1970s reality TV sent strangers into the wild to survive | RetroFocus 

an actual raw survivor show with actual normal well mannered humble folk without the drama and angst of today’s shows..

So refreshing seeing just normal people trying their best, instead of a selection of the most obnoxious people of our society looking for clout.

Noticed how everyone is an adult and behaving as such? Noticed how it isn't laced with cheesy music, artificial cliffhangers and over the top editing? Yep, different times.

I find the way people spoke on 1970s tv to be extremely calming

I don't think Judith realized the importance of the work she did! Cooking and cleaning probably did so much for moral, which is essential for survival.

I'm not sure what it is but there seems a real innocence about them all. No big brother fights, gender stereotypes or romances just working together to try and survive. Loved it.

What made this such a great documentary is the fact that everyone involved was mentally matured. They all seemed to think and behave like they were the adults that they indeed were.

“We took a baby rabbit as a pet, which sat in silent disapproval as we consumed his relatives” 🤣

anyone else got this as recommend and ended up watching the whole video because it's actually so interesting and the narrator's voice is so calming?

"Unfortunately as we later discovered to our discomfort, the dandelion drink acted as a powerful laxative." OMG 🤣😂🤣

"The water tasted better unboiled anyways, disease or no disease." Yep this is the 70's

If you noticed. These people stopped and gave thought before answering a question. It's a must if you want to be truly an honest person. The volume of personality value in this short documentary is admirable.

"Beth felt like the camera crew had an artificial dimension to the exercise".. You would NEVER hear that in todays age. This footage is raw and great

Nobody yelled at another. Even the 'narrator' barely raised his voice when he was so sick and tired of how hard everything was, inclusing 'talking to the camera'. Nobody even argued when the blonde man said he felt sometimes like they weren't doing much to help. Despite being under terrible stress, they simply talked, and honestly, it was incredibly refreshing, and I very much enjoyed it.

I was certainly relieved that they weren’t naked and afraid.

Loved how down to earth, transparent and homest this was.

I like that guy literally got pissed off talking to the camera and walked away.

This would have been a 10 hour feature on Netflix today; 2 weeks of filming for a 30 minute feature? Today would have spent an entire 1 hour episode on hunting the iguana with ominous background music.

The woman complaining about being hungry first, i said to myself "she would be the first to eat somebody". She was the first to pounce on that lizard, with her axe. She wasn't messing around lol.

Wonderfully, the most real people on a REALity show. No backstabbing, arguments or sexual tension. Good viewing.

"Come to think of it, I'm sick of talking to the camera as well." That made me chuckle.

Who can believe that the 70’s are now half a century ago..... time certainly flies!

These are people who didn’t start learning how to “behave” in front of a camera at birth. I loved this.

"...Mike became the hunter. Every day he left the camp to inspect his snares, and 6 days running he came back again. The others became suspicious about Mike's lucky rabbit foot and rabbit fur hat, which, he claimed, he had brought with him. He also seemed to be putting on weight"

The random shot of her in a bath tub at her house was kind of funny

The owner of the island popped down and asked if anyone seen his escaped pet iguana Freddie 😅

Seeing this in 2021 makes me really want to start documenting in this style. Bring it back.

this was more interesting and captivating than any of the phony, overproduced crap of today.

Everyone is so refreshingly direct and honest! No skirting around issues or passive aggression. Was this the way your average Australian was in the 70s?

I found this observation interesting, "Bev felt the presence of the camera crew was adding an artificial dimension to the exercise".

the lady doing the little things is great just cause she doing it without having to be asked and took initiative which is respectable even if it a bunch of little things either they have to be done at some point,makes less work for others and who doesn't like a clean and organized camp ?

If i can sit down watch a whole video with my adhd then that means this was truly something great

I'm glad they gave ALL of the credit to Mike. He definitely deserved it. I'm not sure if you would see that kind of honesty in today's reality TV.

Back when TV used to be relaxing to watch, hell even the commercials were relaxing.. Now they'll put the most suspenseful music imaginable to some guy driving down the road practically doing nothing, interrupted every 5mins to some adverts that SCREAM at you!

No scripts - no fighting.............this is so refreshing to see - this is why these times were so awesome........crack me up the film crew went to a hotel haha......loved this 🔥❤️

Now that's adults behaving like grownups. All respecting each other even in times of disagreance

this recommend was GOLD, youtube.

"It was scarcely a textbook design, but as we committed the fishtrap to the deep, we felt confident that at least some fish would be stupid enough to swim into it and not be able get out again" This tickled me for some reason haha

What a difference from today!! 70s so humble and actual kindness even in the midst of hardship......today’s survivor selfish, manipulative, and full of entitled drama!, so sad.....I miss the 70s

They all stayed so amazingly civilized and polite.

Infinitely more watchable. I learned SO much from educational TV in the 80s and 90s, it's sad that it's nearly all gone.

Ive watched countless of survival realoty show, but this one kept me watching intensely until the end. The 70s does have its own authenticity

Imagine what kind of world it would be if everyone had to do this at least once in their adult lives...?

You all writing about how down to earth and honest everyone was. I sat here for 30 minutes thinking it was some kind of mocumentary! "Our bellies were full. We later found out that we had to pay a 200 dollar fine for killing a protected animal"

Did anyone else crack up when he said the dandelion tasted good however the team soon realised it was a laxative.

And it was ACTUALLY REAL. Unlike the horse shit we have today.

so nice to see chilled out folk and as others have said, no cynical stoking them into arguments by producers etc.

Narrator is my favorite. Could listen to his voice forever. So calming. What a real-I mean Real show. Wish there were more of these

A survival reality show without tantrums and childish drama, how refreshing.

The video had a beautifully eloquent conversational tone. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

That was good. They were much tougher back then. No crying like on today's reality shows.

The Australian accent was more 'laid back' in those days. People talked clearly, slower, every word was important to convey meaning and they listened to what was being said. You could still hear an echo of its East Anglia origins in the speech.

I am going to share a story with you. Whether it is true or not, YOU must decide. I think THIS video is a great example. People, in general, just want to get along. WE need food and water, shelter from the elements, clothing, air, and some company. If we have all of those. We can thrive. When television was invented, like everyone else who makes things, the TV makers wanted everyone to own a TV. The problem was, these manufacturers were wanting to sell these TVs to a large population who still made a living farming. ( 1925). What farmer is going to let their kids sit around and watch TV when work is to be done? They needed a reason to entice these people into buying one. They started making shows that were all about learning good lessons. They always showed the stereotypical family with a picket fence etc. The shows were all about morality and learning new, wholesome things. Farmers began letting their kids watch tv after the chores were done etc. Since the TV was always spouting some terrific new idea or positive sounding thing, everyone bought into it and after years and years, a TV was in every home. After that, they concentrated on getting a TV into the bedroom. They started making Racier shows for the adults to watch after the kids went to bed ( at like 7 pm lol) ( we laugh at how innocent some of these are now by today's standards). After they had 2 or 3 tvs in every house. Then the programming began to get darker and darker, they realized the money they could make advertising. So many studies have been done on how much TV influences society. I would bet a million dollars ( if I had a spare milli lol) that if, over time, all of the media makers slowly started changing all of the movies back to things that are all positive and if they showed characters on TV and in movies with good , moral character , that our country would begin to move to an area where morality would improve and crime would decrease. It took 30-50 years to change it to what it is now. WE could change it to something else in another 30 just by changing the programming ( they call it programming? I wonder why ?). Peace

I love that when they were hungry and pissed off they didn’t get mad at each other like many shows depict, they got mad at everyone else that had it better than them (camera crew).

"The water tasted better unboiled anyways, disease or no disease."

There's a world of difference between being stuck there indefinitely and knowing it's just for two weeks. Some of them had the attitude of letting Mike do everything because they knew it would soon be over anyway. If there was no end in sight, then you might have seen some of the others take more initiative.

27:50 THAT is the statement of a true leader. 'We can ALL do better'

The 110 dislikes were just bear grylls and his immense crew and safety team

'i'm not interested in Australia fauna mate, i just want to live and eat " nothing has changed

I actually saw this series all those years ago. Remember when people turning up in these programs behaved like rational grownups? Seems an age ago don't it?

This when tv was about real people and real experiences No producer thinking how we create the drama

Catches 1 small rabbit in 6 days and he becomes king

This is a wake up call! When food scarcity really starts to hit today’s society then we will see a very different set of behaviours than the ones shown on this great programme. God help us all!

"Sat in silent disapproval as we consumed his relatives". That line made me laugh

This whole show is beautiful, a moment in history that can never come again.

Notice how humble people were back then not loud and aggressive like people today.

I remembered this from when i was a very young child it was so cool to be able to watch it now as an adult.

"but sadly...no ducks came" I laughed at this. How sad they looked waiting for those ducks.

It's amazing how Aussies in the 70's spoke far better English that the majority of English people in the 2010's/2020's

This 30 min has more content than a week of todays tv program

"In fact come to think of it I'm sick of talking to the camera as well." You can tell this was way before the internet lol.

Old television programming and film is awesome. As I’ve gotten older I’ve grown to really appreciate old entertainment, a lot of it has a certain wholesomeness to it.

And they all still got along afterwards is really impressive. Bravo!

Can you imagine this being filmed now, the first two minutes of this show told you ever you needed to know, but today, that two minutes would dragged out into 5 shows with mid season break 😂

A group of properly educated, thoughtful people taking part in an honest experiment. This is the kind of telly I miss these days. Nothing done for the sake of generating controversy, or ratings. Thanks for the upload. 👍

the image of them crouching under the tree in the rain, staring hopefully at their "duck trap" was hilarious

A great time capsule and stark reminder of how we have distanced our selves from nature and the reality of survival.

They didn't know it was protected .-. omg Judith did well. Being the oldest there, cleaning and tidying the camp while bringing firewood. She pulled her weight.

Judith in full kill mode @9:57 has my dying

Wow. A real reality show! Thanks for posting

How refreshing! They are dressed and acting" normal" 😍

What, no overly-attenuated, tanned, sculpted, muscle-bound, body-shaved blokes and gals all sapped out after a day of Gatorade and protein powder?

Just shows how hopelessly dependent we all are on infrastructure technology & modern day creature comforts. God forbid we loose it all, lest the weakest of us be damned to fall to the wayside.

This is the long lost Glory of Old Television.

That’s one of the best doc’s I’ve seen for ages. Love the ending. Just pigging’ out 👍👍👍🇬🇧

You'd only get plastic, vacuous non-entities on such a show these days. How refreshing to see average people and a simple show.

Everyone had the right to feel however they wanted about anything at any time and not one, not one of them GOt oFfeNdED

Absolutely brilliant. Chopping a tree down to get at a goanna 😂 And also how they are all so very honest, polite and dont take things personally

I have a feeling that they all thought of themselves as failures. On the contrary, I think they're inspirational

This is totally a treasure of a video. retro reality tv. makes me realize how much life was cooler before the cellphones and internet

"Who sat in silent disapproval as we consumed his relatives", poor baby rabbit!

"no ducks came" a metaphor for life

there so kind and polite to each other they are honest on how they feel and don't take it personally, they learn from each other because of that and work together to get things done so simple yet so hard in the modern society that people live in today I'm really happy my mom and dad taught me manners

The moment he mentioned dandelion, I knew what they were in for! My grandmother used to make dandelion tea to - as she used to put it - give herself a good clean-out!

Imagine how amazing that burger tasted for them. Also, GO MIKE!

Very refreshing to see mentally matured adults teaming up for survival.

"No ducks came" summed this up well.

"Surviving in the wild" in Britain is living in the grassy area between the fish and chip shop and the local pub. REALLY HARD. One guy broke a nail.

Crazy the differences between these people and today's survival reality shows. These people get along so much better. Less self centered and entitled. Confident, mentally stable. Just seem like better people.

"we boiled the water but it was a hassle so we just drank it" badassery.