Hidden Cameras Move In

On Sept. 13, the same day the television industry gathered in Los Angeles to honor its best programs at the nighttime Emmy Awards, sheriff deputies in Ada County, Idaho, arrested a crew working on a Fox special titled “World’s Nastiest Neighbors.”

The incident has embarrassed at least one producer of so-called “reality” programming, raised questions about how far Fox will go to one-up itself in terms of sheer outrageousness, and highlighted technological advances, such as miniature cameras, that have facilitated amassing such footage unbeknownst to those involved.

According to Ada County Sheriff’s Lt. Gary Raney, a production crew from ZMC Productions occupied a house in an affluent suburb on the edge of Boise and proceeded to behave so erratically that some residents began to fear the new neighbors might actually pose a threat to them and their children.

Leasing a house in a small cul-de-sac, the occupants engaged in mud wrestling on the front lawn, danced in the streets and used a bullhorn to invite people to a party. One of the new arrivals told neighbors his brother--who wore Bermuda shorts and flowered shirts--was “brain-damaged.”

A camera crew taped the neighbors’ reaction from the house and through other devices, including, according to deputies, a miniature camera fixed in a pair of oversized sunglasses. While some residents thought they might be the subject of some elaborate hoax, others worried that one of the men--who also acted strangely around the neighborhood kids--might be a pedophile.

Neighbors finally summoned law enforcement officials, who discovered a front yard filled with 52 plastic pink flamingos, two dozen statues, mud wrestling pools, Tiki torches and a large trampoline.

Jeffrey Norman, who acknowledged to authorities he was an actor working on a Fox special, was arrested for disturbing the peace. Sheriffs confiscated more than 30 videotapes, copies of which have since been released to the production company.

“A lot of the neighbors are very concerned about what’s going to happen with those videos, and at this point we don’t know,” Raney said, adding that the incident has fed perceptions of Hollywood as a place with little regard for those who reside outside Los Angeles.

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The Fox executive who oversees specials, Mike Darnell, declined to be interviewed, as did other Fox executives. A network spokesman confirmed the program was initially planned for November but said it’s now uncertain if it will air or whether the footage in question--representing only one proposed segment of the program--will ever be shown. Fox was aware that the hidden-camera idea was being considered but wasn’t sure exactly how or where it would be executed, according to a network source.

An employee at Los Angeles-based ZMC, which produced the Fox specials “Titanic: Breaking New Ground” and “Stalking the Stalkers,” said he couldn’t comment, citing the still-pending court case of actor Norman.

Fox has enjoyed ratings success with programs such as “When Disaster Strikes” and “When Animals Attack,” which have drawn criticism from various quarters for their graphic depictions of grisly real-life events. Although Fox executives have defended such fare as a small part of the network’s schedule, they have recognized potential excesses, deciding not to broadcast a special featuring footage from prison riots.

Unlike such programs, “World’s Nastiest Neighbors” graduated from “caught on tape” video to staging events and then taping the reaction to them--what Raney characterized as a “Candid Camera”-type scenario.

Not surprisingly, that comparison alarms Peter Funt, co-host and producer of the new version of “Candid Camera,” which airs Fridays on CBS.

“It’s no mystery that many broadcasters are trying to test the outer limits of what you can do--ostensibly for fun--with a hidden camera,” said Funt, whose father created the “Candid Camera” franchise. “There’s a great, great burden of responsibility in hiding a camera, at least in our view. . . . We are a comedy show, we are an entertainment show, but we worry about that all the time, and I worry about people who don’t worry about it enough.”

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Fueled in part by the Jim Carrey movie “The Truman Show,” hidden-camera filming has spurred considerable discussion in the last year. It has also prompted court challenges, including one by a woman shown pinned under her car, begging to die, by “On Scene: Emergency Response.” The California Supreme Court ruled that the woman, Ruth Shulman, could sue the production company, saying the syndicated show went too far by broadcasting such material for entertainment purposes.

Even news organizations have faced lawsuits, including Food Lion’s judgment against ABC News last year regarding a “PrimeTime Live” hidden-camera expose. New technology like “lipstick cameras” and surveillance video have become increasingly common as news-gathering tools, such as those KCBS-TV employed to document its report on local restaurants violating health-code standards.

Entertainment raises different issues, and Funt stressed that his show won’t put anyone on the air who doesn’t feel comfortable laughing at themselves, describing “Candid Camera’s” guiding rule as, “We don’t want to do things to people we wouldn’t want done to ourselves.” The program doesn’t even work with miniature cameras or surveillance video, stationing cameras only in places where a person can operate them.

Despite the program’s 50-year track record, Funt still admitted to fretting about reality and hidden-camera shows--attractive to networks as a low-cost form of programming--proliferating to the point where they result in invasions of privacy such as what apparently occurred in Idaho.

“I feel a little embarrassed when I hear about this stuff,” he said. “Some people who do other hidden-camera shows these days approach it from the view that most people are morons. We don’t look at it that way.”