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Did they ever see Truman doing anything private when filming him for 24 hours, 7 days a week, like going to the toilet or masturbating?

If they filmed him all the time, surely they'd need to censor some human acts or was it just shown to whoever watched the show at that particular time?

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    It would be bad if the presenters were all like "and now welcome back to the Truman show here's Truman........oh......quick place a advertisement for Pepsi cola on that point of the screen."
    – Jade Kibbutz
    Aug 17, 2019 at 20:50
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    Keep in mind that live shows aren't really live either - you have a delay of a few seconds (or minutes). There's plenty of time to cut away before the audience sees anything :)
    – Luaan
    Aug 18, 2019 at 11:08
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    @Luaan That's now, there used to be a time when they were as-good-as-live, but some incidents forced networks to insert a delay. Considering the age of the movie, this is pre-delay era.
    – Mast
    Aug 18, 2019 at 11:17
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    The 5 second delay existed when this movie was made. It's a relatively new movie. Digital delay has been used in radio since late 70s, tape delay since the 50s.
    – ArlettaS
    Aug 18, 2019 at 11:35

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I would assume they use the same technique they use when he and Meryl have sex, they cut away briefly.

Flat-top Guard: You never see anything, anyway. They always turn the camera, and play music, and... you know, the wind blows in and the curtains move, and you don't see anything.

Obviously the crew would have seen everything, because they'd need to know when to cut back.

In an earlier version of the script, Christof claims to have no cameras in the toilet.

MALE CALLER 2 (O.S.): Christof? Congratulations on the way you've always handled Truman's "sex" life - the classical music, soft lighting and so on. But has the recent violence caused a problem for the show's sponsors?

CHRISTOF: The sponsors know the risks going in, although we do try to maintain standards - a level of decorum. For instance, I've never put a camera in the toilet.

You might want to note that in the same version of the script, the staff are observing, recording and discussing Truman's masturbatory habits.

CHRISTOF (smiling to himself): God, that thing of his must be psychic. (matter-of-fact) He didn't masturbate?

CHLOE: Not for the last two months.

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I worked on Big Brother, the (real) show where folks are kept in a house and taped 24x7. They shoot EVERYTHING. In the first season in the U.S., they had cameras in the shower area but not in the toilet room. Then the cast started doing secret planning in there! Now, there's camera coverage of EVERY nook and cranny of the entire BB house.

I would assume that in the Truman universe, in order to give the best show, you need to capture his every thought, including any interesting moments that happen while he's on the loo...

But of course they wouldn't normally show this. Nobody wants to watch someone doing those bodily functions. ;-)

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    You might want to make your answer a bit more explicit on what your answer is here.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Aug 18, 2019 at 18:46
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    "Nobody wants to watch someone doing those bodily functions"? You would be surprised. And possibly creeped out.
    – Xavon_Wrentaile
    Aug 18, 2019 at 20:06
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    2 girls 1 cup? (Don't google that...)
    – Nelson
    Aug 19, 2019 at 2:29
  • Re: "Then the cast started doing secret planning in there!": But Truman wouldn't know to do that, and no one else on the show would need to be filmed in the toilet anyway (since that wouldn't be shown unless Truman were in there with them), so if anything, your experience on Big Brother suggests that the producers wouldn't have cameras in there.
    – ruakh
    Aug 19, 2019 at 2:48
  • @ruakh except as I said, "including any interesting moments that happen while he's on the loo." So maybe he's sitting there and talking to himself. They'd be shooting that, for sure. And if he said something that contributed to the storyline, of course it would end up on the show (presumably in a highly cropped/censored/network-friendly manner).
    – Eric
    Aug 19, 2019 at 6:15

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