Reality TV seemed to have taken off in the 1990s and 2000s with shows such as MTV's The Real World, Survivor, as well as the current slew of such shows. But the genre existed well before then, and one example is this series that ran on NBC from 1979 to 1984. Before Youtube and the Internet, and even before America's Funniest Home Videos, this was how "real people" (non-celebrities, the focus of this show) became stars for a day.
Produced by George Schlatter, who had produced Laugh-In in the 1960s, Real People was introduced in the spring of 1979, and was then renewed for the following season. Along with the pre-taped segments of people with unusual occupations or hobbies, the series also featured a segment showing funny pictures or newspaper errors sent in by viewers, kind of like Jay Leno's "Headlines" segment on The Tonight Show. Those whose items were featured on the air were then sent a Real People T-shirt (the items could not be returned to the sender, however). The success of the show (at a time when NBC was third place in the ratings) led to imitator shows, such as CBS's That's My Line, with Bob Barker (I never saw that one) and ABC's long-running That's Incredible! (I saw that one several times). Real People also had two spinoffs, Speak Up, America and Real Kids, neither of which were as popular as the original. The show was syndicated in half-hour segments as More Real People.
The various hosts of this series included Sarah Purcell, John Barbour, Skip Stephenson, Bill Rafferty, Byron Allen, and Peter Billingsley. Billingsley is best known as Messy Marvin in a series of commercials for Hershey's Chocolate Syrup and as the star of the perennial holiday-movie favorite A Christmas Story.
Real People aired on Wednesday nights as a lead-in to The Facts of Life, one of the shows I always watched as a child. This seems to the the only reason I ever watched Real People at all. These days, I could not even begin to watch any sort of reality TV. I basically tuned away from MTV once shows like The Real World started taking over. I did not even take to time to watch the Holderness Family on The Amazing Race recently, and I love watching their videos!
Below is a video highlighting the series. There is a Youtube channel is devoted to the series.
Interesting to know that reality tv started way back in 90s! I used to wtach americas funniest videos --- when in school I guess when Tom Bergeron anchored and loved it. Even now I randomly watch at times
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Hari OM
ReplyDeleteI was never a fan of voyeuristic teevee... and as for what is called 'reality' now, with all its so called 'celebs' turning up in other shows as if they truly added value ... &*[] YAM xx
R=Reef
Interesting. My favourite reality series is Master Chef.
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I definitely watched Real People as a kid. I even watched Real Kids.
ReplyDeleteSome great history there. I don't even remember this show - wow. I'm not a fan of reality TV. I think the only ones Ive enjoyed are when houses are being remodeled.
ReplyDeleteThe Russian
This one sounds familiar:)
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