News

Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote hit films with Woody Allen including Annie Hall, and the musical Jersey Boys, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 85. His daughter Sophie Brickman confirmed the news to The New York Times.

Born in Rio de Janeiro and raised in Brooklyn, Brickman originally wanted to be a musician and graduated from University of Wisconsin with degrees in science and music. He was in the folk group the Tarriers, playing alongside Eric Weissberg and they scored the hit single, “Dueling Banjos.” Several of their songs from their...

The Rise of Reality TV: How It Took Over Our Screens - Main Image

People's initial impression of reality TV is not all that different from current times. While a lot of people have learned to embrace the genre, others still refuse to accept it as a form of entertainment. This article highlights the rise of Reality TV and how it eventually took over our screens.

The Rise of Reality TV: Where It All Began

The first 'reality TV' began in the late 1940s, with people portrayed in 'unscripted situations' from radio shows before translating it to the TV.

Some early reality-based television back in the day included Queen for a Day, the TV game show Cash and Carry, and Allen Funt's hidden camera show Candid Camera for unsuspected pranks.

Reality TV was not only based on the concept of 'unscripted' entertainment, but this included fooling people for the...

Exclusive: No joke, here’s the deal, and let me be clear: Dana Carvey, fresh off his latest hilarious sendup of a doddering President Biden, will appear in the upcoming documentary Playing Potus, from director Josh Greenbaum.

The film currently in production from EverWonder Studio in partnership with Delirio Films and Green Bomb Productions will include new interviews with Carvey, whose impressions have ranged from Joe Biden to George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Bill Clinton; Maya Rudolph, currently rocking it as Kamala Harris on SNL; Alec Baldwin (Pres. Trump); Will Ferrell (Pres. George W. Bush – remember “Strategery”?), Keegan-Michael Key (Pres. Obama and his alter ego “Luther”); Jay Pharoah (also Pres. Obama); Darrell Hammond; Chevy Chase (a supremely klutzy Gerald Ford), and more.

“The film will tackle the uniquely American tradition of presidential parody, a bold art form that has transformed our...

Joan Benedict, who starred on the original Steve Allen Show and Candid Camera and portrayed the tyrannical hotel queen Leona Helmsley in a one-woman stage show, has died. She was 96.

Benedict died June 24 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from a stroke, a family spokesperson announced.

Benedict was married to actor John Myhers, who played personnel man Bert Bratt in the 1967 film adaptation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, from 1962 until his 1992 death and to Oscar-winning actor Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront, In the Heat of the Night) from 2000 until his death in 2002.

She then had a relationship with actor Jeremy Slate (Hell’s Angels ’69, One Life to Live) until he died in 2006 from esophageal cancer at 80.

“Both of my husbands, and my lifetime partner, Jeremy, were wonderful men who respected me as an actress,” she said in 2016. “They all died from different forms of cancer,...

Reality TV started with hidden camera shows in the 1940s. It evolved into a pursuit of the American family in the 60s. The reality TV genre is constantly evolving. Streaming services are entering the game, giving more creative control to producers. Pioneering reality TV shows like Candid Camera and An American Family laid the groundwork for popular modern shows like Survivor and The Bachelor.

Reality television exploded in the early 2000s with franchises like The Bachelor, Big Brother, and Survivor, and it wasn't long before fame and fortune took on a greater focus with The Real Housewives series and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. But, before all that, hit reality TV shows had quite a fascinating history in the twentieth century with the first reality TV shows. The genre began far earlier than people might realize, and it started with the hidden camera style, then moved into the pursuit of the real American family.

Barry vet Sarah Goldberg is entering a new Industry.

The actress has joined the HBO series for its third season, playing Petra Koenig, a portfolio manager at ethical investment fund FutureDawn, the premium cabler announced on Facebook.

More from TVLineTVLine Items: Pose Vet Joins AHS, Fox Orders Lifeguard Drama and MoreFelicity Déjà Vu on The Diplomat? New Romance Brewing on Superman? Did Will Trent Make You Gasp? More TV Qs!TVLine Items: Red, White & Royal Blue Date, Keira Knightley Thriller and More

As previously announced, Game of Thrones alum Kit Harington will also appear in the upcoming season as Henry Muck,...

Exclusive: MTV’s The Real World is often cited as pioneering reality TV in America, but credit more properly goes to a much earlier television series: Candid Camera.

The hidden camera show created by Allen Funt premiered on TV in 1948, with various iterations broadcast until 2014. The story of how Funt made one of entertainment’s most enduring hits, and essentially invented a television genre, is told in the documentary Mister Candid Camera, written and directed by Funt’s son, Peter Funt. Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Candid Camera Inc., will premiere the film August 2 on major digital platforms, including Apple TV, Amazon, GooglePlay and YouTube.

Funt’s concept was to secretly film people on the street or other settings unwittingly thrust into strange circumstances—like boarding an elevator that moved sideways instead of up and down, or witnessing a car spontaneously split in half. Funt caught priceless reactions, from terror and surprise to comic befuddlement,...

Exclusive: Shout! Factory has snapped up North American distribution rights to Candid Camera, the hidden-camera show known for its decades-long run as a television pioneer.

The multi-year agreement encompasses thousands of episodes from 1960 to 2013, with the first 100 hand-picked classics heading to streaming service Shout! Factory TV later this year. Shout will have exclusive digital and broadcast rights to the series in the U.S. and Canada, and the company has pledged to announce more plans soon.

Candid Camera premiered in 1948, during the infancy of television as a medium, and went on to produce episodes for CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO and TV Land. Its run on CBS, from 1960 to 1967, was perhaps its most indelible. It introduced the hidden camera concept to television, and creator, producer and host Allen Funt has frequently been called the inventor of reality TV. The show’s payoff included one of TV’s most enduring taglines: “Smile,...

Maybe — hopefully — you’ve seen Jackass Forever in a crowded theater over the past week, laughing your ass off, tears running down your cheeks and onto your N95 mask. If so, then you know the furniture store gag: Head jackass Johnny Knoxville is in prosthetics as his old-man character Irving Zisman. Next-gen jackasses Zack Hoffman and Rachel Wolfson are pretending to be a maintenance worker and Irving’s granddaughter, respectively. They enter a large shop that sells chairs, beds, etc. Hoffman gets up on a hydraulic lift that allows him...

Phyllis Ann George, the 50th winner of the iconic Miss America pageant, pioneering sportscaster, and former First Lady of Kentucky, died Friday, May 14, following a long struggle with a blood disorder.

George was born June 25, 1949 in Denton, Texas. She attended the University of North Texas for three years until being crowned Miss Texas in 1970. At that time, Texas Christian University awarded scholarships to Miss Texas honorees, and as a result, she left Unt to enroll at Tcu, where she studied classical piano until she won the Miss America crown in the fall of 1971.

Her 1974 role as Allen Funt’s co-emcee of the Candid Camera show launched her career in television. That same year, CBS recruited her to join Irv Cross, Brent Musburger and Jimmy the Greek on the NFL Today’s pre game show, where she co-hosted live pregame shows before National Football League games.

She was one of the...

Phyllis George, the former Miss Texas and Miss America who made history as a sportscaster on the CBS pregame show The NFL Today, has died. She was 70.

George died Thursday after a long struggle with a blood disorder at a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, a family spokeswoman announced.

George's role in 1974 as Allen Funt's co-emcee of CBS' Candid Camera launched her career in television. That year, the network recruited her to join Brent Musburger and Irv Cross on the cast of The NFL Today. (Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder would come aboard the Sunday program later).

One ...

Can TV Land improve on a classic? We’ll find out as a longtime staple of TV and the original reality show, Candid Camera, gets rebooted for the 21st century on TV Land. Candid Camera created the hidden camera concept for TV in 1948 and produced the “Smile! You’re on candid camera!” catchphrase. Versions of the show aired for more than 50 years and inspired countless other similar hidden camera prank shows (like MTV’s Punk’d). TV Land’s new iteration is hosted by Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) and Peter Funt, son of original Candid Camera creator and host Allen Funt. … Continue reading →

The post TV Land reboots Candid Camera for a new generation appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.

Smile, Mayim Bialik; you're going to be on “Candid Camera.” “Big Bang Theory” actress Bialik has come aboard as host of TV Land's upcoming reboot of the classic hidden-camera series “Candid Camera,” the network said Thursday. Also read: ‘Candid Camera’ Gets a TV Land Reboot: Ep Peter Funt Talks ‘Derivative’ Shows, Drones, and a More Gullible Public Bialik chimed in on her upcoming duties via Twitter, writing, “I have a new side gig.” As reported in April, Peter Funt, son of “Candid Camera” creator and original host Allen Funt, will co-host the series as well as serve as executive producer.

The Big Bang Theory‘s Mayim Bialik will help serve up beaucoup real-life bazingas as host of TV Land’s Candid Camera revival.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Bialik will cohost with Peter Funt, son of Candid Camera creator Allen Funt. The on-camera pranking series will debut Monday, Aug. 11 at 8/7, airing new episodes every night that week through Thursday, before settling into a weekly Tuesday schedule.

Related Mircea Monroe, Aimee Garcia Join Michael Rosenbaum in TV Land Pilot

Ready for more of today’s newsy nuggets? Well….

♦ Speaking of Big Bang Theory, our sister site Deadline reports there has been no “significant...

Don’t worry, your reaction isn’t being taped right now.

EW has learned that TV Land will announce at their Comic Con panel today that Emmy-nominee Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) will host Ben Silverman’s new version of Candid Camera alongside Peter Funt, the son of the show’s creator and host, Allen Funt. Silverman’s company Electus will co-produce with Peter Funt’s Candid Camera Inc, with Funt and Silverman serving as executive producers.

The series will premiere on TV Land on Monday, August 11 with a new episode airing from Monday through Thursday that week. Episodes...

News

In the latest edition of “How many shows can Donal Logue appear in?” the busy actor will have a recurring role on Law & Order: Svu as the new Unit boss. He’ll be recurring for the rest of the season.

Chris Colfer will appear on an episode of Hot in Cleveland, according to TVLine. He’ll play the son of Wendy Malick‘s soap star Joy.

TV Land is reviving Candid Camera for a 10-episode summer run. Peter Funt, son of original Candid Camera host Allen Funt will host the new version which promises to be “daring but respectful”. I hope that means it’ll aim higher than the last reality TV-style revival of Candid Camera. Also, please bring back the theme song from the 70′s version of the series.

With How I Met Your Mother off her schedule, Marvel announced that Cobie Smulders will return to Marvel’s Agents of S.

TV Land is reviving Candid Camera, the network announced today, just in case you weren't already living in fear of constantly being YouTube pranked somehow or being trapped in the middle of an Improv Everywhere "scene" where you are unwittingly playing a befuddled bystander. Peter Funt, son of the original show's creator and host Allen Funt, will serve as co-host and executive producer. Hidden-camera shows and the idea of hidden cameras in general have become ubiquitous since Candid Camera's debut in 1948, so now in addition to poking fun at the weird social pressures we all face, it'll also be a commentary on surveillance culture.

Screw America’s Funniest Home Videos. Screw Punk’d. Screw the Jamie Kennedy Experiment (not really, Jkx was amazing). Candid Camera is the Og when it comes to watching people make fools of themselves on national television. And it’s been off the air since 2004. Creator Allen Funt started pranking folks on a radio show called Candid Microphone (doesn’t have the same ring to it, huh?) back in 1947. A year later it moved over to TV, where it was renamed and picked up the most-useful-show-slogan ever: “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!” Be honest, how many times have you sarcastically said that to someone?...

Pound for pound, TV Land may be the best network out there. That’s sure to raise some eyebrows, but they know what they’re doing, what shows are going to work, and have a game plan that makes a lot of sense. Building off of the qualities they feel work for a certain demographic, they’ve capitalized on a new theory of series creation – rebooting shows from the ’80s and early ’90s that never existed in the first place.

Staying right in line with their idea that there are a lot of people who want to watch shows from bygone eras (even if we have to create them now), they are now launching a new version of Candid Camera. So far we only know that the show will hit in summer with a 10-episode order, which I imagine will almost immediately get expanded. Further details, like who might host,...

Classic hidden camera reality series Candid Camera is returning to television with a new incarnation at TV Land from the series’ long-time host, Peter Funt, son of creator and original host Allen Funt, and Electus‘ Ben Silverman. The cable network has ordered 10 episodes to air this summer. “The show is full of joyful laughter that catches you off guard and leaves you in high spirits — exactly the outlook that our brand embodies,” TV Land president Larry W. Jones said. With its signature catch phrase, “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!”, Candid Camera introduced the hidden camera concept to television in 1948, and the series continued in several iterations over the course of more than 50 years. Silverman, a fan of the original show, tracked down the format to Wme and partnered with Funt to develop a new version. The project landed at TV Land, which had been looking for comedic reality ideas.

Smile — you're getting more “Candid Camera.” TV Land announced Wednesday that it's given a 10-episode order to a reboot of hidden-camera series “Candid Camera,” thus re-introducing an often-imitated, never-duplicated television classic. “A remake of ‘Candid Camera’ is the perfect addition to our portfolio of original series,” TV Land president Larry W. Jones said of the reboot. “The show is full of joyful laughter that catches you off guard and leaves you in high spirits – exactly the outlook that our brand embodies.” Peter Funt, the son of “Candid Camera” creator and original host Allen Funt, will co-host and executive produce the.

Johnny Knoxville and his Jackass friends have an appreciation for the classics. In their movies they’ve paid tribute specifically to Buster Keaton and Busby Berkeley, and more generally to the many slapstick comedians and masters of choreography — of both the stunt and musical varieties — who’ve come long before them. Now with Bad Grandpa, they honor another old-fashioned hero, Allen Funt. This is basically a feature-length version of Candid Camera, with the pranks linked together through a basic fiction plot involving a horny old man (Knoxville in age-disguising makeup) on a road trip with his profanely precocious 8-year-old grandson. It’s not just that the shtick here is influenced by Funt’s long-running and oft-recycled hidden-camera shows. Most of the gags are familiar old tricks that likely were first done on Candid Camera or its copycats. In one well-worn bit, the grandpa, Irving Zisman, is having a tag sale in his home and shocks customers with...

Time for a twist on the standard raucous “frat-boy” type comedy. But the twist isn’t really all that new. It’s the old hidden camera “let’s make the everyday folks squirm” gag film. For it’s legacy we have to go back to the programs of Mr. Allen Funt. He began with a radio show entitled “Candid Microphone” which the new tech soon became “Candid Camera”, a long-running TV hit that he co-hosted on CBS. Then he too, made it to the movies with 1970′s X-rated (but really pretty tame) What Do You Say To A Naked Lady? More recently Sacha Baron Cohen expanded his British TV stunts with the feature films Borat, Bruno, and for several scenes of The Dictator. But over in the states, Johnny Knoxsville and his band of merry pranksters ruled MTV with “Jackass”. While most of the bits concerned painful gags amongst each other,...

Elaine Laron, a witty writer and lyricist who participated in the classic children’s TV projects The Electric Company and Free to Be … You and Me, died of pneumonia June 6 in Los Angeles, her nephew William Funt said. She was 83. Laron's recorded works also include the anti-Vietnam War anthem "Hell No, I Ain’t Gonna Go" from 1960s activist Matthew Jones and "The Loving Song" by Greek international star Nana Mouskouri. During her career, Laron -- at one time the sister-in-law of Candid Camera founder Allen Funt -- collaborated with such celebrated composers as Stephen Schwartz (Godspell), Charles Strouse (the All in the Family opening theme “Those Were

read more...

Since 2005, Howie Mandel has been the leading source of game show shockers; be they financially or emotionally derived. His latest endeavor, NBC's Take It All, serves up surprises of both ilks as we watch contestants win, and then attempt to steal, prizes from one another in a supersized version of White Elephant.

Tonight brings the final episode of the special showing, and to mark the occasion ETonline caught up with Mandel to find out what he thinks game shows say about our culture, what has surprised him the most and why he'd never be caught dead as a contestant.

ETonline: Did NBC come to you with Take It All, or did you approach them?

Howie Mandel: I took it to them. My first recollection of wanting to be in show business was watching Allen Funt. I loved Candid Camera. What I loved was seeing real people in awkward situations and seeing how they'd react. It opened...

DVD Playhouse—February 2012

By Allen Gardner

To Kill A Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Edition (Universal) Robert Mulligan’s film of Harper Lee’s landmark novel pits a liberal-minded lawyer (Gregory Peck) against a small Southern town’s racism when defending a black man (Brock Peters) on trumped-up rape charges. One of the 1960s’ first landmark films, a truly stirring human drama that hits all the right notes and isn’t dated a bit. Robert Duvall makes his screen debut (sans dialogue) as the enigmatic Boo Radley. DVD and Blu-ray double edition. Bonuses: Two feature-length documentaries: Fearful Symmetry and A Conversation with Gregory Peck; Featurettes; Excerpts and film clips from Gregory Peck’s Oscar acceptance speech and AFI Lifetime Achievement Award; Commentary by Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 2.0 mono.

Outrage: Way Of The Yakuza (Magnolia) After a brief hiatus from his signature oeuvre of Japanese gangster flicks,...

National Public Radio's firing of Juan Williams over remarks he made on The O'Reilly Factor is just the latest example of a public figure losing their job for, to quote Allen Funt, "getting caught in the act of being themselves." While I don't buy the various defenses that are being deployed on Williams' behalf, there is an important principle at stake that is being washed away, not in the name of "political correctness," but expediency. While loose lips have always been in danger of sinking career ships, the bar has been lowered to a level that can only serve to end our most valuable conversations.

Scare Tactics is a Sci-fi/Horror themed reworking of Candid Camera from the SyFy Channel. The hidden camera show is one of oldest concepts in television. Candid Camera, which first aired in 1948, secretly recorded people as silly parlor tricks were played on them. After a little while, host Allen Funt would walk up to the person and say; “Smile! You’re on candid camera!” Whether they know the history or not, everyone understands the basic formula of hidden camera shows. Scare Tactics is a great idea on paper: Let’s take the basic “Candid Camera” formula, but take the stunts to a whole new level using elaborate costumes and special effects. The problem is that, despite costumes, make-up, and an absolute commitment to the joke that is sometimes astounding, the amount of effort put into each scenario rarely yields a matching result. There’s a result, don’t get me wrong.

MTV has announced that this will be the last season of the Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg-produced reality show Punk'd.

The final episodes of the hidden camera prank series will be aired in a "Sneak Peek Marathon" on Saturday, April 7th. The "Sneak Peek" will actually include the all eight episodes, run back-to-back. The episodes will then be replayed on a regular schedule beginning April 10th. MTV is hoping that the marathon will generate buzz and word of mouth that will inspire viewers to tune in to the regular Punk'd airings and the other shows on the MTV Tuesday night schedule.

In the tradition of Allen Funt's old Candid Camera series, Punk'd has been duping celebrities since 2003. Punk'd victims this season will include Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, basketball legend Magic Johnson, and singers Nelly Furtado and Jewel. In addition, Kutcher will host a special Punk'd awards show...