Candid Camera - Legacy

Legacy

A British version of Candid Camera began in 1960 and ran for seven years. It was initially presented by Bob Monkhouse and featured Jonathan Routh and Arthur Atkins as pranksters. The show briefly returned in 1974, hosted by Peter Dulay, this one featured Arthur Atkins and Sheila Bernette. Another series was aired in 1976 with Jonathan Routh in charge, in which Peter Dulay produced. These two, 1970s series reappeared from 1986, with an opening sequence from Peter Dulay. Jeremy Beadle made his name hosting prank shows, notably Beadle's About in the 1980s. Channel 4 and Dom Joly developed Trigger Happy TV in the early part of the 21st Century. A similar style show with no real presenter went out as Just For Laughs on the BBC, around the same time.

An Australian version of Candid Camera, with the same name, began in the late 1990s and ran until the end of the 20th century. It was successful until the show was canceled for unknown reasons. Quebec saw its own adaptation titled Les insolences d'une caméra.

A wave of other American hidden-camera prank shows began in the 1980s: Totally Hidden Video was shown on Fox from 1989 until 1992. MTV's Ashton Kutcher vehicle, Punk'd, devised elaborate pranks on celebrities. Some shows have been criticized because of the potential cruelty inherent in the pranks, such as Scare Tactics. Oblivious was a series which gave cash prizes to unsuspecting subjects in the street who answered trivia questions but did not realize they were on a game show. More recent prank shows have been: Girls Behaving Badly, Just For Laughs Gags, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Boiling Points, Trigger Happy TV, and Howie Do It. And perhaps the most ambitious of all was The Joe Schmo Show in which Matt Kennedy Gould was surrounded by actors and hoaxed for the entire series.

In a 2010 interview, Peter Funt commented on some of these shows, saying,

We’ve always come at it from the idea that we believe people are wonderful and we’re out to confirm it. Our imitators and other shows, whether it’s Jamie Kennedy or Punk’d, often seem to come at it from the opposite perspective, which is that people are stupid, and we’re going to find ways to underscore that.