Substitutions and Lawsuit for ‘Hidden Video’

Fox Broadcasting had to substitute episodes for Sunday’s premiere of “Totally Hidden Video,” which uses a “Candid Camera”-style hidden camera to record the reactions of unsuspecting people in weird situations, because the first program contained two segments that employed actors to fake responses for the camera.

Meanwhile, “Candid Camera” creator Allen Funt is suing Quantum Media Inc., the company that produces “Totally Hidden Video,” to prevent any future production of the show. Funt claims that “Totally Hidden Video” uses many of the same stunts made famous during his 43 years of producing “Candid Camera,” and that the copycat program therefore tarnishes the image of his life’s work.

Last week, a judge ruled against Funt’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have kept the show off the air. Funt’s attorney said that a hearing for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Aug. 10.

Neither Quantum nor Fox had any comment on Funt’s lawsuit Monday, but Quantum said it had fired the producer responsible for the two inauthentic segments.

Quantum, which also produces “The Morton Downey Jr. Show,” said “Totally Hidden Video” “employs a hidden camera to videotape the reaction of ordinary individuals in extraordinarily funny circumstances. The producer failed to follow the show’s guidelines requiring that all targeted individuals were to be totally unaware a camera was present and have no prior knowledge of the setups.”

A Fox spokesman said that the network conducted its own investigation into the matter and is “satisfied with the actions taken to insure that no misleading segments will ever appear on Fox.”

Sunday’s substitute episode, whose segments included a fake Canadian border set up in the middle of California and a slow-moving, elderly checker at a supermarket express lane, scored a strong 12.2 rating and attracted 21% of the available audience in 16 major cities, the highest rating ever for a Fox premiere. Buoyed by weak summer competition from the other networks, the show beat this season’s average rating in that time period for “Married . . . With Children,” Fox’s highest rated show.

Fox originally ordered six episodes of the program for a summer tryout. But a Fox spokesman said that if these ratings hold, the show will be around much longer than the summer.

Which is exactly what Funt is trying to prevent. Funt’s original request to stop the airing of the show was based on his discovery that some of the segments were “phony.”

“We have made a religion about honesty,” Funt said in a phone interview Monday. “It hurts me to see somebody try that kind of thing. And besides that, they are making their show look so much like ‘Candid Camera,’ and it is such a turkey, that it reflects badly on us.”

Funt, who still produces two “Candid Camera” specials a year for CBS, said that three of the five segments that aired Sunday were direct ripoffs from previous “Candid Camera” stunts.

Funt said that there is no legal protection for the hidden camera concept itself, but he said that his show is protected in that any new show cannot “trade off” on 43 years of “Candid Camera’s” reputation by using stunts directly from its storied repertoire.

Funt’s suit also demands an unspecified amount in damages, but Funt said he is interested solely in stopping the production of “Totally Hidden Video.”

“I will be 75 years old next month,” Funt said, “and I want to set a precedent with this suit so that people who might try to rip off ‘Candid Camera’ in the future will not be able to do it.”