Shark Bytes

The show off and on became abusive on a spaced apart basis (as far as I recollect), but for me, with (or under) Peter Funt's smug, smarmy grin of leadership/direction, it became more frequently so. The practice of annoying people for gags and telling them "It's for your convenience." seems to have been invented during Peter Funt's term as the principal host.

<<< The following were actual "Candid Camera" gags...

Example of benign gag with puzzlement:

A (plant) man can do (really fake it) an echo at a cliff, but a couple of women who try, can't. (There WAS no actual echo that could be done.)

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Example of an annoying gag, but the people thought it was just their bad luck:

A middle-aged man and woman go into a movie theater, but wherever they sit down, tall enough people sit right in front of them. They keep moving into other seats, but new people (to the theater) keep sitting in front of their new seats. This repeats a couple of more times. Finally, they leave in disgust before the film begins.

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Example of a gag that's annoying, but they see who is doing it to them:

Dina Eastwood (show co-host) acts as a server in a restaurant in this one and sips from at least one cup/glass of beverage at some point and hands it back to a customer.

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Example of a gag (which did not air) that got the unsuspecting participant injured and his clothing ripped:

Peter Funt, acting as an airline worker (with all of the power behind his uniform), told a passenger (I presume) to get ON a machine that had a moving part (wide belt, something else, or both), and the man suffered injuries along with torn clothing.

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"Candid Camera" should have been A LOT
more of the first type of example cited, SPARINGLY of the second type mentioned, and perhaps "once in a blue moon" of the third type of the example
I used.

Where can I get or see clip 'Parking garage'?

To MaRCH 28, 2007:

"Candid Camera" is too mean-spirited, and one that didn;t make their show was where Peter Funt was dressed up as a worker in an airport, and he told a man to get up on the conveyor belt. The man's clothing got ripped and get got injured. He did it because of the authority figure in Peter Funt's character. He sued the show, and who/what else.

MaRCH 28, 2007

"Candid Camera" is too mean-spirited, and one that didn;t make their show was where Peter Funt was dressed up as a worker in an airport, and he told a man to get up on the conveyor belt. The man's clothing got ripped and get got injured. He did it because of the authority figure in Peter Funt's character. He sued the show, and who/what else.

Nobody was ever shown on the show who didn't agree to it, so how could it be said to be mean spirited? Best episodes: the car without an engine (Brilliant! 'Is that why it won't start?') and one from the 50s I remember, the plaster of paris bowling pins. You know how egotistical many bowlers are - imagine their expressions when the pins crumble instead of striking!

Never JTS, even after Funt's death. But of all of the incarnations of Candid Camera there ever was, the 1974-1978 version was definitely the 'bomb' with special effects galore, groovy music, and the audience gets to select their favorite skit off that day's episode for either a cash prize of hundreds of dollars or the American Tourister luggage, the Hamilton Beach appliances, the Bissel NuBroom vacuum, etc. The sketches from that era were funny as hell: an old lady sweeping a sidewalk before hitting her broom in the derriere after he passes by, 3 kids blew not only the candles, but the cake off the table as well, the same old lady posing as a stripper, Fannie Flagg gets caught stealing (you got to love her!), and the most memorable, a photo customer makes a funny grin before getting squirted with water, and many more!!! The following decade, USA re-aired that show almost nonstop up until 1989 I guess. Even E! Network picked up the series in the mid-1990s but was cancelled in less than several months in place of Howard Stern (yeech!). Nevertheless, the 1970s version of Candid Camera still lingers well above the surface. And God Bless Allen Funt as well !!!

Up until Allen died it was priceless. I didn't find it "mean" at all. As a previous poster said, it was about puzzling and confusing people. I also think the black and white ones were the best, even though there were some hysterical shows from the 70s. A few were dull, but who couldn't laugh at legend Buster Keaton in a diner, with his straight face, dropping his sandwich in the soup, picking it up, looking confused, then wringing it out like a wet rag in front of customers who didn't recognize him? What also got me was the length that the show went to to drive people nuts. A black and white prank had people getting onto what they thought was a real elevator, pushing, say floor 5, the doors close, and out come the prop people, moving furniture and fake walls and hanging up another number while two guys bounced up and down on top of the elevator, making the victim think it was moving. The guy gets out, sees it's the wrong floor, goes back in, and they do it all again til the guy doubts his sanity. Classic. Much more funny that Bob Saget and his home videos of babies barfing and guys getting hit in the nuts by some object. As for the nudie Candid Camera, yes it was done when nudity was a really big deal, but that special was pretty dull. There is a new DVD set of Candid Camera through the decades, soon to be released, and I can't wait!

When Dom DeLuise took over hosting, it lost its appeal. That's when it jumped for me

I think that the networks really pulled the plug after one of the characters on the show died, and then they sued Peter Funt and took him to court to testify.

"Candid Camera" was a scream when I was a kid in the mid-'60s. It jumped later on as shows got franker (for better and worse). But the original was so much a part of the culture that my dad went looking for the camera when he happened to see Allen Funt in the men's room at LaGuardia! This would have been in the '70s, so the original version was history. Hey, wouldn't you think there was an exploding hand dryer or something if you saw Allen Funt in the men's room? Me too!

I know I will be attacked for this, but I thought it jumped when someone thought it would be funny to make a fool out of people. I just find the show mean spirited and I agree with the comment that to get a laugh a lot of people were unnecessarily angered, embarrassed and had their precious time wasted. This show is a forerunner of the exploitation shows of today. The only difference is that if you go one Jerry Springer you are consenting to being made an idiot for a day, while on Candid Camera you were randomly chosen for a laugh. I remember as a kid hoping that that idiot Funt would never come to my neighborhood. Just to comment on a popular gag concerning the gas station attendant filing up the car with the huge gas tank: This guy probably thought he did something wrong and might have even had a safety issue involving gasoline to deal with. He probably wanted to serve other customers or get back to his other duties at the same time. So, ha ha, you are on Candid Camera-I bet most of the victims were actually very angry but pretended to be amused because it would have been politically incorrect at the time to be angry.

I guess, once the premise is established, you don't know what's going to happen. Case in point, once Allen Funt was on a plane, and it was hijacked. Everyone (except Funt) just couldn't stop laughing.

To the poster above who commented "Frankly, I wouldn't blame a lot of the "victims" if they punched the practical jokers in the nose". There was actually an episode (during the Allen Funt later years era) where the Candid Camera team was at a restaurant & the one in on the joke was taking food from the plates of its victims. Finally one of the victims apparently was having one of those bad days where everything was going wring. Anyway, this victim actually rares back to take a swing at the jokester & you could see several of the Candid Camera team members restrain him & tell him he was actually on Candid Camera. The victim seemed to cool down a bit afterwards. Does anyone else remember this episode?

What made the original Candid Camera funny was puzzling the "victims"...the car with no engine episode is classic! Nowadays, it seems the idea is to humiliate, embarrass, or anger the "victims"...there's nothing funny about that. Frankly, I wouldn't blame a lot of the "victims" if they punched the practical jokers in the nose.

I think the poster above is referring to "What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?" That was an X-rated "Candid Camera" movie that came out in the late 1960's, when onscreen nudity was still a big deal. The CC people wanted to prove they could change with the times, I guess. I watched some of it on video and found it kind of boring after awhile. There are only so many ways to react to seeing naked people when you didn't expect to. As for the TV show, I can't pinpoint a moment when it went downhill. I can still smile at some of the new pranks, but I am much more likely to belly-laugh at the "Candid Camera Classics." The sneezing telephone, the car with no place to put the gas, the car that splits in two, the car with no motor, the carriage return on the typewriter that flies off, the receiver stuck to the body of the telephone, Buster Keaton at the diner, Woody Allen dictating a love letter, the bowling ball that yields a strike every time the woman (only the woman) throws it, the bowling pins that shatter, the trampolinist crashing through the ceiling of the office...there are so many good ones! A few other pranks were less innocent and set the stage for today's sadistic "reality" shows. There was one set in a parking garage: as soon as the "attendant" drove the car out of sight, the victim heard the sound of a terrific crash. But these were the exceptions. I keep hoping there will be another retrospective devoted exclusively to the old classics (minus the interviews with the little kids, especially Allen Funt's daughter).