You’ve seen the pic of Alan King at my desk at home… now here’s the grinning mug of the one and only Allen Funt that keeps me company at work:
Funt, of course, was the creator of one of television’s first hits, CANDID CAMERA, a show that not only (arguably) birthed the reality television genre, but mutated over the years into any number of other prank shows. My favorite bit on CANDID CAMERA involved the young Woody Allen dictating a love note to his girlfriend by way of his new, unsuspecting secretary, but there are hundreds of other giggle-inducing bits from the show that linger in memory.
Right now, this image of the now-departed Funt sits atop a wee pedestal of copies of my new book on Reality TV, as seen in the detail below. Some of us stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us, others prop up their giants with copies of their how-to books, I guess.
Comedian Dana Gould sums up the critical take on Reality TV with the simple assertion that “What you’re watching is an amateur production of nothing.” Well, that may be true for the on-camera talent in some cases, but I choose to see the lack of polish in a lot of reality shows as part of their charm. But then, I’ve always been a romantic when it comes to TV.
If any AWMoK-ers out there are curious about the behind-the-scenes workings of reality shows, I’ll send a signed copy to the first three people who ask for them in the comment section of this post. That way, they can save the $24.95 to apply to their next swap meet find.
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Allee Willis
First off, I would highly recommend Troy’s book, especially page 130.
Troy’s book is a compendium of reality shows. And we all know that that is my absolute favorite genre of television and has been since Candid Camera. CC is a seriously brilliant concept created by Funt. I’ve always been far more intrigued with things that happen in real life than I have been with anything scripted, so the proliferation of this genre is music to my ears, though I’m an anomaly among my show business peers.
I would be really excited to have an autograph from Alan Funt. Of course, we can’t forget that he was married to Betty White. Those two mentalities together had to have made it a lot of Fun(t).
Troy’s Alan King autograph: https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2010/12/06/by-kitschmeisters-request-the-alan-king-thing/
Lisa Rios
Betty White was married to Alan Ludden, not Funt.
Allee Willis
Oh, you’re right. I knew I should’ve checked it. She was married to the Password guy. I was just so excited about Fun(t).
StoryTroy
Allee, you know how much I adore anyone who can just come right out and admit they love Reality TV. On the buffet of television genres, it’s the Waldorf salad.
Mark Milligan
The book is a fantastic voyage into a hidden world.
I hadn’t even thought about what an enormous business this is, and how many talented people it takes to make these shows happen.
I don’t think it matters if you’re involved in the industry or not, it was definitely worth picking up!