Peter Funt pays homage to his father Allen Funt, of 'Candid Camera' fame, in a new documentary.

Before the world of entertainment was dashed into a hundred million YouTube channels, Allen Funt, on a 1969 commercial flight from Newark to Miami, was like a llama in Times Square – impossible not to stare at. The famous TV producer and host, who in the 1970s made Bixby Ranch and later Pebble Beach his home and final destination, was not able to convince his fellow passengers that they were indeed being kidnapped by Cuban revolutionaries and this is not, for God’s sake, an episode of Candid Camera.

Peter Funt was the only one of his siblings not on that flight (all passengers were let go within a day). But he was the one who, in 1993, took over the long-running American hidden camera reality television series. He is also the one who just finished a documentary about his father – released, fittingly, on Father’s Day 2022.

Mr. Candid Camera tells the story of the man credited with inventing reality TV through archival footage, home videos and both old and new interviews with his contemporaries.

Allen Funt “was not a practical joker,” Peter says about the creator of the show that, in one form or another, was on air for 66 years. “He did believe in the goodness of humanity. They were not out to shame people, show how stupid people are or how easy to be fooled.”

Instead, Funt was interested in how differently people behave when they don’t know they are being filmed. Practical jokes were the specialty, with perplexing everyday traps like cookie samples that turn out not to be free, or escalators that change directions. This general benevolence is the answer to the question the Funts have been asked over and over again: What happened with the video material people were not happy with because they didn’t like their own behavior?

“Throw it away,” Peter says. He estimates only about 3 percent of people asked for this.

The doc about his dad isn’t all Peter Funt is working on – the former journalist recently published a memoir, Self-Amused: A Tell-Some Memoir, and is working on another documentary titled Playing POTUS, about the actors and comedians who have played U.S. presidents over the years. And if that’s not enough, he’s working to put Candid Camera back on TV, too.

MR. CANDID CAMERA screening, and Q&A with Peter Funt, happens at 6:30pm Friday, July 29. Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. $10-$20. 649-1070, goldenstatetheatre.com