Real People

Although I haven't seen an episode of "Real People" in about 20 years, I do remember the format: 60 minutes of various segments (most of them comedic in some way) focusing on the more offbeat facets of American life.

Some of the stories included the Flat Earth Society, a lady who took words and pronounced them backwards, an alien race that lived in volcanic lava tubes, a guy who built his house in a tree, and a guy who fell in love with the Statue of Liberty.

Between segments, they did some "ask the audience" kind of stuff, and also ran newspaper typos (kind of like Jay Leno's "Headlines" segment).

"Real People" ran on NBC, and was followed shortly by ABC's "That's Incredible!", which was a similar format but focused more on the unexplained.

Back in 1979, When I watched Real People. It was a classic and funny lines and funny stories about funny people in their lives. And they do funny things on the road, Story like, Where people wear no clothes in the restaurant. Ladies live in the Indian totem pole in Traverse City, Michigan. There are many, many stories to choose from. and many other stories about the Real People. They been on for 50 times and 50 shows. 10 per season. They always go on the road to Philadelphia, Detroit, Los Angeles. It's like a real good stories about people all the time. I always like Sarah Purcell a lot. Thanks for all the good memories about Real People.

The main thing I remember of this show was the funny photos segment they did each week. I thought sure some of the pix they showed would be on the 'net but I haven't found any. The two I remember in particular was a picture of a one-way sign pointing into a graveyard, and a photo of a man standing in front of a geyser (might have been a fire hydrant) in a way that made it look like he was relieving himself. If anybody knows where I could find some of those photos, please let me know!

Even as a 10-year-old I thought the show was a bit corny.. It'd never make it today. I remember one episode where they sent Skip Stevenson to a chili cook-off. For the rest of the show they were setting off explosions behind him, which I thought was just mean and not at all funny.

I only remember one segment of this show with any clarity (I was 10-15 years old). There was a guy who bought an oil refinery or military platform off the coast of somewhere (California?) and turned it into his own little country. He even printed his own stamps and money.

I have been searching for this place for years with no luck. Can anyone help?

Shows like this which covered different subjects are rich with source material for research. I teach high school and finding this "country" or history of it would be a colorful addition to curriculum : )

Thank you.

What I remember most about the show, Real People (1979-1983), was when they were doing interviews of people affected by the 3-Mile Island nuclear accident. They showed people being evacuated, snarled roads, and attempted to talk to whomever they could. Most pointedly, there was an interview of a local farmer. The line that has stuck in my mind is this. They were on the farm, on the porch, and the wife said something like: "What I've noticed is that there are no flies. All the officials are saying that we are far enough away not to be affected by the radiation. But usually there are a good many flies this time of year, from the cattle. But right now, there are no flies."