I was watching the local (Los Angeles) newscast one night when they went to the weather. They didn’t have a meteorologist or anything; one of the regular newsreaders just covered the weather. They cut to him, and he simply said “More of the same; back to you, Hal.” The camera then cut to the anchor, who had a hilarious, wide-eyed, panicked look on his face.
Brisbane newsreader Marie-Louise Thiele was caught live on-air coming back from a break one night complaining about the state of her marriage:
She kept her job. Whether or not she kept her husband I do not know.
mm
What made it even better was that he said “This is it! It’s the big one!”
Way to panic the public, dork.
I didn’t see this one, but I heard it from my father who worked for ABC News.
Apparently Peter Jennings was delivering the news, and appeared nervous and distracted. At the end of the segment he apologized and explained that an armed man had entered the building and headed for a floor which Jennings’ daughter was on, and had been stopped by ABC security.
Did anybody see this or hear anything about it? I don’t recall all the details, or whether it was at the New York or Washington bureau.
I didn’t see it either, but it definitely sounds familiar. It was in New York a couple of years ago, IIRC.
About my Jennings story:
Definitely not. He told me this story in the middle to late 90’s. I don’t know if he said when it happened.
That definately was Draveky, and it happened in Montreal. I’ll never forget what that sounded like.
I remember a football game a few years ago, it was probably MNF, but it might have been a sunday night game, where fans started throwing snowballs at the broadcast booth. You hear one of the announcers say, “Hey. HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!”, and then “thump thump” as the snowballs hit the booth.
And here’s another Howard Cosell one that involved none other than Earl Weaver. It was Earl’s last game in Baltimore before retirement, and Cosell was in the booth (didn’t they have Monday Night Baseball for a while?). The game ends, and the crowd stays to give Earl a standing ovation. Cosell thought they had cut to commercial and he was screaming at the director that they were missing out on one of the greatest moments in sports and that it was a slap in the face to Weaver etc. etc. The whole time the camera was panning over the crowd and Cosell was screaming into an open mic.
BTW, did that Manager’s Corner thing with Weaver actually go out on the air like that, or was it taped?
A couple of favourite live sports bloopers… Channel 9 cricket commetator Tony Grieg to his role as “colour man” a bit far with some racially indelicate comments on air
http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/1999/V13n4/Greig.htm
Before the 1977 Sydney Rugby League Grand Final, part of the entertainment was a chap who was planning to fly around the stadium on a James-Bond style jetpack. The commentator (Rex Mossop?) , thinking he had switched over to the on-ground man for descriptions of the aeronaut’s derring-do, promptly called out over a still open mic to his producer, or whoever, “now let’s watch this fu**head kill himself!”
mm
Shaun Ryder on TFI Friday with Chris Evans was quite memorable - it was the second time he’d been on the show, which was aired live at 6pm on Fridays.
Chris was interviewing Shaun, and started the interview thusly (I’m paraphrasing):
Chris: Shaun, last time you were on the show, you swore a lot and got us into trouble.
Shaun: Yes…
Chris: Now, I want you to promise not to swear at all this time, it’s only 6 o’clock and we’re not allowed swearwords on the show. As an incentive, if you manage to go through the whole interview without swearing at all, I will give you my shoes. [Takes shoes off, and puts them on the table in front of Shaun]. These are expensive, good quality shoes, but they are yours if you manage to get through the interview without swearing.
Shaun: Them’s fucking nice shoes.
[Chris takes the shoes and puts them back on].
I’m not sure how many people saw this one, but I remember it because I knew the guy involved. When I was at university in Oxford, I lived near to all the sights that make Oxford what it is. Often, TV crews would be filming there. Some researchers in the library had been looking at some old memoirs of Edward VIII, or something, and BBC News was there to cover it.
Realising that they would be going live on location, one of my friends went to a local electronics store, and bought a portable TV. He stood in the corner of the library, tuned to the BBC, listening in on what the coverage was saying and pretending to read a book. When they said “We’re now going live to Nicholas Witchell in Oxford”, he walked up to the reporter, got the TV out of his pocket, and held it in front of him saying “look mate, you’re on telly”. He then disappeared round a corner, and walked off - the producer that chased him was looking for someone running away, and so didn’t catch him. What I liked most about this was that he went back to the electronics store, returned the TV, and got his money back!