'Scare Tactics' is fake (funny, but fake)

[trustno1]

It's a candid camer style show that just started on Sci-Fi. The problem is the video is too good-I't not hidden camera, they get shots that could only come from a guy standing 2 feet away with a $50,000 camera.

(but I still laughed)

[mangeorge]

I only saw part of one show, the one with the pseudo-nekkid guy with red stuff all over hisself.
I didn't laugh, but the staff (on the show) did. Musta been funny.
My sense of humor has been poop for the last few weeks. :)
This b'longs in Cafe Society.
Peace,
mangeorge

[Zenster]

From what I've seen of the ads (I refuse to watch the show), this is going to be funny until some unwitting participant keels over dead from heart failure after watching a loved one supposedly getting killed or being chased by a gun toting gorilla.

Personally, I feel it is an all time low for the tube. This is 'reality television' descended into a realm of the pruriently macabre. Putting people through an emotional wringer solely for entertainment purposes is twisted and distinctly sadistic.

As to a factual basis, producers will do almost anything for ratings. This show is proof of that. Since 'snuff' films cannot be broadcast, they will have to settle for second best. 'Scare Tactics' scrapes sludge from the barrel's bottom.

[Dogface]

No unwitting participant will keel over because there are no unwitting participants. It's a hoax perpetrated upon the audience.

[bibliophage]

The General Questions forum is for questions with factual answers. Since this is about a television program, I'll move this thread to Cafe Society.

bibliophage
moderator GQ

[Lute Skywatcher]

I, too, saw part of one episode. What passes for dialog on that show put me off immediately.

[Finagle]

Scare Tactics is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sci-fi Channel seems to have no idea at all what interests their key demographic. They spend money on garbage (Dream Team/Scare Tactics/John Edward) and advertise it ad nauseum , virtually guaranteeing that any thinking being will lunge for the remote control whenever one of these shows comes on.

They have recently developed a strange desire to become the Nick at Nite of bad science fiction. They recently began showing Land of the Giants reruns (hasn't aged well), Battlestar Galactica, and (god help us) Knight Rider. They're also rerunning dead end series that didn't even last long enough for decent syndication (Strange Days, Roar).

[Bad News Baboon]

I saw that show too. I agree that the camera angles (we counted 5 in one scene) make it unbelivable.

The one that really made me not believe it was the one with the gorilla escaping from its cage. You would have to be a complete and absolute moron to not think it was a man in a suit.

[Guinastasia]

I like the Sci Fi channel better without their original shows.

To the programmers of Sci Fi-stick with MST3K, Dark Shadows, Tales from the Darkside and showing movies.

[Atrael]

Well Guin, I'd be with you, except that they picked up Stargate. Since I love that show, I have to hope against all hope, that they won't destroy it the same way they did Sliders. So far it hasn't been bad, obviously changing some styles, but keeping to the same general tone of before. Although for a while, Stargate wasn't certain for a season 7, so that made me all the more upset that they came out with a new series in Tremors. I have a hard time believing that making a bad *in my opinion*series off of a bad movie, is a better decision that renewing a series that has a fairly loyal and broad fan base.

[Guinastasia]

Oh no-I didn't mean just those shows. And yes, they do some good luck with shows that have already been established. (Witness MST3K)

[mobo85]

If the show is fake, what's the deal with the lawsuit? Did Sci-Fi spend money to sue themselves just to create publicity?

[stolichnaya]

That would be brilliant.

[RikWriter]

I agree it has to be fake. Someone would have been shot dead by now otherwise.

[photopat]

What about the recent trend I've noticed, in which right after MST3K they run a low budget movie, or dubious remake of an old movie like Journey to the Center of the Earth or ...what was it, Mystery Island?

How about an MST3K marathon sometime?

[Revtim]

It makes sense if the show is fake. I find it hard to believe that lawyers would let this thing get greenlighted with the risks involved. It makes "Fear Factor" look like "Romper Room".

[Mr. Miskatonic]

Originally posted by Finagle
Scare Tactics is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sci-fi Channel seems to have no idea at all what interests their key demographic. They spend money on garbage (Dream Team/Scare Tactics/John Edward) and advertise it ad nauseum , virtually guaranteeing that any thinking being will lunge for the remote control whenever one of these shows comes on.


Sci fi channel has demonstrated it has nothing but contempt for scifi fans. The president has gone so far as to say that science ficitons is not all about aliens and spaceships.

Sure, she's right, but that doesn't mean you replace all the aliens and spaceships shows with woo-woo crap and lame 'reality' shows.

Someone I knwo compared SciFi to OMNI magazine of years ago. OMNI had lots of science and scifi, and a little tiny section of woowoo stuff. The woowoo stuff was popular so it got more, and more, and more space. Soon all of OMNI was filled with woowoo nonsense. OMNI isn't around anymore. Its sucks when your core audience leaves and all you've got left are fickle newagers.

I suspect that soon a video game company that bought ads based on old SFC demongraphics, is going to come into the SFC president's office and pull a Mortal Combat style finishing move on her while yelling "I can't sell Dead or Alive variation 13 to a bunch of John Edward watching housefrau!"

[Fibber McGee]

Originally posted by Finagle
They have recently developed a strange desire to become the Nick at Nite of bad science fiction. They recently began showing Land of the Giants reruns (hasn't aged well), Battlestar Galactica, and (god help us) Knight Rider. They're also rerunning dead end series that didn't even last long enough for decent syndication (Strange Days, Roar).

That's not a recent phenomenon. Back before they had original programming Sci-Fi was nothing but reruns of old genre shows, many of them having lasted one season or less. I actually prefer that early era of Sci-Fi as I feel that with the exception of Farscape, there has been nothing to justify Sci-Fi's move to original programming.

[mangeorge]

I liked some of sfc's stuff. Children of Dune was ok. Not great, but ok. At least they didn't try to drag it out into a full series, and if you managed to see each episode only once, in sequence, It was a story.
I'm sure a lot of die-hard Dune fans hated it, though. ;)
Farscape's good, but you have to stick with it. Otherwise you get lost.
Why can't there be one channel run by it's viewers?
G'by John Edward.

[cmonidareya]

Okay, I have watched the show because I am a big fan of hidden camera shows. I don't believe the show is "fake." Here's why: the shots you are probably talking about are shot later or earlier than the actual action to add continuity to the scene. After reading this thread, I saw an episode of the show and I took note of the camera angles. If you notice, when they show the close-ups, only the "actors" not the victims are in the shot. This has been done in other hidden video shows like the "Just Kidding" series. They shoot a generic scene of what is supposed to be happening, then the footage with the victim using hidden/disguised cameras and intersperse them to give it continuity and so you can tell what is supposed to be going on. This is related to the news interview with one camera where the interview is done first with the camera on the subject and then the camera is set up to take footage of the interviewer nodding in response to the answers. The scenes are then intercut. The interview is not "fake," but it's done for the viewer's benefit to give a continuity of sorts. Go back and check out the scenes. The close-ups are of the actors/accomplices and the footage of the victims always looks like it's shot from a hidden camera or a high-powered lens. That's my theory.

[mangeorge]

Sounds like an awful lot of trouble, cmonidareya, for what they end up with.

[SenorBeef]

Originally posted by Bad News Baboon
I saw that show too. I agree that the camera angles (we counted 5 in one scene) make it unbelivable.

The one that really made me not believe it was the one with the gorilla escaping from its cage. You would have to be a complete and absolute moron to not think it was a man in a suit.

Yeah, you gotta admit watching the prop fence fall as he jumped off of it was good for a laugh, though.

[SenorBeef]

Originally posted by mangeorge
Sounds like an awful lot of trouble, cmonidareya, for what they end up with.

Not really that much effort. Basically, they make a script for what the actors are supposed to do, then film the stuff the victim wouldn't see off camera to get a good angle/etc.

Ex: If some guy runs into the woods, he's out of the sight of the 'victims', but the victims are supposed to think that a monster ate him, or whatever, and so the viewers are shown that for continuity purposes. Since there's no reason it's necesarily to do this 'live', since the victims can't see it anyway, they might as well get the good shots with good cameras.

As for being fake, I'm not sure. Some of the dialogue is awkward enough to seem real - actors trying to fit scripted lines into a situation where they don't really fit. The actual cameras on the victims sometimes look a bit too good, but I figure small camera tech is getting pretty good - and you can fit a decent sized camera in a hidden location with good set design.

[The Controvert]

I would agree with the "it's not fake" analysis. The gun-toting gorilla sequence had a shot that showed multiple portapotties with one-way mirrors on them. Also, wouldn't they cast more attractive people to be fake victims? Some of the victim reactions were rather dull... an actor would produce much better responses. Also, many of the scenes nearly fail.

Is there any proof or cite that it is faked beyond the camera angles theory?

[gonzoron]

Um... didn't they get sued by one of the partiticipants? I haven't seen the show, but that alone says it's not fake to me. I don't think even scifi would file a frivolous lawsuit against themselves for publiciity.

[KidCharlemagne]

Getting sick of skeptics. Ok people the show is not fake. Now having said that many of the victims are friends of Shannon Dougherty and might get suspicious in some cases but they don't know going into it that it's a setup. In most of the cases the look of fear on the face of the victim couldn't be made to look more real by Robert DeNiro. Did you see the guy who thought he gave the barber a heart attack or the guy crying in the back of the cab who thought the cabbie ran over someone?

[KidCharlemagne]

You'll also notice that the victims are young and generally laidback. They are set up by friends (which helps with the lawsuit thing) and are chosen because they don't seem like a litigious type. Of course, given the stuff they do to people on that show it's a pretty big gamble.

[malaka]

The best (most scared) reaction I've seen yet is the guy who was sent to repo some property from a psycho. He went into the garage, opened the fridge and found a dismembered corpse.

Instead of screaming and running about, the guy closed the door, then opened it again to check what he just saw...then, kind of slowly, began to sink to the ground and get sick. :)

I vote "real".

[bridgebuilder]

At the beginning of each segment, they provide the city and state where this supposed real prank is happening. Try looking up the city and state. It does not exist!

[mangeorge]

At the beginning of each segment, they provide the city and state where this supposed real prank is happening. Try looking up the city and state. It does not exist!
Oh oh, zombie thread!
"He went into the garage, opened the fridge and found a dismembered corpse." :D
BB, you're gonna get yelled at.
So am I, now.
Piece(s).

[ExTank]

Zombies are scary. But they don't go in much for tactics; just kinda shamble along, twitching and groaning.

Unless they're Zombie 2.0. Those guys are quick.

[BigT]

This show is still on the air?

[chorpler]

At the beginning of each segment, they provide the city and state where this supposed real prank is happening. Try looking up the city and state. It does not exist!

Geez, are they still showing reruns of Scare Tactics?

Anyway, I don't know about your assertion in its entirety, but at least some of the places they gave as locations were real. I remember one of their "pranks" taking place in Henderson, Nevada.

[muldoonthief]

This show is still on the air?


Geez, are they still showing reruns of Scare Tactics?


Actually, it's new episodes hosted by Tracy Jordan Morgan.

[jjimm]

Try looking up the city and state. It does not exist!How can you fake a state? They're quite well known.

Tennissippi. Oklahio. Washifornia. East Dakota. New Wyoming.

Doesn't work. :(

[aruvqan]

This show is still on the air?

The commercials show a different 'host' so I think they resurrected it ... [at least I think it is a different host, the name of this guy doesn't sound like what I remember from way back when]

mrAru's comment was that if someone pulled one of those stunts on him, there would probably be a lawsuit on the part of the poor actor he did serious physical damage to by reflex ...

[chorpler]

This show is still on the air?


Geez, are they still showing reruns of Scare Tactics?


Actually, it's new episodes hosted by Tracy Jordan Morgan.

Wow, that's interesting. Although I always found Tracy Morgan annoying before 30 Rock came about ... but hopefully I like him now.

[YogSosoth]

Did we figure out if it was fake or not?

[TBG]

This show is still on the air?


Geez, are they still showing reruns of Scare Tactics?


Actually, it's new episodes hosted by Tracy Jordan Morgan.

Its his 2nd (or is it third? I think it's 2nd) season as host, and during his first season, there were a bunch of eps mixed in that were just the same footage of pranks from the Shannen Doherty/Stephen Baldwin seasons with him doing new intros for them.

[limegreen]

I don't usually watch this show, but I was watching one of the VHS "Greatest Reality TV Moments" and found my hero. It was set up something like a insane knife-wielding maniac had grabbed the lovely damsel and was threatening to kill her, while there were various body parts behind him to show he really meant it. A young guy, football player type, was watching in horror, then his face sort of contorts like he's in pain, then he drops a shoulder and charges the maniac, taking him down and out through a door/wall or something. You could tell he really thought he was going to be really hurt or die, but by God, he was going to do something to save that girl. Cameramen came running from all directions, frantically screaming , "No!! It's fake!! Don't kill him!!" My hero.

[mangeorge]

I don't usually watch this show, but I was watching one of the VHS "Greatest Reality TV Moments" and found my hero. It was set up something like a insane knife-wielding maniac had grabbed the lovely damsel and was threatening to kill her, while there were various body parts behind him to show he really meant it. A young guy, football player type, was watching in horror, then his face sort of contorts like he's in pain, then he drops a shoulder and charges the maniac, taking him down and out through a door/wall or something. You could tell he really thought he was going to be really hurt or die, but by God, he was going to do something to save that girl. Cameramen came running from all directions, frantically screaming , "No!! It's fake!! Don't kill him!!" My hero.

I always wonder what the hero would have done had the damsel been a Rosanne Barr look-alike. ;)