PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Allen Funt's comical handiwork always popped up where it was least expected: in a talking mailbox, a trick coffee cup or a bowling ball that would roll back without finger holes.
Only after viewers enjoyed a hearty laugh would Funt's popular catch phrase release his unwitting foil from befuddled wonder. "Smile!" they'd be told. "You're on 'Candid Camera!' "Funt died Sunday at his Pebble Beach home of complications from the 1993 stroke that forced him into retirement, the show reported in a statement. He was 84.
"Candid Camera," which Funt created, produced and directed, aired off and on from 1948 to 1990 and was considered a forerunner to other reality-based television shows.
"People toss around the word pioneer all the time, but Allen Funt was really one of those rare people," said Michael Naidus, a spokesman for CBS-TV. "He created what has become an entire programming genre."
The network continues to air "Candid Camera" on Fridays, with Funt's son Peter and Suzanne Somers as hosts.
In earlier years, Funt himself appeared in many "Candid Camera" gags, along with such regulars as Dorothy Collins in the 1960s and comedian and author Fannie Flagg ("Fried Green Tomatoes") in the 1970s. A young Woody Allen appeared in some early shows.
The TV program was born of Funt's "Candid Microphone," a radio show the New York native originated after his Army service in World War II.
"He endured many hospitalizations and treatments, yet did so with good spirit and a ferocious will to live," Peter Funt said in a statement Monday.
Funt is survived by his five children.