Bumping to update my post:
He wrote back. Well, sort of.
I haven’t researched this, but I’m 99% certain that Borg and McEnroe had 2 Wimbledon slugfests, one in 1980 and one in 1981. Borg won the first, McEnroe the second. Some of the best sport I’ve ever seen.
Angel kills Ms. Calendar, leaves her in Giles’ bed.
Angel gets soul back, “Close your eyes”, STAB, wow.
The gentlemen first appear.
Xander and Anya’s synchronized dance.
Big Pussy dies, big time.
many many more…
Yep, too much tv here.
The OJ Simpson freeway car-chase. Not really for what it was, but for the facts that: 1) It got coverage; 2) The helicopters buzzing around looking like they were going to hit eachother on live television; 3) The people cheering OJ on like it was a football game! I remember they had signs, “Go Juice Go!” and stuff like that…what the hell?!
An episode of WKRP in Cincinnati that I saw when I was very, very young. I’m not sure of the entire plot but I guess a tornado, hurricaine, or some other big storm happened and a man flew in through a window and landed on a table at the radio station. It TERRIFIED me. I called it “The falling-in show” or something and refused to watch the show ever again for fear it would be that episode.
There was a political humor sitcom called The Powers That Be, that aired very briefly in 1992. David Hyde Pierce from Frasier was on it as a suicidal congressman (he was one of many supporting characters, I forget who the star was.) Anyway, his character was married but had a crush on the family maid. There was a christmas episode in which he ends up having a romantic evening with the maid. Sort of a Cinderella plot. Anyway, I’ll never forget that because it was a totally beautiful, sweet story (despite the fact that the guy was cheating on his wife.)
The episode of Twin Peaks where Laura Palmer’s killer was revealed to be someone I never expected it to be.
The American Music Awards (I think that’s the one…the one Dick Clark hosts/hosted?) circa 1991. Guns 'N Roses wins an award. They take the stage, complete with alcohol and cigarettes, looking TOTALLY wasted. Axl Rose steps up to the mike, his head sagging over it like he was EATING it, and says his thank you’s, then throws in a “f***” for good measure. Music starts up, INSTANT cut to a commercial! I’ll never forget that because that was the single most wasted I’ve ever seen any band look on live tv.
The MTV Video awards (I think) from around the same time. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are performing with George Clinton and P-Funk. All of them are dressed up to outdo eachother. Total outlandishness. Some of them were wearing diapers. The chili peppers may have been doing their sock routine. It was hilarious.
You have my thanks anyway, dantheman 
Dammit, now this is going to bug me for the rest of my life.
Well, there’s hope. Mistah Kotter might remember and let me know. Nice of him to offer, tho!
Frank Siantra interrupted in his lifetime achievement award speech at the Grammys. As proof that he wasn’t mobbed up, he didn’t have the producer whacked. The other artists in the show whacked him in other way, especially Billy Joel’s ‘commercial dollars going away’ during the loooooooooong break in his song “River of Dreams”.
Until Bill Clinton on Arsenio Hall, Jesse Jackson made one of the best candidate’s TV guest appearances ever in a talk/variety show when he worked Saturday Night Live (this was just before the unfortunate ‘Hymietown’ controversy). The best part was when he played game show host to “The Answer is Moot”, where he stated part of his platform.
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September 11, 2001
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The 1989 World Series earthquake.
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The entire 2000 election mess.
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The Columbia disaster.
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The first attacks on Baghdad during the first Gulf War.
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Billy Crystal and Robin Williams appearing on an episode of The Tonight Show and carrying the whole show during some sort of power outage.
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Mystery Science Theater’s final episode.
That reminds me of Howard Cosell announcing a Monday Night Football game, when one of the Washington Redskins’ receivers broke away for a long touchdown catch/run, prompting the following comment from Howie: “Look at that little monkey run!” Yes, the ballcarrier was African-American.
A television moment that I, as a Michigan Wolverine fan, would very much like to forget would be Kordell Stewart throwing the Hail Mary pass to Michael Westbrook in 1994. I swear, Michigan had at least three defensive players there in the end zone who could have made the play.
Must’ve been the tornado episode. IIRC, Andy Travis (Gary Sandy’s character) was KOed by a flying window and ended up on a desk, then resuscitated by Jennifer.
[ul]
[li]The depressing denoument of The Day After that made me as a kid wonder why we bothered living.[/li][li]The final episode of MAS*H. Gentlemen, gentlemen, take my advice. Take down your pants and slide on the ice. - Sidney(Hawkeye’s psychiatrist)[/li][li]When Gordon Jump played a child molestor in an episode of Diff’rent Strokes.[/li][li]Wishing Tiffany and the show Growing Pains would go away.[/li][li]The episode of Family Ties where Alex deals with a friend’s suicide.[/li][li]Oprah losing the weight for the first time and carrying out a red wagon filled with fat.[/li][li]Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman.[/li][li]Being jerked around by the news outlets during the 2000 election.[/li][li]Madonna and her Pepsi commercial that aired once during the Cosby Show.[/li][li]The very bad live action Challenge of the Superheroes specials from 1978.[/li][/ul]
One thing that has stuck with me is an episode of CSI, the one where they find the model in a shopping cart facing one of her billboards. Her face is mutilated, so they guess hate crime, but they find out she did it to herself, along with other things…the part in GW Endless Waltz with Heero and the puppy(those who have seen it back me up? Please?^^)and to balance it out, basically anything from the episode of Invader Zim Megadoomer…my friend convinced me to watch it…^_^()
“Pointy hair! Pointy haaair!”
Wow! There’s so many interesting memories in this thread.
Already covered: 9-11, Columbia, Challenger, Homer sitting on the hood of his car after his Mother left. I’ll double the “double :sniff:” , Crispin Glover kicking David Letterman (quick commercial, Glover gone when they came back,) Flying Turkeys, MASH’s final episode and Col. Blake’s death (very sad) Waco, Dale Earnhardt, OMG the Piano fling.
One of my most memorable, Jack Nicklaus winning the '86 Masters. When he sank that birdie on 17, with Vern Lundquist (sp?) saying “Yes sir!” Still gives me goosebumps.
Jeffrey Maier catching that “home run” against my Orioles (a pox on all his generations!!!)
Another ALCS in Cleveland, Musinna throws an incredible game, then a passed ball, Lenny frickin Webster spining round and round, “where’s the ball?” guy scores from third, Sandy (I can run a 6 second 40-yard dash) Alomar scores from second.
Evel Knievel jumps from the '70’s (don’t ever remember seeing a crash tho)
Rivetted for a solid week by Roots.
Maude Flanders’ death. Not really that sad, but really surprising.
Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks, where a guy stopped a fan with his tongue.
The Mary Tyler Moore show when Chuckles the clown died, and they all start cracking up at the funeral.
Sinead O’Conner tearing the Pope’s picture in half on SNL
I was in South America when Jim Jones was killing Senators with automatic rifles, and little kids with kool aide. I wasn’t fluent in spanish, but I certainly got the idea.
I was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean when Columbine High School childhood ended. Its all I remember for 2 days of the trip.
Oh My favorite commercial AT&T (Wo)man on the street. A red haired woman in front of a yellow break repair place in a green sweater who says “I’ve always used AT&T, because its always been easy.” (It was me.)
[nitpick]Jones’s henchmen did not kill “Senators” (they killed Leo Ryan, a member of the House); and the fatal drink was Flavor-Aid and cyanide.[/nitpick]
Sept.11…everything else pales.
OJ
Seinfeld Finale
Challenger Disaster…my first real big historical tv moment i can remember
MASH Finale
Who Shot Mr.Burns
Gulf War 1
Extremely trippy Sesame Street skits that listening to Boards of Canada now bring back in full detail
Wayne Gretzky’s last game (weep)
The first time NJ Devils won the cup
Watching a Monday Night Football game when i was like 10 and some team lost for the first time on MNF history…chargers i think?
every time breaking news came in during the 80s…not like now where every presidential fart is a bn story…back then when news cut into a show serious shit was going down…for me it was always the end of the world…a young dan rather telling me that the missles were in the air
watching the world broadcast premier of Hungry Like The Wolf on Friday Night Videos
Rodney King riots
Reagan getting shot
A coke commercial with MJ and Carlton from Fresh Prince ( about 11 years old)
Max Headroom
coming home from work, putting on CNN and seeing that Kurt Cobain was dead
watching The Exorcist on tv when I was about 8 or 9 and getting so scared i wouldnt go to the bathroom alone
falling in love with Elizabeth Montgomery when I was a kid from watching Bewitched reruns ( I still adore her and find her breathtaking) R.I.P, beautiful lady.
many local/national shows that anyone outside of Winnipeg/Canada would never get…Switchback, Archie and Friends, Romper Room, Skittlebits, Citivision, Good Rockin’ Tonight, Video Hits, The Wonderful World of Oz, Hillarious House of Frightenstein, Wayne and Shuster, Tommy Hunter, Friendly Giant, Follow Me.
Morgan Freeman on The Electric Company
As for many people, watching the Twin Towers fall. Of course, due to work, I didn’t see it live, but watched the re-run of it on the evening news and I just sat there and cried into my Whopper. Neither of us were willing to cook that night so CG picked up some food on the way home.
Watching Garth Brooks’ “The Change” video on CMT for the first time, seeing all those images from the OKC bombing and feeling tears run down my face as the show the clip where the fireman walks out carrying the dead girl in his arms. It still makes me cry just thinking about it.
Watching Princess Diana’s funeral on TV, even though they showed it at like 3 am here or whatever. I made sure to get up a nd cried through the whole thing. I think I started when Elton John sang “Candle in the Wind” and just kept bawling, esp when they showed Princes Will and Harry following their mother’s casket down the street. It was so heartrending, those two young boys losing their mother like that, yet being so stoically properly English and not shedding a tear.
IDBB
Damn post gnome at part of my post.
This is the other half that was supposed to be on there.
I think it was the American Music Awards circa oh…late 80s, early 90s when Frank Sinatra was recieving a lifetime achievment award. Apparntly, he began to ramble on in his speech and the producers cut to a commercial in the middle of it. Billy Joel (who was performing that night) got wind of it and right in the middle of his song…STOPS cold and looks at his watch. He said something about wasting valuable airtime and stared his watch for another minute or so before continuing with the performance. That made me laugh. Frank should’ntve been cut off in his speech, even if he WAS rambling. It was rude. Billy gave the producers a very polite FU with his little stunt, I thought.
IDBB
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.
Romper Room was Canadian?? And this I didn’t even know.