John Barbour, whose role in creating, producing and co-hosting the 1979-1984 NBC series Real People is recognized as a pioneering effort in the popularity of reality TV, died from natural causes on Sunday, May 10, at his home in Las Vegas. He was 93.
His death was announced by family.
Executive produced by Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In creator George Schlatter, Real People featured a panel of co-hosts, including Barbour, who introduced pre-taped segments about people with odd or unusual hobbies – or just odd and unusual people – and then riffed on the short films. The popularity of the show and its pliable format would inspire any number of subsequent series, from That’s Incredible! and America’s Funniest Home Videos to MTV’s long-running Ridiculousness.
In addition to Barbour, the panel of hosts included, at one time or another, Sarah Purcell, Byron Allen, Skip Stephenson, Bill Rafferty, Mark Russell, Peter Billingsley, David Ruprecht and Fred Willard.
Born April 24, 1933, in Toronto, Canada, Barbour dropped out of high school at age 15 and moved to the U.S. in the 1950s. He began his show business career as a standup comic, which eventually led to appearances on The Dean Martin Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He released two comedy albums, It’s Tough To Be White (1965) and I Met A Man I Didn’t Like (1978).
John Barbour (top right) with Sarah Purcell, Skip Stephenson & Fred Willard, ‘Real People’ (1981)
Everett Collection
Barbour was the first host of AM Los Angeles, where he won the first of his five Emmy awards. He courted controversy with interviews with anti-Vietnam War guests including Mohammed Ali and Jane Fonda.
His additional Emmys came from his years as the critic-at-large on Los Angeles’ KNBC.
He was the pilot host for The Gong Show, and, over the years, made appearances on several television shows, such as Get Smart, Sanford and Son, The Liars Club, CSI, and Breaking Bad.
Barbour wrote, produced, and narrated the documentary film Ernie Kovacs: Television’s Original Genius, and, in 1992, he won the prize for best documentary at the San Sebastian Film Festival for The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, which profiled New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and his investigation of the Kennedy murder. In 2017, Barbour wrote and directed the sequel, The American Media and the Second Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Barbour wrote a 2019 autobiography entitled Your Mother’s Not A Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout who Changed the Face of American TV!
He is survived by his wife Sarita and their son Christopher.
