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"Realism Programs" Turn Radio On Its Ear
Audiences used to delighting in the merriment provided by programming such as Rin-Tin-Tin, Gang Busters, and Backstage Wife had best prepare themselves for a new form of entertainment on the wireless — a genre called “Realism Programs.”
Unlike serials, chapter plays or the uproarious comedy programming radio listeners have grown accustomed to, Realism Programs are unscripted fare, usually involving competitions or documentary-style reportage.
“Think about it,” explained CBS Radio executive J. Lesfield Moonves in an exclusive interview with this Radeeo correspondent. “What’s the more compelling way to spend an evening? Listening to Ellery Queen solve yet another mystery on The Adventures of Ellery Queen or Goodman Ace banter with his malaprop-prone wife on Easy Aces… or listening to real stories of real people having real adventures?”
Take Hobo No More, a program that CBS will start airing on Sundays on its broadcast affiliates across the United States. In that show, three hobos will be plucked at random from a nearby encampment and given a chance to better their deplorable condition. The hobo who successfully learns etiquette, table manners, and social graces will be given a small stipend and a well-paying job at a local factory; the runner-up will receive a year’s supply of canned beans and safe passage on the railway of his choice. The third-place finisher will be savagely beaten by railroad bulls.
“Human drama,” Moonves said. “It can’t be beat.”
CBS won’t be the only network experimenting with Realism Programs. NBC has a full slate of the revolutionary new programming planned, highlighted by Crooning With the Stars, Celebrity Hooverville, and New Deal or No New Deal. In that last show, contestants match wits with host Eddie Cantor for the right to receive government contracts handed out by a shadowy government figure — rumored to be Eleanor Roosevelt herself!
“Let’s face it,” NBC programming whiz Jefford J. Zucker IV said, between puffs of a cigar from his spacious offices in the RCA Building. “Realism is where it’s at. Besides, it’s much more cost-effective than scripted shows.”
Writers on scripted programs can earn as much as $10 per week, Zucker explained. Meanwhile, participants in the new Realism Programs often do so for free. “It beats standing in a bread line,” Zucker chuckled.
NBC, CBS, and the soon-to-launch Blue Network hope to be chuckling as well — all the way to the bank! And who wouldn’t be laughing happily at the thought of such programs like The Amazing Race, where blonde-haired, blue-eyed contestants compete in feats of skill, and Keeping Up with the Lindberghs, which follows the exploits of America’s flying hero, his devoted wife, and his many precocious children.
Not all Realism Programs are controversy-free, however. Producers of Let’s Murder Mussolini have come under heavy criticism for their program in which ordinary Americans will be trained by Army officers, flown to Italy, and ordered to shoot the Italian prime minister. Mussolini himself is said to be furious, threatening to withhold his involvement in the show unless he has final say over the program’s sponsor.