John Barbour's World with John Barbour
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.
Lucille Ball's favorite writer, aside from the wonderful writers of her show, was John Barbour. She said for the ten years that John was the film critic for Los Angeles Magazine, she couldn't wait for the beginning of the month just to read his reviews. And watch him on KNBC's six o'clock news!
And when Bob Wood was President of CBS TV he said, 'If Mark Twain had a microphone and camera, he'd be doing a lot of what John is doing!'
John changed the face of American TV as the Creator, Co-Host, Producer, and principal writer of 'Real People,' the country's first trend-setting reality show!
When John was crafting the number one show in TV for three years, his commitment was always to STORY and PURPOSE!
John's story... and what an amazing real story it is http://johnbarboursworld.com/about.html cannot be done justice in a few words, so go explore it, and know that after John's documentary about John Kennedy's assassination, 'The Garrison Tapes' won the '93 San Sebastian film festival Award, then John decided to retire.
It had taken him over twenty years to tell Jim's story, and even though it was and still is ignored by nearly all media in America, John felt that at least it was finally out there. It was the most important story he could ever tell; and so why try to tell any others.
So, he retired. To play golf. In Las Vegas. And now he shares his incredible story...
