# Television Moments You Won't Forget. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 14, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397 "2003-07-14T15:42:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![MemoryGongs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@MemoryGongs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MemoryGongs)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/181 "2003-08-05T00:15:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Romper Room was Canadian?? And this I didn’t even know. \*\* im sure it was but maybe not…its just such a childhood show i threw it in…it was certainly bad enough to be canadian ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/182 "2003-08-05T00:51:18Z")
I don’t know… We had this debate at work, and someone looked it up on the 'net. Originally there were lot’s of regional Romper Rooms. I don’t remember the gory details tho. ---
**Author:** ![80sHairMetalMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/ed655f/32.png) [@80sHairMetalMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/80sHairMetalMaven)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/183 "2003-08-05T03:09:50Z")
**6was9** –yeah I couldn’t believe it. They cut off Frank Sinatra in the middle of his goddamn speech and it really ticked everybody off. But Billy Joel got right and gave the man his props.🙂 You don’t mess with someone from New Jersey by god. I don’t know if anyone outside of the DFW metroplex has ever seen it, but **Mr.Peppermint** was an early Sat morning fixture and fave of mine for years and years. I cried when Mr. Peppermint died a few years ago. The world (or at least the big section that is DFW) lost a great entertainer. IDBB ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/184 "2003-08-05T03:34:40Z")
Since we’re on this odd tangent…anyone remember Capt. Chesapeake? 8 bells? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/185 "2003-08-05T07:45:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by if6was9 \* > \*\ ***Bad\_Boys** reminded me of another. Elvis Costello on SNL, starts a song (don’t know his stuff…) plays a few bars then yells Stop Stop! Then launches into another song. \*\* Costello knew his stuff. He was told to play one song, but he wanted to play another. The “correct” song was played during the dress rehearsal. The on-air switch was pure defiance. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2003, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/186 "2003-08-22T05:14:48Z")
I’m resurrecting this thread because it wouldn’t be complete without these two words: **1.** _Joe_, and **2.** _Theisman_ [shudder] ---
**Author:** ![WillSantini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@WillSantini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillSantini)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/187 "2003-08-22T21:17:30Z")
Kerri Strug - 1996 Olympics -[delivered the most dramatic moment of the 1996 Summer Olympics when she completed a vault (9.712) after spraining her ankle; the second vault assured the first all-around gold medal for a US Women’s gymnastics team after poor vaulting by her teammates had put the medal in doubt; a poor performance by the Russian team on the beam had clinched the gold medal for the US but Strug was unaware when she made the second vault.](http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0109681.html) ---
**Author:** ![Anniee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@Anniee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniee)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/188 "2003-08-23T01:31:40Z")
Nadia Comenici’s perfect tens…and Gilda Radner spoofing her. After months of hype about how beautiful a skater NANCY was (I thought she sucked and there was nothing beautiful about her skating at ALL), watching that little girl from the Ukraine just kick the shit out of her. Technically imperfect, she did something I never saw anyone do before or since - _added_ jumps to get the technical points she needed and beat Nancy by one tenth of a point. IMO there was no contest; you can’t compare Mozart to Neil Sedaka. And Suriya Bonali - blew me AWAY. Again something I’d never seen done…she had made a couple mistakes and knew she had no shot; so you could see her mind CLICK into another gear and see the moment she decided “Screw the judges; I’m gonna play to the crowd.” And the crowd went nuts. She even did her backflip, which isn’t allowed in competition because she’s the only one who could do it lol. The original space shuttle disaster…they showed it all day and all night on every channel and then never again for ten years. Reagan being shot. Ford being shot at. Carol Burnett tugging her ear and her final “I’m so glad we had this time…” I remember the moon landing but I was so little I don’t know if it was happening at that moment or maybe a year or two later I was seeing the footage. NIXON RESIGNING; men crying always kills me. These have probably all been mentioned heh. ---
**Author:** ![Anniee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@Anniee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniee)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/189 "2003-08-23T01:33:14Z")
Once and only once did my name get mentioned at the end of the Romper Room when she spoke out some random names. I thought she was talking to me. Fun show heh. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/190 "2003-08-23T02:19:25Z")
I _never_ got mentioned on Romper Room ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Nanook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nanook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanook)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/191 "2003-08-25T03:05:53Z")
I’ll bypass those events of historical importance (Kennedy, the moon landing, Columbine, 9/11) and concentrate on the mundane (in no order of importance): 1. The continuing episode of… ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/192 "2003-08-25T03:55:20Z")
“Ten seconds to go, nine, eight, seven…Do you believe in miracles?!----two, one!” And then the sight of people jumping onto the ice, the flags waving…My family listened to that game on the radio before it was broadcast on TV later that night, and I remember thinking, _Oh, please don’t let them lose, please don’t let them lose_ as only a little kid could. That was a great moment. ---
**Author:** ![Nanook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nanook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanook)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/193 "2003-08-25T04:08:53Z")
Carmela Soprano’s (Edie Falco) meltdown last season on The Sopranos, one of the most terrifying, powerful and TRUE performances I’ve seen on television ``` FAMILY---wonderful writing and terrific acting by a top-flight cast, particularly the warm and classy Sada Thompson, are hallmarks of this underrated show THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE---A great PBS show from the days before they sold out to the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Sarah Brightman-Andrea Bocelli brain-dead crowd. Some favorite made-for-TV movies; Playing for Time (Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander), Escape from Sobibor ( Alan Arkin), The Missiles of October ( William Devane, Howard Da Silva) ``` ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/194 "2003-08-25T07:00:43Z")
A few MASH ones that haven’t been mentioned yet. Winchester’d operated on a patient who lost the use of his right arm. Normally this would be cause enough for consternation, but the look in the man’s eyes … “I’m a concert pianist.” And then the one-handed sheetmusic and Winchester missing the MASH barbecue … “each of us must answer to his own tune.” One of very few episodes in which Winchester and Pierce were being civil to each other. The show ends with them in Rosie’s Bar drinking: Pierce toasts: “To our fathers.” Winchester respond: “And to their sons.” The aforementioned “Colonel Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the South China Sea [I think]. :: pause :: There were no survivors.” episode. That hit hard. The entirety of the episodes where there’s a clock in the lower right corner of the television screen and Pierce et al. are trying to save this man’s life and vainly hoping they can keep him from being paralyzed … and the one that ends with the orphan child of the Korean woman and the American GI being placed in a sort of child basket of a nearby church. The end of the episode where Pierce et al. shoot a video for a visiting person looking to do some “This is what MASH units face…” thing. The video is mostly slapstick comedy but the beginning and end … chilling. Nine words: “He died with dignity, with honor and with pride.” 1995 World Series, Game Six. Patrick Ewing’s number retired (of course, given my state of emotions then, I remember it as a very blurry scene). ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/195 "2003-08-25T14:41:59Z")
On Homicide:Life on the Street, during Crosetti’s funeral procession when Pemberton shows up in full dress uniform on the steps on the police station. ---
**Author:** ![Sneeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sneeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sneeze)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/196 "2003-08-31T14:41:46Z")
Olympic Moments: - the girl who won the gold in women’s singles of ice skating in the last olympics. Who would’ve thought ice skating could actually be exciting? - Franz Klammer’s downhill in 1976. Just seeing a tape doesn’t do it justice. You’d have to see the whole event. Another interesting thread would be **“What was the first thing you saw on TV that scared you so bad that you were never really scared again?”** For me, that would be the 2nd (I think) episode of Twilight Zone. The one where the guy who’s exiled to an asteroid gets a robot woman, who is destroyed in the final scene. The picture of all those twinkling electronics where her face was…I couldn’t sleep for a week. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/197 "2003-08-31T15:55:53Z")
What an amazing thread. I usually don’t read 4 page threads all the way through, but I did. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning. For me… **September 11**. I actually started recording the footage, never realizing how truly horrific things were going to get, thinking I’d share it with my class for a journal topic/discussion piece. But when the second plane hit, and then when the tower collapsed…I knew it wouldn’t be. My husband and I had interesting opposing reactions–I started crying, and he started storming off through the house spewing obscenities about how “that’s just what they [the terrorists] wanted!” So oddly, now, I have about 15 minutes of news footage from that morning on videotape. **Documentary on Sept. 11** It was…unbelieveable. No commercials, and so effin’ REAL. It was a documentary originally designed to be about a rookie firefighter; we see them out in the field inspecting a gas leak, then looking up and seeing the first plane hit. We see the firefighters all going in, all getting sick, all washing out their eyes, all returning back to the station exhausted, empty, drained; we see them rejoice as each member of their group returns safely. We see the rookie firefighter about to go nuts waiting at the station, holding down camp, restricted from “going in.” We see the Command Central at 2 WTC populated with firemen and chiefs–and a chaplain–that would not make it through the day. We hear the soul-shuddering sound of the bodies of jumpers crashing…oof, I have to stop. Okay, needing to get away from that…other impacting moments were **Challenger disaster**. I was in 8th grade, dismissed to go to lunch from my history teacher when he said, “Did you hear the space shuttle blew up?” We all looked at him funny and thought it was an odd joke. When we got back from lunch and TVs were everywhere, we were disturbed to find he was right. Fiction-wise…The **ER episode, “Love’s Labor Lost.”** Kept me up late at night thinking about it. The episode of **Buffy where her mother dies**. I don’t know much about the show and stumbled across that one. Totally glued me to the set. Sports…it’s not much of a mystery that horse racing is my game. Greatest racing moment I’ve ever seen on TV was the **1988 Breeder’s Cup Distaff**. Personal Ensign was vying to become the first horse to retire (sound, not due to injury) undefeated from major competition in over 70 years. She was facing only the third filly in history–and currently the last–to have won the Kentucky Derby, Winning Colors. The track was muddy, “like rolled peanut butter,” and the big-striding mare stuggled with her footing the moment they broke from the gate. Winning Colors was happily cantering away on the lead, and the gritty Kentucky Oaks winner Goodbye Halo wasn’t far behind. Personal Ensign, meanwhile, was scrambling in the back of the pack. _Everyone_ thought the race was over when they turned for home and Winning Colors had an 8-length advantage over the undefeated mare. But _some_how, that tough little thing put in a final surge and nailed the Derby winner right on the wire. Gives me chills even now thinking about it! BTW, Personal Ensign has become a Broodmare of the Year. She is the mother of another Breeder’s Cup winner, My Flag, who became the mother of last year’s Breeder’s Cup Juvenile Fillies winner, Storm Flag Flying. It’s a helluva female line! On the other end of the racing emotional spectrum was the **1990 Breeder’s Cup Distaff, where Go For Wand gruesomely broke down** not a hundred yards from the wire. It was like a match race as the champion 3-year-old duked it out neck-and-neck with the champion older mare, Bayakoa down the homestretch. The crowd was cheering frantically…then GFW’s foreleg snapped and she did a front flip. The crowd audibly gasped, then fell silent as Bayakoa completed the trip to the wire alone. Even more potent…Go For Wand struggled to get back on her 3 good legs, and hobbled her way down the stretch to the wire. ☹ I’m too young to have seen my screennamesake’s similar demise. Oof! I need to come back with happy TV memories. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/198 "2003-08-31T21:15:02Z")
Another M_A_S\*H bit that hasn’t been mentioned: The episode where no one was getting any sleep, and the few moments they could catch a few Zs had horrific nightmares. The scene where Margaret’s wedding dress was stained with blood really got to me. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anniee \* > **And Suriya Bonali - blew me AWAY. Again something I’d never seen done…she had made a couple mistakes and knew she had no shot; so you could see her mind CLICK into another gear and see the moment she decided “Screw the judges; I’m gonna play to the crowd.” And the crowd went nuts. She even did her backflip, which isn’t allowed in competition because she’s the only one who could do it lol.** Same idea, just later in the games. During the exhibition skate Scott What’shisface was explaining that the backflip was illegal because the skater must land on one foot for it to …and then she did just that. ---
**Author:** ![Quack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e99b99/32.png) [@Quack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quack)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/199 "2003-09-01T06:24:41Z")
Obviously, Septermer 11, 2001. This is the most touching bit of TV I’ve ever seen: On the show _SportsNight_ (fictional show about a SportsCenter-type show), the anchors and crew have been trapped in the building all day because of a blizzard and they can’t get any food, so they are “starving”. While this is happening, the show is covering the ascent of Mt. Everest by a team of climbers. One of the anchors, Dan Rydell, steps away from the camera because he remembers he has a half of a turkey sandwich in his office. When he gets to the office, there is a homeless man there who has found his way in off the street. Dan shares the sandwich with the man as they watch the team reach the summit. Dan says to the man, “Isn’t it amazing what we can do?” ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397/200 "2003-09-01T07:34:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*God, I’m old. I remember watching President Kennedy’s funeral on TV. \*\* Me, too, because the first thing I thought of was remembering his **inaguration**. For some reason, the principal of our grade school decided this was an Historic Moment worthy of our attention, and had a large (for the day) console television brought in and set up on the stage at one end of the gymnasium. The entire school (perhaps 125 kids) sat in folding chairs on the gym floor, watching the black and white image raptly. Robert Frost read a poem for the occasion; there was some consternation as a small fire broke out at the podium and was quickly put out. And our new president looked so young next to Eisenhower, the only other one any of us could remember. A potent moment, underlined by the school’s conviction we would learn more from that than from being in class. AND a similar startling change of events when my parents announced one evening at supper that my brother and I would be allowed to stay up late ON A SCHOOL NIGHT and watch a movie that was a special favorite of our parents. We were perhaps 11 and 9 at the time and due to the completely out-of-routine event, paid particular attention to the movie, which turned out to be the incredible **Beau Geste** ," the 1939 Gary Cooper-Ray Milland-Robert Preston version. Heady stuff, that Viking funeral “with a dog at his feet” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-moments-you-wont-forget/188397.md?page=11)