Allen Funt’s Candid Camera show was a television staple beginning August 10, 1948. Ironically, Funt and his family were bound from Newark to Miami in 1969 when their flight was hijacked. Many passengers believed they were in a Candid Camera stunt until the plane did indeed land in Cuba.
The surreal hijacking incident perfectly illustrated the powerful, mind-bending impact Candid Camera had carved into the American cultural psyche over two decades of broadcasting. Funt had single-handedly invented the hidden-camera reality television genre, training generations of ordinary citizens to suspect that any bizarre, highly improbable real-world situation was actually a staged corporate prank designed to make them look foolish on network television. When the armed hijacker forcefully seized control of the Eastern Air Lines jet, the passengers recognized Funt sitting in the cabin and immediately began laughing and clapping, assuming they were the lucky stars of his next big television episode.
The situation quickly turned terrifying as the aircraft flew south over the Florida Straits, forcing Funt into the agonizingly awkward position of trying to convince his fellow passengers that the deadly emergency was completely real and not a television stunt. The plane successfully landed in Havana, where the passengers were detained by Cuban military authorities before being safely released back to the United States. The bizarre crisis offered a fascinating glimpse into Funt’s legacy, proving that his show had successfully blurred the line between real life and manufactured entertainment.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright, public domain in the US
