Practical Jokes Among TV Station Staff?

[Stanislav]

Those of you who have worked (or still do) at TV stations -- do you have any memories of creative practical jokes that were pulled on station personnel?

I know of one that may be apocryphal (it was told to me second-hand by a source who heard it from someone else years ago), and have no idea which station may have been involved, but it's funny enough that if it isn't true, it should be.

The gag was as follows.....they approached the greenest news intern at the station in a dither, telling her that there was a major breaking news story that had to get on the air immediately, and that all the usual anchors were not available -- she would have to go on the air with the bulletin. As they hustled her towards the studio, she asked what the major story was ("No time to explain...") and if she could see the news copy ("They're just finishing it now -- no time to put it on the prompter -- you'll just have to read it cold"). As she was led to the anchor desk, the cameras were manned, lights on, theme and graphics for the news bulletin were already starting to play (but, of course, it was not going out on the air at all). She sat in the chair and they thrust the written copy into her hands a few seconds before the red light came on.

Well, what they did was write a piece of copy that started out like a normal news bulletin....at least the first couple of sentences or so. Then, there were a few non-sequiters thrown in, then a few more, and by the 5th or 6th sentence, it had degenerated into pure gibberish. The idea was to see how far into the copy she could get before stumbling and whether she would quickly realize it was a prank, or start to panic thinking that her career was on the line if she didn't read it correctly. Needless to say, there was much fluster and bluster on her part, the gag was revealed, and a merry time was had by all (and later relived many times on the in-house blooper reel).

As I said, I don't know if this actually happened or not, but if it did, it's pretty funny. Anyone know of any similarly outrageous gags pulled in the studio?

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

I very *very* vaguely remember this happening as a young child...and how/why this went out over the air I'll never know:



Former WTVW-Evansville anchor Ann Moore (married to current anchor Randy Moore, who at the time was the station's sports director) was at the desk to read a newsbrief (as I recall) when a huge, fake, spider-on-a-string dropped down over her left shoulder. When she saw it, either out of the corner of her eye or on the studio monitor, she screamed and fell out of her chair.

At the point the station abruptly cut to black and I imagine went to a commercial.

 

[Ultimajock]

...of course, there does exist on YouTube the uncensored tape of when a KABC-TV/7 Los Angeles crew pranked Soupy Sales with a nude stripper at the back of his set. The stripper's image never got out on the air, but the studio monitors were rerouted to show it, leading Sales to think that it *had* made it to air...

 

[Stanislav]

...of course, there does exist on YouTube the uncensored tape of when a KABC-TV/7 Los Angeles crew pranked Soupy Sales with a nude stripper at the back of his set. The stripper's image never got out on the air, but the studio monitors were rerouted to show it, leading Sales to think that it *had* made it to air...

I love that bit.....poor Soupy. I love the way when he gets back in front of the main camera, there's just this torrent of very nervous laughter, but the look on his face is saying, "OK....guess my career's over..."

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I remember hearing about one from back when local stations did live commercials during the news. It involved an ad for a car dealer in which the guy doing the commercial was supposed to get inside a pickup truck and demonstrate that, because you couldn't hear him talking, the cab of the truck was super quiet. Of course, someone removed the door handles from inside the truck, so he was kind of stuck there for a while.

 

[firepoint525]

Those of you who have worked (or still do) at TV stations -- do you have any memories of creative practical jokes that were pulled on station personnel?

I know of one that may be apocryphal (it was told to me second-hand by a source who heard it from someone else years ago), and have no idea which station may have been involved, but it's funny enough that if it isn't true, it should be.

The gag was as follows.....they approached the greenest news intern at the station in a dither, telling her that there was a major breaking news story that had to get on the air immediately, and that all the usual anchors were not available -- she would have to go on the air with the bulletin. As they hustled her towards the studio, she asked what the major story was ("No time to explain...") and if she could see the news copy ("They're just finishing it now -- no time to put it on the prompter -- you'll just have to read it cold"). As she was led to the anchor desk, the cameras were manned, lights on, theme and graphics for the news bulletin were already starting to play (but, of course, it was not going out on the air at all). She sat in the chair and they thrust the written copy into her hands a few seconds before the red light came on.

Well, what they did was write a piece of copy that started out like a normal news bulletin....at least the first couple of sentences or so. Then, there were a few non-sequiters thrown in, then a few more, and by the 5th or 6th sentence, it had degenerated into pure gibberish. The idea was to see how far into the copy she could get before stumbling and whether she would quickly realize it was a prank, or start to panic thinking that her career was on the line if she didn't read it correctly. Needless to say, there was much fluster and bluster on her part, the gag was revealed, and a merry time was had by all (and later relived many times on the in-house blooper reel).

As I said, I don't know if this actually happened or not, but if it did, it's pretty funny. Anyone know of any similarly outrageous gags pulled in the studio?

TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes did something like that with an actress (don't remember who) reading copy (supposedly) either on radio or TV. The joke here was that it involved extremely hard to pronounce made up names of tinhorn third-world dictators, which most Americans had never heard of, much less knew how to pronounce. The stories were fictitious of course, but it still made for a great gag!

 

[nuzguy]

Regarding the first entry and the joke on the intern, much of what passes for news degenerates into worthlessr prattle right from the lead of a story. "The news" at some stations would look (and sound) better if the anchors wore funny hats, big noses, and glasses and pantomined the content of the newscast.

But then, some stations do excellent jobs with their news.

 

[Stanislav]

TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes did something like that with an actress (don't remember who) reading copy (supposedly) either on radio or TV. The joke here was that it involved extremely hard to pronounce made up names of tinhorn third-world dictators, which most Americans had never heard of, much less knew how to pronounce. The stories were fictitious of course, but it still made for a great gag!

Not a joke, and a bit OT (radio, not TV), but this reminds me of a real-life "blooper" I heard many years ago on NPR, on one of their flagship news shows (either "All Things Considered" or "Morning Edition"). A female newscaster, who had been doing the straight news summaries for quite some time, came across some unpronounceable name of some foreign figure. She stumbled over the name 2 or 3 times, then very clearly muttered "oh, s--t!" She instantly realized what she had just done, and was obviously rattled (you could hear the tremors in her voice) for the balance of the segment. And, as a faithful listener of the show, I can tell you she was never heard from again after that faux pas. I found that total banishment a bit surprising, as anyone can make a mistake, and she had been a fixture on the show for quite some time, so one would think she would at least be given the opportunity to apologize (I don't recall that anyone ever did on behalf of NPR -- at least I never heard any formal apology that day or in the days following.) Did anyone one else catch this when it happened and perhaps remembers the name of the newscaster?

 

[Stanislav]

Regarding the first entry and the joke on the intern, much of what passes for news degenerates into worthlessr prattle right from the lead of a story. "The news" at some stations would look (and sound) better if the anchors wore funny hats, big noses, and glasses and pantomined the content of the newscast.

But then, some stations do excellent jobs with their news.

Regarding the first entry and the joke on the intern, much of what passes for news degenerates into worthlessr prattle right from the lead of a story. "The news" at some stations would look (and sound) better if the anchors wore funny hats, big noses, and glasses and pantomined the content of the newscast.

But then, some stations do excellent jobs with their news.

Local news is entertainment these days, pure and simple. Sure, they do some good work, but at least here in Orlando, a lot of what passes for "news" on the locals is tabloid sensationalism.

Nationally, the news channels do a great job when they actually have a real story to tell or analyze. (CNN and MSNBC have both been doing a good job with the Presidential race, IMHO.) But they have a lot of hours to fill, and when nothing "big" is happening, they have to fill the time with something, and much of that can hardly be classified as "news." MSNBC likes fires, I've noticed -- even if some old abandoned tenement goes up in flames somewhere, with no major threat to life, they will grab onto the footage if it looks dramatic enough. And Fox News (a/k/a the GOP channel) never met a California car chase that they didn't like. :

What's interesting about the news channels (CNN and MSNBC particularly) is that the threshold of what gets on the air changes dramatically with their schedule. The wee hours of the morning is usually just a taped repeat of the previous evening's prime-time stuff, and on weekends they have a lot of pre-taped feature shows (MSNBC especially) during the day with just hourly or half-hourly updates. In these portions of the schedule, it seems like something really BIG has to happen for them to switch to live continuous coverage; really, it's like they go to the opposite extreme of weekdays and prime-time, and sometimes there is what I consider to be pretty significant news being covered by other sources, while CNN and MSNBC are just chugging along with their fluffy features. (God forbid MSNBC should break into the 17th repeat of "To Catch a Predator").

 

[TVWorldwide]

This practical joke is from a station in Darwin, Australia; the floor director is told seconds before the news that both anchors are in the restroom and that he has to take over:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfvO_rCOwD0

 

[rickradio]

I remember hearing about one from back when local stations did live commercials during the news. It involved an ad for a car dealer in which the guy doing the commercial was supposed to get inside a pickup truck and demonstrate that, because you couldn't hear him talking, the cab of the truck was super quiet. Of course, someone removed the door handles from inside the truck, so he was kind of stuck there for a while.

...and rolling the window down to open the door with the outside handle would've made the shiny, brand-new truck look like a hunk 'o' crap...so he understandably didn't want to do that on live TV...meaning he extoled the virtues of the quiet cab of this truck, got in, shut the door, continued talking...and then just sat there until the director cut back to the anchor, or another commercial...?

I'm sure everyone was rolling on the studio floor...everyone, that is, but the sponsor. Whoever's brain child that gag was, I'm sure the sponsor had his job by the end of the day.

Reminds me of a gag Bill O'Reilly tells about in one of his books. At his first TV job in Scranton, part of his job was as a gag writer for Uncle Ted's Ghoul School, a live nighttime horror movie show I think on weekends. At the start of every show, Uncle Ted would lie in a coffin with the camera pushing in, with Uncle Ted lifting the lid, sitting up, and talking to the viewer. One night in particular, O'Reilly decided to make things interesting. He somehow locked the lid. When Uncle Ted tried to push the lid up, he obviously couldn't. He started yelling, then screaming, all the while trying in vain to get the lid open, resulting in the coffin rocking back and forth on live TV.

 

[Ultimajock]

...okeh, friends, here's one from the early days of the career of Roger Grimsby. Before starting his decades of news anchoring in San Francisco and New York, he was a jack-of-all-trades at WEAU-TV/13 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Among his duties was to host a Saturday night movie program sponsored by the Leinenkugel brewery in nearby Chippewa Falls. At least once a program, he was duty bound to pour a bottle of Leinie's into a glass and sip it on the air during a commercial. One infamous night, Grimsby reached for the bottle, poured it, and out came the water and cigarette butts that the floor crew had been dousing all night ;-) ...

 

[LKellerIII]

"At least once a program, he was duty bound to pour a bottle of Leinie's into a glass and sip it on the air during a commercial. One infamous night, Grimsby reached for the bottle, poured it, and out came the water and cigarette butts that the floor crew had been dousing all night ;-) ..."

That story may belong in the "urban legend" category. I've heard that at least until recently, alcohol manufacturers were prohibited from showing anybody actually consuming their product on TV. I would think this would be true on local live TV in the 50s, as well. You always see people on commercials holding a beer and having fun with friends, watching sports with beer, or lifting their frosty mugs in a hearty salute, but you will never see them actually drinking the stuff.

It is (or was) one of those silly TV prohibitions (no pun intended), like the rule that prohibited bra and women's underwear manufacturers from showing their products on live models. Until a few years ago, they could only be shown on mannequins, or floating in the air. The idea being that showing the bra on actual woman models would be sexually enticing or somehow prurient.

...or showing people drinking beer would encourage people to drink.

 

[rickradio]

It is (or was) one of those silly TV prohibitions (no pun intended), like the rule that prohibited bra and women's underwear manufacturers from showing their products on live models. Until a few years ago, they could only be shown on mannequins, or floating in the air. The idea being that showing the bra on actual woman models would be sexually enticing or somehow prurient.

You're right..."was" is the correct verb here, Llew. I saw just the other night a Playtex (I think) commercial in which 4 or 5 women appeared on camera with nothing on above their waists but a brassiere, extoling the virtues of said bras. Nothing offensive about it. Especially given the string bikinis/thongs you see on any beach or at any swimming pool, you actually see less female flesh in this commercial because of the wider straps that go around the women's backs and over their shoulders.

...or showing people drinking beer would encourage people to drink.

As for the beer-drinking, showing people doing it would encourage people to drink? And advertising it wouldn't? What claptrap. I've seen zillions of beer commercials. Network TV on Saturday afternoons. The Budweiser Clydesdales are a Christmas tradition. But I don't drink beer beee cuuuuz I can't stand the stuff!

Does this rule apply to TV shows as well? Was George Wendt (et. al.) inhaling apple juice all those years on "Cheers?"

 

[LKellerIII]

"As for the beer-drinking, showing people doing it would encourage people to drink? And advertising it wouldn't? What claptrap. I've seen zillions of beer commercials. Network TV on Saturday afternoons. The Budweiser Clydesdales are a Christmas tradition. But I don't drink beer beee cuuuuz I can't stand the stuff! Does this rule apply to TV shows as well? Was George Wendt (et. al.) inhaling apple juice all those years on 'Cheers?'"

Good point, Rick...I'm sure George Wendt probably was drinking something other than beer - I know tea substitutes for scotch and whisky, though I'm not sure what they use for a beer substitute, given the need for foam. I guess the prohibition didn't apply to shows, only to commercials. And you're right - showing people having fun drinking beer probably encourages drinking more than showing people drinking it.

It's hypocritical and it's silly - kind of like the TV drug documentaries that are careful not to show people snorting or shooting...as if people won't be interested in trying drugs as long as they don't show you how to ingest it.

 

[Stanislav]

I believe some shows use non-alcoholic beer for shooting. Otherwise, any scenes involving wine, champagne, whiskey, etc., are usually substitutes -- you can't use the real thing when there may be several takes of each shot (no pun intended).

Reminds me (this should be cross-posted in the thread about practical jokes) of a gag they pulled on Ernie Kovacs back in the day. (The kinescope of the show survives.) One of his characters, Matzoh Happelwhite, was an inept magician and a lush. The running gag was that, every so often during the sketch, he would hit a gong on stage, and a sexy gal would come out with a bottle and shot glass for him to have a snort. Well, one day they put real booze in the bottle. The look on Ernie's face when he downed the first shot was priceless -- he knew he had to do it about half a dozen more times in the sketch, and the show was live. About the 3rd or 4th time, as he readied to take the shot, he kind of looked at the audience funny and resignedly shrugged his shoulders, creating a good laugh. (I'm not sure if they let the audience in on the gag beforehand, but they seemed to catch on.) By the end of the show, as the cast was on stage saying goodnight, Ernie was clearly flushed, sweating profusely, and slurring his words.

 

[Stanislav]

Reminds me (this should be cross-posted in the thread about practical jokes).....

Oh, wait.....this is the thread about practical jokes. My bad....had a brain freeze and got a little lost for a sec..... :

 

[rickradio]

I believe some shows use non-alcoholic beer for shooting. Otherwise, any scenes involving wine, champagne, whiskey, etc., are usually substitutes -- you can't use the real thing when there may be several takes of each shot (no pun intended).

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Imagine having to do 14 (or more) takes of a scene knocking back the real stuff. By the middle of the day (if that long), everybody'd be so smashed they couldn't talk, staggering all over the sound stage, unable to remember their own names, let alone lines. In concept, the scenario is funny as hell, but nothing would get done.

Then there's the issue of underage drinking. If a script calls for a 19-year-old actress to go to a frat party and get drunk, imagine also the liability involved for the production house, the producers, and who knows who else if she's throwing back real liquor.

 

[Ultimajock]

...well, there's also the fact that WEAU-TV/13 was the only station in Eau Claire for decades (the only other stations in Western and Central Wisconsin were WKBT/8 in La Crosse and WSAU-TV/7 in Wausau, both of which were pretty distant from Eau Claire considering the hilly terrain of that part of Wisconsin (WKBT and WSAU also signed on the air in the second half of '54, while WEAU had signed on in mid-December '53); and the beer culture in Western Wisconsin was so strong an element (IIRC La Crosse still holds the record for the most taverns per capita in a single American city of its size) that nobody probably gave much of a damn if it was near-beer or retail stock that Grimsby was pouring into that glass...the story was told to me by one of the station's original cameramen who had worked that show...

 

[firepoint525]

This whole discussion reminds me that I have always wondered why cigarette advertising is prohibited in electronic media (radio, TV), but is still allowed in print media (magazines, newspapers). Do they think potential smokers can't read?

Some of the other laws concerning smoking don't make sense either. Anytime you enter a public office building, you must go through what I call the "cavalcade of smokers" to get inside, because smokers are usually positioned on both sides of the front doors, but must not block the entrance. Do they really think I am NOT getting second-hand smoke when I must walk past them?

Sorry, I have sent this discussion even further off-topic, but at least I bumped it back to the top of the page! ;D