Then I guess I have a false memory. I know I didn’t watch it when it aired.
I missed Sally Field’s famous 1985 Oscar acceptance line, 'You like me! You really like me!" I was in the kitchen getting a snack.
And I claim bonus points, because every news team and comedian picked up on it immediately, so it was overdone and not funny or interesting to me when I finally saw the clip. In fact, it makes me cringe whenever it’s revived.
Yeah, and I’m not sure what time of day it aired in the US when it did air.
Didn’t see any of the shuttle explosions even though I was old enough
Missed the 2nd plane hitting the South (or is it North) tower because NY is 3 hours ahead of me and I wasn’t watching TV that morning
Kobe Bryant’s 81 points
Janet Jackson’s nipple
On the other hand I did catch Ashlee Simpson’s SNL, but I didn’t understand what was happening at the time. I don’t really pay attention to the musical acts
I missed the “Soup Nazi” episode on Seinfeld.
I remember everybody going on and on about this episode. (Seriously, if I never hear the phrase: “No soup for you!” again, it will be too soon!) When I finally saw it years later, it was a big fat “meh” for me.
It wasn’t a bad episode, it just wasn’t anything… spectacular.
I missed Seinfeld.
I missed watching the final game of the '72 Canada/Russia series, but listened to it on the radio. Even recorded it on cassette. Though I was at the game in Vancouver, drinking vodka and booing the Canadians team.
I missed out on Phil Esposito tearing a strip off us Canadian fans, and never saw that interview for years. Sorry Phil, but it did wake you guys up.
I missed out on a lot of tv events in the70s. Didn’t have a tv for a few years. I was too busy being educated and partying.
I don’t know if this was it, but I remember watching The Tonight Show sometime in the late '80s, and Johnny was getting particularly huge laughs, mainly because he didn’t realize that his fly was open. Someone finally got his attention near the end of the monologue and he fixed the problem. He then passed a comment that made the audience howl, but I don’t remember what it was. That might have been it.
Same here. I was at someone’s huge Super Bowl party; there were three TVs on in different rooms, and apparently nobody noticed it (or made any remark if they did).
I missed the finales of MASH, Newhart, and Seinfeld too. I wasn’t a MASH fan (the show’s sanctimony grated on me), so I didn’t care about that one. I’m not sure why I missed the other two; I was never a consistent sitcom viewer.
Was on vacation in Atlanta with some friends while the OJ white Bronco chase was occuring. We were at a Virgin record store at they had it on the TV there. We glanced up for a half second then forgot all about it.
It wasn’t till a week later when I was home again that I heard more about the whole story.
Time for a brief history lesson, Spud, wake up:
“I Married Dora” was one of the first TV shows to utilize the “marrying-to-get-a-green-card-and-stay-in-the-US” gimmick and suffered HUGE bad press from the get go. The show wasn’t that great anyway (despite the adorable Elizabeth Peña) and I’m pretty sure they had to post a placard at the beginning of each episode saying they did not condone illegal immigration/bogus marriage. It was no surprise it was cancelled PDQ. Up until that time, I don’t think I had ever seen a series resolved–Gilligan, Lost In Space, Land of the Giants, pick a similar show; I dare you to find 5 shows of that type that had a resolution. So, not many viewers had any idea (or actually CARED) how, or if, the show was going to conclude. The final show was nuts, IIRC. It was like Greek theater: every couple of minutes, something would happen to make everybody’s life awfuller; by the end, the male lead was taking a job half way around the world, away from his kids, leaving Dora to her fate–despite his having developed feelings for his “wife”–which was probably deportation at the least. Of course, she had feelings for him, as well. Then they all get to the airport and the rest is on the YouTube clip. I’m not sure if this counts as a Deus ex machina, but close enough for government work.
And if that’s not a Greater TV Moment than Ashlee Shithead flubbing her dub, I’ll eat her transmitter microphone.
So YOU’RE the guy that robbed that liquor store three states over from me. 
Apparently, six whole people in the US missed that episode and were responsible for the massive crime wave that plagued the nation that evening. 
I sat with my family in horror & sadness, watching TV throughout the weekend after JFK’s assassination. But I went into the kitchen for a snack & missed Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald.
But there were plenty of reruns…
Both World Trade Center bombings (1993 & 2001). The TV reception was knocked out, what with the antenna on the top of the building being gone.
Sorry… I still think a nap sounds more exciting.
Would you prefer Ketchup or Mustard with that?
Seriously… I didn’t see Ashlee flub her lipsync and I really don’t consider that a major moment in TV either, but I at least was aware of that TV moment. I actually thought when you said you missed the I Married Dora finale that it must be a UK program or something. I was surprised that it was a US show, I watch way too much TV.
I was half-watching that (well, quarter-watching, I’m also not big on the musical numbers), and while it struck me as odd that the performance seemed a lot shorter that unusual, I didn’t know what was happening. I think at the time I assumed some technical difficulty with the broadcast, forcing a sharp cutaway.
I was living and working in Westchester County (the county just north of New York City) in 1993. The bombing at the World Trade Center parking garage happened mid-morning, but I heard nothing about it until I was driving home at 5pm. The radio deejay or traffic reporter said something like, “Of course traffic is still a mess downtown.” So I got home, turned on the TV and learned for the first time what happened.
For me it’s OJ.
Now, okay I was a Brit living in Chicago in '94 without a TV. Until the start of that week, my only awareness of him at all was vaguely as the black guy regular bit player in the Naked Gun films. I suppose I might have been aware that there was a sporting career behind that, but what might I care? Now once the murder case started, one certainly became aware of it all, especially because there was that immediate Chicago jurisdiction angle.
But that Friday night? I’m still not quite sure how I missed it all. I spent much of the night in a local bar with a bunch of colleagues. Nobody twigged to what was unfolding.
The first I knew about any sensational “chase” was overhearing a conversation amongst strangers on a bus about midday on the Saturday.
I did, too, and went back in the living room when my mother started yelling, “They shot him!”
I remember thinking, “That was a couple days ago!”, and then found out she was talking about Oswald.
I was in Honduras and missed the OJ chase.
Wow, I’m with Spud on this. I’m 45 and never in my life have heard of this show. I thought maybe it was something from the 60s or early 70s before my time.
The only Dora from pop culture that I know is a cartoon.