I was part of the team my HS sent to be on a quiz show called “Scholastic Quiz” on a TV station out of Johnstown, PA.
I was on several local television news broadcasts this past summer when they covered a charity motorcycle ride in which I participated. They showed two clips, both from the portion of the route that passed through downtown Pittsburgh, and both clips were mainly me. Neither my bike, nor I, were anything that should have stood out from the hundreds of other riders in that event. All I can figure is that maybe somebody in the production staff, perhaps a former student, knew me.
Does the police artist’s sketch count?
Another Bozo The Clown vet, this one a local version in Jacksonville, Florida. I won a book about horses, just for being the only boy. Also was among the kids in a segment about a holiday party at a children’s hospital.
Lessee, what else? I was on some local-access interview show for teenagers, when I was in high school. I thought a coat and tie was appropriate; oddly enough, none of the kids who called in wanted to talk to the dork who looked like he raided his dad’s closet. I was also interviewed for a CNN piece on volunteering - I was spreading mulch in a state park.
The highlight of my media career, though, was Melissa Block reading my letter on All Things Considered. Now that’s validation.
I’ve appeared on two TV game shows:
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I was on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but was never the fastest during the Fast Fingers round, never made the Hot Seat, and never got to answer any questions.
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Two years ago, I was on*** Jeopardy!*** I was very good, and finished with $23,000. Unfortunately, the other two contestants were very good too, and I came in last!!!
When I was about 7, I guess, I was on a local TV show for kids. I have only vague memories of it.
AFAIK, I’ve not been on TV since.
Three times that I can recall.
I was a reporter for a story on a local kids news show put on by the local NBC affiliate. This was probably 1982 or 1983 in Houston.
I was on a game show called ‘Secret’s Out’ or something equally dumb one time. I think I got $100 for being on it, and it consisted of you having a ‘secret’, which amounted to having some hobby or activity that was out of the ordinary, and there was a panel of kid ‘experts’ who’d do their best Akinator bit to try and figure out your secret in some time frame. I actually won my game, and pissed off one of the experts. Win-win.
Finally, I was on the local quiz-bowl competition in Houston in 1991; my team advanced far enough to be on the televised rounds, although we lost in our one TV appearance. Interestingly enough, it was filmed on the night of January 18, 1991- I remember because it was the night after the Gulf War air campaign had started, and they had a few current events questions that referenced it.
In Grade 8 (1986-87) I was in the audience for a kid’s trivia show on our local TV station. Somehow my cousin in a different city saw it and totally made fun of me for looking like a jackass because I had big 80’s bangs and was chewing gum.
Why ya gotta play that song so loud?
For my 5th or 6th birthday, on a local afternoon cartoon show called “Showtime.” It always seemed awesome to watch at home, because they had 20-30 kids as the in-studio audience. In reality, it was hectic and rushed, and the cartoons played on a little monitor that must have been 20 feet away. Quite a letdown!
The 1994 Drum Corps International championship finals, which aired on PBS.
Yup, a bunch of times. Some local news, but we also produce our own Cable Access show here. I have been on maybe a dozen of those episodes. Besides running in RI and MA, those have also been picked up by systems around the US since they are free, and a few got picked up by the History channel. Just last night someone said they had seen me on TV when I picked up my son at karate class.
I was on Jeopardy! but didn’t win, came in second. Back in that day, if you didn’t win, you didn’t get to keep your winnings, you just got parting gifts. Though I did get a trip to Mexico out of it.
I was on a short-lived Dick Clark game show called The Challengers and was horrible on that.
When I was a kid, I was on the local TV station’s kids show. I really don’t remember much of that.
I’ve been interviewed on the local news twice, both times in conjunction with an activity involving my Taekwondo school.
Once I did something newsworthy enough to be on the news, but I had absolutely NO desire to be on the news. I was incredibly pissed off about the poor decisions and Fate that put me in the situation where I had to do what I did. And then some clown decided it would be good PR to put me on the news. And they didn’t tell me about it until the reporter and cameraman was there waiting for me. And I had drunk a couple to try to get unpissed off.
I asked the reporter if it was going to be live or on tape. She told me it was going to be taped. Then I asked her even though she had small tits would she could give me a blow job after the taping. I then proceeded to use some form of both the words “fuck” and “shit” at least once in every answer to her interview questions.
They’re incredibly flexible words, you know? Exclamations, nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. I think there’s probably a way to fit at least one of them into any and every sentence you might say, IF you’re so inclined.
Despite my efforts…
Back in the 1990’s I went up to Sacramento with a group from my college that was protesting cuts to education funding. An artist and a group from another college needed help with a stunt they had planned for the camera crews and the leader of my group volunteered me to help out. So I ended up helping to haul in a big sculpture on which a student was tied and I made a point of keeping my head down and my face turned away from the cameras and then moving really close to the TV crew so I’d be out of the shot if they were focussing on the “sculpture.” Then I turned to face the “sculpture” so my back was to the camera while I clapped and chanted with the rest of the crowd.
When I got back to my hometown that weekend my friends were saying they had seen me in Sacramento on the news and they were sure it was me because the side of my face was right there in front of the camera.
Whoops. I guess I had a poor understanding of the camera’s depth-of-field and its ability to zoom out.
My former employer had a whole subsection devoted to charity efforts and somehow I got added to the committee. I organized a clean-out-your-closets day at work to coordinate with a Stand Down event that benefitted military veterans in San Diego. For some reason I got filmed carrying boxes of used clothing in to the colliseum where the event was being held. I tried keeping my face away from the camera, but the cameraman kept moving around trying to catch my face, so I ended up on the news looking rather lost and clueless about where to deliver my boxes.
The same charity committee coordinated an event in which we volunteered to staff the phones during a PBS fundraising night. I made a point of sitting in the back, as far from the cameras as possible. The other people on the phones were pretty busy, but I only got one call during the whole 3 hours of taping. That was distilled to a 1-hour broadcast, and most of the actual broadcast was pre-recorded material from the Learn to Play Piano in a Millisecond DVD package they were hawking. There were only about four 5-minute segments of real people being shown, and somehow one of them managed to include me (way in the back, getting my one call for the night) smiling and joking with someone who was more interested in sending the DVD to her kid than in pledging money to keep PBS afloat.
–G!
Here’s your
Fiftee____n
Minutes o’ Fame!
Whatcha gonna give me
To ease the pain?
…–Tommy Shaw (Damn Yankees)
…Fifteen Minutes of Fame
…Don’t Tread
Not TV, but my 15 minutes of fame happened when I was 21 and standing in line at the bank. The punk-ass kid behind me in line decided to rob the teller. Next day on the front page of the newspaper was my picture in full-faced glory from the security camera with the kid standing behind me. I had to endure a few days of “Hey Juicy, how much was your take? Haw haw haw.” Back then I was just annoyed but nowadays I’d be pissed.
Nowadays, they have the technology to pixelate your face out.
I had a 1 second spot in a commercial my employer had made. If you blink you will miss me I’m in the lab coat pretending to titrate.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RKhUt0FtrOc
Also the back of my head was seen on TV when I was an audience member of the George Strombo Show.
Yes. It’s part of my job. It’s at the point now that my daughter says, “My mom is on TV/the radio/in the newspaper again.”
Frank Wizardi, I think his name was.
When I was a child ventriloquist, I was on his show, on “41 Treehouse Lane” with Tory Southwick and “The Mother Nature Show”.
Years later, I appeared on some KC morning news program to demo the Commodore Amiga and the Video Toaster.
I’ve worked for carnival people. I’ve heard “fuck” used as every part of speech - adverb, adjective, pronoun - you name it.
You still don’t keep your winnings if you finish second or third. But they no longer give consolation prizes- they give $2,000 to the 2nd place contestant and $1,000 to the 3rd place contestant (me). After taxes, that about covered my airfare and hotel.
It would have worked, too - if it weren’t for you meddling kids!
Regards,
Shodan