In 2008, A&E television network aired Parking Wars, a reality television series that followed parking enforcement officers.

The show documented the officers engaging in ticketing, booting, towing, and releasing vehicles back to their owners as part of their parking violation enforcement duties.

But over the years, Parking Wars has also been questioned for authenticity, with many fans inquiring, "Is Parking Wars real?" on various social media platforms.

Well, that seems to be a trend with every reality television show — either from the past or ongoing.

Fans Putting Out Their Views on 'Parking Wars'

With the intention to pour out their thoughts about the show, platforms such as Twitter and Reddit are filled with fan theories on why [or why not] the show was scripted.

"Was the Parking Wars show even real, or was it all propaganda run by a parking authority union to humanize meter maids?" one tweeted in October 2021.

On the contrary, another noted the show served real situations, writing, "Parking Wars was so real that political leaders in the city asked A&E to go somewhere else and film the [expletive] people."

"What happened to all the good shows on tv? Like Parking Wars and Lizard Lick Towing? Stuff with real substance," someone else with similar thought added.

Facts about 'Parking Wars'

Keeping fan theories aside, a few hard facts give an idea about how authentic the reality show was during its seven-year run.

For instance, the A&E network usually cut or censored foul languages that were caught on camera while they were filming.

The foul languages were apparently obvious because some of the confrontations between motorists and PPA workers turned pretty heated quickly.

Hence, the cutting off of the swear words helped the show sanitize the whole argument and made the reality show less real.

A still image from one of the episodes of 'Parking Wars.'

A still image from one of the episodes of 'Parking Wars.' (Photo: Twitter)

But even though the episodes were edited to make them more exciting and watchable for the family, there is no evidence that A&E actually set up any of the incidents on screen.

Verdict: 'Parking Wars' Is Real

With no evidence of the show being fake, thanks to the facts mentioned above, Parking Wars is clearly a winner — and marks itself as one of those rare shows which could be tagged as real.

A report on the same topic by Screenrant also implied that the show was real, writing, "Sometimes an idea is so simple, it doesn't need the kind of 'help' usually offered by production in order to ramp up the dramatic stakes of a reality show. Parking Wars is one such phenomenon."

Well, it might be because of its authenticity, people loved watching the show so much.

"I'm not much for reality type serials, but this one is pretty good. It's interesting the way people curse out and villainies the Philadelphia Parking Authority," someone wrote while rating the show 8/10 on IMDb.

The show aired its 7th and final season premiered on October 6, 2012. The final episode was premiered on December 22, 2012.