Everyone hates to be surprised.

And loves it.

It didn’t take long for something called “television” to find that out. Filming people when they didn’t know they were on camera brought extremely entertaining and unexpected results.

Anyone remember “Candid Camera?”
Can you remember the name of the host? . . . . [Allen Funt].
Can you remember the catchphrase of the show? . . . [“Smile, You’re on Candid Camera”].

In the early 60’s, “Candid Camera” secretly recorded the reactions of people when they were confronted with strange and surprising circumstances. Actors would approach a random person “on the street” with some proposal or problem. The film crew would then secretly film the good, bad, or indifferent behavior of those individuals. People were asked to hold bags of money, tend fussy b…