# memorable and notorious happenings in live broadcasts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215 "2006-02-26T20:35:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![bclouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@bclouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bclouse)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/101 "2006-03-09T04:34:38Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > It was referenced recently in another thread (the one about the ‘cigarette-smokingest shows ever’). Johnny Carson used to keep a cigarette box on his desk, and one night after Don Rickles filled in for him, Johnny came back to find it broken. He grabbed a camera guy with a hand-held camera, and walked over to the _CPO Sharkey_ set and proceeded to rip Rickles a new one. Carson was actually angry, but by the end they were all laughing about it. Holy Cow! I remember seeing this too. Forgot all about it and would have never remembered if you didn’t mention it. Forgot all about CPO Sharkey as well 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/102 "2006-03-09T04:42:17Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > As for notorious, I can think of nothing worse than a bright sunny Tuesday in September about four and a half years ago… I was watching live coverage in a conference room at work and one of the things that stuck out for me was when the second tower fell. Aaron Brown on CNN was speechless. There was just silence as the building came down and he eventually said something like “what can anybody say?” ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/103 "2006-03-09T04:44:52Z")
> [@mack](#): > > I was watching live coverage in a conference room at work and one of the things that stuck out for me was when the second tower fell. I was working a corporate show. Needless to say, I never got the chance to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/104 "2006-03-09T05:03:47Z")
I remember seeing the Howard Cosell “little monkey” comment live. The player (can’t remember who now) was having a hell of a game and was running with absolutly no concern for his safety. It was quite obvious to anyone with a brain that Howard didn’t mean anything racial about it. Especially given his record during the civil rights movement. I wonder if anyone else remembers this other Cosell moment. On some broadcast during my youth a fan in the stands found a live microphone, probably one of the ones they use for crowd noise. This fan starts yelling rude things at Howard over a pretty long period of time. IIRC he never said anything that needed to be bleeped but it was embarrasing. For some reason they couldn’t isolate that mic and eliminate it. Cosell made things worse by saying something like, “I think I know that guy.” It was obvious to anyone listening that it was some random drunk asshole in the stands. ---
**Author:** ![swissmtndog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@swissmtndog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swissmtndog)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/105 "2006-03-09T05:24:20Z")
In the excellent book about the American Basketball Assocation - “Loose Balls”. Bob Costas, who was a play-by-play announcer for the St. Louis Spirits at the time, recalled the opening line he used in interviewing the St. Louis coach the day after the team lost a game to the Kentucky Colonels after having a big lead earlier in the game… “Well coach, how about that blow job in Kentucky last night?” Every time I see Costas on TV, can’t help but laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/106 "2006-03-09T05:30:35Z")
> [@mack](#): > > I was watching live coverage in a conference room at work and one of the things that stuck out for me was when the second tower fell. Aaron Brown on CNN was speechless. There was just silence as the building came down and he eventually said something like “what can anybody say?” If that’s who I was watching, he said, after the long pause you mentioned, “…There are no words.” ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/107 "2006-03-09T06:33:32Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I remember watching a hockey game where one of the players got ejected for fighting. As he’s leaving the ice, the director cut to the rinkside camera. This put the ejected player about two feet from a live mike as he yelled, “FUCKIN’ FAGGOT!” at the ref. Cut to commercial. I think it was Bobby Clarke, as a player in one of the Canada-Red Army games: this was in the 70’s and they were starting to put more cameras and microphones in the broadcasts. They trained the camera on the bench, turned the mike on, and commented: “There’s Bobby Clarke, he always has something to say that will urge his team on!”. With perfect timing, Clarke let’s loose at Bruce Hood, the ref: “Why don’t you go fuck yourself Hood you fucking queer!” ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/108 "2006-03-09T07:01:20Z")
> [@K364](#): > > I think it was Bobby Clarke, as a player in one of the Canada-Red Army games: this was in the 70’s and they were starting to put more cameras and microphones in the broadcasts. They trained the camera on the bench, turned the mike on, and commented: “There’s Bobby Clarke, he always has something to say that will urge his team on!”. With perfect timing, Clarke let’s loose at Bruce Hood, the ref: “Why don’t you go fuck yourself Hood you fucking queer!” The funny thing is, Bobby Clarke probably still would have said the same thing had he known he was being mic’ed. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_loblaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@bob\_loblaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_loblaw)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/109 "2006-03-09T09:21:53Z")
i can remember watching the challenger blow up live; i was in elementary school, and we had had a live video hookup to the launch (i think it was grade three.) i do remember that regular classes were cancelled for the rest of the day, and we had long discussions about the the dangers & risks & benefits of science with teachers and previously unknown councilors for the rest of that day. and also i remember being called inside by my mom from playing ball hockey in the street, to sit & watch on the cbc - if not the actualities - at least the replays of both tiananmen square & the fall of the berlin wall. (i think, but without doing math am unsure, that these were during grades 5 & 6 ) and i can remember being in my late highschool (i think grade 13) up late at night watching t.v. when the news of princess diana dying broke. i woke my mom up to tell her the news, and she was like “meh. i gotta work tomorrow. if you wake me up this time again, it had better be for something impotant!” also on 9/11/01, i was awakened by a guy who lived a couple rooms away in residence pounding loudly on my door. he told me that the wtc & pentagon had been attacked, and i was in a slightly hungover daze, but i became very sobered as i was led into a neighbour’s room just in time to see the first world trade centre tower collapse (i’m pretty sure it was live, though at least on one of, if not the, first replays of the tragedy shown on t.v.) ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/110 "2006-03-09T10:14:10Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I remember watching a hockey game where one of the players got ejected for fighting. As he’s leaving the ice, the director cut to the rinkside camera. This put the ejected player about two feet from a live mike as he yelled, “FUCKIN’ FAGGOT!” at the ref. Cut to commercial. Back in the 70’s they experimented a bit with miking the players’ benches. I remember one game where Bobby Clarke (captain of the Flyers at the time, now their GM) was berating the referee: “You bastard, Hood! YOU FUCKIN QUEER!” They could get away with that in those days 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/111 "2006-03-09T10:24:49Z")
Unless it slipped in without me noticing, we’re sorely lacking one famous moment: [“Up the Butt, Bob”](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/newlywed.htm). :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/112 "2006-03-09T14:51:23Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > IIRC, it was late morning-ish. I was working in a mall and went to get coffee and passed one of those big screen TV stores by the food court. They showed it ready to lift off when I was going, and went I was on my way back, there was a huge crowd of people standing around - it had just exploded. I was in first period in high school when one shop teacher came over and told our shop teacher on the way to the coffee pot that the shuttle had exploded. We didn’t believe him. This would make it between 8 and 9 am, I would think. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/113 "2006-03-09T15:03:08Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > We’ve done this one before. It was captured on film, but wasn’t live. Not true. I was watching ABC (Channel 6 Action News for those in Philly) news with my mother and saw the only live shot that was aired. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/114 "2006-03-09T15:19:59Z")
(previous post was referring to the Bud Dwyer suicide) Who can forget the [“Mr Higgins” call](http://www.iseeoj.com/articles/davebyers-net.php) during the end of the OJ chase, and Al Michaels’ “totally farcical” comment? Also, I recall seeing Anwar Sadat get assasinated on TV in 1981 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/115 "2006-03-09T16:14:09Z")
[The late Charles Rocket](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rocket) appeared in a “Who Shot JR?” parody in April 1981 and the sketch hit some skids due to Charlene Tilton blowing lines and the writing not being that good in the first place, prompting Rocket to mumble “Who the fuck did it?” It got by far the biggest laugh of the sketch. Rocket was fired. George Wallace’s campaigning in Maryland was being filmed for Maryland TV and I _believe_ was being aired live (though I’m not 100% positive of that) when Bremer shot him. Toni Tenille (of Captain & fame) lost a boob from her very low cut gown at a music awards show from the early 80s and was briefly caught on camera. Christine Lahti received a Golden Globe award for her acting in 1999 and was in the bathroom when her name was called. Jack Nicholson casually announced “It was number two…”. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/116 "2006-03-09T16:19:21Z")
[Yukio Mishima](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima), Japanese activist/writer/homo/nutcase, was aired in his horribly botched _seppuku_ in 1970. I believe his assistant/lover’s decapitation was also caught on live TV. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/117 "2006-03-09T17:41:23Z")
Wasn’t Howard Cosell also drunk once on air? I caught the biopic with John Turturro (?) as Cosell, and I guess it was the last game of the season and someone had brought several bottles of champagne, and Howard, um, _partook_. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/118 "2006-03-09T17:54:03Z")
From the IMDB site: On October 22, 1986 Jane Dornacker was killed while doing a traffic report on WNBC-AM in New York City. Much to the horror and dismay of radio host Joey Reynolds and the millions of WNBC-AM listeners who heard the terrified voice of Jane Dornacker screaming “HIT THE WATER! HIT THE WATER! HIT THE WATER!” as the helicopter from which she and pilot Bill Pate were reporting, fell from the sky and crashed into the Hudson River. A very shaken Joey Reynolds searched for the right words to say in the tense moments after the transmission breaks off. She died on arrival to Saint Vincent’s Hospital. Jane Dornacker was 38 years old. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/119 "2006-03-09T17:55:37Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > I was in first period in high school when one shop teacher came over and told our shop teacher on the way to the coffee pot that the shuttle had exploded. We didn’t believe him. This would make it between 8 and 9 am, I would think. Were you living in California then? I was in Florida - there’s that time difference. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215/120 "2006-03-09T18:00:04Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > Were you living in California then? I was in Florida - there’s that time difference. I was lifting weights at the gym in college when they broke into the radio broadcast with the news, I remember it clearly. It was around noon or so which would make it 9 on the west coast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-and-notorious-happenings-in-live-broadcasts/346215.md?page=7)