#BRITISH HIDDEN CAMERA PRANK SHOW SERIES#

That same year, ABC Weekend Television, not convinced that the more staid British public would take to seeing people made idiots of, simply tested the water with a 30-minute try-out called We’ve Got You Covered.

#BRITISH HIDDEN CAMERA PRANK SHOW SERIES#

It’s popularity never waned and it continued to win over audiences in syndication and was revived as a segment of Jack Parr’s Tonight Show in 1958, before returning to television as a new series in 1960. It was, to all intents and purposes, the beginning of reality television, albeit with a smile on its face and a laugh in its belly.

The following year Candid Microphone, made its debut, now retitled Candid Camera, and ran on NBC for three years. Having proved his concept as a viewer favourite these ‘shorts’ began to appear on television in 1948 in segments of other shows (still using the Candid Microphone title). It was only natural that the format would lend itself even better to the visual and Funt tested this with a number of theatrical film ‘shorts’. In 1947 he devised and produced a radio show titled The Candid Microphone which was broadcast on ABC Radio. Before television became the most popular entertainment medium the American presenter Alan Funt realised that people laughing at people would be a great source of entertainment. Just type the word ‘prank’ into your web browser and you will see how stupid moments caught on camera still proliferate YouTube and the hundreds of thousands of views they garner.

Whether it be the more ridiculous no-hopers on shows like The X-Factor or Britain’s Got Talent who readily put themselves on public view for ridicule, or unsuspecting members of the public who are quite innocently taken in by a well-staged prank. Television audiences have never really lost the appetite to watch ordinary people make fools of themselves.

British hidden camera prank show