Favorite Live TV Bloopers?

[ercjncpr]

I bought one of the Kermit Schaefer blooper albums back in the early 70s...Drove my parents nuts playing the thing! The commercial for the album always mentioned the Uncle Don "little bastards" incident (bleeped out, of course), but it was nowhere to be found on the album. Needless to say, I was disappointed. As time went on, I gravitated to the opinion that a lot of the bloopers on the album were recreations. My album included the Lowell Thomas Dolly Dimples "near-fartal heart attack", which I do think was the real deal.

To the person who said the Ed Sullivan World War Eye-Eye incident may have been apocryphal, that's what they thought about the Newlywed Game "Strangest Place You've Made Whoopee", too.

Most of Don Schafer's material was fake recreations and the Uncle Don incident was a made up story by a newspaper reporter. The recording of it on Schafer's album was faked.

 

[WMC2006]

And a little Match Game pantyraid from 1973:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dmJ00pV28Zw

 

[Stanislav]

There's the classic Charles Rocket incident on SNL with Charlene Tilton as guest host. They had been spoofing "Dallas" and the "Who Shot JR" mania where Rocket got "shot". With about a minute to fill Rocket says "I've never been shot before and I'd like to know who the f***k did it!". It went live in the east, understand it was bleeped in the west. Never heard much more about Charles Rocket after that!

That's only the best known SNL incident involving the "F" word. Prior to that, Paul Schaffer was in a sketch playing a British musician, and they were making frequent use of the euphemism "floggin'" in place of the more earthy (and banned) adjective. He claims that on one of the "floggins," he slipped and said the actual word, only with his heavy faux-British accent, it sort of slipped under the radar.

There was also an "Update" segment years later when the anchor (I forget who it was...may have been Dennis Miller) was startled by something, perhaps a noise on the set, and muttered "what the f--k was that?" under his breath. It was barely audible, but unmistakable.

 

[Stanislav]

That WHDH "frozen news" is so funny, especially when you realize that in the early to mid 50s, there was NO technology to switch to. Newscasters just ready a script into camera and mike for 15 minutes...and there was no big crisis or trauma over that. Now with high-tech runnig everything, stations are impotent if things go wrong. Pretty sad.

OTOH, the increasingly complex and interconnected technology just provides more potential "failure points" where things can go awry. It's pretty hard to screw up when it's just one guy in front of a static camera, reading printed copy. When you have multiple anchors and reporters, prompters, taped inserts, live remotes and satellite feeds, graphics and music and fancy transitions, any one glitch can start a cascade of trouble. Sort of like how your bank used to hardly ever screw up when they just stamped your deposit in your little book -- now with everything computerized, it's just more likely that something will go wrong (and that it will be very frustrating and time-consuming to get it fixed).

 

[WMC2006]

That was Norm MacDonald with the anchor desk F-paux ;D

He was also not very much a favorite of then NBC-president (forget his name off the top of my head) because Norm always made so many OJ Simpson jokes and whatshisname and OJ were good friends. Norm wasnt around much longer.

And, by the way, I saw that Norm/F-paux episode live. It was somewhere higher than a whisper but not at his regular voice level but certainly audible. Pretty funny and kind of shocking but he was back the following week to make fun of it.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

That was Norm MacDonald with the anchor desk F-paux ;D

He was also not very much a favorite of then NBC-president (forget his name off the top of my head) because Norm always made so many OJ Simpson jokes and whatshisname and OJ were good friends. Norm wasnt around much longer.

And, by the way, I saw that Norm/F-paux episode live. It was somewhere higher than a whisper but not at his regular voice level but certainly audible. Pretty funny and kind of shocking but he was back the following week to make fun of it.

I watched this live as well. I think a bug flew into his mouth when he was reading the script, which lead to the the expletive. He had this weird choked look then said "what the f*** was that?"

And its former NBC West Coast president Eric Overmeyer you're thinking of.

Here's one from 1977 of Bob Schieffer anchoring the CBS Evening News weekend during a technical meltdown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llhPSwG4xmY
Everything goes wrong from the booth annoucer's mic not up or set wrong to the floor director screaming "start with section two! start with section two!" to the chromakeyer not function properly.

 

[Ultimajock]

One thing that makes a lot of these so-called
"bloopers" suspect, especially if they happened
before tape was invented, is people like Kermit
Schaefer, who made a career out of his bloopers
books and records in the '70s. He's the one who
claimed to have a recording of WOR Radio's Uncle
Don saying, "That ought to hold the little --------
for another night," thinking he was off the air.
The fact is, it never happened; Schaefer or some
actor did the thing on the record, based on an
"urban legend." If Don Carney had actually said
it, his career would have been over right then and
there, but he stayed on WOR for many years afterward.

...unfortunately, the Uncle Don "little b------s" legend was strong enough in '73 for Jean Shepherd to have used it in one of his own WOR shows, and apparentluy nobody at RKO General bothered to correct Shep...

 

[bpatrick]

In '73 it was certainly possible that there were
still employees at WOR who'd been there in
Uncle Don's day, so I'm surprised no one caught
Jean Shepherd. But that legend has grown and
grown over the decades to the point that some
people probably still believe it happened.
From what I understand, a publicity-seeking
announcer in Baltimore, who'd never even heard
Uncle Don's show, started the story. And again,
I have to take the position that if Uncle Don
did indeed say it, he'd have been out on the
street the next day; instead, he stayed at WOR
until he retired in 1949. Also, no one has ever
verified the story.

 

[WMC2006]

Close, Tim....got it, it was Don Ohlmeyer,and, for what it's worth, here are some comments from Wikipedia:

On Saturday Night Live Macdonald most notably anchored the segment Weekend Update. Chevy Chase, the first anchor of WU, has opined that Macdonald is the only anchor since Chevy's tenure to have "done it right." .[1] Macdonald used a deadpan style during the segment, which included repeated references to prison rape, 'crack whores' and the Germans with their love of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff. He also commonly and inexplicably used Frank Stallone as a non sequitur punchline. Macdonald would repeatedly noodle public figures such as Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson. Throughout the Simpson trial, Macdonald would constantly pillory the former football star, saying Simpson was guilty of the brutal slaying of his wife Nicole. In the broadcast following Simpson's acquittal, Macdonald opened Weekend Update by saying: "Well, it's official: murder is legal in the state of California." He also continued to denounce Simpson after the trial.

Another uncomfortable moment occurred during the April 12, 1997 show when, during a Weekend Update story about Tabitha Soren, he caught a frog in his throat in the middle of a sentence and, live on the air, muttered, "What the **** was that?" The audience applauded, and Macdonald laughed the error away. At one point, he called it his "farewell performance" and, in closing, said, "Maybe I'll see you next week." NBC only received three complaints about the gaffe, and Macdonald was not punished.

Macdonald's time with Saturday Night Live effectively ended in late 1997 when he was fired from the Weekend Update segment upon the insistence of NBC West Coast Executive Don Ohlmeyer, who pressured the producers to remove him, explaining that Macdonald was "not funny." Some believe that Don Ohlmeyer's friendship with O.J. Simpson — a celebrity whom Macdonald often antagonized on the show — may have fueled Ohlmeyer's decision.[1] Ohlmeyer denied the rumor, arguing that other NBC late-night comedians (e.g., Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and other SNL players) also constantly lampooned Simpson with little to no sanction, and that his decision was based solely on audience reaction through tapes he had personally reviewed. Despite the incident, Macdonald left the show the following year under decent terms with Ohlmeyer, who originally pushed for producer Lorne Michaels to give Macdonald a shot at the Weekend Update desk in 1994. On February 28, 1998, his last appearance on SNL occurred as host of a fictitious TV show called Who's More Grizzled?, who asked questions of "mountain men" played by that night's host Garth Brooks and special guest Robert Duvall. In the sketch, Brooks' character said to Macdonald's character, "I don't much care for you," to which Macdonald replied, "A lot of people don't."
====================================

And now back to me again. I also saw the first Weekend Update with Norm's successor, Colin Quinn, and this is what Wikipedia has to say about that:

After Macdonald left SNL, his successor, Colin Quinn, gave a short prologue in his first day anchoring Weekend Update, during which Quinn mentioned that Macdonald had shown him "the ropes" of the segment. Quinn then asked the audience if they ever went to their favorite pub seeking their favorite bartender -- and found him to be replaced by a less qualified man named "Steve". After a brief pause, Quinn deadpanned, "Well I'm Steve." Castmember Will Ferrell then appeared as Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray, who repeatedly referred to Quinn as "Norm", adding, "Norm, have you gained some weight?"

 

[Stanislav]

FYI, the Snopes "urban legend" site (a GREAT site to browse, BTW) has an extensive debunking of the "Uncle Don" myth:

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/radio/uncledon.asp

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Close, Tim....got it, it was Don Ohlmeyer,and, for what it's worth, here are some comments from Wikipedia:

Arrgh! Thanks for the correction. I thought it was odd that "Eric Overmeyer" was suddenly a producer for "Law & Order" after being president of NBC West Coast. I gotta start doing research again when I want to respond.

 

[LABreeze]

There's also another SNL moment from the 1980-81 season (when the show producer role was taken over by by Lorne Michael's weak successor Jean Doumainian (sp?) and man was her stint as a producer went bitterly south after that). There was an episode when Charlene Tilton (Lucy from Dallas) hosted the show. If anyone can remember at the close of the show when they were saying their goodbyes, series regular, the late Charles Rocket uttered these words that shocked viewers (depending on who was really watching at the time): "Charlene, can you please tell us who the f*** shot JR?" I read somewhere that when Fred Silverman then head of programing at NBC, had wind of this while watching at home and asked, "Did he just say what I think he said on live TV?"

 

[Stanislav]

There's also another SNL moment from the 1980-81 season (when the show producer role was taken over by by Lorne Michael's weak successor Jean Doumainian (sp?) and man was her stint as a producer went bitterly south after that).

It wasn't terribly far "north" to begin with. With her inept leadership and an entirely new cast (none of whom, except Gilbert Gottfried, ever went on to do anything of value) I think that season set the record for the most profound nosedive in quality of a show from one year to the next.

There was an episode when Charlene Tilton (Lucy from Dallas) hosted the show. If anyone can remember at the close of the show when they were saying their goodbyes, series regular, the late Charles Rocket uttered these words that shocked viewers (depending on who was really watching at the time): "Charlene, can you please tell us who the f*** shot JR?" I read somewhere that when Fred Silverman then head of programing at NBC, had wind of this while watching at home and asked, "Did he just say what I think he said on live TV?"

This was mentioned earlier -- his actual quote was "I'd like to know who the f--k did it." It only went live to the Eastern and Central time zones, of course. It was (obviously) edited out for the West Coast and repeats. You know, this might turn up on YouTube someday -- after all, it was 1980, and that's 5 years into the VCR era. Someone, somewhere taped it live that night and has a Beta or VHS tape sitting in a box in a closet somewhere. I'd like to see it less for Rocket's f-bomb and more for the reactions of the rest of the folks on stage. I understand Charlene Tilton did a major shocked, covering her mouth "take" while the regular cast kind of half-smiled and looked at each other nervously (probably thinking, "oh, well....guess I'll be looking for a job tomorrow.....")

 

[LABreeze]

The sad truth about the fall 1980 season under Doumanian's supervision, is that the whole concept of the truancy of SNL was all worng. The theme music was changed up but the closer theme remained the same. It's no wonder the 1980 mini-season of SNL took a big nosedive in viewership and that the sketches in the show we're not all that funny. Unfortunately another program that was ABC's answer to the show was Fridays. From there it did a lot better than the three and a half month wonder Jean went and sabotaged.

And thanks for the actual quote that late Charles Rocket said about who shot JR. After that series he was out of the job as a series regular.

I wonder what other slip-ups live TV can do nowadays?

 

[Stanislav]

And thanks for the actual quote that late Charles Rocket said about who shot JR. After that series he was out of the job as a series regular.

No big loss, to be sure. My cat is funnier than he ever was.

I wonder what other slip-ups live TV can do nowadays?

If it's live, it's ripe for a blooper. Although, nowadays nothing is really "live" because the FCC is cracking down on even unplanned, spontaneous profanity. If you're doing a live shot somewhere and a passerby looks at the camera and shouts an obscenity, that could be 5 or 6-digit dollar fine, even though there is no way to control that sort of thing. So everyone is on delay now. What's funny is when all three major news channels (CNN, MSNBC, Fox) are covering an event like a press conference, and if you flip back and forth, they are all out of sync with each other on this supposedly "live" remote, cos they are all using different delays.

I don't care about profanity (to me, there are no inherently "dirty" words -- just words that have been randomly designated as dirty by people who can't deal with reality). What is far more offensive to me is the mangling of the English language that takes place by supposedly educated news anchors and reporters. You can't watch more than an hour of CNN or its ilk without hearing at least a couple of words (that any 8th grader should know) horribly mispronounced. And when they don't do that, they just make up words. When the hell did "effort" become a verb? ("We are efforting to get him on the phone...") What -- "making an effort" is too wordy now? And when did "white supremacist" become "white supremist?" Three syllables too many to deal with, so we'll just arbitrarily drop one?

(You have to forgive me.....I'm about to turn 50 and am plunging headlong into the "cranky old guy" phase of my life....) ;D

 

[WMC2006]

Wow....you are almost a half-century old ;D

We will effort to buy you a birthday cake.

 

[Stanislav]

Wow....you are almost a half-century old ;D

Yup...when I was born, probably 95%+ of TVs were black-and-white (and they were about as big as a small piano), videotape had only been used commercially for a couple of years, UHF was still a mystery to many folks (you either used channel strips, a converter, or if you were lucky a built-in continuous tuner that was almost impossible to "lock" on to a station), no satellite feeds, coaxial cable only covering from the biggest markets down to mid-size (dozens of stations still relying on delayed kinescopes/tapes or off-air pickups for their network service), tons of small markets where you could still only pick up one station (if that), etc., etc. Now look how far TV has come -- see how beneficial my presence on earth has been the last 50 years!! ;D