"Real People" (1979) TV series 1979-1984

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

David N. Caldwell

Seasons:

unknown

Release Date:

18 April 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Family

Plot:

After "That's Incredible" (1980) surfaced with the same format as "Real People", MAD Magazine summed it up well in their parody show: "That's Real Incredible, People".

Plot Keywords:

Non Fiction

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 5 nominations

Cast

Lynne Lerner	...	Audience Member #1 (1 episode, 1983)
Douglas Maida	...	Audience Member #1 (1 episode, 1983)
mink	...	Himself (1 episode, 1983)
Cassandra Peterson	...	Elvira (1 episode, 1983)
Ron Soffer	...	King Kong (1 episode, 1983)
Captain Sticky	...	Captain Sticky (1 episode, 1983)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Trivia:

In 1980, during Canadian amputee runner Terry Fox's cross-country Marathon of Hope, "Real People" hostess Sarah Purcell caught up with Terry in Ontario, and proceeded to film an interview while running alongside him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Diff'rent Strokes' (2006) (TV)

70s "Found" comedy

As other posters stated, this was a 60 minute show featuring interesting and odd people around the USA. Nearly all of the members of the cast (the late Skip Stephenson, Byron Allen, Fred Willard, and Mark Russell) were all comedians and disciples of Steve Allen's "found" comedy style. The basis was that real people and real life were more interesting and humorous than most contrived scripts.

What the other posters do not mention is that although many of the stories were, at the base, interesting, the show itself could be quite annoying. It was as if the network people didn't get what the show was about and reality needed to be "accented." Many of the segments were edited more in fashion of America's Funniest Home videos; complete with silly sound effects, Keystone Kops fast forwards, cheesy commentary, etc.

For instance, I remember one segment where a car enthusiast bought two Packards and fused the front ends together to make a "push me-pull me" car. Both ends had engines and the driver could operate the car out of either the front or back ends. Pretty fascinating, but out of the five minute segment, only 30 to 40 seconds was dedicated to the car's owner and how he build the car, while the remaining parts of the segments was filled with wacky music and gaping-jawed reactions of local yokels to the vehicle.

Other segments that went off the beaten path, and were not really comedy but of human interest, were criminally short. I remember one segment hosted by (I believe) John Barbour at reunion of American WWII POWs in the Pacific. They began to tell a compelling story of captivity and how, near starving, they bunched their clothing together and made an American Flag. Several broke down on camera with Barbour consoling them -- a very touching story not seen on TV in 1980. Unfortunately, this groundbreaking piece was only a few minutes, and what would have been a great "real people" story was stuck in between other pap.

The direction of this show was not the fault of the hosts or the writers; there are some great ideas in this show, but I remember it mostly being weighted down by corny gimmicks famous of the networks of that time. Later they brought in Peter Billingsly (L'il Ralphy from "A Christmas Story") as a "cute kid" gimmick).

I do not think today's audience would like the pace or editing of this show. It was made for a time when the "Big 3" networks owned the audiences and comedy, with a few exceptions, was painted with a broad brush