RALEIGH -- You might have seen "Taxicab Confessions" on HBO, the show that features late-night New York party people and their tipsy jabbering caught on a driver's hidden camera.
Move that scene to downtown Raleigh, mount the camera on a pedicab and you've got an up-close view of the Oak City's nocturnal spectacle.
Starting this weekend, Raleigh Rickshaw will join with NBC-17 to capture the drama of nighttime rides, then post them weekly on the Web site Raleigh.mync.com.
Raleigh Rickshaw's fleet of bicycle-drawn carriages has grown to more than 20, and the passengers tooling around Fayetteville Street can get saucy enough for quality TV.
"This town is a lot different after 1:30," said owner Donald Mertrud. "I had a couple break up on my rickshaw. He jumped off the bike and said, 'That's it.' We've had people take 50th anniversary rides, those types of things. People kissing or maybe making out or something."
Unlike "Taxicab Confessions," Raleigh's video will be shot with the riders' full awareness and cooperation.
Only two pedicab will have cameras for now, and riders will have to sign a release before being recorded. If they don't want to be on camera, no sweat. Enjoy the ride unobserved.
But if you're on, say, a first date and want to review the post-game video, "You can check out the first date and see how you did."
The stunt feeds a culture that is increasingly on camera. In England, it's estimated that there's a video camera mounted somewhere for one in every 14 residents. A New York Post reporter took a walk through Times Square last year and was captured on 54 different cameras in eight blocks. Raleigh uses them to nab speeders at traffic signals.
But this is meant for pure fun, part of Raleigh Rickshaw's mission to show off the seldom-seen hilarity in a downtown with a sleepy history. Even in downtown Raleigh's post-convention center splendor, with sidewalk crowds outside The Raleigh Times or patrons standing elbow-to-elbow inside Landmark Tavern, there are still a lot of streets where you're looking at empty loading docks, parking garages or the historic marker that celebrates the N.C. Dental Society's formation in 1856.
Maryann Balbo, NBC-17's director of marketing, was skittish Friday about discussing the cameras' soft launch, insisting on speaking off the record, further insisting that all information come solely from the television station, then explaining that news is premature because the pedicabs aren't yet equipped with the proper signage.
But hopes were high for a Friday-night debut, beneath a full moon.
If you're a driver, you tend to get the same questions:
"You have great calves. Can I touch them?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
And you've likely served as designated driver as well as tour guide.
Seat belts at the ready
"If somebody is tipsy, there are seat belts in the back," said Nick Soloninka, manager and a driver himself. "There are people I've had to strap down and lay down in the bike. We've had people vomit off the sides."
Great TV.
But the footage won't be all PG-13. There's sure to be some wonderment.
Take Mayor Charles Meeker's impression of a ride around the Capitol.
"I don't recall the conversations as much as the sight-seeing," Meeker said. "But oh, yeah, the rickshaws are most enjoyable on a warm summer evening with the breeze going past."
To Five Points -- fast!
Or City Councilman Philip Isley: "They're great. I'll tell you what's crazy. I love talking to these rickshaw guys, and the last time we rode one, I asked, 'What's the farthest you've gone?' It was, like, Five Points. On a tricycle. With the girl passed out in back."
Mertrud plans quizzes aboard the pedicabs to get folks talking, starting with, "What shall we name this show?"
But mostly, this collaboration means a privileged glimpse into unseen Raleigh and all its drama under the moonlight -- tears, laughter and burps.
josh.shaffer@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818
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