Hope you're all ready to WHOOP IT UP!
15: Vicki Gunvalson - The Real Housewives of Orange County
The OG of the OC has arrived! Please understand this woman was on TV for over a DECADE, and has literally hundreds of hours of footage of her available to watch - so if I miss your FAVOURITE VICKI MOMENT it's because there's literally SO MUCH TO SAY about this awful, horrible, disgusting yet insanely watchable harpie
Vicki is possibly one of the best known Housewives with the general public, purely I think because her tenure on the show was SO LONG.
I see her DEMONIC FACE used all across the internet as non-Housewife related gifs all the time. She managed 14 seasons on the show, before being basically BOOTED off the show because the fans (and production, lets be real) HATED HER (and also probably because by that point she was pulling in a ludicrously inflated yearly salary that the ratings didn't justify).
I don't think Vicki would be cast on a Housewife show as a new Housewife in 2020.
In many ways, compared to the casting in other franchises Vicki really is absolutely ORDINARY. She isn't particularly talented or charismatic, she's not really a classic beauty - nor does she really have a fairytale/unbelievable story to bolster her background. She's just an incredibly screechy, Republican insurance saleswoman from the OC who many moons ago signed onto a COMPLETELY different reality show to what it has now evolved into - and in doing so she basically made a deal with the devil and genuinely became a MONSTER in the process
I mentioned early OC in the Tamra write up, so will just quickly gloss over now.
It was a very different show - a much slower genuine GLIMPSE BEHIND THE IRON GATE of rich gated communities in the OC area. The women don't interact much, and to be honest Vicki was never really the STAR OF THE SHOW in the early seasons either. She was just sort of THERE blathering on about work, her family and screeching at random intervals. It was only really when ALL THE OTHER OG's left, and she started to bond with Tamra that Vicki really came to the forefront of the show, and by that point she had sort of become anchor-by-default having had the longest run of all the wives.
If you weren't already aware, Vicki is an absolutely DESPICABLE human being. She has done some truly DARK and TWISTED things on the show, she NEVER EVER admits fault or is accountable for her actions, and constantly deflects or tries to change the subject - often by saying something EVEN WORSE back at whoever is calling her out.
I mentioned Tamra is an awful human being in her write up (and she is), but you DO get the sense that at least some of Tamra's awfulness is totally performative for the camera - I absolutely believe the Vicki we see on TV is exactly the same person is real life, IF NOT WORSE!
A good snapshot of Vicki's awfulness I feel is well represented in THIS CLIP, where despite (HER FRIEND!) Shannon's protests and obvious upset, Vicki brings up OFF-CAMERA rumours of domestic violence Shannon has allegedly-suffered - and then KEEPS GOING despite what she is doing being told by EVERYBODY what she is doing is completely and utterly NOT OK, and Shannon's very obvious distress and pain.
It sounds awful (and it is), but it's proper jaw-to-the-floor how is this even being FILMED stuff, and let's be honest - this isn't even Vicki at her WORST!
So why is she even in this countdown? The truth is, Vicki is an absolutely AMAZING hate watch. I originally had her much lower in the countdown, but the more I've watched of her over the past 6 months or so the more I've realised how ADDICTIVE the absolute slow car crash that is her screen presence is. She's HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE, and yet you CANNOT TURN AWAY!
Vicki's downfall, and absolute lowest ebb was of course the infamous CANCER SCAM. If you've never watched OC just dive into season 10 - it's an absolute riot with (IMO) the show's best cast. In short:
- Vicki is dating this horrible CON ARTIST man called Brooks who for SOME REASON has decided to tell the word he has been diagnosed with stage 3 non hodgkin's lymphoma.
- Enter new Housewife HUMAN GIRAFFE detective Meghan King Edmonds who immediately SMELLS A PSYCHIC-INDUCED RAT (quite possibly aided by a production DESPERATE to tear Vicki down)
- Meghan is not scared of Vicki, and will not take her foot off Vicki & Brook's necks the ENTIRE SEASON - fact checking everything they claim, calling up the DOCTORS they are apparently visiting for treatment and generally NOT HAVING IT ALL and sowing the seeds of doubt with the other wives too.
- This season features the infamous VICKI vs MEGHAN fight in FancyPants Heather's UNBUILT MANSION, of which Vicki deflects deflects deflects, and then invokes the SPIRIT OF JESUS. It's bonkers in the best possible way, and Meghan deserves an Oscar for how UNRATTLED she is by the whole thing.
- You can watch a great cutdown of the CANCER SCAM here, but it weirdly omits the part of Vicki summoning the HOLY SPIRIT - so you'll have to watch the embed below TOO for the full version of this moment
I would have loved to have watched this season live, it must have been an insane WEEKLY ROLLERCOASTER. It's since come out that Brooks had faked medical documents to claim he had cancer on the show, and Vicki later sued him for deformation amongst other things.
Do I think Vicki knew Brooks was lying? TO THIS VERY DAY she claims she had no idea he was lying, despite the huge amount of evidence suggestion he WAS.
I personally believe she didn't initially know, and when she realised she was IN TOO DEEP and kept on with it to try and save some sort of face - what a stupid, and immoral, mistake!
Incredibly Vicki was KEPT ON THE SHOW for several seasons after this - but her trust within the other women AND the fanbase was totally crumbled by this point, and it was QUITE CLEAR her time on the show was soon to come to an end (more on that later).
I just want to mention Vicki's LONG SUFFERING daughter Briana here. I'm not usually so hot on FAMILY EXTRAS on Housewives, but Briana is one of my favourites. Briana clearly secretly hates her EVIL MOTHER somewhat, yet also kind of loves her equally. I'm sure there's some resentment there from Brianna for being FORCED to grow up on camera.
Briana HATES cancer scam Brooks, and really goes ALL IN at one of the reunions (I think season 8?) properly tearing into him, and her mother. She basically ends up borderline DISOWNING Vicki and her toxic relationship and moving to Oklahoma to GET AWAY FROM HER. Briana isn't necessarily fabulous - but she is straight talking and good on camera. I wouldn't be surprised if production had floated the idea of her becoming a Housewife HERSELF at some point. During several seasons she kind of feels like a bonus Housewife anyway.
God there is STILL SO MUCH MORE TO SAY

Let's do a quick checklist to speed up:
- Production HATE Vicki, and it's really obvious if you watch the show

Her taglines always (?) feature Vicki screeching in some way at the end of them, and it cracks me up EVERY TIME.
- Vicki has plenty of iconic cringe moments, helpfully compiled into a highlights package here that I really urge you to watch. It's also an interesting timeline of Vicki's EVER CHANGING FACE:
- ^the above starts with her infamous "WHY ARE YOU SENDING A FAMILY VAN!!!" meltdown scene, which was a REAL taster of what was to come in later seasons

- It also features the time she GATECRASHED her own sons party, the cringe is VERY PERTINENT HERE.
- The time she "bought" Brianna a car, to Brianna's utter non-interest. (She didn't even BUY Brianna a car! She put a downpayment on one and made Brianna pay the monthly instalments

). She later bought Brianna ANOTHER CAR to a similar reaction in a later season

- It features the FULL Meghan vs Vicki cancer scam JESUS FIGHT

- FINALLY it features from 13.49 onwards one of my
all-time FAVOURITE Housewife scenes 
The women are on holiday in Iceland, and Vicki suddenly "FALLS ILL". The Police (!) and an ambulance are called, and Vicki is basically SHUNTED out of the hotel in the most dramatic fashion possible - in a wheelchair with her face TOTALLY COVERED. It's SO BONKERS and even funnier in the full episode - particularly when you realise Vicki basically just has a HANGOVER!
