Reality TV Updates

Armed & Famous in Muncie Indiana

About 10 percent or less of locals who agree to appear on Armed & Famous are compensated for it, producer Tom Forman said.

Forman also spoke out Thursday against recent allegations of misconduct among the production crew and Muncie police from a man who was arrested last week.
 
“We are following the letter of the law and then some in an effort to make sure people are being treated fairly,” Forman said.

Reports earlier this week in The Star Press that Tom Forman Productions paid criminal suspects to sign releases agreeing to have their faces broadcast were exaggerated, Forman said.

The article included a quote from CBS publicist Kelli Raftery saying that a nominal fee was “not typical, but it is certainly not unprecedented.”

At least 2,000 people have signed the releases, and the vast majority did so willingly, happily and for free, Forman said.

Forman said he assumed going into the project he would have to pay some people, noting it was standard procedure in television.

That people are handcuffed at the time and sometimes poor does not make the method unethical, Forman said.

“Do we run into people who could use the money?” he asked rhetorically. “Of course. But I don’t think it’s a horrible decision. It is what it is.”

Those who do not sign will be made so unidentifiable through pixelation, Forman said, that only the person himself will know who he is.

One Muncie man, a forgery suspect, told The Star Press through his attorney that producers refused to leave his property upon request and that a Muncie officer would not book him into the jail until he signed a release.

The accusations, Forman said, are totally false.

“I have proof of what goes on in all these situations,” Forman said. “I have it on video tape.”

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