Candid Camera

''Candid Camera'' is an American hidden camera and practical joke reality television series. The show was created, developed, and presented by Allen Funt. Various versions of the show have appeared on television from 1948 to 2014. The program got its start on radio as ''The Candid Microphone'' on June 28, 1947.

After a series of theatrical film shorts, also titled ''Candid Microphone'', Funt's concept came to television on August 10, 1948, and continued into the 1970s. Aside from occasional specials in the 1980s, the show was off air until 1991, when Funt reluctantly authorized a syndicated revival with Dom DeLuise as host and Vin Di Bona producing; it ran for one year. The show made a comeback on CBS in 1996 before moving to PAX TV in 2001. This incarnation of the weekly series ended on May 5, 2004, concurrent with the selling of the PAX network itself. Beginning on August 11, 2014, the show returned in a new series with hour-long episodes on TV Land, but this incarnation only lasted a single season.

The format has been revived numerous times, appearing on U.S. TV networks and in syndication (first-run) in each succeeding decade, as either a regular show or a series of specials. Funt, who died in 1999, hosted or co-hosted all versions of the show until he became too ill to continue. His son Peter Funt, who had co-hosted the specials with his father since 1987, became the producer and host. A United Kingdom version of the format aired from 1960 to 1976.

Premise

The show involved concealed cameras filming ordinary people being confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props, such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car with a hidden extra gas tank. When the joke was revealed, victims were told the show's catchphrase, "Smile, you're on ''Candid Camera''." The catchphrase became a song with music and lyrics by Sid Ramin.

In one episode, the show filmed the reactions of citizens after they saw the former President Harry S. Truman walking down the street. After being advised that the former president and his Secret Service entourage would be taking a walk in downtown Manhattan, the program tracked them with a hidden camera in a van. A young woman who was a champion runner was planted at a street corner they would pass, and she was asking directions from a passerby when she saw Truman and shouted hello. In a stunt suggestive of the classic radio play '' The Hitchhiker'', she then ran around the block so she could be ahead of Truman and was at the next corner where she again said hello to him as he approached. After this was done several times, she asked President Truman if something seemed familiar. The former president replied he expected she had something to do with the van that had been following him, and pointed straight into the camera with his walking stick without turning to look.

Some of Funt's pieces did not involve pranks but consisted simply of interviews with ordinary people. There were bizarre sequences in which people, sometimes children, gave one-of-a-kind interpretations of works of art. A little girl once told Funt that ''The Discus Thrower'' by Praxiteles showed a man throwing his little girl's allowance to her while she stood in the back yard.

Radio history

''The Candid Microphone'' was first heard on Saturday, June 28, 1947, at 7:30 p.m. on ABC radio. That series came to an end on September 23, 1948. The announcer for the radio program was Dorian St. George (1911–2004).

Beginning June 6, 1950, ''The Candid Microphone'' was broadcast by CBS on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m., sponsored by Philip Morris, which continued for three months until August 29.

TV history

Funt brought his program to ABC television in 1948, using the ''Candid Microphone'' title of the radio series, and then switched to NBC in the fall of 1949 (for Philip Morris, with Ken Roberts as his announcer), at which point its name was changed to ''Candid Camera''. The format moved to syndication in 1951 and continued for three years before returning to NBC in 1958 as a segment of Jack Paar's ''The Tonight Show''. The segment reappeared in 1959 on CBS as a feature on '' The Garry Moore Show'', before once again becoming a standalone show in 1960.

Its longest uninterrupted run came in the CBS Sunday evening version. Debuting in October 1960, dominating its 10pm time slot for seven years, the program reached its peak in 1963 placing second for the year in the national Nielsen ratings. In these shows producer/host Funt was joined on stage by several co-hosts. Veteran CBS broadcaster Arthur Godfrey joined Funt for the first season, until he quit due to an inability to get along with the volatile Funt. Replacing him was Garry Moore's long time announcer and sidekick Durward Kirby from 1961 to 1966. For the final prime time season, TV hostess and former Miss America, Bess Myerson co-hosted. The 1966–67 season, with Myerson, saw the series' first use of color film. Appearances on the show by silent film comedy legend Buster Keaton were included in the 1987 Thames Television tribute documentary ''Buster Keaton: A Hard Act To Follow''. Among the standout favorite segments was 1965's traffic cop Vic Cianca with the Pittsburgh Police, who gained national exposure through the show and later appeared in Budweiser commercials, as well as Italian TV and the movie '' Flashdance''. A then-unknown Woody Allen was one of the writers for the show in the early 1960s and performed in some scenarios. Though a rarity, a few celebrities appeared in the last CBS season; among them were baseball legend Jackie Robinson, impressionists George Kirby and Rich Little, singer Mike Douglas and rock vocal group The Four Seasons.

Following an ABC special in the summer of 1974 celebrating the program's 25th anniversary, ''Candid Camera'' returned that fall for a five-year run in weekly syndication, with Funt as emcee again and John Bartholomew Tucker and Dorothy Collins