Morgan Spurlock (the guy who did "Supersize Me") has a TV show that comes on the FX network called 30 Days (<a href="http://www.tv.com/30-days/show/36402/summary.html">link</a> - including episode listing) where either he himself or a volunteer takes on a life change for 30 days. It's not an amazing docu-drama or anything, but they've done episodes on quite a few of the subjects that pop up on this board a lot, including living on minimum wage, living as Muslim and living as a illegal alien. The Season One DVDs are only ~$15 on Amazon or if you're a Netflix'er, I'd highly suggest tagging it for a rent. For those who don't do either, I'm sure you can find "other" ways of seeing it.

Like I said above, it's not an "be-all, end-all" documentary and it doesn't try to be, but it also doesn't try to overly ham things up like in a lot of other reality shows.