'COPS' Inspires Generation of Reality Shows
Good morning. It’s March 11. It's the date, in 1989, when the reality show “COPS” made its debut, sparking numerous imitators.
The idea that you get Americans to sound ridiculous if you point a camera or microphone at them – and that other people would watch –predates television itself. Its pioneer was Allen Funt, an Ivy League-educated New York City native who learned how to record sound in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II.
After the war, Funt took his idea to ABC in1947; in June of that year it debuted as a show called “Candid Microphone.”
The following year, the format debuted on television, along with a signature line that would become a cultural touchstone: “Smile, you’re on ‘Candid Camera.’”
A genre was born, and many variations followed, including “Truth of Consequences,” and “I’ve Got a Secret” and “To Tell the Truth.”
Over the years the format ranged from “An American Family” to “Jaywalking.” The former was a 1973 reality show featuring the Loud family of Santa Barbara, Calif.; the latter is Jay Leno’s sporadic forays into streets where he quizzes the citizenry about its (often tenuous) grasp of history, culture, and current events.
But “COPS” was a whole different deal.
Producers John Langley and Malcolm Barbour found a receptive audience for their concept among Fox Broadcasting Co. executives because a writers strike had left the network in the lurch. Set in Florida, and heralded by the arresting reggae tune “Bad Boys,” the show followed the Broward County Sheriff’s Department as it made actual arrests.
This show didn’t require writers in any conventional sense, saving money in the process, and it attracted strong ratings. Soon other networks were following suit – a craze that didn’t abate when the writers’ strike ended.
Today, you can draw a line from “Candid Camera” to the Kardashians, stopping along the way for “Divorce Court,” “The Bachelor,” “The Apprentice,” “The Cougar,” “The Biggest Loser,” “Pimp My Ride” and “19 Kids and Counting” and, of course, “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”
No wonder presidential debates (not to mention "Downton Abbey") found such a large audiences.
