The press conference given by the Union County Sheriff Wells as he announced that Susan Smith had just been arrested for the murder of her two sons. I’ll never forget how the gathered crowd at the foot of the courthouse steps made a collective noise of shock, sadness and horror all rolled up into one.
I’ll try this again since the board seems to be acting up and ate my post.
I was near the epicenter of the Loma Prieta earthquake, and would’ve watched it on tv, but there was no tv. As a matter of fact, right after the quake, me and my co-workers went outside. I got in my car and turned on the radio. My normal station wasn’t broadcasting, so I pushed the scan button. The display just flashed numbers as it scanned through the band and didn’t stop. We began to realize just how big the quake was when none of the radio stations from San Francisco on down the coast were broadcasting.
We watched the Oakland Hills fire on tv as we were packing to be evacuated from our Oakland foothills house. Fortunately, the fire never quite came close enough for the authorities to remove us.
I was staying in the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Monica just as the OJ civil trial was wrapping up. The hotel is directly across the street from the courtroom where the trial was being held. On the night the verdict was announced, I could look over the balcony outside and see OJ’s motorcade coming to the courthouse to hear the verdict. I could lookover the inner balcony down onto the inner atrium as the principal parties and press ran around in the bedlam of coverage. As I was seeing these things with my own eyes, I could look back over my shoulder at the tv and see the same exact things from a slightly different angle. Later I went down to the bar and passed Mr. Goldman giving a statement to a camera crew. Later, I rode back up in the elevator from Greta Van Sustern from Court TV. For some reason, she kept turning around and staring at me in the elevator. I have no idea why, as I didn’t talk to her or gape at her or anything.
Man, there’s a moment that will send chills up your spine. Sounds like something out of a movie.
Reading through the list, I remember a few more TV moments:
Martin Luther King being shot. ABC had stopped all programming and threw up that “Special Bulletin” board. As a hard-core TV watcher, even at age 8, I knew something major had hit the fan. That was an era when, anytime a show was interrupted, you knew it had to be bad. It took me years to get over that.
“Turn-On.” The one episode. We were big “Laugh-In” fans, so we had to see this one. I don’t remember it being so bad, but there were times watching “Laugh-In” when my parents would laugh at a joke that was way over my head.
I remember, on “Laugh-In,” Richard Nixon saying “Sock it to me?” Why, yes, of course. Thank you for asking. 
Ike’s funeral. The announcer remarked that the hearse was moving at 3 miles per hour, and I tried moving that slow.
I remember being forced to watch the first episode of Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood and many more thereafter. Lovely, now I’m both warped for life and reminded of how effing old I’m getting
The most transfixing TV moment I saw “live” was the beginning of the Persian Gulf War CNN broadcast.
Saddam had not reacted to the ultimatum that President Bush (the elder) had made for January 15, 1991 (I think), and the country was on edge for the next few days waiting to see what would happen.
I was driving home from work when the radio gave a fragmentary report about bombs falling on Bagdhad. When I got home, I put on the TV and saw the CNN feed coming over one of the local independent broadcast channel.
They had a satellite link to Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett and ??? from their hotel in Bagdhad. They were describing the incoming attacks as they were occuring. At any moment a bomb or missle could have taken out their hotel.
You could feel the tension as they didn’t know whether or when the Iraqi authorities would shut down their broadcast, or worse. I recall them explaining how they were hiding in a closet and under a table when a knock came on their door.
Not until much later was there any government announcement of what was going on (probably for reasons of military security). The only way we knew that we were at war was that we were seeing it live from the enemy’s capital.
Nothing that I’ve seen before or since has matched the tension when those reporters at ground zero were our sole link to a war starting half-way around the world.
One more, but I didn’t personally hear it. A guy I work with told me about it right after it happened, so I cannot attest to its veracity:
One of the live CNN talk shows (maybe “Sonia Live”) had Sparky Anderson (I think) as a guest. A caller asked, “Hey, Sparky, how would you like to eat [talk show host’s name, which might have been “Sonia”]?”
Sparky didn’t answer, and the Sonia (or whoever) went right to the next caller.
I haven’t watched much TV in the period between 1978 and now, but I did happen to be a guest at a buddy’s house when an Ohio State football game was on, and a coach named Woody Hayes lost it and physically assaulted one of the players on the other team.
I remember several of the things people have mentioned here, but one I remember that nobody has mentioned is Michael Jackson appearing on Motown 25 (or 30 or whatever it was).
Soon everyone was trying to Moonwalk and talking about what a great dancer (or at least moonwalker) Jackson was, but this was the only time I ever actually saw him do that.
I also watched most of the first season episodes of MST3K on The Comedy Channel.
Being 11 years old and having the whole grade school move to the gymnasium where a huge (for that time) 27-inch console TV was set up on stage so that all of us could watch the JFK inauguration. Incredible! Getting out of school to WATCH TV?! Whoa! I can remember the black and white picture of Robert Frost reading a poem, which was cool because we had studied some of his poetry. Also there was some concern about a small fire that broke out on the podium during the ceremony. Oh, and it was startling to see someone with dark hair as President. All we could remember was grandfather-like Ike.
Jack Ruby shooting Oswald on live TV coverage Sunday morning (pacific coast time). How totally bizzare. And funeral coverage - the casket drawn by riderless horses, John John saluting, all of that.
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan (remember the white letters that read “Sorry, girls, he’s married” they supered over John’s face at one point?)
The Appolo 8 broadcast, from their orbit around the moon. It was in December, and one of the astronauts read the Christmas story from Luke. I’m not terribly religious, but that was a moving thing for them to have done.
The Apollo 11 moon landing. Oh, yes. Walter Cronkite interviewed Arthur Clarke AND my personal hero, Robert A, Heinlien, the first and only time I ever saw or heard him, though over the years I’ve read every single thing of his I could get my grubby mitts on.
The final episode of MAS*H where the Korean lady killed her baby to keep the busload of people from being discovered by the Commies and Hawkeye couldn’t handle it and had a breakdown.
It sent shockwaves through the cricketing community.
I know you guys don’t know much about Cricket’s rules, but when you bowl to the batsman, it is overarm. That means the ball bounces before it reaches the batsman, so it is in the air when he swings. The bounce allows the batsman a fair chance of hitting it for ‘six’ over the boundary line, but also allows the bowler a fair chance of sending a spinner or something to upset this.
Back in 1980 (I think) an Australia was playing New Zealand in a Test Match, and there was one ball left in the final over. New Zealand needed six to get a draw in the match. Greg Chappell was bowling for Australia. Trevor Chappell (his brother) was Captain. I can’t remember who the batsman was for NZ.
Instead of giving NZ a fair chance at hitting a six to get a draw, Greg Chappell was told to bowl underarm, i.e. the ball rolled along the pitch on the ground.
Legal within the rules of the game, but so totally unsporting, completely unfair, and downright childish, that it went down in the annals of history as the lowest point Cricket has possibly ever reached in public standing.
And I saw the incident live. (on TV)
Something I read above just reminded me of a good one. A few years back I was living in New Jersey and we didn’t have cable, just the over-the-air stations. I came home from school one day and turned on the TV. Static on NBC. Static on ABC. Commercial on CBS, but at least it was working, so I left it on that. When CBS came back, it was a Special Report. Turned out the World Trade Center had been bombed, and all the broadcast towers were on top of it, and when the power got knocked out they were dead. CBS was broadcast from somewhere else (or something) so they were the only ones left. Let me tell you, it’s very creepy when the TV stops working.
haven’t seen this one mentioned yet -
I saw some awards show in the 70’s, musta been the oscars or grammies. Paul Anka hosting, was talking to Stevie Wonder over a satellite link. I think Stevie was in Australia. The link started getting fuzzy and disconnecting. Paul kept saying “Can you see us Stevie, can you see us?”
saw Nixon resign. My mom made me watch because “this is going to be in your college history books”. Sure showed her - I never took any history in college.
.audient.
happy first post to me, happy first post to me
The Australian F1 Grand Prix where Michael Schumacher tried to overtake Jean Alesi, who cut him off and damaged his car.
Murray Walker : “Well, I really don’t know WHAT Alesi was thinking there”.
Australian Commentator : "I reckon I know; he was thinking ‘You’re not getting past me, you arrogant little Kraut!!’ "
They’d cut that bit from the highlights.
i watched the final congressional debates c-span right before we declared war on iraq it was “b-1 bob” dornans finest hour
and being a news junkie if is been on msnbc ive usually watched it
about the challenger accident i was placed in a class of disturbed children since they didnt have one for ld students and they wouldnt tell us what happened for fear of up setting the kids we missed it by about a minute we were goign to watch in in the library , the libraian ran over wiht a shocked look and whispered something in her ear they told us it was goign to be late and wed come down later i learned it ta home from my grandparents that watched it form the nasa feed on their satelite feed
I remember the news being interrupted three times as I was watching it:
When they came back from a commercial, Walter Cronkite was on the phone. Very unusual. He hung up and announced that Lyndon Johnson just died.
They cut away from the news to announced the verdict in the Joel Steinberg murder trial. Guilty!
They cut away from the news to go live to the LIRR when Colin Ferguson shot up the rush hour train, killing six people. I was slicing an everything bagel at the time, and it really was an everything bagel when I cut myself while watching the story and got blood all over it.
Also, I’ll never forget turning on the TV and seeing a live report with a blown up building. I first thought it was Beruit (don’t ask me why), and didn’t realize where it was till the announcer said “Oklahoma City” and I read the tag line. I sat there in stunned horror, cause things like that don’t happen it. Didn’t come out of it till they showed some of the children, and then I just saw red.
I remember the World Trade Center bombing too, SmackFu. That static on every channel thing was indeed creepy, once you realized what had caused it. I seem to remember that WNBC managed to broadcast much further up the dial than usual (WNBC is on channel 4 normally, but they switched over to a still static-filled but watchable signal on something up in the double-digits). We had cable, so that may be why we were able to receive it.
Oklahoma City, too. I was in a play in college at the time and was home grabbing a quick bite before heading back to the theater for dress rehearsal when the news broke. I remember being upset because I suspected none of my castmates were watching the news and I figured I’d be the only one who knew or cared what was going on. I think I turned out to be wrong, memory’s a bit fuzzy.
One more for me: When Michael Jackson was on TV and announced his innocence about the molestation case.
I’ll mention two.
The first: 1991. It’s about 1:00 AM, I’m about fifteen, I’m going to bed right after I check the CNN news. “This just in: Mikhail Gorbachev has left office…” That minute. What a gut-check. I figured it was the Russian version of Tiananmen Square, that Gorbachev was dead, and the Cold War was on again. And then it wasn’t. That was a strange week.
The second takes some set up: 1995. It’s 9:02 AM. I’ve just watched a friend of mine play pinball in the OU Student Union basement and am heading to class early. I’m near the main administration building and the library when I hear what I think is thunder, but the sky is clear. I think, “Storm’s coming fast. It’s a good thing I brought my umbrella.” It did rain later that day.
I finished homework in the empty classroom. Right before we started at 9:30 when another student mentioned a bomb downtown. I figured it was a pipe bomb and had been defused, so I didn’t think about it. I fooled around at the library until 1:30 PM, when I went back to the Union and found people watching TV together. That’s never a good sign.
Ironically, the UHF stations had no news service at the time and never covered the Murrah. I head set the VCR to tape Animaniacs and I got it - two movie parodies, “Hearts of Twilight” and “The Boids.” Flash forward two years, to the day Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to die. The same episode plays. I half expected it to run again on the day of his death, but Animaniacs had fallen off the air by then.
Well, I’m going to expand the horizon a little; it is media-related and is kinda cool in its own right.
Georgetown has an Eastern European and Russian studies library, where they get all sorts of periodicals and movies on a regular basis, including the two biggies of the Soviet era, Pravda and Izvestiia. Of course they have limited space so they have to throw out back issues fairly often - which is how I lucked onto the two issues of Pravda printed the day before and the day after the 1991 coup.
Unfortunately I can’t recall much of anything I saw live on TV since I’m not much of a watcher, though I did stay up until 3:30 AM on election night, hitting the hay only after Brokaw interrupted a commentator: “Stop, stop, stop!”
Tin Tim and Miss Vicki getting married on The Tonight Show
The moon landing
George Wallace getting shot in Md.
The Watergate hearings
Nixon’s resignation
The first SNL episode
Announcement of John Lennon’s death
Chalie Rocket saying “fuck”
various sporting events