![]() I don't call this a reality show because I don't think it is and I've done reality shows like 'Big Brother.' This is pure documentary it's live theater. JH: The show did so well last season when it's not an easy subject to watch so why do you think audiences responded so well?ĪS: First, they know it's real and a lot of people like to see behind-the-scenes looks of all kinds of things and most of them are reality shows. ![]() You would think from reality television that everybody wants to be on television but that's not the case when it comes to law enforcement. Not everyone welcomes television and that's a reality. Was it easy to gain access to the jail programs?ĪS: That's a good question because obviously it was easy with the places we wound up filming but we did approach some jails that just said they didn't want their programs filmed or they don't allow anything filmed in their programs or anywhere else. JH: With so many reality shows and documentaries on the air, we as viewers might take it for granted in terms of the access you're able to get. Some of the programs just aren't that interesting so we feel that we got the best of the prison programs with season one so we decided to focus on jails. Some States have them but they don't allow filming in their prisons for any reason. Most States actually don't have prison programs. JH: Why the shift in focus from prisons to jails? Did you feel you were getting something different in jails that you weren't getting in prisons?ĪS: First of all, there aren't as many prison programs as I wish there were. That's where you go when you're arrested and jail has some pretty scary people in it. Every person who winds up in State Prison has come through jail. ![]() I learned that jails are every bit as scary and frightening and dangerous as prisons are and I didn't realize that until doing this season but that's absolutely true. ![]() Jim Halterman: Going into the second season, there are some changes in the show, right?Īrnold Shapiro: What's different about season two is that we decided to focus our twelve episodes on jails instead of prisons, which we did in season one. With the second season of the series launching tonight, our Jim Halterman talked with Shapiro about why audiences respond to such dark subject matter, the changes in the new season and how he feels the television landscape changes over the years has been a good thing for documentaries. When A&E premiered "Beyond Scared Straight" last year, with Shapiro still at the helm as an Executive Producer, the first episode became A&E's most watched original series launch in its history with 3.7 million viewers. Interview: "Beyond Scared Straight" Executive Producer Arnold Shapiroīack in 1979, film producer/director Arnold Shapiro won a Best Documentary Academy Award for the film "Scared Straight," which looked at three juvenile delinquents and their time spent with actual convicts in the hope that their look inside prison life will deter them from spending their lives in a jail cell. ![]()
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