Have you ever unexpectedly seem someone you know or remember on TV? If the person tells you ahead of time, that doesn’t count, unless you want to cheat. And you know who never prospers.
I thought I did, but then I realized she looked like my friend Ella (hi babe) did more than 20 years ago when I last saw her. Dang! Got my old heart to thumping, though.
It doesn’t have to be an old lover, just somebody you didn’t expect to see there. Even someone you still associate with.
Peace,
mangeorge
“Dottie Von Pul,” come on down!" and there she was. From my first two years of teaching, the gorgeous Dottie. She looked just as cute and bouncy coming down to the front as she did in 1971. The last time I saw her, we had finished our records for the year and were hanging out in her room playing cards until everyone was ready to head out for the summer. We had no idea that our school would be closing.
That’s cool. Did you think about looking her up? She’d probably get a kick out of it.
A few years ago, I recognized one of the contestants on Jeopardy! as someone who was on the college newspaper with me. I think he won the first day but lost the second. And I recognized one of the people on a commercial for a for-profit technical school as someone I met during a business trip.
Some years ago, I was surfing around the TV dial. I happened across a sports trivia game show. It was hosted by “David [Blank].” (I’ll keep his last name unknown–not sure if he’d like to show up in a Google search this way.)
Anyway, I checked it out. The host was indeed the David whom I knew and had played a certain sport with when we were in our teens. That was at least 30 years ago.
Now, here’s where things get a little weird. In the years since, I had moved across the country, but returned to my old home town from time to time to see family. One thing I always did when I returned was to go to my favorite old barbershop to get a haircut from the barber who has known me and cut my hair since I was a child. So on a recent visit, I was waiting for my haircut, and from one of the chairs, a familiar-looking gentleman popped up and paid off his tab and left. He was gone before I realized he was David, but I finally did and when it was my turn, I asked my barber if he was a regular. “Oh yes, David still comes in when he can. Just like you.” I guess our old neighbourhood was like the Hotel California: you can check out anytime, but you can never leave. 
One of my professors was on Jeopardy! while we were in his class. He didn’t tell anyone about it beforehand and a few of us saw it and asked him about it the next day. He had a major brain freeze on his last daily double and the final question and lost.
He then told us he won $32,000 on Who Wants to be a Millionaire the year before. I actually saw this episode later that year.
I suppose in a way this is unrelated, but kind of not. A person from my past who was kind of messed up emotionally always told me that she was abused as a child by her father. She would tell these grand stories that basically amounted to a child porno ring complete with video and photos. When I was younger without any experience in the world, I always just assumed she was a little grand with her stories. Now I occasionally wonder if there are videos and photos of her out there. After knowing her for years and years, and her story never changing I actually believe they’re out there in cyberspace somewhere.
On 9/11 I saw an old co-worker on the news. His flight had been diverted to TF Green airport in Rhode Island and they were interviewing him about it. He used the same fake last name he used to use when I knew him.
A childhood friend and his father were on the original Wopner People’s Court.
I’ve known numerous people who were on game shows which is not unusual growing up in L.A. Off the top of my head, a cousin was on Jeopardy, step-sister on Love Connection, a former co-worker on one of those short lived MTV party shows, an acquaintance on a dating reality show, a friend on the 90’s incarnation of the Dating Game…
A few years ago, I saw one of my high school classmates on Judge Judy. He was a bit of a tool in high school so I wasn’t surprised to see him as the Defendant. He was accused of stiffing his landlord out of rent money.
Being a tool, he actually did stiff his landlord and Judge Judy made him pay.
Watching Ricki Lake one day several years ago- the topic was “Cheating Boyfriends”, of course- Ricki introduced her next guest who believed her man was cheating. They cut to the guest , a portly blonde girl. I say “That looks like Tawny.” Ricki then thanked Tawny for coming on the show.
Tawny and I went to elementary school together.
Yep, I saw an acquaintance (girl who dated my friend’s younger brother) on JJ. She was kind of a psycho when I knew her, and a few years later she was still a psycho. One of her even more out-of-it friends had conned her out of some money, and she was suing.
It was pretty wierd, seeing my small little town’s name on national TV.
Not me, but my fiancee saw her college roommate lifint her shirt in a commercial for one of the early “Girls Gone Wild” videos.
From about 1990 to 1993 there was a short lived TV show hosted by John Bunnell called “American Detective” that followed detectives solving crimes and making busts. I was in college watching it with some friends from high school who went to the same college. One of the people in the surveillance video of a drug bust they were about to do on some Deadheads in a Santa Cruz park looked oddly familiar, so we hit record on the VCR. Sure enough it was a guy we all knew from high school. He rolled over on his supplier, an otherwise harmless old hippie called “Mushroom Bob,” who later jumped bond and went on the lam. We called some other high school friends, and they just happened to be watching the same show. I don’t think anyone’s seen the guy since then.
My mom used to regularly watch Jerry Springer episodes, and inevitably, I would end up watching them with her. She always said she was looking for long lost family members. (I always assumed she was joking!) One day, a cousin of mine was one of Jerry’s very special guests. Definitely a proud moment for our family.
A guy that I used to work with was a part of the Jay Walking segment of the tonight show. I’m not a regular Leno watcher but somehow flipped through right when they were interviewing him. It definitely did not show him as being the brightest bulb in the box.
You never tried to get ahold of him after that to see if they paid him off or something?
Some people on Jay Walking are so clueless, I’m very nearly convinced some of them are paid off.
Honestly it never occurred to me that he was paid. I assumed he played stupid to get his 15 minutes (or seconds) of fame. Some people are willing to do anything to be on TV. I knew he wanted to be an actor, so I thought it was at least some screen time.
Oh duh! I completely forgot about that angle. Nevermind me. :smack:
I saw a couple that I knew on Peoples Court. They were being sued by a former part-time housekeeper that claimed they had never paid her.
The poor housekeeper barely spoke English and was out of her depth, whereas the couple I knew seemed credible.
But I knew they weren’t, I knew they were nasty vindictive batshit crazy rich people-- they had a dispute with the buyer of their last condo and before they left the husband hacked all the condo’s expensive electronic systems and loaded weird routines into the processor so they would malfunction, I was the one called in by the buyers to fix it, that’s when I confirmed deliberate sabotage.
So I’m watching them insult and lie about this poor woman then the female of the couple I knew started making nasty faces and Judy M noticed and she noticed some other inconsistencies in their testimony and she ended up busting them for it and she ruled against them which made me very happy.
I was also on TV once myself – on the local news - I had been stopped at a gas station by a film crew and was solicited for some comments on gas prices and they even threw out my name a few times in the news story.
It was funny, it wasn’t even a news station that I typically watched but I watched that night to see if they ran the interview and they did and my phone immediately started ringing off the hook…I had know idea that many people were watching. And ever since then when I run into acquaintances they sometimes mention seeing me in that news clip.