It took a little while for television to catch up with the counterculture movement of the mid-1960s. By the time youth across the country were fully enveloped in underground activities, rock music, war protests, drugs, and free love, TV was cautiously and ineptly incorporating that lifestyle into programming, often with unintentionally hilarious results. The new generation were usually portrayed as either buffoonish, unbathed, jobless hippie caricatures or misguided, angry, anti-establishment draft-dodging militants. When Granny Clampett impresses a group of peaceniks at a park by informing them that she is going to smoke a little pot, she, of course, is referring to boiling a pot of crawdads. When teenagers are shown indulging in marijuana (or worse, LSD), they wind up hallucinating and losing their minds, overdosing, or being apprehended and arrested by Sgt. Joe Friday, in what are supposed to be cautionary tales. In “The Mod Squad,” we were expected to accept that a carefully selected microcosm of rebellious teens (a wealthy white guy, a street-smart black guy, and a runaway flower child) would team up to fight crime. Desperate to capture the massive baby boomer audience without alienating conservative older viewers or corporate sponsors, networks consistently got it wrong by filtering a complex cultural shift through the lens of older, out-of-touch network executives and writers. Ironically, many of the content developers of these shows were themselves partaking in recreational drugs. It was like when your father caught you getting high, grounded you, lectured you, and outlawed you from hanging out with certain friends, and later you discovered that Dad was hiding a fat joint in his bedroom bureau drawer. You couldn’t help but wonder, was he stoned while he was lecturing you about getting stoned?
But there were shows that were not afraid to address things head on. Topical shows, in an attempt to target the younger demographic, often interjected drug-related humor and references to the counterculture lifestyle. In the regular sketch “Share a Little Tea With Goldie” on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” comedienne Leigh French (as the spaced-out hippie dippy Goldie O’Keefe) subtly and not so subtly lampooned the 1960s drug culture. In “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” Goldie Hawn, Judy Carne, Eileen Brennan, and Pamela Austin sang and danced in a routine called “Four Little Pills,” dressed as uppers, downers, and birth control pills.
(L to R): “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1969); “Dragnet” (1967); “The Mod Squad” (1968); “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” (1967); “Laugh-In” (1968)
Some shows did more than just sneak in references. Often, these were children’s shows, where vibrant colorful fantasy was acceptable and considered customary, and in which hidden references could be snuck in without most audiences noticing. A handful of these shows fully embraced what appears in hindsight to be drug-fueled, trippy, wild and whacky themes and plots, in an astonishing “how did they get away with that” fashion. To paraphrase Timothy Leary, instead of turning on, tuning in, and dropping out, these shows let us just turn on and tune in. Here is a partial list of those television shows from the 1960s to the 2000s, the majority of which are indeed children’s shows:
“Green Acres” (1965 – 1971), in which a “normal” farmer found himself surrounded by lunacy and idiocy in an absurdist version of humanity.
“The Monkees” (1966 – 1968), in which four young musicians, reminiscent of the Beatles, romp around in a pop-art, mod landscape of bent reality.
“The Prisoner” (1967 – 1968), in which a secret agent wakes up in dreamlike, Kafkaesque village setting, and finds himself in surreal storylines that serve as an allegory of counterculture anxieties.
“The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” (1968 – 1970), in which four outlandishly costumed animal characters played music and cavorted and acted and dressed like they had just dropped several hits of acid.
The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, in which children’s shows such as “H.R. Pufnstuf” (1969), “The Bugaloos” (1970), “Lidsville” (1971), and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters” (1973) resided. These psychedelic dream-fever WTFs consisted of bizarrely costumed characters, such as dragons, sea monsters, bugs, witches, and giant hats, living aside talking trees, talking flutes, talking houses, and talking furniture. Peter, Paul, and Mary first slyly slipped in a reference to “puffing” weed in 1963 with the song “Puff the Magic Dragon,” and here it was again: a dragon named “Pufnstuff” who was the mayor of Living Island.
“Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp” (1970 – 1971), in which talking chimpanzees who were dressed like secret agents sought to take down talking chimpanzees who were dressed like underworld spies and other assorted villains.
“The Great American Dream Machine” (1971 – 1972), in which skits and short films, emulating “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” skew popular culture while simultaneously being off-kilter, preposterous, and insane.
“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” (1976 – 1977), in which a non-plussed housewife succumbs to the effects of consumerism, in a parody of soap operas, while indecisively and numbly reacting to a family’s mass murder, a coach’s drowning in a bowl of chicken soup, an abusive husband being impaled on an artificial Christmas tree, and a waxy yellow buildup on her kitchen floor.
“Pee Wee’s Playhouse” (1986 – 1990), in which more ludicrous talking inanimate objects take center stage next to a man-child in a bow tie. See The World of Sid and Marty Krofft.
“Twin Peaks” (1990 – 1991), in which a haunting musical score plays under the stories of an odd logging town’s search for Laura Palmer’s killer, with large doses of cherry pie, great cups of coffee, log ladies, and dancing midgets.
“Teletubbies” (1997 – 2001), in which viewers left each episode feeling like they had just come down from a bad LSD trip. Tubby Custard or Tubby Toast, anyone?
We know that the mere invention of television is a historic milestone, but how has television itself helped change history? We are not referring to general historical events captured on TV. We have come to expect to be able to observe life over the tube. That said, there have been some significant events that altered history in the very nature of how television handled them, and we have included them below.
We also know that as TV has evolved over the years, it has in essence changed its own history as it has grown and learned lessons from defining moments such as the following:
Expect increased viewership for the final episode of a show – When the last episode of “The Fugitive” aired, audiences showed up in large numbers to see the one-armed man finally brought to justice, and networks sat up and took notice. Series finales have been ratings gold and chart busters ever since. Bette Midler made viewers tear up when she sang good-bye to Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” David Chase stirred controversy when “The Sopranos” faded to black leaving fans to conclude on their own what happened to Tony. Those who stuck around for “Lost” were left confused and disillusioned. The dream sequence twist of “Newhart” is lauded as one of the best endings ever written, and the last episode of “M*A*SH” is still one of the most watched episodes of all time.
End a season with a cliffhanger to guarantee returning audiences – Probably the big daddy of this phenomenon is “Dallas.” Designed to ensure a show would be renewed and the audience would tune in for the next season, broadcasters quickly discovered that cliffhangers are always a sure thing. This one worked like a charm, and millions of viewers waited all summer long wondering who shot J.R. Ewing.
Use real life experiences to connect with the audience – The 1970s ended the run of fantasy and rural escapist fare, and witches, genies, humorous monster families, nutty spies, island castaways, flying nuns, rich hillbillies, and talking horses left the airwaves to usher in shows that brought realism and the issues of the day into dramas and comedies. Bigotry, poverty, civil unrest, women’s rights, abortion, suicide, drugs, politics, inner city violence, divorce, marital affairs – viewers could relate more to these topics than any which were previously being aired, and shows like “All in the Family,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Hill Street Blues,” and “Family” took over the schedule.
Treat the protagonist as the anti-hero – Shows in which audiences were manipulated into rooting for the villain? Why not? In the 2000s, this became a common occurrence, and mob bosses (“The Sopranos”), meth cooks (“Breaking Bad”), dirty cops (“The Shield”), vampires (“The Vampire Diaries”), and serial killers (“Dexter”) carried their own shows.
But back to how television has changed history, the way we live and think. I believe there are four distinct examples and they are as follows:
When Television Changed How We Are Entertained
When television was in its infancy, most American families gathered around their radios for entertainment. In 1946, only .05% of American households owned a television set. It was Milton Berle who helped the medium’s popularity explode, after his show “Texaco Star Theatre” debuted on Tuesday nights in 1948. Berle’s variety show was such a massive cultural phenomenon that it directly drove television sales, as people bought TV sets just so not to miss his show. Known as “Mr. Tuesday Night,” it is well documented that when he was on the air, streets and public venues across the country were deserted and empty, and utility authorities reported that water reservoir levels dropped dramatically at the precise moment the show ended because viewers waited until then to use the bathroom. At its peak, the “Texaco Star Theatre” show captured up to 80% to 97% of the total television viewing audience, and within three years, TV set ownership went from 800,000 sets to over 12 million. Although radio programming was the primary creative catalyst that filled content for the schedules of early TV, radios were soon replaced in living rooms nationwide by the TV set as the main form of family entertainment.
When Television Changed How We Elect Our Leaders
Politicians had appeared on television before 1960, but it was the first debate on September 26 between Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) and Vice President Richard M. Nixon (R-CA) that changed history. Those who listened to the debates over the radio reportedly felt that Nixon was the clear winner, but viewers who watched the debates on their TV screens thought otherwise. On camera, Nixon appeared aged, nervous, and disheveled, his face unshaven, grim, and breaking out in perspiration. Kennedy, on the other hand, appeared young, confident, and assertive, his face tanned, handsome, and charismatic. By the time the televised debates had ended, America was locked in on who to elect as their next president, and politicians ever since have relied heavily on television to win their campaigns. In 2024, history repeated itself, when President Joe Biden’s unsteady performance in a televised debate with Donald Trump shocked America and resulted in Biden stepping out of the race entirely.
When Television Changed How We Get Our News
News had always been an important part of television programming, but there had never been a newsworthy event that interrupted all scheduling, and in which networks aired non-stop coverage, until the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Families were glued to their TV sets for almost a week in the first major communal experience of its kind, unified, absorbing the experience nationwide as one, experiencing the shock and grief together. During the first three days, as the story of the tragedy unfolded, Americans saw images of the president’s widow and children, watched a new president sworn into office, shed tears at his funeral, and witnessed his killer get gunned down on camera. For the first time in history, Americans were not being delivered news after the fact but were having it broadcast into their homes all at once as it unfolded. A precedent was set, and there would be many more future events broadcast live in the same way: the moon landing, coverage of the war in Vietnam, the Watergate hearings, the Munich summer Olympics hostage situation, Baby Jessica’s rescue from the well, the Challenger explosion, the bombings in Baghdad, OJ’s Bronco chase and eventual trial, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
When Television Changed Itself
For more than fifty years, television audiences were confined to scheduling and content delivery as defined by the three major broadcasting networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC. This meant sponsored programming, often driven by Nielson ratings and advertising dollars, restricted to a regular and predictable cadence: new shows were introduced in the Fall, poorly received shows were replaced in the Winter, reruns were shown in the Summer, and series were composed of 22 or more shows in each season. However, in the 1970s, cable television debuted and began experimenting with subscription television services, and by the beginning of the 21st century, Americans had a vast variety of programming service choices. Not only were there a large number of cable channels that appeared (such as HBO, Showtime, Select, On, and Cinemax), but there were numerous public and syndicated channels that sprung up as well, and new networks such as Fox, WB, and UPN entered the market to challenge the big three. With the introduction of technology like VCRs, DVRs, and Tivo, viewers no longer had to rely on the network’s’ schedules, as they could record shows and watch them at their own convenience. Television sets moved from their once prominent and singular location of the living room in the house, to multiple sets scattered throughout every room in the house. Instead of families traditionally gathered around the one television set in the home, everyone in the family could watch their own shows in their own rooms. Eventually, viewing TV shows could be done on tablets, personal computers, laptops, and mobile phones. The landscape of the medium has drastically changed, and today, as audiences stream and binge shows from hundreds and hundreds of sources, the quaint and archaic structure of broadcast television, although still struggling to hold on, is slowly going the way of land-line telephones, typewriters, and checks sent through the mail.
When TV critics compile their list of the best television shows of all time, the lists usually seem to include in the top ten the following shows: “Breaking Bad,” “The Wire,” “The Sopranos,” “I Love Lucy,” “Mad Men,” and “The Simpsons.” That got me to thinking about what I would consider if I were to make a list. Which of the hundreds of TV shows that have influenced my life, personality, and interest in the medium itself, would I cart in a suitcase (along with a DVD player) to my proverbial desert island, to watch again and again? Although I liked “The Sopranos,” I felt it was overrated and not worthy of repeat viewing, and “The Wire,” which was well executed and highly realistic, was slowly paced. There are too many episodes of “The Simpsons” for me to place it high on my list, even though it is deservedly a great show (the same with “South Park”). “Mad Men?” Meh. And “I Love Lucy” is a cultural milestone that would be too tiring to view any episode for the thousandth time. So, I made a list. Here, then, are my top 13 favorite TV shows – feel free to dissect, debate, and judge (or ignore):
1. Survivor (2000 – Present) – When I watched the first season during the summer of 2000, I was blown away by the premise, and even more astounded at how perfect this reality show was edited to present a storyline that seemed impossible not to be scripted. A snarky, but savvy, gay guy and an old crotchety, conservative and homophobic Navy SEAL forming an alliance and a friendship? Starving castaways roasting and eating rats? Contestants enduring hunger, thirst, and the elements, with no amenities, who wind up experiencing life altering changes? I am in! Over the years, countless survivors have become shining personalities: the aforementioned Richard and Rudy, Ozzie, Boston Rob, Sandra, Rupert, Coach, Tony, Russell, Tyson, Parvati, Cirie! The list is endless! Over forty plus seasons, host master general Jeff Probst has evolved the show to keep it fresh, and always asks the perfect spot-on questions to bring the most out of his cast. Let us hope the tribe continues to speak and Jeff continues to snuff out torches for a very long time.
2. All in the Family (1971 – 1979) – I was only eleven years old when I first started watching this show, the mainstay of probably the most perfect night of television during its second golden age: Saturday, with a line-up that also included “M*A*S*H,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” and “The Midnight Special,” and later on, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “Saturday Night Live.” This groundbreaking show from Norman Lear, with its working-class family and sepia toned set, changed television forever. The cast was phenomenal – Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton as Archie and Edith Bunker, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers as Mike and Gloria Stivic. Archie was a conservative bigot who tangled with his liberal son-in-law, Mike, and hot topics, never presented before on TV let alone in a situation comedy, were debated and argued over in multi-camera plays filmed before a live audience. Racial slurs flew out of Archie’s mouth (along with multiple malapropisms), shocking the nation. Subjects such as the Vietnam war, draft dodging, antisemitism, abortion, women’s liberation, homosexuality, rape, religion, death, swinging, protesting, menopause, and impotence, were dealt with humor, and helped bring Americans to a better understanding of society at large. Watching reruns today, it is startling how relevant and timely the material still is, and how well it holds up, so much so that Jimmy Kimmel and Norman Lear presented two “All in the Family” scripts acted by a new cast, including Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei as Archie and Edith, in 2021 and 2022, to great acclaim. I still have the giant Archie Bunker poster and “Archie for President” buttons I bought at a Yellow Front store in 1972.
3. Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969 – 1974) – Five Englishmen, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and an American animator, assembled this hodgepodge of outrageously absurd sketches, many with no endings, in a show that, when it finally made its way across the pond stateside, influenced me in my teenage years like no other comedy show. I became a rabid fan, digesting every episode, book, movie, record album, and related TV show, that I could, and memorizing pretty much all of the scripts. “Hails of derisive laughter, Bruce!” Who can ever forget the Argument Clinic, the Knights Who Say “Ni,” the Ministry of Silly Walks, Hell’s Grannies, Spam, the Lumberjack Song, and the dead parrot? And now for something not quite that different ….
4. Fawlty Towers (1975 – 1979) – From Monty Python came the immortal John Cleese, and from John Cleese came this amazing 12-episode masterpiece. Quite possibly the funniest show ever made. I still recall the first episode I saw (“The Builders”) and how I actually laughed hysterically with real (no joke) tears streaming down my face. Basil Fawlty, an irascible, crabby bastard who owned a small hotel in Torquay along with his ball-busting wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), worked alongside their sensible chamber maid Polly and hapless, English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel, while Basil insulted and assaulted nearly every guest who came through the door. Cleese’s physical comedy, as well as his muttered asides, were priceless. This is comedy at its finest.
5. The Honeymooners (1955 – 1956) – I have watched and rewatched the classic 39 episodes, along with the hundred or so “lost” episodes, and it never ceases to amaze me how impressive and utterly perfect this show is. The scripts with their immortal punchlines, the timing of the cast in the delivery of their dialogue, the sad and dingy apartment that Ralph and Alice Kramden call home, the stellar acting from Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, and Art Carney – all of this from a series created and broadcast during the infancy of television’s history.
6. Dark Shadows (1966 – 1971) – Yes, I was one of the baby-boomers who really did rush home after school each day to watch this gothic, horror-fringed soap opera, becoming a Barnabas Collins fan from the very beginning. However, it wasn’t until years later that I actually viewed all 1,225 episodes, and it was then that I developed a true appreciation of how classy and well-written this show was. It is of course well-known that the small budget and tight filming schedule resulted in lots of bloopers, flubbed lines, and cameras and staff ending up in frame (causing the show to be often referred to as “Mike Shadows”), but, frankly, it only lends to the shows overall charm. The supernatural denizens of the house of Collinwood and the town of Collinsport, Maine, included vampires, ghosts, a phoenix, werewolves, witches and warlocks, and involved time travel and parallel universes. The show started out simple and became quite complicated, but the cast was delightful, and the stories enriching.
7. Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul (2008 – 2013; 2015 – 2022) – Both of these shows charted a trajectory of a story arc that was made evident right at their outstart. “Breaking Bad” was going to be about a seemingly good man who becomes a bad man, first by what he perceives as necessity (he is dying and wants to provide for the family he is leaving behind by cooking meth) and later because he comes to realize that he enjoys the power. And since we already knew the “Better Call Saul” character’s outcome from “Breaking Bad,” that show was going to be a prequel about how Jimmy McGill, a guy with morals and a good heart, becomes a soulless lawyer named Saul Goodman. And both shows were extremely well written and meticulously plotted out in every little detail, with tons of humor interrupted by shocking violence. But “Better Call Saul” gets an edge on “Breaking Bad,” and I feel is actually the better of the two shows, as it serves not just as a prequel to “Breaking Bad,” but also as a sequel, as it ingeniously shows its audience what becomes of its characters after the concluding storyline of its predecessor.
8. The Walking Dead (2010 – 2022) – What can I say? Zombies had been around for quite some time before this show came along, but nothing prepared me for the exhilaration and apprehension I felt while watching the ever-changing group of survivors navigate a hellish landscape where no one was safe, and I mean no one. Viewers never knew when one of their favorite characters might meet their death, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. The ghoulish make-up and special effects, and the realistic storylines, were rewarding. Unfortunately, as the seasons dragged on, the show began to become tiresome and ridiculous, and as it veered further and further away from its comic book source material, it lost its luster, But, man, those first several seasons were appointment television, with the phones turned off and no one allowed to talk except during commercials.
9. Lost (2004 – 2010) – In the summer of 2004, I was vacationing at the beach, and saw a plane flying over the surf with a banner advertising “Lost.” Then billboards all over Southern California promoting the show. So, I tuned in. And what a thrilling ride this show was. I joined the worldwide web of fans analyzing every aspect of the show, its mythology, its mysteries, the easter eggs, the throwaway scenes, lines, and character names. For every six questions introduced, only one or two would wind up being answered, but I didn’t care. Polar bears! Black smoke! Flashbacks! Flashforwards! The cliffhangers (what is in the hatch?)! The characters (Jack and Kate! Sawyer! Hurley! Locke! Sayid! Jin and Sun! Charlie and Claire! Ben! Mr. Eko! Desmond and Penny!)! This was the most fun I have had with a show ever, and although the finale was disappointing (how could all of the mysteries ever be expected to be resolved?), I have rewatched the show and felt the same zeal all over again, as I would getting on a familiar roller coaster for another ride.
10. The Twilight Zone (1959 – 1964) – Rod Serling’s morality plays disguised in bizarre tales with twist endings were some of my first encounters with master storytelling, and I watched each episode as they unfolded in syndicated reruns with utter amazement. Some of the greatest writers and actors were involved in the making of this show, and it helped me seek out new authors, and further explore the world of science fiction literature. It also boasts one of the most excellent theme songs in all of television.
11. Seinfeld (1989 – 1998) – These awful, narcissistic, and selfish characters are also hilarious and entirely recognizable, both inside me and around me. I loved the scripts, and this is the type of series that I can rewatch at any time and laugh at jokes I have previously heard many times before. They are that good. Personally, I can’t get enough of how cringey George can be, and the catch phrases that came out of this show alone have made “Seinfeld” indelible, and, well, you know, yada yada yada.
12. Second City Television (1976 – 1979) – I am only referring to seasons 1 and 2 of the Canadian sketch comedy show, and not any other variations. This is the show that brought into my life Harold Ramis, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas and Catherine O’Hara. Later seasons (“Second City TV,” “SCTV Network 90,” and “SCTV Channel”) were weak and pretentious. But the original was a powerhouse of pure gold, and along with Monty Python and National Lampoon, set me up for the rest of my life on how I perceive comedy and what I think is funny. This is also my Holy Grail, as these two seasons have never been released on tape or DVD, and only exist as isolated sketches presented on the later shows or available on YouTube.
13. Reservation Dogs (2021 – 2023) – This streaming series, created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, is a wonder. It fully realizes the lives of four indigenous teenagers, and the citizens and elders who live alongside them, in the small reservation town of Okern, Oklahoma in the Muscogee Nation. The show is brilliantly plotted and paced, and tells the story of how Elora, Bear, Cheese, and Willie Jack deal with the suicide of their friend by wanting to get away from Okern but eventually come to appreciate their community, with touching warmth and humor, and a bit of surreal and outrageous moments along the way.
Honorable Mention: Freaks & Geeks; Green Acres; Match Game 73 – 74; Hill Street Blues; The Monkees; Better Things; M*A*S*H; The Dick Van Dyke Show; The Bob Newhart Show; The Larry Sanders Show; Outer Limits; Twin Peaks; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
They were beautiful. They were not real. And yet, my pre-teen self lie in bed at night wishing I was romantically linked to these gorgeous starlets and their make-believe characters. Click here to read all about it!
Some newscasters simply regurgitate what is fed to them without really paying much attention. They are referred to as Talking Heads. Please enjoy these fine examples of vapid spokespeople, and for added entertainment, I have thrown in a wonderful example of vintage inappropriateness from the heydays of the 1970s.
Asiana Airlines Crash One of the most offensive and hilarious pranks ever played on a TV news team. During a live July 2013 noon newscast, Bay Area television station KTVU (Channel 2) broadcast four fake pilot names related to the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco. KTVU anchor Tori Campbell read the bogus names on air after a summer intern at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) erroneously confirmed them to the station while acting outside the scope of his authority. https://youtu.be/HrDp5ryO5JI?si=NGP6OJLmmnUaItDo
Mr. Higgins Sees O.J. During the live June 17, 1994, ABC News broadcast of the slow-speed white Ford Bronco police chase involving O.J. Simpson, a Howard Stern fan called in posing as an eyewitness named “Robert Higgins” and got through to anchor Peter Jennings. https://youtu.be/eEqV063FBrA
Birthday Wishes KTLA 5 Los Angeles meteorologist Henry DiCarlo is tricked into saying a prank name on-air. Co-anchor Chris Schauble instantly catches on to the joke and stifles his laughter out of respect for his weatherman. https://youtu.be/PfFoDc4NUZA?si=h4tW6Nlrg5lio0dI
In another news story, about an airport sewage leak soiling traveler’s luggage, Chris Schauble has one of the greatest lines ever said during a news story. https://youtu.be/1puW9_kQ-_w?si=nBZkUUn_5x8FVql0
Beaver During an August 2026 live broadcast of FOX 2 Detroit’s Good Day Detroit, news anchor Deena Centofanti accidentally triggered a massive on-air laughing fit by asking co-host Ryan Ermanni what he might eat in the event of a survival experience. https://youtu.be/lu5Oi7IgdfE
Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder TV Ad Oftentimes, the crew filming a sponsor’s television commercial will film an alternate take just for a gag, to be shared internally later. This infamous 1979 example was leaked, and became a staple amongst blooper compilations on VHS over the years. First, here is the real commercial: https://youtu.be/D_jCbYEFIiU
Rare Stand Up Comedy and Other Stuff From 1980s and 1990s Television
Visit the Merchandise page for DVDs of obscure recordings taken from old Betamax and VHS tapes. I used to watch the TV listings for comedians appearing on talk shows or stand up specials, then stay up late to record them. If they were good, they stayed on the tape! If they sucked, I recorded over them when the next act appeared. I was able to capture quite a few comics who were just starting out and who went on to find fame and fortune, such as David Letterman, Jay Leno, Adam Sandler, to name a few. Check it out!
Television A-Go-Go
< Back
Somebody Was Smoking Something
How Television Has Changed History
The 13 Best Television Shows
TV Crushes of the Sixties
O.J. Simpson – Weekly Trial at a Glance
Talking Heads and Baby Powder
Rare Stand Up Comedy and Other Stuff From 1980s and 1990s Television
Somebody Was Smoking Something
It took a little while for television to catch up with the counterculture movement of the mid-1960s. By the time youth across the country were fully enveloped in underground activities, rock music, war protests, drugs, and free love, TV was cautiously and ineptly incorporating that lifestyle into programming, often with unintentionally hilarious results. The new generation were usually portrayed as either buffoonish, unbathed, jobless hippie caricatures or misguided, angry, anti-establishment draft-dodging militants. When Granny Clampett impresses a group of peaceniks at a park by informing them that she is going to smoke a little pot, she, of course, is referring to boiling a pot of crawdads. When teenagers are shown indulging in marijuana (or worse, LSD), they wind up hallucinating and losing their minds, overdosing, or being apprehended and arrested by Sgt. Joe Friday, in what are supposed to be cautionary tales. In “The Mod Squad,” we were expected to accept that a carefully selected microcosm of rebellious teens (a wealthy white guy, a street-smart black guy, and a runaway flower child) would team up to fight crime. Desperate to capture the massive baby boomer audience without alienating conservative older viewers or corporate sponsors, networks consistently got it wrong by filtering a complex cultural shift through the lens of older, out-of-touch network executives and writers. Ironically, many of the content developers of these shows were themselves partaking in recreational drugs. It was like when your father caught you getting high, grounded you, lectured you, and outlawed you from hanging out with certain friends, and later you discovered that Dad was hiding a fat joint in his bedroom bureau drawer. You couldn’t help but wonder, was he stoned while he was lecturing you about getting stoned?
But there were shows that were not afraid to address things head on. Topical shows, in an attempt to target the younger demographic, often interjected drug-related humor and references to the counterculture lifestyle. In the regular sketch “Share a Little Tea With Goldie” on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” comedienne Leigh French (as the spaced-out hippie dippy Goldie O’Keefe) subtly and not so subtly lampooned the 1960s drug culture. In “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” Goldie Hawn, Judy Carne, Eileen Brennan, and Pamela Austin sang and danced in a routine called “Four Little Pills,” dressed as uppers, downers, and birth control pills.
Some shows did more than just sneak in references. Often, these were children’s shows, where vibrant colorful fantasy was acceptable and considered customary, and in which hidden references could be snuck in without most audiences noticing. A handful of these shows fully embraced what appears in hindsight to be drug-fueled, trippy, wild and whacky themes and plots, in an astonishing “how did they get away with that” fashion. To paraphrase Timothy Leary, instead of turning on, tuning in, and dropping out, these shows let us just turn on and tune in. Here is a partial list of those television shows from the 1960s to the 2000s, the majority of which are indeed children’s shows:
“Green Acres” (1965 – 1971), in which a “normal” farmer found himself surrounded by lunacy and idiocy in an absurdist version of humanity.
“The Monkees” (1966 – 1968), in which four young musicians, reminiscent of the Beatles, romp around in a pop-art, mod landscape of bent reality.
“The Prisoner” (1967 – 1968), in which a secret agent wakes up in dreamlike, Kafkaesque village setting, and finds himself in surreal storylines that serve as an allegory of counterculture anxieties.
“The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” (1968 – 1970), in which four outlandishly costumed animal characters played music and cavorted and acted and dressed like they had just dropped several hits of acid.
The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, in which children’s shows such as “H.R. Pufnstuf” (1969), “The Bugaloos” (1970), “Lidsville” (1971), and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters” (1973) resided. These psychedelic dream-fever WTFs consisted of bizarrely costumed characters, such as dragons, sea monsters, bugs, witches, and giant hats, living aside talking trees, talking flutes, talking houses, and talking furniture. Peter, Paul, and Mary first slyly slipped in a reference to “puffing” weed in 1963 with the song “Puff the Magic Dragon,” and here it was again: a dragon named “Pufnstuff” who was the mayor of Living Island.
“Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp” (1970 – 1971), in which talking chimpanzees who were dressed like secret agents sought to take down talking chimpanzees who were dressed like underworld spies and other assorted villains.
“The Great American Dream Machine” (1971 – 1972), in which skits and short films, emulating “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” skew popular culture while simultaneously being off-kilter, preposterous, and insane.
“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” (1976 – 1977), in which a non-plussed housewife succumbs to the effects of consumerism, in a parody of soap operas, while indecisively and numbly reacting to a family’s mass murder, a coach’s drowning in a bowl of chicken soup, an abusive husband being impaled on an artificial Christmas tree, and a waxy yellow buildup on her kitchen floor.
“Pee Wee’s Playhouse” (1986 – 1990), in which more ludicrous talking inanimate objects take center stage next to a man-child in a bow tie. See The World of Sid and Marty Krofft.
“Twin Peaks” (1990 – 1991), in which a haunting musical score plays under the stories of an odd logging town’s search for Laura Palmer’s killer, with large doses of cherry pie, great cups of coffee, log ladies, and dancing midgets.
“Teletubbies” (1997 – 2001), in which viewers left each episode feeling like they had just come down from a bad LSD trip. Tubby Custard or Tubby Toast, anyone?
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How Television Has Changed History
We know that the mere invention of television is a historic milestone, but how has television itself helped change history? We are not referring to general historical events captured on TV. We have come to expect to be able to observe life over the tube. That said, there have been some significant events that altered history in the very nature of how television handled them, and we have included them below.
We also know that as TV has evolved over the years, it has in essence changed its own history as it has grown and learned lessons from defining moments such as the following:
Expect increased viewership for the final episode of a show – When the last episode of “The Fugitive” aired, audiences showed up in large numbers to see the one-armed man finally brought to justice, and networks sat up and took notice. Series finales have been ratings gold and chart busters ever since. Bette Midler made viewers tear up when she sang good-bye to Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” David Chase stirred controversy when “The Sopranos” faded to black leaving fans to conclude on their own what happened to Tony. Those who stuck around for “Lost” were left confused and disillusioned. The dream sequence twist of “Newhart” is lauded as one of the best endings ever written, and the last episode of “M*A*SH” is still one of the most watched episodes of all time.
End a season with a cliffhanger to guarantee returning audiences – Probably the big daddy of this phenomenon is “Dallas.” Designed to ensure a show would be renewed and the audience would tune in for the next season, broadcasters quickly discovered that cliffhangers are always a sure thing. This one worked like a charm, and millions of viewers waited all summer long wondering who shot J.R. Ewing.
Use real life experiences to connect with the audience – The 1970s ended the run of fantasy and rural escapist fare, and witches, genies, humorous monster families, nutty spies, island castaways, flying nuns, rich hillbillies, and talking horses left the airwaves to usher in shows that brought realism and the issues of the day into dramas and comedies. Bigotry, poverty, civil unrest, women’s rights, abortion, suicide, drugs, politics, inner city violence, divorce, marital affairs – viewers could relate more to these topics than any which were previously being aired, and shows like “All in the Family,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Hill Street Blues,” and “Family” took over the schedule.
Treat the protagonist as the anti-hero – Shows in which audiences were manipulated into rooting for the villain? Why not? In the 2000s, this became a common occurrence, and mob bosses (“The Sopranos”), meth cooks (“Breaking Bad”), dirty cops (“The Shield”), vampires (“The Vampire Diaries”), and serial killers (“Dexter”) carried their own shows.
But back to how television has changed history, the way we live and think. I believe there are four distinct examples and they are as follows:
When Television Changed How We Are Entertained
When television was in its infancy, most American families gathered around their radios for entertainment. In 1946, only .05% of American households owned a television set. It was Milton Berle who helped the medium’s popularity explode, after his show “Texaco Star Theatre” debuted on Tuesday nights in 1948. Berle’s variety show was such a massive cultural phenomenon that it directly drove television sales, as people bought TV sets just so not to miss his show. Known as “Mr. Tuesday Night,” it is well documented that when he was on the air, streets and public venues across the country were deserted and empty, and utility authorities reported that water reservoir levels dropped dramatically at the precise moment the show ended because viewers waited until then to use the bathroom. At its peak, the “Texaco Star Theatre” show captured up to 80% to 97% of the total television viewing audience, and within three years, TV set ownership went from 800,000 sets to over 12 million. Although radio programming was the primary creative catalyst that filled content for the schedules of early TV, radios were soon replaced in living rooms nationwide by the TV set as the main form of family entertainment.
When Television Changed How We Elect Our Leaders
Politicians had appeared on television before 1960, but it was the first debate on September 26 between Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) and Vice President Richard M. Nixon (R-CA) that changed history. Those who listened to the debates over the radio reportedly felt that Nixon was the clear winner, but viewers who watched the debates on their TV screens thought otherwise. On camera, Nixon appeared aged, nervous, and disheveled, his face unshaven, grim, and breaking out in perspiration. Kennedy, on the other hand, appeared young, confident, and assertive, his face tanned, handsome, and charismatic. By the time the televised debates had ended, America was locked in on who to elect as their next president, and politicians ever since have relied heavily on television to win their campaigns. In 2024, history repeated itself, when President Joe Biden’s unsteady performance in a televised debate with Donald Trump shocked America and resulted in Biden stepping out of the race entirely.
When Television Changed How We Get Our News
News had always been an important part of television programming, but there had never been a newsworthy event that interrupted all scheduling, and in which networks aired non-stop coverage, until the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Families were glued to their TV sets for almost a week in the first major communal experience of its kind, unified, absorbing the experience nationwide as one, experiencing the shock and grief together. During the first three days, as the story of the tragedy unfolded, Americans saw images of the president’s widow and children, watched a new president sworn into office, shed tears at his funeral, and witnessed his killer get gunned down on camera. For the first time in history, Americans were not being delivered news after the fact but were having it broadcast into their homes all at once as it unfolded. A precedent was set, and there would be many more future events broadcast live in the same way: the moon landing, coverage of the war in Vietnam, the Watergate hearings, the Munich summer Olympics hostage situation, Baby Jessica’s rescue from the well, the Challenger explosion, the bombings in Baghdad, OJ’s Bronco chase and eventual trial, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
When Television Changed Itself
For more than fifty years, television audiences were confined to scheduling and content delivery as defined by the three major broadcasting networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC. This meant sponsored programming, often driven by Nielson ratings and advertising dollars, restricted to a regular and predictable cadence: new shows were introduced in the Fall, poorly received shows were replaced in the Winter, reruns were shown in the Summer, and series were composed of 22 or more shows in each season. However, in the 1970s, cable television debuted and began experimenting with subscription television services, and by the beginning of the 21st century, Americans had a vast variety of programming service choices. Not only were there a large number of cable channels that appeared (such as HBO, Showtime, Select, On, and Cinemax), but there were numerous public and syndicated channels that sprung up as well, and new networks such as Fox, WB, and UPN entered the market to challenge the big three. With the introduction of technology like VCRs, DVRs, and Tivo, viewers no longer had to rely on the network’s’ schedules, as they could record shows and watch them at their own convenience. Television sets moved from their once prominent and singular location of the living room in the house, to multiple sets scattered throughout every room in the house. Instead of families traditionally gathered around the one television set in the home, everyone in the family could watch their own shows in their own rooms. Eventually, viewing TV shows could be done on tablets, personal computers, laptops, and mobile phones. The landscape of the medium has drastically changed, and today, as audiences stream and binge shows from hundreds and hundreds of sources, the quaint and archaic structure of broadcast television, although still struggling to hold on, is slowly going the way of land-line telephones, typewriters, and checks sent through the mail.
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The 13 Best Television Shows
When TV critics compile their list of the best television shows of all time, the lists usually seem to include in the top ten the following shows: “Breaking Bad,” “The Wire,” “The Sopranos,” “I Love Lucy,” “Mad Men,” and “The Simpsons.” That got me to thinking about what I would consider if I were to make a list. Which of the hundreds of TV shows that have influenced my life, personality, and interest in the medium itself, would I cart in a suitcase (along with a DVD player) to my proverbial desert island, to watch again and again? Although I liked “The Sopranos,” I felt it was overrated and not worthy of repeat viewing, and “The Wire,” which was well executed and highly realistic, was slowly paced. There are too many episodes of “The Simpsons” for me to place it high on my list, even though it is deservedly a great show (the same with “South Park”). “Mad Men?” Meh. And “I Love Lucy” is a cultural milestone that would be too tiring to view any episode for the thousandth time. So, I made a list. Here, then, are my top 13 favorite TV shows – feel free to dissect, debate, and judge (or ignore):
1. Survivor (2000 – Present) – When I watched the first season during the summer of 2000, I was blown away by the premise, and even more astounded at how perfect this reality show was edited to present a storyline that seemed impossible not to be scripted. A snarky, but savvy, gay guy and an old crotchety, conservative and homophobic Navy SEAL forming an alliance and a friendship? Starving castaways roasting and eating rats? Contestants enduring hunger, thirst, and the elements, with no amenities, who wind up experiencing life altering changes? I am in! Over the years, countless survivors have become shining personalities: the aforementioned Richard and Rudy, Ozzie, Boston Rob, Sandra, Rupert, Coach, Tony, Russell, Tyson, Parvati, Cirie! The list is endless! Over forty plus seasons, host master general Jeff Probst has evolved the show to keep it fresh, and always asks the perfect spot-on questions to bring the most out of his cast. Let us hope the tribe continues to speak and Jeff continues to snuff out torches for a very long time.
2. All in the Family (1971 – 1979) – I was only eleven years old when I first started watching this show, the mainstay of probably the most perfect night of television during its second golden age: Saturday, with a line-up that also included “M*A*S*H,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” and “The Midnight Special,” and later on, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “Saturday Night Live.” This groundbreaking show from Norman Lear, with its working-class family and sepia toned set, changed television forever. The cast was phenomenal – Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton as Archie and Edith Bunker, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers as Mike and Gloria Stivic. Archie was a conservative bigot who tangled with his liberal son-in-law, Mike, and hot topics, never presented before on TV let alone in a situation comedy, were debated and argued over in multi-camera plays filmed before a live audience. Racial slurs flew out of Archie’s mouth (along with multiple malapropisms), shocking the nation. Subjects such as the Vietnam war, draft dodging, antisemitism, abortion, women’s liberation, homosexuality, rape, religion, death, swinging, protesting, menopause, and impotence, were dealt with humor, and helped bring Americans to a better understanding of society at large. Watching reruns today, it is startling how relevant and timely the material still is, and how well it holds up, so much so that Jimmy Kimmel and Norman Lear presented two “All in the Family” scripts acted by a new cast, including Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei as Archie and Edith, in 2021 and 2022, to great acclaim. I still have the giant Archie Bunker poster and “Archie for President” buttons I bought at a Yellow Front store in 1972.
3. Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969 – 1974) – Five Englishmen, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and an American animator, assembled this hodgepodge of outrageously absurd sketches, many with no endings, in a show that, when it finally made its way across the pond stateside, influenced me in my teenage years like no other comedy show. I became a rabid fan, digesting every episode, book, movie, record album, and related TV show, that I could, and memorizing pretty much all of the scripts. “Hails of derisive laughter, Bruce!” Who can ever forget the Argument Clinic, the Knights Who Say “Ni,” the Ministry of Silly Walks, Hell’s Grannies, Spam, the Lumberjack Song, and the dead parrot? And now for something not quite that different ….
4. Fawlty Towers (1975 – 1979) – From Monty Python came the immortal John Cleese, and from John Cleese came this amazing 12-episode masterpiece. Quite possibly the funniest show ever made. I still recall the first episode I saw (“The Builders”) and how I actually laughed hysterically with real (no joke) tears streaming down my face. Basil Fawlty, an irascible, crabby bastard who owned a small hotel in Torquay along with his ball-busting wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), worked alongside their sensible chamber maid Polly and hapless, English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel, while Basil insulted and assaulted nearly every guest who came through the door. Cleese’s physical comedy, as well as his muttered asides, were priceless. This is comedy at its finest.
5. The Honeymooners (1955 – 1956) – I have watched and rewatched the classic 39 episodes, along with the hundred or so “lost” episodes, and it never ceases to amaze me how impressive and utterly perfect this show is. The scripts with their immortal punchlines, the timing of the cast in the delivery of their dialogue, the sad and dingy apartment that Ralph and Alice Kramden call home, the stellar acting from Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, and Art Carney – all of this from a series created and broadcast during the infancy of television’s history.
6. Dark Shadows (1966 – 1971) – Yes, I was one of the baby-boomers who really did rush home after school each day to watch this gothic, horror-fringed soap opera, becoming a Barnabas Collins fan from the very beginning. However, it wasn’t until years later that I actually viewed all 1,225 episodes, and it was then that I developed a true appreciation of how classy and well-written this show was. It is of course well-known that the small budget and tight filming schedule resulted in lots of bloopers, flubbed lines, and cameras and staff ending up in frame (causing the show to be often referred to as “Mike Shadows”), but, frankly, it only lends to the shows overall charm. The supernatural denizens of the house of Collinwood and the town of Collinsport, Maine, included vampires, ghosts, a phoenix, werewolves, witches and warlocks, and involved time travel and parallel universes. The show started out simple and became quite complicated, but the cast was delightful, and the stories enriching.
7. Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul (2008 – 2013; 2015 – 2022) – Both of these shows charted a trajectory of a story arc that was made evident right at their outstart. “Breaking Bad” was going to be about a seemingly good man who becomes a bad man, first by what he perceives as necessity (he is dying and wants to provide for the family he is leaving behind by cooking meth) and later because he comes to realize that he enjoys the power. And since we already knew the “Better Call Saul” character’s outcome from “Breaking Bad,” that show was going to be a prequel about how Jimmy McGill, a guy with morals and a good heart, becomes a soulless lawyer named Saul Goodman. And both shows were extremely well written and meticulously plotted out in every little detail, with tons of humor interrupted by shocking violence. But “Better Call Saul” gets an edge on “Breaking Bad,” and I feel is actually the better of the two shows, as it serves not just as a prequel to “Breaking Bad,” but also as a sequel, as it ingeniously shows its audience what becomes of its characters after the concluding storyline of its predecessor.
8. The Walking Dead (2010 – 2022) – What can I say? Zombies had been around for quite some time before this show came along, but nothing prepared me for the exhilaration and apprehension I felt while watching the ever-changing group of survivors navigate a hellish landscape where no one was safe, and I mean no one. Viewers never knew when one of their favorite characters might meet their death, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. The ghoulish make-up and special effects, and the realistic storylines, were rewarding. Unfortunately, as the seasons dragged on, the show began to become tiresome and ridiculous, and as it veered further and further away from its comic book source material, it lost its luster, But, man, those first several seasons were appointment television, with the phones turned off and no one allowed to talk except during commercials.
9. Lost (2004 – 2010) – In the summer of 2004, I was vacationing at the beach, and saw a plane flying over the surf with a banner advertising “Lost.” Then billboards all over Southern California promoting the show. So, I tuned in. And what a thrilling ride this show was. I joined the worldwide web of fans analyzing every aspect of the show, its mythology, its mysteries, the easter eggs, the throwaway scenes, lines, and character names. For every six questions introduced, only one or two would wind up being answered, but I didn’t care. Polar bears! Black smoke! Flashbacks! Flashforwards! The cliffhangers (what is in the hatch?)! The characters (Jack and Kate! Sawyer! Hurley! Locke! Sayid! Jin and Sun! Charlie and Claire! Ben! Mr. Eko! Desmond and Penny!)! This was the most fun I have had with a show ever, and although the finale was disappointing (how could all of the mysteries ever be expected to be resolved?), I have rewatched the show and felt the same zeal all over again, as I would getting on a familiar roller coaster for another ride.
10. The Twilight Zone (1959 – 1964) – Rod Serling’s morality plays disguised in bizarre tales with twist endings were some of my first encounters with master storytelling, and I watched each episode as they unfolded in syndicated reruns with utter amazement. Some of the greatest writers and actors were involved in the making of this show, and it helped me seek out new authors, and further explore the world of science fiction literature. It also boasts one of the most excellent theme songs in all of television.
11. Seinfeld (1989 – 1998) – These awful, narcissistic, and selfish characters are also hilarious and entirely recognizable, both inside me and around me. I loved the scripts, and this is the type of series that I can rewatch at any time and laugh at jokes I have previously heard many times before. They are that good. Personally, I can’t get enough of how cringey George can be, and the catch phrases that came out of this show alone have made “Seinfeld” indelible, and, well, you know, yada yada yada.
12. Second City Television (1976 – 1979) – I am only referring to seasons 1 and 2 of the Canadian sketch comedy show, and not any other variations. This is the show that brought into my life Harold Ramis, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas and Catherine O’Hara. Later seasons (“Second City TV,” “SCTV Network 90,” and “SCTV Channel”) were weak and pretentious. But the original was a powerhouse of pure gold, and along with Monty Python and National Lampoon, set me up for the rest of my life on how I perceive comedy and what I think is funny. This is also my Holy Grail, as these two seasons have never been released on tape or DVD, and only exist as isolated sketches presented on the later shows or available on YouTube.
13. Reservation Dogs (2021 – 2023) – This streaming series, created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, is a wonder. It fully realizes the lives of four indigenous teenagers, and the citizens and elders who live alongside them, in the small reservation town of Okern, Oklahoma in the Muscogee Nation. The show is brilliantly plotted and paced, and tells the story of how Elora, Bear, Cheese, and Willie Jack deal with the suicide of their friend by wanting to get away from Okern but eventually come to appreciate their community, with touching warmth and humor, and a bit of surreal and outrageous moments along the way.
Honorable Mention: Freaks & Geeks; Green Acres; Match Game 73 – 74; Hill Street Blues; The Monkees; Better Things; M*A*S*H; The Dick Van Dyke Show; The Bob Newhart Show; The Larry Sanders Show; Outer Limits; Twin Peaks; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
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TV Crushes of the Sixties
They were beautiful. They were not real. And yet, my pre-teen self lie in bed at night wishing I was romantically linked to these gorgeous starlets and their make-believe characters. Click here to read all about it!
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O.J. Simpson – Weekly Trial at a Glance
It was 1995, and the nation was riveted to the TV to see if the glove fit or not. Click here to read all about it!
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Talking Heads and Baby Powder
Some newscasters simply regurgitate what is fed to them without really paying much attention. They are referred to as Talking Heads. Please enjoy these fine examples of vapid spokespeople, and for added entertainment, I have thrown in a wonderful example of vintage inappropriateness from the heydays of the 1970s.
Asiana Airlines Crash
One of the most offensive and hilarious pranks ever played on a TV news team. During a live July 2013 noon newscast, Bay Area television station KTVU (Channel 2) broadcast four fake pilot names related to the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco. KTVU anchor Tori Campbell read the bogus names on air after a summer intern at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) erroneously confirmed them to the station while acting outside the scope of his authority.
https://youtu.be/HrDp5ryO5JI?si=NGP6OJLmmnUaItDo
Mr. Higgins Sees O.J.
During the live June 17, 1994, ABC News broadcast of the slow-speed white Ford Bronco police chase involving O.J. Simpson, a Howard Stern fan called in posing as an eyewitness named “Robert Higgins” and got through to anchor Peter Jennings.
https://youtu.be/eEqV063FBrA
Birthday Wishes
KTLA 5 Los Angeles meteorologist Henry DiCarlo is tricked into saying a prank name on-air. Co-anchor Chris Schauble instantly catches on to the joke and stifles his laughter out of respect for his weatherman.
https://youtu.be/PfFoDc4NUZA?si=h4tW6Nlrg5lio0dI
In another news story, about an airport sewage leak soiling traveler’s luggage, Chris Schauble has one of the greatest lines ever said during a news story.
https://youtu.be/1puW9_kQ-_w?si=nBZkUUn_5x8FVql0
Beaver
During an August 2026 live broadcast of FOX 2 Detroit’s Good Day Detroit, news anchor Deena Centofanti accidentally triggered a massive on-air laughing fit by asking co-host Ryan Ermanni what he might eat in the event of a survival experience.
https://youtu.be/lu5Oi7IgdfE
Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder TV Ad
Oftentimes, the crew filming a sponsor’s television commercial will film an alternate take just for a gag, to be shared internally later. This infamous 1979 example was leaked, and became a staple amongst blooper compilations on VHS over the years. First, here is the real commercial:
https://youtu.be/D_jCbYEFIiU
And here is the alternate take:
https://youtu.be/7zD08Ppi9L8?is=ztVWa8YiYO-YzwLj
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Rare Stand Up Comedy and Other Stuff From 1980s and 1990s Television
Visit the Merchandise page for DVDs of obscure recordings taken from old Betamax and VHS tapes. I used to watch the TV listings for comedians appearing on talk shows or stand up specials, then stay up late to record them. If they were good, they stayed on the tape! If they sucked, I recorded over them when the next act appeared. I was able to capture quite a few comics who were just starting out and who went on to find fame and fortune, such as David Letterman, Jay Leno, Adam Sandler, to name a few. Check it out!
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