Editing Reality television (section)

=== 1960s–1970s ===
First broadcast in the [[United Kingdom]] in 1964, the [[Granada Television]] documentary ''[[Up Series|Seven Up!]]'' broadcast interviews with 14 ordinary 7-year-olds from a broad cross-section of society and inquired about their reactions to everyday life. Every seven years, the filmmaker [[Michael Apted]] 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 is still ongoing. Structured as a series of candid interviews with no scripted plot, the films chronicle how the participants navigated personal milestones such as education, career, marriage, and family. Over time, by virtue of the sustained public attention, the participants became notable figures in British culture, effectively turning ordinary people into a type of celebrity.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hancock |first=David |date=2004-10-18 |title=Filmed From Age 7 To 49 - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/filmed-from-age-7-to-49/ |access-date=2025-04-21 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

The series ''[[The American Sportsman]]'', which ran from 1965 to 1986 on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] in the United States,<ref>{{cite web| title = Syracuse.com - Guest column: These new reality hunting TV shows are out of control| date = December 21, 2012| url = http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2012/12/guest_column_these_new_reality.html| access-date = October 17, 2013| archive-date = October 22, 2013| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131022210824/http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2012/12/guest_column_these_new_reality.html| url-status = live}} ''The Post-Standard'' newspaper, Syracuse, New York, December 21, 2012, by Tom Adessa. "As a teenager, I always looked forward to Sunday afternoons when I'd watch [[Curt Gowdy]] and his TV show, 'The American Sportsman.' Gowdy had a distinct, soft-spoken demeanor and the destinations of his hunts were in various parts of the world."</ref><ref>{{cite web| title = 'The American Sportsman' Penetrates the Awesome World of the Shark| url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2506&dat=19750208&id=AaBbAAAAIBAJ&pg=2179,1594312| access-date = October 17, 2013}}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ''The News and Courier'' newspaper, February 8, 1975, Charleston, South Carolina. Quote: "Peter Benchley's journey to the world of the White Shark is an evocative portrait of one of nature's extraordinary phenomena, the shark, and of one man's revealing transition from the world of fantasy to the world of underwater reality."</ref> would typically feature one or more celebrities, and sometimes their family members, being accompanied by a camera crew on an [[Adventure#Outdoors|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 the film was "to blame for reality television".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/film/article-23369560-details/Warhol+'reality'+film+named+in+top+100/article.do |title=Warhol 'reality' film named in top 100 |first=Alexa |last=Baracaia |work=[[Evening Standard]] |date=October 4, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204043437/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/film/article-23369560-details/Warhol+%27reality%27+film+named+in+top+100/article.do |archive-date=December 4, 2008 |access-date=December 19, 2021 }}</ref>

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 (album)|Let It Be]]'' and released the [[Let It Be (1970 film)|homonymous film]] the following year. In 2021, director [[Peter Jackson]] created an eight-hour, three-episode television series entitled ''[[The Beatles: Get Back]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/06/the-beatles-get-back-exclusive-deep-dive-peter-jacksons-movie|title=The Beatles: Get Back – An Exclusive Deep Dive Into Peter Jackson's Revelatory New Movie|last=Hagan|first=Joe|date=17 June 2021|website=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|access-date=12 March 2023|archive-date=October 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003180421/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/06/the-beatles-get-back-exclusive-deep-dive-peter-jacksons-movie|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:The_Loud_Family_1973.JPG|thumb|The Loud family, subjects of the pioneering [[PBS]] series ''[[An American Family]]''. During filming, the parents decided to divorce and son [[Lance Loud|Lance]] (top right) came out as gay.]]
The 12-part 1973 [[PBS]] series ''[[An American Family]]'' showed 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 (1974 UK TV series)|The Family]]'', was made in the UK, following the working-class Wilkins family of [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]].<ref name=Biressi>{{cite book|last=Biressi|first=Anita|title=Reality TV: Realism and Revelation|url=https://archive.org/details/realitytvrealism0000bire|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=Wallflower Press|location=London|isbn=978-1904764045|pages=[https://archive.org/details/realitytvrealism0000bire/page/64 64–66]}}</ref> 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 a televised competition.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/movies/television-radio-bachelor-no-1-and-the-birth-of-reality-tv.html |last=James |first=Caryn |title=Bachelor No. 1 And the Birth Of Reality TV |series=Television/Radio |work=The New York Times |date=January 26, 2003 |access-date=March 18, 2009 |archive-date=August 9, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090809143511/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/movies/television-radio-bachelor-no-1-and-the-birth-of-reality-tv.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 1976–1980 [[BBC]] series ''[[The Big Time (TV 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Where are they now? Scottish singer Sheena Easton |url=https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/now-scottish-singer-sheena-easton-8473853 |newspaper=[[Daily Record (Scotland)|Daily Record]] |date=July 22, 2016 |access-date=May 17, 2018 |archive-date=May 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517153220/https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/now-scottish-singer-sheena-easton-8473853 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1978, ''[[Living in the Past (TV series)|Living in the Past]]'' had amateurs participating in a re-enactment of life in an [[Iron Age]] English village.