Last night I was reading the book "What Were They Thinking" by David Hofstede. All about the 100 dumbest events in TV history. Of course Hofstede picked some "winners" such as the 1989 Snow White Oscars telecast, "Turn-ON", "Pink Lady & Jeff", the time William Shatner did Elton John's "Rocket Man" at the 1977 Science Fiction awards and of couse...that Star Wars Holiday Special with Bea Arthur. You have any examples on your own as to TV being at its worst?
My pick as to the single worst thing I ever saw on TV was a local cable show that aired on then Winchester TV Cable ( Winchester/Frederick County, Virginia ) way back in the fall of 1979. The show was called "Library Data Line" which aired live from our local Handley Library. The show for the most part was nothing more than to tell you what is going on at the local library such as what new books they now have, reading the names of those who had overdue books, exciting stuff like that ;D
But for that one show back in 1979, Library Data Line decided to put on a KISS concert or I should say a puppet show doing KISS..live from the children's room !!! For a full hour one saw puppets dressed like the members of KISS, doing all sorts of things to a KISS album being played in the background. If that wasn't bad enough seeing puppets "dancing" to tunes like "Beth", "I Was Made For Loving You", "Calling Dr. Love"..even "Hard Luck Woman"....the show featured two female library employees and even a few of the kids in the audience sitting on the floor...FLICKING CIGARETTE LIGHTERS ( I guess trying to act like this was a real KISS concert ) Oh the kids and library employees screamed such things like "...yeah man..THIS ROCKS !!'..and "sing it ACE !!!" Young children playing with cigarette lighters on LIVE TV !!
Oh yeah..forgot..this whole show was aired in wonderful black & white !!! Somewhere in my dad's collection of tapes I am pretty sure he still has this "thing" on tape ( he did as recent as 2004 ) thanks to the cable channel airing high school football right after Library Data Line.
My pick as to the single worst thing I ever saw on TV was a local cable show that aired on then Winchester TV Cable ( Winchester/Frederick County, Virginia ) way back in the fall of 1979. The show was called "Library Data Line" which aired live from our local Handley Library. The show for the most part was nothing more than to tell you what is going on at the local library such as what new books they now have, reading the names of those who had overdue books, exciting stuff like that ;D
But for that one show back in 1979, Library Data Line decided to put on a KISS concert or I should say a puppet show doing KISS..live from the children's room !!! For a full hour one saw puppets dressed like the members of KISS, doing all sorts of things to a KISS album being played in the background. If that wasn't bad enough seeing puppets "dancing" to tunes like "Beth", "I Was Made For Loving You", "Calling Dr. Love"..even "Hard Luck Woman"....the show featured two female library employees and even a few of the kids in the audience sitting on the floor...FLICKING CIGARETTE LIGHTERS ( I guess trying to act like this was a real KISS concert ) Oh the kids and library employees screamed such things like "...yeah man..THIS ROCKS !!'..and "sing it ACE !!!" Young children playing with cigarette lighters on LIVE TV !!
Oh yeah..forgot..this whole show was aired in wonderful black & white !!! Somewhere in my dad's collection of tapes I am pretty sure he still has this "thing" on tape ( he did as recent as 2004 ) thanks to the cable channel airing high school football right after Library Data Line.
