"Do you want someone to look in your ass?!": a non-childish show for children shocked a battered America
For five whole years, a reality show continued on American television, to which Dom-2 and other sad "soap" are no match for. If you are tired of glamour, pink saliva and duck lips, then "Scared, for sure!" (Beyond Scared Straight) is exactly what you need to feel the taste of life again and reconsider your attitude to many things.
Difficult teenagers, sent to the most severe prisons for the re-education of criminals, do not play, but in fact try to change and leave the infernal show as soon as possible.
The reality show Beyond Scared Straight, which today is the most controversial in the history of American television, has its roots in the distant 1978. It was then that the young and ambitious director Arnold Shapiro gathered a group of difficult teenagers from different areas of Los Angeles, took a camera and went to prison. Shapiro set a goal to introduce potential criminals to the established ones and thus influence the lives of children who stumbled.
The film, which can be called a documentary, turned out to be frightening. The criminals, who were asked to show teenagers life behind bars as realistically as possible, practiced cigarettes and chocolate with might and main. Threats of beatings, rape and just selected insults rained down on the youth as if from a Cornucopia.
Replicas from the movie "Scared Straight" ("Scared, exactly!"), were able to frighten and shock not only unwitting actors, but also the most skeptical viewers.
This is one of the few quotes that can be quoted verbatim without making anyone blush.
Only one professional actor was involved in the film — Peter Falk, known for the TV series "Lieutenant Columbo" — everything else in the picture was real and terrible. But, we must pay tribute to Shapiro, his experiment turned out to be successful — years later, the world-famous director gathered his actors again, who managed to have children and even grandchildren. It turned out that most of them were so shocked by the prison romance that immediately after the filming was completed, they started on the path of correction.
In 2011, Arnold Shapiro, famous for the TV series "911 Rescue Service" and the show "Big Brother", decided to return to the prison theme and launch a reality show "Beyond Scared Straight", largely repeating the 1978 film. The director's new project exceeded all expectations both in popularity and in the number of complaints and protests.
Under the indifferent lens of the camera, hardened criminals teach the lives of teenagers using simple and understandable methods. Young criminals are insulted, rewarded with punches and slaps, dip their heads in the toilet and even try to rape. However, the most radical actions of the raging inmates are stopped by the prison staff, but this does not make the show any less creepy.
The first issues of "Beyond Scared Straight" caused a warm response from the public. No show in the States wanted to close like Shapiro's brainchild. Not only housewives in aprons and religious activists joined the fight, but also legal professionals.
Joe Vignati, a practicing lawyer with 20 years of experience and a consultant on the rights of juvenile delinquents in 50 US states, accused the creators of the show of criminal irresponsibility and launched a campaign aimed at banning the program.
Joe Vignati was joined by many other public figures and even entire organizations. It got to the point that every episode of "Beyond Scared Straight" was reviewed by a panel of independent experts before airing, which, however, could not find anything contrary to the laws of the state of California.
The show, despite everything, aired for 5 years and its filming was curtailed for the most banal reason — season 9 had a frankly disastrous rating. The infernal reality show "Beyond Scared Straight" simply outlived itself, but at the same time left the American screens undefeated.