The reality TV craze exploded in the 1990s and 2000s with shows like “The Real World” and “Survivor,” but the format actually dates back to long before then. “Real People” ran from 1979 through 1984, clearing the way for decades of similar reality-based shows and news pieces. Hosted by the likes of Sarah Purcell, Skip Stephenson, John Barbour, and Byron Allen, each segment highlighted an individual or group with an extraordinary story. “Real People” featured everyone from Twiggy the water-skiing squirrel to a Tennessee man who claimed to be a prince from the planet Zambodia. It earned five Emmy nominations, winning in its final year for best sound mixing and effects. “Real People” was NBC’s most-watched show in its first season, finishing 15th overall in the 1979-1980 Neilsen ratings.
It spawned some immediate imitators like “That’s Incredible!”, along with a couple generations of human interest series in the decades that followed. Shows from “Rust Valley Restorers” to the best Bravo shows ever can trace their lineage all the way back to “Real People.” Network executives learned back then that a reality program was cheaper to produce than a scripted show with a writer’s room and an entire cast of paid professional actors, and the landscape of network television was changed forever. The show’s YouTube page remains a rabbit hole of interesting clips, with features on Navajo Code talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Dance Theater of Harlem.
Richard Simmons broke out on Real People
“Real People” also helped make a star out of weight-loss guru Richard Simmons, who parlayed his 1979 appearance on the show into a fitness, nutrition, and media empire. Simmons died in 2024 of accidental causes, but his legacy lives on. As for the legacy of “Real People,” every modern show that features non-professional actors owes its lineage in part to this almost 50-year old NBC hit. This encompasses shows for and about just about anyone, from “Love on the Spectrum” and “The Bachelorette” to and “Naked and Afraid” and “Ice Road Truckers.”
“Real People” creator George Schlatter made his name as a writer and producer on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” but is proud of the way “Real People” made TV more populist. In an interview for the Television Academy Foundation published in 2010, he said, “It changed television. I mean at that point there was no kind of reality television; you had news and you had entertainment and ‘Real People’ bridged the gap … and went into the philosophy that you didn’t have to look like Julia Roberts to be interesting or attractive. We found out that ordinary people were interesting in their lives.”
The gap in genres that “Real People” bridged has become a land mass of its own by now. The realm of reality TV has grown to include dozens of competition-based, real estate/home improvement, and inside-look shows. When you tune in to “Love it or List It” on HGTV, remember its spiritual ancestor that introduced the world to pet detective John Keene, vampire hunter Steven Kaplan, and Buddy the Wonder Dog.
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