Inspired bythis thread, it seems to me that for every unforgettable moment we’ve seen on TV, there must be one or more that we missed – at work or some other place where there wasn’t a TV, an unfortunate power failure or cable outage, happened to step out of the room at the wrong time, whatever.
Bonus points if, when you finally saw the unforgettable moment, it had been so thoroughly spoiled by everyone talking about it that it drained all the excitement out for you.
I missed man walking on the moon:smack:. It was the middle of the night (I was in Europe), I was exhausted, the astronauts were supposed to sleep for several hours, so I decided to nap with them. When I woke up, it was all over.
I missed Neil and Buzz on the moon too. I’m surprised my parents didn’t let us stay up. I don’t even think I knew it was on TV. I was 7 at the time and would have loved to have seen it live.
I also missed arguably the most important goal in Canadian hockey history: Paul Henderson’s goal in game 8 against the Soviet Union in 1972 to win the series for Canada. Lot’s of schools either brought TV sets into the class, or gym, or even sent everyone home early to watch the game. Not my school.
Janet Jackson’s infamous “Nipplegate” during Super Bowl 38. The crazy thing was, I was watching the game with some friends, but none of us paid close enough attention to the halftime show to notice that anything unusual had happened. I do remember there was a streaker who ran across the field during the second half – and when the news started to break about CBS broadcasting nudity during the Super Bowl, at first I thought that’s what it was about.
Same here, I knew nothing about it until the next day.
My other entry is the Challenger explosion. I was in school and we were supposed to go to the library to watch the launch live. I don’t remember where I did actually go but remember everyone talking about it at lunch.
My mother has told me about the time she turned on the tv to watch The Tonight Show right as the audience was laughing really loud, and Johnny said something like: “That was so funny, we can never air it on television again.”
It was only a couple of seconds anyway! I mean I didn’t watch the Superbowl, but most people who watched it didn’t see it. I don’t know how the few reporters who have named themselves arbiters of all of our morality even noticed what had actually happened.
I definitely watched the shuttle Challenger live. I wasn’t alive yet for the moon landing.
Oh the whole Tonya Harding/ Nancy Kerrigan mess. I missed it entirely because I don’t watch figure skating or the Olympics. I still am not exactly sure how much of it was actually on TV. I gather the attack wasn’t, but I missed most the subsequent publicity, too, until it finally wormed its way into my world.
I had to look this one up… I’m not sure I would count the final episode of an unknown series that got cancelled midway through it’s first and only season a Great Moment in TV.
I guess I also missed it… in fact I missed the entire series… I even missed the fact that it was a TV show.
In fairness… it looks like TV Land ranked it 49th in the most unexpected TV moments. Just not something I’ve never even heard mentioned before.
It happened at about 4:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon in the Eastern US. Depending on where you were, you wouldn’t have had to stay up.
But I missed it, too. I remember watching many of the space missions back in the late 1960s, but the main things I remember were the simulations of what was going on with stage separation, and this commercial running frequently.
I also missed:
The Newhart finale. Wasn’t a show that I ever watched, so I missed the finale, too.
Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction.’ We had had an ice storm, and I was without power (and had not been invited to any Super Bowl parties).
Ali’s torch lighting in 1996. I had recorded the Opening Ceremonies, but had not had a chance to see it.
9-11 coverage of the second plane crash or the tower collapse.
Huh. I just looked at the Wikipedia article and it says that Neil stepped onto the surface at 02:56 UTC, which would be 10:56 AM EDT. So I guess we are both wrong, but I wonder why, after all these years, I thought it occurred sometime near midnight. Strange.
As a kid, especially in the summertime, there’s no damned way I’d be watching TV in the middle of the day. There was very little programming for kids back than. I would have been at the park, or riding my bike, or doing a dozen other things rather than watching TV.
First step was at 2:56 UTC which is 10:56pm EDT. The landing was around 4, but the steps were what everyone wanted to see. I did get to stay up and I remember going out and looking at the moon in my pajamas with my family.
I guess I watch too much TV because I saw almost all of these as they happened. Newhart… check, Mash… check, Seinfeld… check. Lunar landing and first steps, Nixon resigning, Clinton denying he had “sexual relations” with that woman… Monica Lewinsky, 9/11 second plane hitting and towers falling, Ali’s torch lighting, Janet’s nipple (in Hi Def at my neighbor’s and plenty of replay… we still weren’t positive), and the Challenger explosion I saw on about 30 TV’s (I managed an electronics department and had just turned on the wall of TV’s display).