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It's The 25th Anniversary Of Geraldo's Epic Fail!

From what I know about this show, it aired on Chicago's WGN-TV and was reportedly a ratings hit in the Chicagoland area, according to WGN's 50th Anniversary Special which aired 14 years ago.

As for what other stations aired it, the only ones I could think of as of now are then-independent KSTW in Seattle and CBS affiliate KWTV in Oklahoma City. I don't know it the special aired in St. Louis or which station in the area aired it (probably St. Louis' two indies at the time, Channels 11 and 30, but I don't know for sure).
 
The Lexington Hotel was torn down sometime in the 90's after a good deal of work had been done on it.
The powers that be in Chicago didn't want any reminders of the bad old days.

Yes, the show was a big hit here in Chicago.
I watched the show, and would watch almost any show about ANY old basement in the city.

Love him or hate him, Big Al left a big mark here.
They didn't find NOTHING, they found empty one pint glass flasks!
I'd love to have one of them to put up on the windowsill.

I'd have a beer , but then I'd have to have another, and I leave for work in an hour.
 
there are ways to look at it. i remember that show.yes the vault was empty.at least the people doing the show did not put something in it to make it look good.it was honest.

you can call it a fail because nothing was found.nothing was found. it did show the hotel capone lived in and it had a lot of great history before they opened the vault.

some may consiter it a fail because of the empty vault.those that do ignore the great history that was presented.i consiter the show a sucess despite the vault being empty.
 
While Geraldo failed to find anything in the vault, it wasn't a fail because:

1. As the previous poster mentioned, it present valuable history about Al Capone.

2. It made Geraldo a bigger name for himself, as he launched a talk show (which, I think, came after the special) and did more prime-time specials, some of them on NBC, others syndicated like the Al Capone special.
 
azumanga said:
While Geraldo failed to find anything in the vault, it wasn't a fail because:

1. As the previous poster mentioned, it present valuable history about Al Capone.

2. It made Geraldo a bigger name for himself, as he launched a talk show (which, I think, came after the special) and did more prime-time specials, some of them on NBC, others syndicated like the Al Capone special.
Click to expand...

Now that's kind of ironic. In hindsight, I would submit that the Capone vaults program was a kind of double-edged sword for Rivera. He failed to find anything of importance in the vault, but it did mark the moment when he'd eventually become a household name in his own right.

When one looks at it, IMHO, it probably wasn't an epic fail after all, at least not the way some cynics think.
 
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