Comments by Whitecaps:
I had a brief conversation on Twitter with an author named Emily Nussbaum, who has written a new book called Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV. (“Cue the sun” being the line in The Truman Show when Jim Carrey realizes he’s been living in a fake world.)
She mentioned in an interview that the first reality TV show was, of all, things a program on PBS in the early 1970s called An American Family. PBS meant for it to be a sleepy program recording the lives of a boring wealthy family, but it ended with the couple on the verge of divorce and their son coming out. Unlike how the rest of the media would react, according to Nussbaum, it was so sensational that PBS essentially tried to disown it.
Anyway, I mentioned to her that some of my favorite scripted older television shows had predicted reality T.V , and a WKRP in Cincinnati episode with Herb Tarlek was likely based on that PBS episode. Although I got the details wrong, I told her the first scripted show to do this (that I was aware of) was an episode of GIlligan’s Island that presented what most people originally thought Survivor would be – people surviving in the wild. I was wrong in that the Gilligan’s Island episode actually featured reality radio, with the ‘survivor’ checking in at the radio station with a transmitter. Still, I think the idea is essentially the same.
She replied that Gilligan’s Island episode predates the first case she was aware of which is a bizarre BBC movie from 1968 called The Year of the Sex Olympics, which was s5e25 of an anthology show called Theatre 625.
Set in a future when the world is dominated and run by television, where language has become almost redundant and all “tensions” – love, war, hate, loyalty – have been removed. Overpopulation is a problem, so there are gluttony programmes to put people off food and pornography programmes to put them off sex. There is artsex and sportsex, and now this – the year of the Sex Olympics. Audience attention begins to wane, however, until TV executive Ugo Priest works on a new concept – a reality-based programme in which a couple is stranded on a bleak island, without the aid of any modern technology, and their efforts to survive filmed twenty-four hours a day. A concept which may sound familiar in the age of reality TV…
The program itself is a variation of Brave New World. In part of the show, a couple live on an island by themselves where they are shown live in front of the viewers. Of course, as it’s a British show, the couple is alone by themselves on a small, cold island off of Britain rather than the Bahamas, this obviating any possibility for nudity. However, there is some brief nudity in another part of The Year of the Sex Olympics, in a show-within-the-show called Artsex Girl.
According to IMDB, the ‘girl’ is Sheila Sands. Yes, THE Sheila Sands! (Whoever she is.)
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Scoop’s notes:
Sheila is familiar to Python fans, especially for her appearance as the topless newsagent in episode six, in which Michael Palin supposedly lived the dull life of a stockbroker (film clip), but was in fact so absorbed in his daily minutiae that he failed to notice all of the exciting things around him, two of which were Sheila’s breasts. I remember this vividly.
She showed up again as a stripper in episode eleven. (Film clip) I don’t remember this one.
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She has had quite an oxymoronic career – prolifically obscure! She also contributed nudity to at least four other TV shows pictured below (and others – read to the end):
The Expert, s3e5, 1971 est.
Villains, s1e4, 1972 (film clip)
Man at the Top, s2e6, 1972 (film clip)
Budgie, s2e6, 1973 (film clip)
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She is an uncredited naked lady in at least two films, per Topless Review
The Magic Christian (1969) – Very brief topless glimpses as she is seen tormenting a terrified commuter who has been taken from his seat on a train into a fantasy sequence – lights strobe and images are momentary so only occasional glimpses of her are seen amongst all the glimpses of other things in the sequence – she is holding a red fur boa and her hair is short blonde – later thonged rear nudity seen as she walks out of the railway station entrance amongst a crowd of other commuters. (Uncredited in this film – but is thought to be Sheila Sands based on other known credited roles)
Subterfuge (1969) – Topless posing in a night-club, sitting on a red felt covered platform as some patrons paint her whilst others drink and listen to a live performance by pop group The Marmalade.
She is probably also naked in these shows (credited as a stripper), but I got nothin’.
The Troubleshooters: A Very Special Relationship BBC1/1969
Doomwatch: Hear No Evil BBC1/1970
An American Family, featuring the Loud family, was a sensation when it came out in 1973. Unlike most of today’s efforts, it represented actual reality rather than the scripted reality found in almost all of today’s efforts.
Of course, as any naturalist will tell you, observing nature ipso facto changes it, and that effect is probably even more pronounced when it involves humans and cameras. Would the Louds have behaved the same if no cameras had been present? In the words of the immortal Dalton, opinions vary. I doubt it. I suppose the camera accelerated any changes that were fomenting in their existence.
Nonetheless, that show was supposed to be a documentary about average people, and not many other shows have dared to tread that potentially tedious path.
Apparently there’s a section in the book on JennyCam, possibly in terms of how it influenced MTV’s the Real World. And, while she’s obviously a big fan of The Truman Show, she didn’t seem interested in commenting on Ed-TV the flop (and seemingly forgotten) Ron Howard movie that was at least in production around the same time as The Truman Show.
Also, for an ‘unchartered desert island’ it’s amazing how many people knew it was there. Not just the producers of this radio station, but also The Mosquitos – Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving (or, at least, their helicopter pilot) and the captain of Zsa Zsa Gobor’s ship. It’s as if Gilligan’s Island was a nutty comedy and not meant to be taken seriously!
Uncharted, bah. Anyway, during World War II, the Marines mapped every island in the Pacific to somewhere near Japan. I think you can take their work to the bank. There would not have been a single uncharted island in that part of the pacific, no matter how small. (Also, the size of GIlligan’s Island kept changing to fit the plot.)
Magical island.. I’m calling it, Gilligan’s Island is the same universe and island as Lost.
I remember jennicam. I was pretty sure she was before The Truman Show so I checked and she started a couple years before that movie came out.
Network had a great idea with the Mao Tse Tung Hour. Would probably be must-see tv.
The very first time I ever saw Monty Python’s Flying Circus a high school buddy and I were flipping channels and came across this weird show on PBS. It was the episode with the topless newsagent (and, if I remember correctly, also The World’s Funniest Joke). We were astounded and, needless to say, hooked.
The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker has a warm and fuzzy place in my heart and the scene with Sheila Sands is the reason. My Dad loved going to the movies but didn’t like going alone. My Mom was usually busy with my four younger siblings, which meant I often got to go see some wildly inappropriate movies with my Dad. So, I saw plenty of naked and topless women at the movies. However, cable TV wasn’t available in the Bronx until the 1990s (which meant no HBO). My family didn’t get a VCR until the 1980s when I was in high school. That meant, in the 1970s, there was very little opportunity for me to see topless women on TV. That little opportunity was Channel 13, the NYC PBS station. My Dad would watch Doctor Who, Flash Gordon serials, and Monty Python. Of course, one TV meant we all watched it with him. I am not 100% sure about this, but I think The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker was probably the first time I saw a topless woman on TV.