Welcome to Wiser Now’s weekly email blast which reflects my eclectic interests and, I hope, yours. This week, my focus is on “Candid Camera”, which had its premiere August 10, 1948, long before most people had television sets. While its heyday was in the 1960s, versions of the show appeared on U.S. TV over seven decades for a total of more than 1000 episodes and 2000+ skits. (There were also copycat versions in other countries.) It was arguably the first reality TV show, and also, arguably more ethical than those that followed decades later. Get ready to smile as you remember classic scenes.

I hope you find these offerings fun, and perhaps even useful, and welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com) And if you haven’t yet pressed the subscribe button so this newsletter doesn’t go to spam, please do so now.
The Quirky Quote
When people are smiling, they are most receptive to almost anything you want to teach them. I think that can be applied industrially, academically, technically, and almost every other way. ~ Allen Funt

The Quirky Facts
Allen Funt got his start doing candid interviews in the Army Signal Corps during World War II, partly to capture soldiers’ messages to their families. Many of those early recordings were poignant, but the TV show’s goal was always to make people smile.
His idea was to catch unsuspecting people "in the act of being themselves," as he put it. Although many of the situations were awkward or embarrassing, they weren’t meant to embarrass the people being filmed. In a typical stunt, for example, passers-by were startled by a hand reaching out of a sewer grating, angling for a hat just out of reach. In New York, many people just handed the hat to the hand and walked on.

Everyone had to sign a release to have their footage used on TV. Many of the people being filmed (as when they were caught seriously examining a pet store aquarium with a sign “Invisible fish”) seemed thrilled to know that they hadn’t gone crazy, and the world along with them. They were glad to be able to laugh at themselves, which is after all, a sign of good mental health. Others were thrilled by the prospect of being on TV, except for people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time (such as playing hooky from work) or with the wrong person. Those people were few and far between and that film was always destroyed. Allen Funt himself destroyed any material that was off-color or reached too deeply into people's private lives. He considered himself a student of human nature, rather than a practical joker. Mean-spirited pranks came from other reality shows much later.
Allen’s son Peter, who took over the show after his father’s death in 1999, wrote that his father taught him three primary responsibilities:

  • Don’t make others look bad. If you wouldn’t want to be caught in a situation depicted, chances are others would be humiliated, too.
  • Don’t abuse authority. In power mismatch situations (teacher/student or boss/employee, for example), people will do almost anything, but it’s a cheap trick to put them in that position.
  • Care about people. Be interested in what makes humans tick, in what makes us smile.

Those are good guidelines to keep in mind now that nearly everyone has the ability to capture candid moments on their cell phones.
Allen Funt donated noncommercial educational rights for his archive of taped shows to his alma mater, Cornell University, where they are used for research purposes and to teach Psychology 101. For example, in one stunt, an elevator passenger is joined by three others who immediately turn to face the side of the car. How long does the fourth passenger resist conforming? Not long. What does that say about our herd mentality? It’s not considered a scientific study because for every shot shown on TV, dozens were filmed, but it’s an interesting experiment.

Allen Funt was also interested in the effects of laughter on healing, and took pride in the contribution his humor could provide through his “Laughter Therapy" foundation, which makes “Candid Camera” videocassettes available at no charge to people with serious illnesses.
The Quirky Observations
The popularity of “Candid Camera” can be measured in part by the celebrities who assisted with various stunts. They included Muhammad Ali, Former U.S. President Harry Truman, (asking people on the street for the time), Zsa Zsa Gabor, Buster Keaton, Jayne Mansfield, Dolly Parton (who feigned a twisted ankle to trick chivalrous men into carrying her through a parking lot), Doris Roberts and Ray Romano, among many others. In a 1962 episode, Betty White (pictured) posed as a ticket seller at a movie theater and would only sell tickets if the moviegoer took a pledge – and signed a form – promising to not reveal the ending of the mystery movie to anyone.

When asked in an interview why the show’s hosts and other famous people weren't recognized, Peter Funt answered, “Sometimes they wear disguises - a hat, glasses, or a wig - but the truth is, people don't expect to see TV performers out of context. When you go to pick up your dry cleaning, you never think that someone from television will be behind the counter.” Plus, the situation set-up is itself distracting.
But using comedians to dream up “Candid Camera” gags did not work well according to Allen Funt. Brainstorming with the likes of Charles Grodin and Joan Rivers never lasted long. "You had people who were enormously talented at jokes, but what makes our stuff funny are the twists on real life. The things right under our nose make up virtually all our ideas.”

Allen Funt was so famous that he appeared as an impersonator of himself in a 1971 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in which he convinced Lucy to rob a bank as part of a “Candid Camera” stunt. She thinks she's robbing the bank all in good fun, but, no, she's actually robbing a bank for the Allen Funt impersonator. (Photo from imbd.com)

And once he was caught in a real-life situation, that others thought (and he wished) was just a “Candid Camera” prank. In 1969, four hijackers took over an airplane that he and his family, as well as several “Candid Camera” crew members were on, as they traveled from Newark to Miami. Everybody was naturally panic-stricken until a passenger recognized Funt and assumed the whole thing was a gag. She told everyone not to worry because they were on “Candid Camera.” When Allen Funt insisted that he had nothing to do with the situation, no one believed him until they landed in Cuba. Then all the passengers were mad at him. Fortunately, everyone was released the next day.
The Featured Product
School used to always start after Labor Day, but now begins in August for many students, so it’s a good time for the Wiser Now “School Daze” Slide Show. Its 106 slides vary somewhat from other slide shows because they emphasize reminiscence and student bloopers – lots of funny word games, but no trivia quizzes. It’s a chance to stir up fond memories and laugh at mistakes, not to test your residual knowledge of geometry.
  • The reminiscence/discussion topics include elementary school memories, rules for teachers, influential teachers, high school and/or college years, and retro romance (reunion connections).
  • The 6 word games include definitions made up by young children, Grammar for Grins, complicated proverbs, and three variations on student misunderstandings needing correction.
  • 
For slide shows that provide fun with specific subjects, check out Literature Lite and Nimble Numbers. And there’s plenty of biology in Animal Antics, Bird Brains, Bees and Butterflies, and In the Garden.
Please Spread the Word
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Directions for Sharing
Each week, the links to the current and seven previous Wiser Now Wednesdays are provided in the archive (“WN Wed Archive” on the far right of the menu bar). Click on the issue you want to share, and when it appears, at the top of the screen you will see “Share” with an f for Facebook and a bird for Twitter. Click on them to share to your contacts or just copy the URL at the top of your screen and send it to them in an email. Thank you!
The Questions
  • Did you ever watch ““Candid Camera”” during the decades it was on television? Did it make you smile?
  • Do you especially remember any episodes (either those listed or others)? Share your memories.
  • Did you or anyone you know ever get caught on “Candid Camera”?
  • If you could set up a “Candid Camera” gag, what situation would you create?
The Quiz – What Wasn't Caught On Camera
An old article noted that for many years, Allen Funt said his favorite gag was the talking mailbox: "I hooked a microphone into a mailbox and stood back some distance, behind shrubbery, so I could see people walking by.” When one guy came along, the microphone stopped him by asking if he’d seen the mailman because he was filled up and needed to be emptied. ”Well, this guy carried on a whole conversation with me. Then the guy hails another passerby and tells him the mailbox can talk. 'Say something,' he says to the mailbox. The box was silent.” This drove the first guy nuts. ”He screamed, he kicked, and he pulled at the mailbox. Finally, the other guy walked away shaking his head."
Which were NOT “Candid Camera” gags?

With more than 2000 skits to choose from, it’s hard to be sure any false set-up I could come up with was truly false, so I have instead slightly altered two in the list below. Can you guess which ones?
 
a. New Yorkers are asked to line up alphabetically outside a movie theater

b. There is a toll collector on a New Hampshire hiking trail

c. People arriving to pick up their pizza order are informed that the eatery has run out of boxes

d. People are asked to help hold a hat against a building, because “there is bird under it”

e. A car splits in two as it passes a traffic policeman

f. In an American college football huddle, the quarterback looks to the coach for directions about the next play and finds the coach’s signals are nonsense
g. Speed bumps are added to a supermarket aisle

h. Couples can “get married” by vending machine in Las Vegas

i. In NYC’s Central Park, rental skates come with training wheels

j. Kids try to open a door while holding 2 ice cream cones

k. People bowl – and the pins smash apart when the ball hits them.

l. People bowl – and the pins move, dodging the ball

m. People go up an escalator and reach a bare landing. The only way off the landing is to ride another escalator, which is coming down.
n. A cop issues parking tickets to people who have done a poor job parking in their driveways

o. An attractive young woman is deposited on a street corner with two identical-looking suitcases, one empty, and one filled with 250 pounds of concrete. When a strong-looking man approaches, she asks for his help with her suitcases and walks away carrying the empty one, leaving him to deal with the other.

p. A person talking on the phone suddenly sneezes. The person being pranked at the other end gets sprayed with water from a gadget in the receiver.
Answers to the quiz
All true, except:

f. The real stunt involved an Expos baseball game on a summer night in August 1990 when the Expos’ catcher Dan Hargis gave nonsense signs to Bob Baxter, the unsuspecting and clearly flustered starting pitcher, who would ultimately get “thrown out” of the game without having thrown a pitch. Hargis and Funt, who posed as the home-plate umpire, were wearing microphones.
o. Slightly false. The heavy suitcase was about 200, not 250 pounds, and when the “Candid Camera” crew filmed this gag in Russia, the chosen burly Russian pedestrian picked up the suitcase and followed her effortlessly.
 
Note on m: One woman simply reached down and hit the Emergency Stop button present on all escalators and continued on her way, foiling the filmers.
My multiple goals are to amuse and inspire you, to share what I and people whom I admire are doing, to stimulate your curiosity and spur you to action. I hope you enjoyed this offering. You can access previous issues here. I welcome your feedback. (Kathy@WiserNow.com)
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