Misplaced Pages

#129870

93-459: The Vitagraph Studio opened in 1913. This studio at Prospect Avenue and Talmadge Street replaced its prior West Coast studio at 1438 2nd Street, Santa Monica. The original silent film plant included two daylight film stages, support buildings and many exterior film sets. The company added another 10 acres to the lot in 1920. In the 1920s, production was moved from its East Coast studio. In April 1925, Vitagraph's founder Albert Smith sold control in

186-518: A Mormon splinter group), Breaking Amish and Amish Mafia (the Amish ), and Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and its spinoffs ( Romani people ). The Real Housewives franchise offers a window into the lives of social-striving urban and suburban housewives. Many shows focus on wealth and conspicuous consumption , including Platinum Weddings , and My Super Sweet 16 , which documented huge coming of age celebrations thrown by wealthy parents. Conversely,

279-577: A nuclear family (filmed in 1971) going through a divorce; unlike many later reality shows, it was more or less documentary in purpose and style. In 1974 a counterpart program, The Family , was made in the UK, following the working-class Wilkins family of Reading . Other forerunners of modern reality television were the 1970s productions of Chuck Barris : The Dating Game , The Newlywed Game , and The Gong Show , all of which featured participants who were eager to sacrifice some of their privacy and dignity in

372-468: A 2003 paper, theorists Elisabeth Klaus and Stephanie Lücke referred to the former category as "docusoaps", which consist of "narrative reality", and the latter category as "reality soaps", which consist of "performative reality". Since 2014, the Primetime Emmy Awards have used a similar classification, with separate awards for " unstructured reality " and " structured reality " programs, as well as

465-1137: A Crank , in 1952. It includes a very detailed history of Vitagraph and a lengthy list of people who had been in the Vitagraph Family which included Billy Anderson , Florence Lawrence , Florence Turner , Florence Auer , Richard Barthelmess , John Bunny , Francis X. Bushman , Dolores Costello , Maurice Costello , Sidney Drew , Dustin Farnum , Flora Finch , Hoot Gibson , Corinne Griffith , Alan Hale , Oliver Hardy , Mildred Harris , Hedda Hopper , Rex Ingram , Alice Joyce , Boris Karloff , J. Warren Kerrigan , Rod La Rocque , E.K. Lincoln , Bessie Love , May McAvoy , Victor McLaglen , Adolphe Menjou , Antonio Moreno , Conrad Nagel , Mabel Normand , Lottie Pickford , Billy Quirk , Wallace Reid , May Robson , Wesley Ruggles , George Stevens , Anita Stewart , Constance Talmadge , Natalie Talmadge , Norma Talmadge , William Desmond Taylor , Alice Terry , George Terwilliger , Florence Vidor , Earle Williams , Clara Kimball Young , and hundreds of other people are listed. In

558-450: A Reality or Reality-Competition Program , was added. In 2007, the web series The Next Internet Millionaire appeared; it was a competition show based in part on The Apprentice , and was billed as the world's first Internet reality show. In 2010 the Dutch singing competition show The Voice of Holland , created by John de Mol Jr. , premiered; it added to the singing competition template

651-443: A camera crew on an outdoor adventure , such as hunting , fishing , hiking, scuba diving , rock climbing, wildlife photography, horseback riding, race car driving, and the like, with most of the resulting action and dialogue being unscripted, except for the narration. In the 1966 Direct Cinema film Chelsea Girls , Andy Warhol filmed various acquaintances with no direction given. The Radio Times Guide to Film 2007 said that

744-578: A celebrity going about their everyday life: notable examples include The Anna Nicole Show , The Osbournes , Gene Simmons Family Jewels , Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica , Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Hogan Knows Best . VH1 in the mid-2000s had an entire block of such shows, known as "Celebreality". Shows such as these are often created with the idea of promoting a celebrity product or upcoming project. Some documentary-style shows shed light on rarely seen cultures and lifestyles. One example

837-457: A merger of the distribution companies Paramount Pictures and V-L-S-E with Famous Players Film Company and Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company , but was foiled by Adolph Zukor . V-L-S-E was dissolved on August 17, 1916, when Vitagraph purchased a controlling interest in Lubin, Selig, and Essanay. Vitagraph's leading star of the post-World War I period was comedian Larry Semon . He had joined

930-570: A reporter/artist for the New York Evening World when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison about his new film projector. The inventor talked the entrepreneurial reporter into buying a set of films and a projector. A year later, Blackton and business partner Smith founded the American Vitagraph Company in direct competition with Edison. A third partner, distributor William "Pop" Rock, joined in 1899. The company's first studio

1023-407: A special license from Edison in 1907 and by agreeing to sell many of his most popular films to Edison for distribution. The American Vitagraph Company made many contributions to the history of movie-making. In 1903 the director Joseph Delmont started his career by producing westerns ; he later became famous by using "wild carnivores " in his films—a sensation for that time. In 1909 it was one of

SECTION 10

#1732852442130

1116-440: A televised competition. The 1976–1980 BBC series The Big Time featured a different amateur in some field (cooking, comedy, football, etc.) trying to succeed professionally in that field, with help from notable experts. The 15-episode series is credited with starting the career of Sheena Easton , who was selected to appear in the episode showing an aspiring pop singer trying to enter the music business. In 1978, Living in

1209-466: A third award for " reality-competition " programs. In many reality television programs, camera shooting and footage editing give the viewer the impression that they are passive observers following people going about their daily personal and professional activities; this style of filming is sometimes referred to as fly on the wall , observational documentary or factual television . Story "plots" are often constructed via editing or planned situations, with

1302-677: A top athlete and celebrity, the brutal nature of the murders, and issues of race and class in Los Angeles celebrity culture, the sensational case dominated ratings and the public conversation. Many reality television stars of the 2000s and 2010s have direct or indirect connections to people involved in the case, most notably Kim Kardashian , daughter of defense attorney Robert Kardashian , and several of her relatives and associates. The series Expedition Robinson , created by television producer Charlie Parsons, which first aired in 1997 in Sweden (and

1395-585: Is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s with shows such as The Real World , then achieved prominence in the early 2000s with the success of the series Survivor , Idol , and Big Brother , all of which became global franchises. Reality television shows tend to be interspersed with "confessionals", short interview segments in which cast members reflect on or provide context for

1488-542: Is meant to resemble scripted soap operas – in this case, the television series Desperate Housewives and Peyton Place . A notable subset of such series focus on a group of women who are romantically connected to male celebrities; these include Basketball Wives (2010), Love & Hip Hop (2011), Hollywood Exes (2012), Ex-Wives of Rock (2012) and WAGS (2015). Most of these shows have had spin-offs in multiple locations. There are also fly-on-the-wall-style shows directly involving celebrities. Often these show

1581-643: Is shows about people with disabilities or people who have unusual physical circumstances, such as the American series Push Girls and Little People, Big World , and the British programmes Beyond Boundaries , Britain's Missing Top Model , The Undateables and Seven Dwarves . Another example is shows that portray the lives of ethnic or religious minorities. Examples include All-American Muslim ( Lebanese-American Muslims ), Shahs of Sunset (affluent Persian-Americans ), Sister Wives (polygamists from

1674-518: Is still ongoing. The program was structured as a series of interviews with no element of the plot. By virtue of the attention paid to the participants, it effectively turned ordinary people into a type of celebrity, especially after they became adults. The series The American Sportsman , which ran from 1965 to 1986 on ABC in the United States, would typically feature one or more celebrities, and sometimes their family members, being accompanied by

1767-598: The United Kingdom in 1964, the Granada Television documentary Seven Up! broadcast interviews with a dozen ordinary 7-year-olds from a broad cross-section of society and inquired about their reactions to everyday life. Every seven years, the filmmaker created a new film documenting the lives of the same individuals during the intervening period. Titled the Up Series , episodes included "7 Plus Seven", "21 Up", etc.; it

1860-594: The Vitagraph Company of America , was a United States motion picture studio . It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company . By 1907, it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros. in 1925. In 1896, English émigré Blackton was moonlighting as

1953-646: The 1950s, game shows Beat the Clock and Truth or Consequences involved contestants in wacky competitions, stunts, and practical jokes. Confession was a crime and police show that aired from June 1958 to January 1959, with interviewer Jack Wyatt questioning criminals from assorted backgrounds. The radio series Nightwatch (1951–1955) tape-recorded the daily activities of Culver City, California police officers. The series You Asked for It (1950–1959) incorporated audience involvement by basing episodes around requests sent in by postcard from viewers. First broadcast in

SECTION 20

#1732852442130

2046-654: The 2018–19 and 2019–20 television seasons. The success of the two franchises has led to other globally-syndicated franchises of reality competitions based around guesswork, such as Game of Talents (which began in Spain in 2019) and The Masked Dancer (which began in the United States in 2020). Specialist skill-based TV competitions became popular during this decade with such programs like The Great British Bake-Off , Lego Masters , The Great British Sewing Bee and Forged in Fire shown. Television development across all genres

2139-465: The 21st century, the series is often considered a prototype of reality television programming. In the early 1940s the young German television station, named after Paul Nipkow had staged a show in which a young couple acted as model Aryans and presented their everyday lives without a script to the camera ( Familienchroniken - Ein Abend mit Hans und Gelli ). Even though it was clearly Nazi propaganda and

2232-481: The Bank (1976–77, hosted by Tom Kennedy for the daytime and Jack Barry for syndication), Match Game (1990–91, hosted by Ross Shafer ), Password and Password All-Stars (1971–75, both hosted by Allen Ludden ). John Davidson , along with Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby co-hosted That's Incredible! , an ABC show that ran from 1980 to 1984, and considered one of

2325-516: The Bard's works in the U.S. In 1911, Vitagraph produced the first aviation film, The Military Air-Scout , directed by William J. Humphrey , with future General of the Air Force Hap Arnold as the stunt flier. The 1915 feature The Battle Cry of Peace (written and directed by Blackton) was one of the great propaganda films of World War I . Ironically, after America declared war, the film

2418-631: The Dutch production company Endemol . Although Dragons' Den originated in Japan , most of its adaptations are based on the British version.) In India, the competition show Indian Idol was the most popular television program for its first six seasons. During the 2000s, several cable networks, including Bravo , A&E , E! , TLC , History , VH1 , and MTV , changed their programming to feature mostly reality television series. In addition, three cable channels were started around that time that were devoted exclusively to reality television: Fox Reality in

2511-552: The Flatbush plant in 1940. The Vitagraph name was briefly resurrected on two occasions. In 1932–33 producer Leon Schlesinger made six westerns starring John Wayne and released them through the Warner Bros. exchanges. The studio chose to market these very-low-budget features under the less prestigious Vitagraph banner. In 1960 Vitagraph returned to theater screens (starting with 1960's Looney Tunes cartoon Hopalong Casualty ), with

2604-554: The Lot using large water tanks, ship and backlot sets. In 1948, the property was sold to the newly formed American Broadcasting Company , and the lot was re-equipped for television as the ABC Television Center . ABC proceeded to base their new Los Angeles television station, KECA-TV (now KABC-TV ) in the newly purchased lot, a year later. Construction on the studio lot to bring it to its current form took place in 1957. ABC still uses

2697-464: The Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, held a significant place in the early history of American cinema. As one of the first motion picture studios in the United States, Vitagraph was responsible for producing hundreds of silent films in the early 20th century. The building, with its recognizable smokestack, remained a physical reminder of the silent film era long after the studio ceased operations and

2790-471: The Past had amateurs participating in a re-enactment of life in an Iron Age English village. Producer George Schlatter capitalized on the advent of videotape to create Real People , a surprise hit for NBC, and it ran from 1979 to 1984. The success of Real People was quickly copied by ABC with That's Incredible , a stunt show produced by Alan Landsburg and co-hosted by Fran Tarkenton ; CBS's entry into

2883-503: The Prospect facility as a network retransmission center for its programming. Many memorable television shows, including those produced for ABC, other networks or syndication, have been produced in the studios. The third JFK/Nixon debate was partially held in this studio on October 13, 1960, with Kennedy in a New York studio, while Nixon and the interviewing panel were based at the Prospect lot, albeit in separate studios to insure fairness between

The Prospect Studios - Misplaced Pages Continue

2976-701: The Roof , in 1897. In 1890, the company moved to 110-16 Nassau Street in Brooklyn, New York . They subsequently opened a glass-enclosed studio, the first modern film studio in the U.S., built in 1906, on property bounded by Locust Avenue, East 15th Street, Elm Avenue, and right-of-way of the BMT Brighton Line of the New York City Subway. Transportation of equipment and costumes from the Nassau Street interior stages

3069-472: The Stars , and the investment franchise Dragons' Den . Several " reality game shows " from the same period have had even greater success, including Deal or No Deal , Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? , and Weakest Link , with over 50 international adaptions each. (All but four of these franchises, Top Model , Project Runway , The Biggest Loser and Dragons' Den , were created by either British producers or

3162-522: The U.S. and is syndicated in over 100 countries worldwide. In 2001, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences added the reality genre to the Emmy Awards in the category of Outstanding Reality Program . In 2003, to better differentiate between competition and informational reality programs, a second category, Outstanding Reality-Competition Program , was added. In 2008, a third category, Outstanding Host for

3255-473: The U.S. networks used reality series and other unscripted content (including those delayed from their summer lineups) to fill gaps in their schedules while the production of scripted programming resumed. There have been various attempts to classify reality television shows into different subgenres: Another categorization divides reality television into two types: shows that purport to document real life, and shows that place participants in new circumstances. In

3348-486: The U.S. states of Alaska , Louisiana and Texas , shows about cakes, weddings and pawnbrokers , and shows, usually competition-based, whose title includes the word "Wars". Duck Dynasty (2012–2017), which focused on the Robertson family that founded Duck Commander , in 2013 became the most popular reality series in U.S. cable television history. Its fourth-season premiere was viewed by nearly 12 million viewers in

3441-459: The U.S., which they attributed to "The diminishing returns of cable TV's sea of reality sameness". They noted that a number of networks that featured reality programming, including Bravo and E!, were launching their first scripted shows, and others, including AMC , were abandoning plans to launch further reality programs; though they clarified that the genre as a whole "isn't going anywhere." Ratings and profits from reality TV continued to decline in

3534-538: The United States, most of which were in rural markets. Its rural audience share ranked in the 30s, an extremely high number for any series, broadcast or cable. Following from the 1900 House format, the BBC produced a series called Back in Time for Tea in which a family would experience tea time for various decades. In 2014, Entertainment Weekly and Variety again noted a stagnation in reality television programs' ratings in

3627-420: The United States, reality television programs suffered a temporary decline in viewership in 2001, leading some entertainment industry columnists to speculate that the genre was a temporary fad that had run its course. Reality shows that suffered from low ratings included The Amazing Race (although the show has since recovered and is in its 32nd edition), Lost (unrelated to the better-known serial drama of

3720-777: The United States, which operated from 2005 to 2010; Global Reality Channel in Canada , which lasted two years from 2010 to 2012; and CBS Reality (formerly known as Reality TV and then Zone Reality) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which has run from 1999 to the present. During the early part of the 2000s, network executives expressed concern that reality-television programming was limited in its appeal for DVD reissue and syndication . But DVDs for reality shows sold briskly; Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County , The Amazing Race , Project Runway , and America's Next Top Model all ranked in

3813-471: The appearance and structure of soap operas. Such shows often focus on a close-knit group of people and their shifting friendships and romantic relationships. One highly influential such series was the American 2004–2006 series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County , which attempted to specifically mimic the primetime soap opera The O.C. , which had begun airing in 2003. Laguna Beach had a more drama-like feel than any previous reality television show, through

The Prospect Studios - Misplaced Pages Continue

3906-537: The architectural criteria for preservation. According to the Commission, “the building has lost many of its original architectural features over the years,” and “the alterations to its structure have compromised its integrity as a historic resource.” The Commission also emphasized that the building's utilitarian design did not exemplify the type of architectural distinction typically associated with landmarks, despite its historical connections. In 2012 they further ruled that

3999-710: The candidates. American Bandstand started recording there in 1964 (moving from Philadelphia ). ABC's longest running program, General Hospital , now in its 59th year on the air, has been taped at this location since the mid-1980s after relocating from the Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood. Many other classic television shows were also produced there including The Lawrence Welk Show , Barney Miller , Fridays , Mr. Belvedere , Welcome Back, Kotter , Benson , and Soap . Barney Miller , Benson and Soap were also shot at Sunset Gower Studios. Four of

4092-542: The company insisted that Semon finance the films himself, and he left for Educational Pictures in 1923. With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic studio system , Vitagraph was slowly but surely being squeezed out of the business. On January 28, 1925, it left the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (later MPAA); the owner, Albert E. Smith , explained: Vitagraph withdraws because it does not believe that justice, to

4185-660: The company to the Warner Brothers . In 1927, the facility became The Warner East Hollywood Annex and was used for many large-scale films. Here, in 1927, Warner Bros. shot portions of The Jazz Singer , the first film with synchronised sound, using the Vitaphone process. The "interior" club scenes for the film were shot in Stage 5, still located today in the center of the Studio Lot. In the 1930s and '40s, Warner Bros. continued to shoot on

4278-449: The concept of putting strangers together in a limited environment for an extended period of time and recording the drama that ensued. Nummer 28 also pioneered many of the stylistic conventions that have since become standard in reality television shows, including extensive use of soundtrack music and the interspersing of events on screen with after-the-fact "confessionals" recorded by cast members, which serve as narration. Nummer 28 became

4371-586: The deteriorating condition of the building and its increasingly outdated industrial design. The site’s location in a developing residential neighborhood further complicated efforts, as developers eyed the property for housing projects. In 2008, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission declined to grant the building landmark status, stating that while the Vitagraph building held undeniable cultural significance, it did not meet

4464-470: The distributors and to the public and to those independent producers who are not theater owning exhibitors, can be obtained through the labors of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America . On April 20, 1925, Smith finally gave up and sold the company to Warner Bros. for a comfortable profit. The Flatbush studio (renamed Vitaphone ) was later used as an independent unit within Warner Bros., specializing in early sound shorts. Vitaphone closed

4557-497: The end titles reading "A Warner Bros. Cartoon / A Vitagraph Release". Merrie Melodies of the same period (starting with that same year's From Hare to Heir ) had the same end title, with the last line being "A Vitaphone Release." This may have been done to protect the studio's ownership of the two dormant trade names. Both the Vitagraph and Vitaphone names were retired in 1969. Founder Albert E. Smith, in collaboration with coauthor Phil A. Koury, wrote an autobiography, Two Reels and

4650-809: The episodes were certainly affected by censorship , in recent years the show has been presented more frequently as the oldest reality TV show in the world. Precedents for television that portrayed people in unscripted situations began in the late 1940s. Queen for a Day (1945–1964) was an early example of reality-based television. The 1946 television game show Cash and Carry sometimes featured contestants performing stunts. Debuting in 1948, Allen Funt 's hidden camera show Candid Camera (based on his previous 1947 radio show, The Candid Microphone ) broadcast unsuspecting ordinary people reacting to pranks. In 1948, talent search shows, such as Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts , featured amateur competitors and audience voting. In

4743-485: The events being depicted on-screen; this is most commonly seen in American reality television. Competition-based reality shows typically feature the gradual elimination of participants, either by a panel of judges, by the viewership of the show, or by the contestants themselves. Documentaries , television news , sports television , talk shows , and traditional game shows are generally not classified as reality television. Some genres of television programming that predate

SECTION 50

#1732852442130

4836-576: The favorite or underdog to win. Other criticisms of reality television shows include that they are intended to humiliate or exploit participants; that they make stars out of untalented people unworthy of fame, infamous figures, or both; and that they glamorize vulgarity. Television formats portraying ordinary people in unscripted situations are almost as old as the television medium itself. Producer-host Allen Funt 's Candid Camera , in which unsuspecting people were confronted with funny, unusual situations and filmed with hidden cameras, first aired in 1948. In

4929-464: The film community, argued that the building was one of the last surviving links to New York’s early role as a hub of film production before Hollywood’s rise. They proposed various uses for the building, including transforming it into a museum or cultural center that would honor the legacy of early cinema. However, the preservation campaigns faced significant obstacles. Opponents of landmark designation, including developers and some local officials, cited

5022-488: The film was "to blame for reality television". In 1969, the British rock group the Beatles were filmed for a month during the recording sessions which would become their album Let It Be and released the homonymous film the following year. In 2021, director Peter Jackson created an eight-hour, three-episode television series entitled The Beatles: Get Back . The 12-part 1973 PBS series An American Family showed

5115-596: The first true shows of the reality television genre. ABC's long-running show, America's Funniest Home Videos , taped here from 1990 to 1993 during the era of Bob Saget . The Los Angeles Bureau of ABC News was also located at The Prospect Studios until it was moved to the KABC-TV studios in Glendale in 2011. The facility also served as broadcast headquarters for ABC's coverage of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games . In 1996, ABC became part of The Walt Disney Company . As

5208-487: The genre was That's My Line , a series hosted by Bob Barker . The Canadian series Thrill of a Lifetime , a fantasies-fulfilled reality show, originally ran from 1982 to 1988. It was revived from 2001 to 2003. In 1985, underwater cinematographer Al Giddings teamed with former Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly on the NBC series Oceanquest , which chronicled Weatherly's adventures scuba diving in various exotic locales. Weatherly

5301-548: The highly successful Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty are set in poorer rural areas of the Southern United States . Some documentary-style shows portray professionals either going about day-to-day business or performing an entire project over the course of a series. One early example (and the longest running reality show of any genre) is Cops , which debuted in 1989. Other such shows specifically relating to law enforcement include The First 48 , Dog

5394-430: The late 2010s. The South Korean competition show I Can See Your Voice , which premiered in 2015, showed guest judges attempting to guess which of a group of contestants could sing, and which could not, without hearing them sing. The show was successful, and spawned several imitators, most notably King of Mask Singer several months later. King of Mask Singer was a more traditional singing competition show, but with

5487-470: The long-running reality television show franchises in the United States, such as American Idol , Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor , had begun to see declining ratings. However, reality television as a whole remained durable in the U.S., with hundreds of shows across many channels. In 2012, New York Magazine's Vulture blog published a humorous Venn diagram showing popular themes across American reality shows then running, including shows set in

5580-507: The model for many later series of Big Brother and its clones, and Peter Weir's full-length film The Truman Show . One year later, the same concept was used by MTV in its new series The Real World . Nummer 28 creator Erik Latour has long claimed that The Real World was directly inspired by his show. But the producers of The Real World have said that their direct inspiration was An American Family . According to television commentator Charlie Brooker , this type of reality television

5673-443: The most well-known game shows in television history were recorded at ABC Television Center: Family Feud (1976–85, hosted by Richard Dawson ), Let's Make a Deal (1968–76, hosted by Monty Hall ), The Dating Game (1965–74, hosted by Jim Lange ), and The Newlywed Game (1966–74, hosted by Bob Eubanks ). Other game shows taped there included The Better Sex (1977–78, hosted by Bill Anderson and Sarah Purcell ), Break

SECTION 60

#1732852442130

5766-402: The necessary viewers to make it worthwhile. (Even in these cases, it is not always successful: the first ten seasons of Dancing with the Stars were picked up by GSN in 2012 and was run in marathon format, but attracted low viewership and had very poor ratings). Another option is to create documentaries around series, including extended interviews with the participants and outtakes not seen in

5859-479: The novel Les Misérables , a short silent historical drama starring Maurice Costello as Jean Valjean and William V. Ranous as Javert , is distributed by the Vitagraph Company of America. The film consists of four reels, each released over the course of three months beginning on 4 September to 27 November 1909. John Bunny made films for Vitagraph in the 1910s, most of them co-starring Flora Finch , and

5952-406: The original airings; the syndicated series American Idol Rewind is an example of this strategy. COPS has had huge success in syndication, direct response sales, and DVD. A Fox staple since 1989, COPS has, as of 2013 (when it moved to cable channel Spike ), outlasted all competing scripted police shows. Another series that had wide success is Cheaters , which has been running since 2000 in

6045-770: The original ten production companies included in Edison's attempt to corner movie-making in the United States, the Motion Picture Patents Company . Due to its extensive European distribution interests, Vitagraph also participated in the Paris Film Congress in February 1909. This was a failed attempt by European producers to form a cartel similar to the MPPC. Major stars included Florence Turner (the Vitagraph Girl, one of

6138-408: The overall viewership tallies for eight consecutive years, from the 2003–2004 to the 2010–2011 television seasons. Another trend was to combine reality TV with a social history angle usually by having contestants taken back to various time periods primarily to see how millennials would cope without modern technology. Examples included The 1900 House , and Bad Lad's Army . In addition to those

6231-699: The reality television boom have been retroactively classified as reality television, including hidden camera shows, talent-search shows, documentary series about ordinary people, high-concept game shows, home improvement shows, and court shows featuring real-life cases and issues. Reality television has faced significant criticism since its rise in popularity. Critics argue that reality television shows do not accurately reflect reality, in ways both implicit (participants being placed in artificial situations), and deceptive (misleading editing, participants being coached on behavior, storylines generated ahead of time, scenes being staged). Some shows have been accused of rigging

6324-416: The results resembling soap operas – hence the terms docusoap and docudrama . Documentary-style programs give viewers a private look into the lives of the subjects. Within documentary-style reality television are several subcategories or variants: Although the term "docusoap" has been used for many documentary-style reality television shows, there have been shows that have deliberately tried to mimic

6417-493: The revamped MasterChef , among others. The 1980s and 1990s were also a time when tabloid talk shows became more popular. Many of these featured the same types of unusual or dysfunctional guests who would later become popular as cast members of reality shows. Reality television became globally popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the successes of the Big Brother and Survivor / Expedition Robinson franchises. In

6510-520: The same name ) and The Mole (which was successful in other countries). But stronghold shows Survivor and American Idol continued to thrive: both topped the U.S. season-average television ratings in the 2000s. Survivor led the ratings in 2001–02 , and Idol has the longest hold on the No. 1 rank in the American television ratings , dominating over all other primetime programs and other television series in

6603-632: The smokestack "lacked architectural merit." Despite ongoing petitions, appeals, and media attention, the decision stood, and the efforts to protect the building ultimately faltered. In 2015, after years of neglect and unsuccessful attempts to preserve the structure, the Vitagraph Studios building was demolished to make way for new apartment complexes. This demolition marked the end of a tangible piece of early American film history, though it sparked renewed interest in preserving other film heritage sites. Reality television Reality television

6696-399: The studio in 1916 as a writer and director, but soon became a star in a steady stream of comedy shorts. A former cartoonist, Semon favored large-scale slapstick. His films were so profitable that Vitagraph gave Semon a free hand in making them, but Semon became so extravagant in staging the films that the expenses nearly broke the company. Semon's relationship with Vitagraph became strained when

6789-518: The television and film industry entered the next millennium, the lot by 2002 was renamed The Prospect Studios . In 2002, the property underwent a major renovation to position its facilities for the future and new technical innovation. Current shows besides General Hospital produced here include ABC's medical drama Grey's Anatomy . 34°06′08″N 118°16′58″W  /  34.10222°N 118.28278°W  / 34.10222; -118.28278 Vitagraph Vitagraph Studios , also known as

6882-470: The text of the book he also refers to hiring a 17-year-old Rudolph Valentino into the set-decorating department, but within a week he was being used by directors as an extra in foreign parts, mainly as a Russian Cossack. Vitagraph's first office, opened in 1898, was in Lower Manhattan , at 140 Nassau Street, on the corner of Nassau St. and Beekman St., where they shot their first film, The Burglar on

6975-634: The top DVDs sold on Amazon.com . In the mid-2000s, DVDs of The Simple Life outranked scripted shows such as The O.C. and Desperate Housewives . Syndication, however, has been problematic; shows such as Fear Factor , COPS , and Wife Swap , in which each episode is self-contained, can be rerun fairly easily, but usually only on cable television or during the daytime ( COPS and America's Funniest Home Videos being exceptions). Season-long competitions, such as The Amazing Race , Survivor , and America's Next Top Model generally perform more poorly and usually must be rerun in marathons to draw

7068-401: The twist that judges could not see contestants during the initial audition round, and could judge them only by their voice. The show was an instant success, and spawned an entire franchise, The Voice , which has been highly successful, with almost 50 international adaptations. The Tester (2010–2012) was the first reality television show aired over a video game console. By 2012, many of

7161-497: The underlying stories are real. Another highly successful group of soap-opera-style shows is the Real Housewives franchise, which began with The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2006 and has since spawned nearly twenty other series, in the U.S. and internationally. The franchise has an older cast and different personal dynamics than that of Laguna Beach and its imitators, as well as lower production values, but similarly

7254-841: The use of higher-quality lighting and cameras, voice-over narration instead of on-screen "confessionals", and slower pacing. Laguna Beach led to several spinoff series, most notably the 2006–2010 series The Hills . It also inspired various other series, including the highly successful British series The Only Way Is Essex and Made in Chelsea , and the Australian series Freshwater Blue . Due to their dramatized feel, many of these shows have been accused of being pre-scripted, more so than other reality television shows have. The producers of The Only Way Is Essex and Made in Chelsea have admitted to coaching cast members on what to say in order to draw more emotion from each scene, although they insist that

7347-544: The world's first movie stars), Maurice Costello (the first of the matinee idols), Harry T. Morey , Jean (the Vitagraph Dog and the first animal star of the Silent Era ) and such future stars as Helen Hayes , Viola Dana , Dolores Costello , Norma Talmadge , Constance Talmadge , and Moe Howard . Larry Trimble was a noted director of films for Turner and Jean (he was also the dog's owner). The first film adaptation of

7440-440: The wrinkle that the contestants were celebrities who remained masked until they were removed from the show, adding an element of guesswork to the competition. The two shows both spawned successful international franchises, I Can See Your Voice and Masked Singer , respectively. Masked Singer has been especially popular, with over 50 local adaptations; its American adaptation was the third highest-rated series overall of both

7533-659: Was a series consisting of archeologists and historians running a farm though various historical periods, most notably Victorian Farm . Internationally, a number of shows created in the late 1990s and 2000s have had massive global success. Reality-television franchises created during that time that have had more than 30 international adaptations each include the singing competition franchises Idols , Star Academy and The X Factor , other competition franchises Survivor/Expedition Robinson , Big Brother , The Biggest Loser , Come Dine with Me , Got Talent , Top Model , MasterChef , Project Runway and Dancing with

7626-461: Was acquired by Warner Bros. in 1925. In the latter half of the 20th century, as New York City’s landscape rapidly changed, film historians and preservationists began advocating for the protection of the Vitagraph building due to its historical importance. The structure became a focus of preservation efforts in the 2000s and 2010s, when campaigns were launched to secure landmark status for the site. Supporters, including local historians and members of

7719-442: Was an Australian show that depicted a family, similar in concept to An American Family . The 1994–95 O. J. Simpson murder case , during which live network television followed suspect Simpson for 90 minutes being chased by police, has been described as a seminal moment in reality television. Networks interrupted their regular television programming for months for coverage of the trial and related events. Because of Simpson's status as

7812-581: Was by subway to the adjacent Avenue M (BMT Brighton Line) Subway rapid transit station in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. They created a second film studio in Santa Monica, California, in 1911, and a year later moved to a 29-acre sheep ranch at 4151 Prospect Ave in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles, a studio subsequently owned by ABC and currently Disney Studios. The Vitagraph Studios building, located in

7905-401: Was enabled by the advent of computer-based non-linear editing systems for video (such as produced by Avid Technology ) in 1989. These systems made it easy to quickly edit hours of video footage into a usable form, something that had been very difficult to do before (film, which was easy to edit, was too expensive to use in shooting enough hours on a regular basis). Sylvania Waters (1992)

7998-492: Was filmed in an improvised bathtub, with the "smoke of battle" provided by Mrs. Blackton's cigar). In 1897, Vitagraph produced The Humpty Dumpty Circus , which was the first film to use the stop-motion technique. Vitagraph was not the only company seeking to make money from Edison's motion picture inventions, and Edison's lawyers were very busy in the 1890s and 1900s filing patents and suing competitors for patent infringement. Blackton did his best to avoid lawsuits by buying

8091-459: Was impacted in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic , which forced many reality competition series to suspend production (and in some cases curtail a competition already in progress, such as Canadian and Malayalam versions of Big Brother ), until such time that production could recommence with appropriate health and safety protocols approved by local authorities. Due to their quicker turnaround times,

8184-497: Was later produced in a large number of other countries as Survivor ), added to the Nummer 28 / Real World template the idea of competition and elimination. Cast members or contestants battled against each other and were removed from the show until only one winner remained (these shows are now sometimes called elimination shows). Changing Rooms , a program that began in the UK in 1996, showed couples redecorating each other's houses, and

8277-606: Was located on the rooftop of a building on Nassau Street in Manhattan . Operations were later moved to the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The company's first claim to fame came from newsreels: Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the Spanish–American War of 1898. These shorts were among the first works of motion-picture propaganda , and a few had studio re-enactments that were passed off as footage of actual events ( The Battle of Santiago Bay

8370-534: Was modified for re-release because it was seen as not being sufficiently pro-war, thus also earning the film a place in the history of censorship . In 1915, Chicago distributor George Kleine orchestrated a four-way film distribution partnership, V-L-S-E, Incorporated , for the Vitagraph , Lubin , Selig , L-KO Kompany , and Essanay companies. Albert Smith served as president. In 1916, Benjamin Hampton had proposed

8463-750: Was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in informational programming. COPS , which first aired in the spring of 1989 on Fox and was developed due to the need for new programming during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike , showed police officers on duty apprehending criminals. It introduced the camcorder look and cinéma vérité feel of much of later reality television. The 1991 television documentary on "typical American high schoolers", Yearbook , focused on seniors attending Glenbard West High School, in Glen Ellyn , Illinois and broadcast prime-time on Fox . The series Nummer 28 , which aired on Dutch television in 1991, originated

8556-471: Was the first reality show with a self-improvement or makeover theme. The dating reality show Streetmate premiered in the UK in 1998. Originally created by Gabe Sachs as Street Match , it was a flop in the United States. But the show was revamped in the UK by Tiger Aspect Productions and became a cult hit. The production team from the original series later created the popular reality shows Strictly Come Dancing , Location, Location, Location , and

8649-411: Was the most popular film comedian in the world in the years before Chaplin . His death in 1915 was observed worldwide. In 1910, a number of movie houses showed the five parts of the Vitagraph serial The Life of Moses consecutively (a total length of almost 90 minutes), making it one of many to claim the title of "the first feature film." A long series of Shakespeare adaptations were the first done of

#129870