The manifest destiny of television technology is real-time viewing of all the places the audience is not. It is the ideal glance into the neighbor’s kitchen window, or through the bedroom door. The entertainment corporations found a way to make televised life commerce, so now it rules the airwaves.
Reality-based television is not novel, of course. Allen Funt, with his 1948 TV series Candid Camera is often recognized as reality TV’s first specialist. He actually started a year earlier with Candid Microphone on radio. Truth or Consequences began in 1950 and often used secret cameras. Both of these groundbreaking series produced man-made realities to see how commonplace individuals would react; the reality series of today derive a lot from these examples and contrast mostly in range and location. A number of “who am I?” game shows acclimated to the awkward nature of early TV technology by bringing real people into the studio. Even in the earliest days, the camera journeyed out of the studio intermittently with film technology. You Asked For It took the spectator to astounding sights and spectacular wonders as early as 1950. …show more content…
Not only is the equipment cheaper, but also reality-based productions require significantly less equipment. The crew is also smaller – crew is hired on a need-only basis. Reality-based programming does not usually required trained performers or actors. There are minimal sets. The commercial function of reality-based programming is to allow a network to keep down the cost of programming across the complete primetime schedule. Networks usually have a couple of homerun shows that bring in large ad revenue. However, networks can only use about half of this ad revenue to produce other series. Therefore, more a network pays for shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Modern Family, the less it can afford for other hours in the
Reality-based television is not novel, of course. Allen Funt, with his 1948 TV series Candid Camera is often recognized as reality TV’s first specialist. He actually started a year earlier with Candid Microphone on radio. Truth or Consequences began in 1950 and often used secret cameras. Both of these groundbreaking series produced man-made realities to see how commonplace individuals would react; the reality series of today derive a lot from these examples and contrast mostly in range and location. A number of “who am I?” game shows acclimated to the awkward nature of early TV technology by bringing real people into the studio. Even in the earliest days, the camera journeyed out of the studio intermittently with film technology. You Asked For It took the spectator to astounding sights and spectacular wonders as early as 1950. …show more content…
Not only is the equipment cheaper, but also reality-based productions require significantly less equipment. The crew is also smaller – crew is hired on a need-only basis. Reality-based programming does not usually required trained performers or actors. There are minimal sets. The commercial function of reality-based programming is to allow a network to keep down the cost of programming across the complete primetime schedule. Networks usually have a couple of homerun shows that bring in large ad revenue. However, networks can only use about half of this ad revenue to produce other series. Therefore, more a network pays for shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Modern Family, the less it can afford for other hours in the