Actual TV Stations Depitcted in Movies or TV Shows

[KMRichards]

Nitpick

> Also WLS AM 89 was at the beginning of "Farris Bulers Day
> Off". with a audio clip of Fred Winstons' morning show
> playing on the alarm clock.

WLS AM 89 is not a television station.

This thread is about television stations in movies.

This isn't even the Coast to Coast (National Radio) board.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[KMRichards]

Nitpick 2

> > speaking of radio, in the 1969 movie "Midnight Cowboy", as
>
> > he was about to enter
> > New York City on the bus, Jon Voight was listening to Ron
> > Lundy on 77 WABC.
>
> ...similarly, WABC's Dan Ingram is heard over radios at a
> couple of points in RICH KIDS, and The Real Don Steele is
> heard giving one of his "Fractious Friday" sign-offs over
> KHJ Los Angeles in TARGETS...

This is NOT the National Radio board and the thread is not about radio stations in movies.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[KMRichards]

Nitpick 3

> Although you didn't ask and this probably isn't the right
> forum, I also have a couple of radio instances.

It isn't and if I find even one more radio station reference in here, this thread gets closed.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[zman]

Re: Nitpick

> > Also WLS AM 89 was at the beginning of "Farris Bulers Day
> > Off". with a audio clip of Fred Winstons' morning show
> > playing on the alarm clock.
>
> WLS AM 89 is not a television station.
>
> This thread is about television stations in movies.
>
> This isn't even the Coast to Coast (National Radio) board.



Excuse me for commiting some kind of federal offence. I could have sworn I had read tv and radio in the original post. Geez. just made a mistake no need to rip my head off. Who peed in your corn flakes.
>

 

[rwells2265]

> ...in Forrest Gump (1994), during the scene where Forrest's
> speech at the anti-Vietnam War protest in Washington was
> sabotaged by someone who cut the audio, you'll see trucks
> bearing the logos of then-CBS affiliate WMAR-TV Baltimore,
> and the then-WTOP-TV Washington (which, of course, is now
> WUSA).

And, during the football game scene, there's an old TV remote truck parked on the sideline with the '60s logo for KTVE channel 10 in El Dorado, Ark.

 

[Madmansam]

NIGHTMARE IN BLOOD (1976) used the CREATURE FEATURES set of KTVU-TV Channel 2. A KOFY-TV Channel 20 Reporter was used in the Wes Craven Movie, SCREAM (1996) and in the movie PACIFIC HEIGHTS with MICHAEL KEATON had someone watching KOFY-TV Channel 20 on their Television.

 

[gr8oldies]

Not a feature film, but a documentary about the tornadoes that struck on April 4, 1974 including in Xenia OH called "Day of the Killer Tornadoes" features the late WHIO-TV (7, Dayton) Weatherman Gil Whitney recreating his role in announcing "cameras to the studio" and his broadcast of the tornado warning of that day.

 

[Iowan]

There's this one TV movie about three or four children moving from foster home to foster home. I can't remember the title, but I do believe it featured Sarah Jessica Parker and Sally Struthers. There was a news van with the logo of KGAN, eastern Iowa's CBS station.

Also, there was Whiteboys, a 1999 movie featuring lot of cameo appearances by hip-hop musicians such Snoop Dogg and (I think) Fat Joe. There's this one scene where Flip (Danny Hoch) has a dream about what life would be like if he had made it as a rapper. This scene was filmed at the corn maze in Princeton, Iowa. Actors featured in this scene (as well the rest of the movie) were Dash Mihok, Piper Perabo, and Eugene Byrd. Among the media trying to interview Flip were then-WHBF-TV reporter Carolyn Wettstone. If you stop the movie at just the right moment, you could see the logo on her microphone. WQAD-TV was also listed in the "special thanks" column of the ending credits alongside aforementioned station....

 

[Bob1370]

"The ones that I can think of would be "Bruce Almighty" with Jim Carrey who was the "weekend anchor" at WKBW Channel 7 in Buffalo. They used the actual calls and "Circle 7" logo. "

The film not only borrowed the callsign, logo and location of WKBW-TV, but a lot of character and plot points from that station's history from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, all of which Carrey would have known and probably contributed to the development of the story and script. Jim Carrey's character is modeled on real-life former Channel 7 feature reporter Don Polec, who's been at ABC O&O WPVI in Philadelphia since the early 1980s (but would have been a part of Carrey's teenage memories since Channel 7 was arguably the most-watched station in Southern Ontario when he was growing up in the late 1970s). The central plot point of the Carrey character's frustrated desire to take over as chief anchor for a retiring icon was inspired by the real-life 1998 retirement of longtime Channel 7 anchor/news director Irv Weinstein, who'd been the legendary face and voice of that station's news for 40 years.

Got to know some of these people while working at channel 7's then-sister station WKBW-AM 1520 years ago...so the whole thing had a ring of familiarity, not to mention more than a few inside jokes veterans of the Buffalo radio/TV wars probably got.

Another sidebar...if you watch WKRP in Cincinnati, you'll see some jokes and plotlines, like the episode about the busted "guess the 10 song snippets" promotional contest, inspired by real life events at WKBW. Ex-KB overnight jock Casey Piotrowski was a writer on the show, and he borrowed from his years at KB. That contest fiasco actually happened at KB and was a favorite story among station old-timers long before it got into a sitcom script. And the winner of that busted contest? His name was borrowed from the real name of popular longtime Buffalo radio personality (former KB jock, now WBEN talk show host) Sandy Beach.

 

[mleach]

"The ones that I can think of would be "Bruce Almighty" with Jim Carrey who was the "weekend anchor" at WKBW Channel 7 in Buffalo. They used the actual calls and "Circle 7" logo. "

The film not only borrowed the callsign, logo and location of WKBW-TV, but a lot of character and plot points from that station's history from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, all of which Carrey would have known and probably contributed to the development of the story and script. Jim Carrey's character is modeled on real-life former Channel 7 feature reporter Don Polec, who's been at ABC O&O WPVI in Philadelphia since the early 1980s (but would have been a part of Carrey's teenage memories since Channel 7 was arguably the most-watched station in Southern Ontario when he was growing up in the late 1970s). The central plot point of the Carrey character's frustrated desire to take over as chief anchor for a retiring icon was inspired by the real-life 1998 retirement of longtime Channel 7 anchor/news director Irv Weinstein, who'd been the legendary face and voice of that station's news for 40 years.

Got to know some of these people while working at channel 7's then-sister station WKBW-AM 1520 years ago...so the whole thing had a ring of familiarity, not to mention more than a few inside jokes veterans of the Buffalo radio/TV wars probably got.

Another sidebar...if you watch WKRP in Cincinnati, you'll see some jokes and plotlines, like the episode about the busted "guess the 10 song snippets" promotional contest, inspired by real life events at WKBW. Ex-KB overnight jock Casey Piotrowski was a writer on the show, and he borrowed from his years at KB. That contest fiasco actually happened at KB and was a favorite story among station old-timers long before it got into a sitcom script. And the winner of that busted contest? His name was borrowed from the real name of popular longtime Buffalo radio personality (former KB jock, now WBEN talk show host) Sandy Beach.

About WKBW and Bruce Almighty....is there any truth to the story that at first WKBW said NO to the idea of being in that movie in the first place and it was Jim Carrey who stepped in and more/less said "either its WKBW or else?". Someone had mentioned this earlier on here and I remember reading about it on other sites too.

Back in the early 80's there was that Goldie Hawn/Burt Reynolds flick "Best Friends" that was filmed in Buffalo. From what I remember there was supposed to be a scene in that movie where Goldie's father was sitting back in his chair watching WKBW's Eyewitness News however WKBW I remember said NO to that as well ( and interesting so did WIVB for that matter, I dont know if the movie folks ever did ask WGRZ ) anyway the scene was done with Goldie's father sitting back in his chair reading the Buffalo News newspaper instead.

I assume all of this was an issue of money.

 

[Ultimajock]

...I just recalled the Sveriges Radio television service control room monitors (complete with test pattern card) in the 1967 Swedish movie I Am Curious (Yellow), which caused a huge censorship flap when it was brought to the United States in 1969...

 

[mleach]

...I just recalled the Sveriges Radio television service control room monitors (complete with test pattern card) in the 1967 Swedish movie I Am Curious (Yellow), which caused a huge censorship flap when it was brought to the United States in 1969...

Wasn't the BBC featured in some lesbian flick around the same time as "I Am Curious Yellow"? Or am I thinking about ITV? I think it was called "The Killing of George" or something like that. I know it was a British flick though.

Gotta do research LOL

 

[Ultimajock]

...I just recalled the Sveriges Radio television service control room monitors (complete with test pattern card) in the 1967 Swedish movie I Am Curious (Yellow), which caused a huge censorship flap when it was brought to the United States in 1969...

Wasn't the BBC featured in some lesbian flick around the same time as "I Am Curious Yellow"? Or am I thinking about ITV? I think it was called "The Killing of George" or something like that. I know it was a British flick though.

Gotta do research LOL

...The Killing of Sister George, http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0063185/. I don't recall, but I'm sure BBC television has been depicted in a big batch of British movies going back to the Qatermass items of the '50s. In fact, there was that "BBC 12" reference in 2001: A Space Odyssey; the channel was fictional but the company was real...

...on tonight's Law & Order: SVU, Robin Williams and Joe Scarborough are depicted as appearing on Scarborough's MSNBC show in the drama...

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Another sidebar...if you watch WKRP in Cincinnati, you'll see some jokes and plotlines, like the episode about the busted "guess the 10 song snippets" promotional contest, inspired by real life events at WKBW. Ex-KB overnight jock Casey Piotrowski was a writer on the show, and he borrowed from his years at KB. That contest fiasco actually happened at KB and was a favorite story among station old-timers long before it got into a sitcom script. And the winner of that busted contest? His name was borrowed from the real name of popular longtime Buffalo radio personality (former KB jock, now WBEN talk show host) Sandy Beach.
A longtime Cincy anchor, Al Schottelkotte, was mentioned in KRP's tornado episode.

 

[mleach]

Tonight at a party I was talking to a group of people who are employed at Lifetime TV. From what they were telling me there is a remake of that infamous horror flick "I Spit On Your Grave" that is being filmed right now even though they didn't tell me which studio was making this. Anyway the movie from what they were telling me should be released next year. The movie is set in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia ( Martinsburg ) circa 1995.

What is interesting about this is the choice of TV and radio station the movie folks are using in this movie. From what they told me its Martinsburg's WYVN-TV 60 and WKMZ-FM radio. Very interesting considering that WYVN went defunct in 1995 and WKMZ's calls were dumped in favor of WICL-FM in 2005.

My guess is that the movie people somehow got tapes from those stations back when they were around and plan on using them in the movie.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

From our "totally obscure TV shows" department...

There was a half-hour syndicated travelogue series back in
the 1960s titled America! hosted by Jack Douglas.

It aired on KOOL-TV Phoenix (and KOLD-TV Tucson), Sunday
nights at 9:30, following Sgt. Bilko reruns. At that time the
CBS prime ran live from 5-9 MT. Ed Sullivan at 6, What's
My Line? at 8:30, etc.

One installment of the show was about Phoenix and there was
some footage from inside KOOL-TV, which was plugged as
"Phoenix' leading TV station." (Guess that torched any chance
of later runs of the show on KTVK, KPHO-TV or KTAR-TV. ;D)

The KOOL-TV part included several self-serving sound bites of the
receptionist answering the phone: "Good morning, it's KOOL in
Phoenix...Mr. Chauncey? One moment please." And a bit later:
"Good morning, it's KOOL in Phoenix...Mr. Lane? One moment
please." :

 

[RadioDze]

In the 1997 thriller "Kiss the Girls," shot in 1996 around Durham, N.C., at least two real-life Raleigh area TV mic flags are seen in press shots, those for NBC affiliate WNCN-TV, channel 17, and then-Fox affiliate WLFL-TV, channel 22 (now a CW affiliate). There might have been more instances that I don't recall in this movie.

In the first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," the "Eyewitness News 3" set that the female love interest, a TV anchor, reported from was that of ABC affiliate WWAY-TV in Wilmington, N.C.

 

[Ultimajock]

...although these are networks rather than individual affiliate stations, there's an actual NBC-TV News station wagon seen during the street footage in Medium Cool, and there's a CBS-TV News truck present at the conclusion of the original version of Vanishing Point...

 

[easttxtv]

In one of the early eps of the former NBC soap Texas, a TV station is shown in exterior facade and interior lobby shots. I've heard that it was the actual Houston (where Texas was set) station KPRC/2, but I'm not certain. The reason for a TV station being shown or referenced was because one of the show's main characters owned/ran a TV station (dubbed 'KVIK' on the show). The sale of 'KVIK' and the firings of all it's employees was a plot point in the finale ep of Texas, supposedly as a bit of a comeback to the show having been cancelled itself.

 

[mleach]

In the 1997 thriller "Kiss the Girls," shot in 1996 around Durham, N.C., at least two real-life Raleigh area TV mic flags are seen in press shots, those for NBC affiliate WNCN-TV, channel 17, and then-Fox affiliate WLFL-TV, channel 22 (now a CW affiliate). There might have been more instances that I don't recall in this movie.

Almost 20 years before "Kiss the Girls", 1977 ( maybe 1978 ) WTVD channel 11 was featured for a few seconds ( a very brief shot of their truck ) in the movie "Death Of Ocean View Park" which was filmed in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. Actually WTVD wasn't the only real life TV station used in the movie as someone had pointed out awhile back not only was there that Norfolk city bus that was shown with a pic of the late Norfolk anchor Ed Hughes and "News 3 WTAR-TV" on the side of it but the scene where the people were trapped on the roller coaster, if one looks really close in the background one could see a station wagon with the words "Area 10 Eyewitness News..WAVY-TV 10". The latter is a surprise to me because I had though by the late 70's WAVY had stopped calling themselves "Area 10".

Then there was the scene after the first explosion when everybody is running out the park...A man is seen wearing a T-shirt promoting WYAH-TV 27 and another shot of a teenager wearing a shirt that said " 13 WGH....The Rock of Virginia".

The funny thing about all of those scenes...the movie was shot for ABC-TV yet WVEC ( the area's ABC affiliate ) was nowhere to be found in the entire movie and the sad thing is that when this movie was later seen on other channels like TBS and TNT, a LOT of those scenes involving local TV ( and WGH radio ) was cut out. I recently bought a copy of the original airing of Death of OVP on Ebay and it was sad to see how much of that movie was edited over the years.