1994.Winick (2000). Pages 61 and 119. The house is located between Leavenworth Street and Jones Street, one block east of the eight sharp turns that have earned the street the distinction of being "the crookedest street in the United States". Production renovated the third and fourth floors of the building for filming. A June 8, 2000 fire caused approximately $2 million in damage to the house."Lombard Street House". Real World Houses. Retrieved December 1, 2011. Several years after the fire, the building was completely renovated, and bears only a slight resemblance to its appearance in 1994. The renovations include a second garage on the east side of the house, atop of which sits a patio."Lombard Street House Front". Real World Houses. Retrieved December 1, 2011."Lombard Street House East Patio". Real World Houses. Retrieved December 1, 2011. It went up for sale as a three-unit triplex at a price of $7 million in 2017.

Cast Cast member Age Hometown Cory Murphy 20Cory: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. Fresno, CaliforniaWinick (2000). Page 111. Cory is a junior at the University of California, San Diego, and the most important issue facing her is what she will do after graduation. She works as a hostess at an Italian restaurant, and enjoys the outdoors and photography. The longest relationship she's ever been in lasted a year and a half, though she says she doesn't think she's ever been in love. She struggles with adapting to life in the city, and though she grows close to Rachel, she feels excluded when Rachel becomes close with Jo. Judd Winick 24Judd: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. Dix Hills, New YorkJudd is a struggling animator and cartoonist. A cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan, he had a deal with Universal Press Syndicate, but it was cancelled six months into development. He does freelance cartoon work for greeting cards, flyers and T-shirts. A recurring theme throughout the season is his unsuccessful search for love. Mohammed Bilal24Mohammed: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. San Francisco, California Mohammed is the lead singer and songwriter for Midnight Voices, a band well known throughout the San Francisco Bay area, though he supports himself doing makeovers at The Body Shop and working at his father's dance club, The Upper Room, where he occasionally reads poetry. He also tries to balance this with his schoolwork, and his girlfriend of six months, a ballerina named Stephanie.Stephanie first appears in Episode 3. Her occupation, the duration of their relationship, and his schoolwork is established in Episode 16. Mohammed, whom MTV describes as "a mellow, spiritual guy", is a practicing Muslim.The Real World Diaries. Pocket Books. 1996. Pages 129 and 133. Pam Ling 26Pam: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. Los Angeles, California Pam is a third-year medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. She was her high school's valedictorian and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College/Radcliffe. Pam claims that she has never failed at anything in her life and is an extremely motivated perfectionist. She hopes to be a physician who will relate to people's social and spiritual needs as well as their physical ones. She provides health care for the homeless as part of her studies. Pedro Zamora 22Pedro: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. Miami, Florida Pedro is an openly gay, HIV-positive AIDS educator who lectures publicly on safe sex. He was born in Havana, Cuba, and came to the United States in 1980 at age 8 with the Mariel boat lift. Leaving his family behind to move to San Francisco was extremely difficult, but he chose to do so on the insistence of his best friend and roommate, Alex Escarno, who felt he could more easily communicate his message.Winick (2000). Pages 58 and 59. He is close to his sister Mily. David "Puck" RaineyHis first name is given in Act 1 of Episode 14 and Act 3 of Episode 19. 25Puck: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. San Francisco, California Puck is a bicycle messenger who frequently gets into vehicular accidents on his bike. His hobby is racing soap boxes. He is perceived as the rebellious "bad boy" in the cast. He has a sister, and is close to his mother and grandparents.His relationship to his mother and grandmother were depicted in Episode 8. His sister and grandfather visited the house in Episode 9, and the latter shows up in Episode 10 as well. Because of his contentious relationship with the rest of the cast (People magazine called him "obnoxious"Gliatto, Tom. "Brave New World: Mtv's Real World Cameras Feast on An International House of Flatmates". People. Vol. 44. No. 2. July 10, 1995), he is evicted from the house in Episode 11, though he briefly reappears in subsequent episodes. Rachel Campos 23Rachel: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. Tempe, ArizonaRachel Campos. Mooviees.com. Retrieved December 1, 2011 Rachel graduated from Arizona State University in December 1993 with a degree in International Relations and a Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowship. She plans to attend graduate school in the fall, and hopes to be a college professor, she expresses indecision on where she will attend during the season. She is a passionate Republican whose heroes include Jack Kemp, and though raised a strict Catholic, she is rebellious, as she claims to enjoy upsetting her parents. She concedes that she is sometimes a bad judge of character initially, and trusts too easily. She has two brothers and a sister named Julie.Campos-Duffy, Rachel. Stay Home, Stay Happy: 10 Secrets to Loving At-Home Motherhood. Celebra Trade. 2009. Acknowledgements. Judd observes that Rachel likes "bad boys", rather than nice guys, a point that Rachel concedes. It is for this reason that Judd feels Rachel is attracted to Puck. After Puck is evicted, Rachel becomes best friends with Jo, who moves in as Puck's replacement. Judd refers to them as the "high maintenance twins". Jo RhodesHer full first name is mentioned at the end of Act 1 of Episode 18. 22She mentions this at the end of Episode 18. London, EnglandJo: The Real World: San Francisco. MTV. 1993. Retrieved November 30, 2011. Jo moves in after Puck is evicted. She was living in Lake Tahoe prior to joining the cast. She loves the outdoors and extreme sports such as rock climbing. A lifelong independent person, she married in June 1993, but soon divorced because of her husband's abuse. She filed a restraining order against him, which he challenged in court and lost. She is now starting over, trying to make it through school on her own, and does not wish any conflict in her life. Her former roommate Steve has helped her through her difficult times,The restraining order, date of her marriage, Steve, and comments about conflict and independence are established in Episode 15. but Jo does not reciprocate Steve's desire to move beyond friendship. She is a strict vegan,She revels she is a vegetarian when she first appears in Episode 14, but in Episode 17, says she does not eat dairy products, and is referred to as a vegan. and induces vomiting in one episode after learning that food she ate contained pork.

Duration of cast

Episodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Cory colspan="20" Judd colspan="20" Mohammed colspan="20" Pam colspan="20" Pedro colspan="20" Rachel colspan="20" Jo colspan="6" Puck colspan="10" colspan="2" colspan="2"

Puck was kicked out of the house in episode 11 after all of his cast members voted him out of the house. Jo replaced Puck in episode 14. Puck makes appearances in episodes 13, 14, 19 and 20.

Episodes

After filming