Although this is a poll of sorts, or a call for opinions, I thought that its subject matter might be best suited for this forum. If a mod feels differently, please move it at your discretion.
I think my favorite moment was on a relatively obscure TLC show called Airline. There’s a guy named Michael Carr, who is the manager of customer service. In one episode, he was called in to deal with a situation where a man had peed in his pants. As he approached, he saw an elderly couple. The man was in a wheelchair, his pants darkened by wetness, and his wife by his side comforting him. His initial reaction was that the man should not fly because his incontinence would be a problem on the plane. Then, he learned that the old man suffered from Alzheimers, and the old woman began sobbing as she told him the story of how her husband had been slowly drifting away. Michael comforted her, and with the gentleness of an angel, took her and her husband into a private bathroom where he helped change the man’s pants. His kindness and tenderness lifted the spirits of the woman and even drew a satisfied smile from the man. His treatment of them restored their dignity, and left me with a cloud of goodwill floating all around me that lasted for a very long time.
Sean and Pedro’s wedding on The Real World season three.
The announcement by MTV that Pedro had died of AIDS, IIRC the same day the final episode of the season aired, followed by watching the episode which included a number of the cast members talking about how they knew Pedro was going to live a long time.
But yeah, for a show that usually shows some of the worst behavior humanity has to offer through the belligerent and arrogant customers, I’m very glad they were able to run across a moment like that.
Rich wining over Kelly in the original Survivor. NOBODY saw that coming. Everybody thought that Kelly had the votes (including myself) and Greg coming out of nowhere number thing suprised us all.
Real World/Road Rules: Battle of the Sexes - Melissa who is deathly afraid of heights, completes every single height related task, above and beyond most of the others on both sides. While her times never gave the girls the winning score, just doing it is such a moment as it shows somebody swallowing her fears and working for the team, no matter how bad it actually effects her. She was often mocked but she made it to the last elimination simply because she faced her fear, even though it physically and mentually hurt her. I was happy she got the car out of it.
I mentioned this one in an earlier Survivor thread.
In Survivor: Pearl Islands, a pelican flew down and just ambled around on one beach, doing nothing in particular. Osten (big burly “He-Man,” who would later quit because the whole experience was too draining and exhausting for him) was afraid of it and scrambled away like a little 4-year-old girl, and then started sharpening the machete. He kept up a stream of tough-talk about how he was going to kill it if it came any closer. He was terrified of this friendly little pelican.
Ryan looked at him like he was nuts, calmly picked up the pelican, and walked it down the beach to a safer spot, while petting it and talking to it.
There was an episode of Fear Factor: Family a few weeks back with an incident that brought MammaHomie to tears. I didn’t see it, so I’m basically going on MammaHomie’s memory here.
In the very first stunt, the child had to gather flags in a rotating tube or something. The little girl had a difficult time grabbing the flags, but she refused to give up. She stayed there well after she had lost all hope of staying in the game, valiantly grabbing every flag she could, regardless of how long it took her. Some thirty minutes had passed by before she grabbed the last flag, but she had vowed to grab them all no matter how long it took. Sort of like the runner who injures his leg during the race and crawls across the finish line because, dammit, he’s going to finish that race.
Apparently, one of the mothers watching on the ground was crying on-screen at the little girl’s heart, and even Joe Rogan(sp?) was a little farklempt.
If anyone can help flesh out the details of this I’d most appreciate it.
I know this is an obvious one, but I’m going to say it anyway. Sue Hawk’s speech in the Survivor I finale was the greatest reality show moment ever. If it aired today, we wouldn’t think much of it, but back then it was pretty riveting. I still remember watching it with my mouth wide open in amazement. Since then, nothing on reality TV has made me react like that. And probably nothing will, since I now watch a lot of these shows with this look on my face: :dubious:
On second thought, Shannon using Hardy’s toothbrush to clean the toilet on Big Brother II left pretty me slack-jawed (one of the dangers of long-term reality TV abuse, BTW ), but it wasn’t a great moment like Sue’s “I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with ya” speech.
Second place would be Kelly Clarkson’s win on American Idol I. When she was singing “A Moment Like This” (a carefully-written song especially for the finale to evoke strong emotions from the audience and the winner) and could barely make it through because she was crying, I actually shed a tear. My mom was shedding buckets when she called to ask if I was crying.
Third place is the entire season of Showbiz Moms and Dads
I gotta second the “It wasn’t not funny”. That’s still quoted on another message board I frequent. Yes…there ARE other message boards!
That’s more than enough smilies for one post. Sorry.
When the guy on My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance pretended that he shit his pants, it too left me with a cloud of goodwill floating all around me that lasted for a very long time.
Holy crap! I must be so out of the loop that I couldn’t find the loop with a telescope.
I’ve never seen a minute of any episode of any show nominated so far…
), but it wasn’t a great moment like Sue’s “I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with ya” speech.