Candid Camera

Candid Camera is a long-running television series, created and produced by Allen Funt[?], initially appearing on radio as Candid Microphone in the 1940s, then screening in the United States in the 1950s and with local versions produced around the world.

The show involved scenarios when unwitting members of the public would be placed in a situation where unusual things began happening (caused by actors hired by the producers as well as various props, some ingenious). The victim of the prank's reactions would be filmed by a concealed camera, and at some stage the joke is finally revealed to them.

Writer Woody Allen got his start writing for the show in the 1960s.

The show was very much a precursor to the late 1990s explosion of so-called reality television, in that its humor was based around putting "real people" in unreal situations.

Innumerable other such shows by different titles and with slightly different variations have been produced. Some have concentrated on playing pranks on celebrities, others have concentrated on the inventiveness of the pranks, whilst others have steadily become crueller and crueller to their "victims" - for instance, a British variant, Beadle's About[?].