# Dying on TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2000, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516 "2000-01-08T11:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2000, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/21 "2000-01-20T15:17:00Z")
Didn’t some mime die on stage from a heart attack and everyone thought he was acting? That would’ve been a year or more ago (if it actually happened). It seems to me that it did, although it could’ve been a UL. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/22 "2000-01-22T07:14:00Z")
I thought _Faces of Death_ was real deaths. They showed an execution in Iran (IIRC), a bear attack, etc. I’m not sure, as I didn’t enjoy said films and bailed rather quickly when they showed up in the dorm. OpalCat, my thinking is that the death would come out in the news, which probably wouldn’t show the actual footage (unless it’s sweeps week - grin). The series is unlikely to actually show it either. Exceptions have happened on news shows where events unfolded faster than expected, such as the guy who shot himself on the interstate. However, that doesn’t keep the footage completely safe from ever surfacing. ---
**Author:** ![Heath\_Doolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/23 "2000-01-22T08:10:00Z")
Growing up around here a guy gets to see a lot of r/l violence on tv. Channel 2 in LA is notorious for showing all the “gore” with their ol “the following images are disturbing” (which keeps everyone eyeballed to the set obviously) among their lowlights -the dude blowing his face off on the freeway overpass after stopping (yes it was his face-it was attached to his scalp). Not only did they show it live…they replayed it 2 times that night. Pretty gross on your cringo meter because he did it in the middle of the afternoon and the camera kept on him as he fell to the ground and became a river of blood -the woman getting killed by her ex husband in Brazil at their daughters grave. Not very gross but it happens so fast you cannot believe it happened. -a mental patient getting blown off a roof by like 5 swaat members. Channel 2 show the whole thing even with the body bouncing. Kinda dulls the senses but the guy doing himself with the shotgun really shook me, I never tune in to that channel anymore. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/24 "2000-01-22T09:46:00Z")
Hmmm…what a coincidence, Heath. It was Channel 2 (KCBS in LA) that “accidentally” showed the footage of the girl getting shot by police. (I mentioned it above - she was waving a gun about, after warnings, the cops shot her.) The Channel 2 News said that they would snip out the part where she was shot and fell, but when I saw it, they dropped the ball and showed her die. They apologized afterwards for their error. I actually do feel that it was not deliberate, but the fact that it’s Channel 2 is ironic. I didn’t know that they repeated the guy shooting his head off on the freeway later - I watch KTLA (LA’s WB) and KNBC, and they never re-showed the suicide footage. The furor over all of LA viewing that suicide on TV intense, and it’s EXTREMELY tacky that any news station would actually _re-play_ the controversial clip! ---
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/25 "2000-01-22T10:00:00Z")
There was a biography of Redd Foxx on TV and it did say that people decided he was kidding at first, I don’t know what he said. Court TV has been showing a tape of a man shooting his x-wife, they say it is terrible, they wouldn’t let their children watch and shown it over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/26 "2000-01-23T06:25:00Z")
I think that if the family gives permission, there isn’t anything legally wrong with broadcasting a person’s death. IIRC, didn’t one of the fellows in the chariot race scene in \* Ben Hur \* actually die when he fell off his chariot? I remember one of my teachers saying that the widow gave permission because it lent the film “realism.” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/27 "2000-01-24T04:48:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Ok, I was watching Animal Planet tonight and they had a promo for tomorrow’s episode of The Crocodile Hunter (which I love to watch, and not JUST because I drool over Steve Irwin) which they called his “most death defying” yet… an “encounter” with a Komodo Dragon. Ok, obviously he doesn’t die, but the words “death defying” got my thinking about hypotheticals… > If I’m watching the show, I can rest assured that no matter how scary the situation looks, he is gonna come out of it… right? I mean… if he DID die, we’d hear about it on the news… and they wouldn’t air the episode… > > Would they? I mean obviously they wouldn’t air his actual death… but it got me wondering… would they release the footage in any way? This doesn’t matter at all, but it’s 6:30am and I’ve been up all night and I was just thinking about it and thought what-the-hey, the SDMB needs another asinine thread about irrelevant crap! ## Steve and Terri Irwin were supposed to ride one of the floats in the recent Macy’s parade, but only Terri could make it because “Steve Irwin is in the hospital recovering from a poisonous snake bite.” Word for word from ABC during their coverage of the parade. This would indicate to me that there’re lots of “OOPS!” kinds of things happening to Steve that the public is usually not aware of. **FixedBack** “Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I am informed, get up the night before.”~~\*G.K.Chesterton \* ---
**Author:** ![DaveoRad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@DaveoRad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveoRad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/28 "2000-01-24T05:42:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by John Rush: > \*\*Redd Foxx died while taping a tv show some time in the early '90s. I don’t remember the name of the show, but I think it co-starred Della Reese. No word on whether the tape was destroyed, or if it made the evening news somewhere. While I’ve no desire to see the death scene, I’d like to know if Redd’s last words were, “It’s The Big One, Elizabeth!” > \*\* The show was _The Royal Family_. Foxx’s fatal heart attack occurred during a rehearsal, and I don’t think the cameras were rolling. You can read about this and numerous other deaths during performance (mostly on stage, though) at the Urban Legends Reference Pages: [http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/noose/dead.htm](http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/noose/dead.htm) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/29 "2000-01-24T05:45:00Z")
_Faces of Death_ is real. Or, according to my police officer friend it is. He said that they showed the videos while he was training, to desensitize the cops, should they ever see such gruesome deaths in real life. Adam * * * “Life is hard…but God is good” ---
**Author:** ![Lawrence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Lawrence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lawrence)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/30 "2000-01-25T01:10:00Z")
Last week in Spain a police officer was testifying in a major trial when he keeled over and died of a massive heart attack. The footage was shown on the evening news. This has kicked up a massive controversy on whether the TV stations acted responsibly and appropriately or not. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/31 "2000-01-25T20:19:00Z")
This probably doesn’t prove anything, but here’s a moment by moment [review of “Faces of Death”](http://www.urbanlegends.com/movies/faces_of_death_review.html) from the AFU archive. Not having seen it myself, I can only say this person’s review does make it sound pretty hokey. Some deaths are real, but they are quite sure the majority are faked, and poorly by today’s special effects standards. Maybe I would like to see for myself 🙂 * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) [Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516/32 "2000-01-25T20:29:00Z")
Just one more thought: I reread the review for old times sake, and realized a lot of that sounds like stuff you’d see on Animal Planet, A&E, History Channel, and others that show filmed gore for educational purposes. People musta had weaker stomaches back then. Also, the movie carries this disclaimer: “Exiguous scenes in this film were re-enacted.” Sounds about as scary as an episode of America’s Most Wanted 😛 * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) [Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dying-on-tv/6516.md?page=1)