The question has to be asked. Is MTV’s “The Real World,’’ which returns for a 25th season on Wednesday with a hot-tub party in a Las Vegas suite and a cast member who worked for the porn site “Fratpad,’’ one of the most influential series ever on TV?

You may not like this thought. I don’t like this thought. Twelve years after “The Sopranos’’ premiere, I would prefer to focus on how the morally complex mob drama paved the way for everything from “Mad Men’’ to “The Shield’’ while it opened up the once unfamiliar region of cable for mainstream audiences. I would rather look back at the legacies of “The Twilight Zone,’’ and “All in the Family,’’ and “Seinfeld,’’ whose fetishizing of lifestyle minutiae still plays out on today’s sitcoms. I would rather talk “Lost.’’

But after 25 seasons, “The Real World,’’ which premiered in 1992, is begging for credit — or blame, depending on your point of view. “The Real World’’ led to the creation of an entire new genre, one that has changed the nature of privacy, fame, and TV. It is the show that spawned almost every reality TV convention we now take for granted, from the ever-present cameras and fourth-wall confessionals to the glitzy home design and the editing-room shaping of “story line.’’ Created by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray, “The Real World’’ was the breeding ground for everything that “Real Housewives’’ and Kardashian fans now hold most dear.

Later in the game, Mark Burnett added his more cinematic, competitive touch to reality TV with “Survivor,’’ but “The Real World’’ was there first, pioneering the science of casting to make “social experiments’’ into chemical eruptions.

“The Real World’’ was the first time TV told viewers in earnest that ordinary lives could be transformed into lively entertainment programming. Real people had been on game shows, talent contests, and documentaries, but the hybrid idea that they could star as dramatic or comic figures with their own plot arcs was new. The MTV show was a natural extension of the camcorder revolution of the 1980s, as young people grew up more accustomed to — and desirous of — being filmed. Big Brother? Not so scary anymore. Now, of course, that exhibi tionistic impulse first exploited by “The Real World’’ has not only taken over TV — but also is in everyone’s daily lives, too, with Facebook.