Real People

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For other uses, see Real People (disambiguation).

Real People was an NBC reality television series that aired from 1979 to 1984, on Wednesday and later Sunday nights.

The taped program (its initial episodes aired live in the East) focused on taped visits to people with unique occupations or hobbies, and occasionally brought some of them in-studio to interact with the audience. In its early seasons, Real People was NBC's most popular series, often scoring at the top of the ratings.

Among the regular hosts were John Barbour, Sarah Purcell, Byron Allen, Skip Stephenson, Bill Rafferty, Peter Billingsley, and Fred Willard. The show was produced by George Schlatter, who had previously co-created Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In for NBC.

The success of Real People led to a rash of imitators, the best known (and longest-running) of which was That's Incredible! The series also gave fitness instructor Richard Simmons' major break into the mass media.

When the show was intially syndicated to broadcast stations, it was edited into 30-minute segments and retitled More Real People.