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John Barbours World

Show Host

John Barbour "the godfather of reality TV" created, co-hosted, co-produced, and wrote 'Real People' - the first reality show, which was number one on NBC for three years during the early 1980's.

Barbour moved to the United States in the early sixties. His comedy act, particularly his 1965 album, It's Tough to Be White, dealt in part with civil rights and black-white relations.

Barbour hosted the pilot for The Gong Show in the mid '70s, and was a regular panelist on the 1988 Canadian (US syndicated) version of Liar's Club.

Barbour portrayed game show host Harry Monte in a 1975 episode of Sanford and Son.

John Produced, Wrote, and Hosted 'Ernie Kovacs: TV's Original Genius,'for Showtime that aired later on PBS. At the time it was reviewed as 'the best documentary about a performer!'

He also directed and wrote the 1992 documentary The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes. This film covers the investigation of District Attorney Jim Garrison, who, after the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, decided to further investigate the official report given by the Warren Commission. The documentary hypothesizes connections between the assassination and the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and other organizations and foreign affairs issues. The film won an award in 1993 at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.

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Guest, Anne Serling

Guest Name
Anne Serling
Guest Occupation
Writer
Guest Biography

I was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, but moved to Pacific Palisades in southern California when I was three. My dad had an office in the house, but then built one in the back yard so he could find some peace to write by getting away from my sister, me and our menagerie of dogs, cats and even two pet rats.

Always preferring the East Coast, the change of seasons and the slower pace of small college towns, I remained in upstate New York to attend college. First Alfred University and then transferring to Elmira College where I earned a degree in Elementary Education with a minor in English.  Upon graduation I substitute taught, worked at a school for children with special needs, and then was a preschool teacher at Cornell University's Early Childhood Program & Cooperative Nursery School.
        
I have always loved writing. If my dad liked my writing he said so. Conversely, if not, he would declare it “interesting.” I wrote predominately poetry until I was published in The Twilight Zone, The Original Stories, an anthology, in which I adapted two of my father's teleplays, One for the Angels and The Changing of the Guard into short stories. The latter was subsequently published in The Twilight Zone Magazine. Additionally, I have had poetry published in The Cornell Daily Sun and Visions. I am represented by Erica Spellman-Silverman at Trident Media Group.

Recently I started work on a novel and continue to promote my father's legacy as a Board Member of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation.