Real People

Although I haven't seen an episode of "Real People" in about 20 years, I do remember the format: 60 minutes of various segments (most of them comedic in some way) focusing on the more offbeat facets of American life.

Some of the stories included the Flat Earth Society, a lady who took words and pronounced them backwards, an alien race that lived in volcanic lava tubes, a guy who built his house in a tree, and a guy who fell in love with the Statue of Liberty.

Between segments, they did some "ask the audience" kind of stuff, and also ran newspaper typos (kind of like Jay Leno's "Headlines" segment).

"Real People" ran on NBC, and was followed shortly by ABC's "That's Incredible!", which was a similar format but focused more on the unexplained.

I only remember one segment of this show with any clarity (I was 10-15 years old). There was a guy who bought an oil refinery or military platform off the coast of somewhere (California?) and turned it into his own little country. He even printed his own stamps and money.

I have been searching for this place for years with no luck. Can anyone help?

Shows like this which covered different subjects are rich with source material for research. I teach high school and finding this "country" or history of it would be a colorful addition to curriculum : )

Thank you.

Real People was an enormous hit, sometimes coming in #1 in that week's Nielsens. It was a feel-good show about America that found its footing during the ongoing Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81, which started a few months after the show debuted. It's hard to describe to someone who doesn't remember it just how miserable and distracting the hostage thing was to us. Some segments on Real People were just plain silly, but others showed folks rebuilding their homes after tornado strikes, doing charitable works for the poor, and so on. I think Real People made many of us feel a little better about the world around us. However, I think the show was also a creature of its troubled times; it spun down quickly during the early '80s, and a reunion special in 1991 did not lead to a hoped-for revival of the series.

As other posters stated, this was a 60 minute show featuring interesting and odd people around the USA. Nearly all of the members of the cast (the late Skip Stephenson, Byron Allen, Fred Willard, and Mark Russell) were all comedians and disciples of Steve Allen's "found" comedy style. The basis was that real people and real life were more interesting and humorous than most contrived scripts.

What the other posters do not mention is that although many of the stories were, at the base, interesting, the show itself could be quite annoying. It was as if the network people didn't get what the show was about and reality needed to be "accented." Many of the segments were edited more in fashion of America's Funniest Home videos; complete with silly sound effects, Keystone Kops fast forwards, cheesy commentary, etc.

For instance, I remember one segment where a car enthusiast bought two Packards and fused the front ends together to make a "push me-pull me" car. Both ends had engines and the driver could operate the car out of either the front or back ends. Pretty fascinating, but out of the five minute segment, only 30 to 40 seconds was dedicated to the car's owner and how he build the car, while the remaining parts of the segments was filled with wacky music and gaping-jawed reactions of local yokels to the vehicle.

Other segments that went off the beaten path, and were not really comedy but of human interest, were criminally short. I remember one segment hosted by (I believe) John Barbour at reunion of American WWII POWs in the Pacific. They began to tell a compelling story of captivity and how, near starving, they bunched their clothing together and made an American Flag. Several broke down on camera with Barbour consoling them -- a very touching story not seen on TV in 1980. Unfortunately, this groundbreaking piece was only a few minutes, and what would have been a great "real people" story was stuck in between other pap.

The direction of this show was not the fault of the hosts or the writers; there are some great ideas in this show, but I remember it mostly being weighted down by corny gimmicks famous of the networks of that time. Later they brought in Peter Billingsly (L'il Ralphy from "A Christmas Story") as a "cute kid" gimmick).

I do not think today's audience would like the pace or editing of this show. It was made for a time when the "Big 3" networks owned the audiences and comedy, with a few exceptions, was painted with a broad brush

Back in 1979, When I watched Real People. It was a classic and funny lines and funny stories about funny people in their lives. And they do funny things on the road, Story like, Where people wear no clothes in the restaurant. Ladies live in the Indian totem pole in Traverse City, Michigan. There are many, many stories to choose from. and many other stories about the Real People. They been on for 50 times and 50 shows. 10 per season. They always go on the road to Philadelphia, Detroit, Los Angeles. It's like a real good stories about people all the time. I always like Sarah Purcell a lot. Thanks for all the good memories about Real People.