There’s been a lot of things that have happened on live TV over the decades. Sports related things, newsworthy events, funny moments, deaths; many, many milestones in history.
What things did you happen to witness as it happened live? The streaker running through the Academy Awards? The football game where Howard Cosell told everyone that John Lennon was dead? The WTC collapsing? Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald? The Challenger exploding? Sinead ripping up a photo of the pope?
Even small things are worth mentioning, like that time Frank Sinatra was making a thank you speech at the Oscars and they cut him off with music, while also shutting his microphone off.
I remember seeing that show and, later, Billy Joel (preforming a number at the same show) got even with them by stopping in the middle of his song and letting there be dead air for at least a minute or two.
Here’s some other moments I happened to catch as they happened:
– I was watching the Emmy’s that time Susan Lucci finally won hers for All My Children.
–The Superbowl was on when Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were performing. All of a sudden, he ripped off part of her bra and I saw boob and nipple. Going to commercial, I thought immediately “Oh wow, I didn’t just see what I thought I saw, did I?!”
–I was watching the basketball game where Kevin Ware broke his leg.
–After Saddam was captured, I witnessed the people of Iraq pulling the statue of him down.
[ul]
[li]Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated.[/li][li]Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up.[/li][li]That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.[/li][li]Nixon resigning.[/li][/ul]
I saw the same events as Duckster except for the Challenger (I tuned in maybe an hour after the event). I also saw the second of the Twin Towers get hit.
I was in a grade school classroom at the moment Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK, so I didn’t see it happen, but along with my classmates I was sent home, and I then saw the confused reporting, the uncertainty as to how badly Kennedy was injured, and the announcement that he had died. I don’t remember much about the immediate aftermath. I don’t remember Ruby killing Oswald. Maybe at some point my parents decided that I shouldn’t be watching.
I watched Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon, along with a good deal of the entire 60s space race - launches, splashdowns, space walks, moon landings, etc. It all happened as I was growing up. The steady progress from the one man Mercury flights to the Apollo landings was to me, in a strange way, the normal way of things. After all, it had started when I was too young to be fully aware of it, and continued into my adolescence. The sudden cessation and move to robotic probes and low orbit human missions seemed like an abandonment of something that had seemed to be an inevitable progression.
I watched the resignation of Richard Nixon, which seemed almost like an anticlimax to years of political turmoil.
You mentioned Sinead O’connor ripping up the picture of the pope. I saw that live as it happened. She declared him “the real enemy” as she tore it up.
I watched an entire Philadelphia neighborhood burn down after being bombed by the Philadelphia PD. MOVE was legitimate problem. Bombing a building and then letting it burn was not a legitimate solution.
I watched the aerial bombardment of Iraq at the beginning of the Gulf War. This was of course the war that “Dubya” eventually felt that he needed to complete, quite possibly to one-up his father.
If I spent time thinking about it, I’m sure I could think of some other things.
Saw that whole Ashley Simpson caught lip-syncing on SNL when it happened.
I remember thinking “whoa, what the hell just happened there” as she crept off the stage and they went to commercial. Then I was wondering exactly what kind of scrambling was going on at that same moment the commercials were running and how they were going to come back on after that.
After the ackward explanation at the end of the show I immediately knew people would be talking about it the next day.
Things like JFK’s assassination, the attempts on Ford and Reagan, Sadat’s assassination, the Challenger explosion, Tiananmen Square, and the WTC attacks might just as well have been broadcast live, since the coverage was so immediate and extensive.
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (as close to “live” as possible).
All Presidential inaugurations, beginning in 1953.
Oswald shot.
JFK Funeral.
Apollo XI moon landing.
Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs.
Clinton impeachment.
Turn of the Century, around the world.
2nd plane hitting WTC; both towers collapsing.
Hurricane Katrina.
Michael Phelps in Beijing.
First Mars Rover landing.
“Shock and Awe.”
The what now? It was a cricket match in 1981, at the last ball of the final over, where instead of the usual overarm bowl, Greg Chappell (for Australia) decided they should bowl underarm - rolling the ball on the ground - so that New Zealand couldn’t possibly hit the ball hard enough to hit the six they needed to draw the match.
I was 11 years old, and though I’m no fan of sport as a rule, my Dad and brother were, so that match happened to be on TV when I was in the room.
I watched just about every televised moment of the Apollo program. Except for Apollo 11, because my dad figured it would be such a big deal that we should go get a really good site at the campground in the Hoh rainforest. So, Apollo 11 was a radio experience for me.
Mt. St. Helens. We took some acid that day and drove up to Cayuse pass, but came back down 410, if we had made the loop, we would have been right in the early ashfall, but it was on the TV when we got home. My family must have been to Spirit Lake every other summer, I remember hearing Nixon resign while there, it was sad to lose that place.
The latest Superbowl had the two craziest football plays I’ve ever seen as they happened. The catch that bounced off the leg and into the receiver’s arms was the absolute craziest catch I’ve ever seen. The tackle a few minutes before that, where the tackler rotated almost a whole 360 around the carrier like he was a pole was the craziest tackle I’ve ever seen.
It was one of those extremely rare occasion where my dad (who hates football with a passion) allowed us kids to watch a match on tv.
As we were very excited, we turned it on several minutes before the game started. Instead of the usual preparations, we saw dozens on bodies lying around the pitch, some of which were purple due to cyanosis. Many more being carried on improvised stretchers (billboards, iron fences). Complete mayhem.
The 2011 Japanese tsunami’s - coverage began late (after 11pm here in TX), so I stayed up much of the night watching it unfold.
Some of the SNL stuff that’s been mentioned - the Pope’s picture, Buckwheat. Didn’t catch Ashley Simpson, however - I generally ignore most of the music acts. (Though Mr. Mister was accused of lip-syncing when they appeared in the early '80s - that one I saw. I didn’t think they lip-synced, btw.)
9/11, of course.
Some of the Jordan highlights, especially the layup-steal-jump shot sequence that won the Bulls their 6th title.
Stayed up all night recording coverage of Diana’s funeral for my wife.
Watching Nixon resigning on TV is one of my earliest clear memories.
I remember one of the moon landings but it was probably the last one.
The Apollo-Soyuz mission.
Watching the Munich Olympic attacks. I didn’t really know what was going on.
I was pissed off at the Watergate hearings. It was monster movie week on the Channel 7 4 o’clock movie. How dare they ruin that for me! I tried every afternoon to see Godzilla but instead it was that boring program.
September 11, I was working nights and had just gotten home and turned on the TV. It was on “The Today Show,” about 30 seconds before the second plane struck. They were showing the smoking hole from the first impact and I remember thinking “Why is NBC showing a movie this early in the morning?” But then I recognized the voices as Katie Couric and Matt Lauer and right about then was the second plane and I realized it was real.
Beatles on Ed Sullivan
The first marriage of Prince Charles
The explosion of the space shuttle
The Branch Davidian compound fire in Waco
The rescue of the Chilean miners
I stayed up late into the night and watched all the Chilean miners come up. It was a great night I had a drink and smiled.
Other than that.
2nd tower hit and both collapses.
Bradford stadium fire.
Hillsborough
Oklahoma bombing, was watching tv and they cut to a breaking story.
Columbia
Waco
Tsunami in Japan
White Bronco chase
OJ Verdict and a lot of the trial
First night of Gulf War I. Stayed up all night
Shock and Awe