Memories of mad stuff that happened on live TV.

DJIMI TRARORE · 29-12-2020 12:30am

Has the Tianamen square incident get a mention yet, surreal moment

cj maxx · 29-12-2020 12:33am

These have probably been mentioned but what I've seen is
Tommy Cooper dying on stage
Kurt Cobain shouting the Courtney Love was the best fúck in the world on C4's The Word I think it was.
In the US , NJ governor McGreevy coming out as gay on TV

KaneToad · 29-12-2020 12:36am

MadYaker wrote: »

I think this lad had a family member working in production in RTE.

Montage of Feck · 29-12-2020 12:44am

"In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in 'blood and guts' and in living color, you are going to see another first—an attempted suicide."
- Christine Chubbuck

fergus1001 · 29-12-2020 12:48am

that time some guy in a max headroom mask took over a tv broadcast in America

youtheman · 29-12-2020 12:51am

I know its supposed to be TV, but this classic radio gaffe by 'Pat the Plank' surely deserves honourable mention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xFxaVucmE

cj maxx · 29-12-2020 12:55am

Hillsborough was another one .
What I've always remembered was when it finally cut to ads , one for for a Peugeot 406 ,I think, which featured the Berlin song 'Take my breath away '.

Itssoeasy · 29-12-2020 1:00am

The 1989 loma prieta earthquake been caught live on tv during the start of game 3 of the World Series between the As and giants is memorable. Al Michaels declaring that they were having an earthquake is still amazing to hear.

I remember watching the verdict of the Louis Woodward baby shacking trial in my parents house with one of the builders doing work on the new kitchen that was being built.

There was the OJ Simpson chase through LA which is seen by some as the start of reality TV which is funny because one of OJs best friends was the father of the kardashians.

Did you smash it · 29-12-2020 1:01am

I’d say there were a few weird things from the Radioton days. The Irish version of comic relief.

It was weird one year- Jean Claude Van Damme (who was a major star at the time) was interviewed in a nightclub in Ireland somewhere with a load of female company. He was probably on a bit of a bender. It was peculiar this major star was reluctantly part of some dumb charity shindig, would like to hear how that came to pass.

Also on a chart show in the early days of TV3, meatloaf forcibly kissed the female host Sarah O’Flaherty completely out of the blue during the course of the show. It wasn’t live but it was kept in the broadcast.

Itssoeasy · 29-12-2020 1:02am

cj maxx wrote: »

Hillsborough was another one .
What I've always remembered was when it finally cut to ads , one for for a Peugeot 406 ,I think, which featured the Berlin song ’Take my breath away’

Talk about poor timing.

Rothko · 29-12-2020 1:04am

KaneToad wrote: »

I think this lad had a family member working in production in RTE.

Yeah, I think it was his daughter.

punisher5112 · 29-12-2020 1:05am

The guy talking about the runaway lanes for trucks that the brakes fail on..... Then a truck goes straight into it right behind them....

The faces

franglan · 29-12-2020 1:07am

I often think about the circumstances around political grunge group Pop Will Eat Itself getting booked on the Late Late in the mid 90's. Sellotape, dry humping, wrecking the stage... a lot going on really...
https://youtu.be/qBYqNj7Rrh4

candycock · 29-12-2020 1:42am

franglan wrote: »

I often think about the circumstances around political grunge group Pop Will Eat Itself getting booked on the Late Late in the mid 90's. Sellotape, dry humping, wrecking the stage... a lot going on really...
https://youtu.be/qBYqNj7Rrh4

Wat did I just watch lol

StupidLikeAFox · 29-12-2020 1:47am

I also remembered a top of the pops episode where Damon Alabarn was off his noodle. Started off grand but after about 30 seconds he had the microphone up over his head, giving it loads to the crowd etc and curiously the music lyrics were still perfectly in time. I learned about miming that day

Atlantic Dawn · 29-12-2020 1:47am

Grenfell fire was mad, it was only afterwards when the enquiries opened you knew people were actually rescued 7 hours after it started and from what you were seeing on tv you would think nobody could have been alive once it took hold.

Jaded Walker · 29-12-2020 1:57am

Bowe vs Holyfield fight 1993, middle of the fight, it was about 4am over here and the next thing the ref stops the fight and down from the skies arrives James Miller. Absolutely surreal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKoAlpWD_Lg

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 29-12-2020 1:58am

doublejobbing 2 wrote: »

This was quite shocking when it interrupted Brookside with the breaking news.

What's this? It's blocked where I am.

Skid X · 29-12-2020 2:04am

That time the sound on PrimeTime was replaced by some russian lad saying "Ireland Ukranian Not Russians" over and over again

It sounded like the Russians had invaded. Or possibly the Ukranians.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-26419603

AndrewJRenko · 29-12-2020 2:06am

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Tom Brennand storming off Kenny Live (and slinking back on again) when being grilled about his badly received book on Eamon Andrews by a young Miriam O Callaghan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjHbojpJAhc

I'd bet a fiver that interviewer Miriam wouldn't let an interviewee come out with similar stuff today.

Kia_Kaha · 29-12-2020 2:18am

The Ayrton Senna crash - watching the whole thing unfold was awful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvNIKNNsZ8s&ab_channel=DejanJeraj

mistersifter · 29-12-2020 2:20am

another one from Dunphy during the 2014 World Cup .

When he doesn't realise they are on air and is cursin away with the lads - he tells Bill "Neymar was ****in dreadin that penno!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUCvnWQJDZY

Riddle101 · 29-12-2020 2:24am

Speaking of Eamon Dunphy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqjQSk1PQ4o

BorneTobyWilde · 29-12-2020 2:37am

Cable ties ha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jb6Zef2NUE

wetlandsboy · 29-12-2020 2:42am

This has lost none of its power to shock. The murder of British undercover police at an IRA funeral.

https://youtu.be/fhfgQOLSrTQ

Treppen · 29-12-2020 2:50am

Zig and zag called Bosco a wanker

punisher5112 · 29-12-2020 2:53am

Vaccine given to a manikin

Thargor · 29-12-2020 3:02am

This thread needs more Pat Kenny...

Pat has some make-up tips for this young lad who wants to be a dancer, pure Alan Partridge:

aaronjennings · 29-12-2020 3:12am

Fabrice Muamba having a heart attack during a Tottenham vs Bolton match

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TCbVIEtoiI

Yurt2 · 29-12-2020 3:31am

The leader of the Japanese Socialist Party gets assassinated with a samurai sword by a radical university student. NSFW I suppose, but not terribly gory. Blink and you'll miss it.

jill_valentine · 29-12-2020 3:54am

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Yes. I think it has been mentioned. Not an Irish moment but the death live on air of Christine chubbuck who shot herself in the head while reading a story she’d written about the exact thing she did. Years ago I read the police interviews with her colleagues at the TV station in Florida she was working at. Awful tragic stuff.

There's a weird internet underground of people who try to find a recording of this that's somehow more interesting to me than the event or recording itself -

https://www.vulture.com/2016/01/death-hags-christine-chubbuck-suicide-video.html

mistermiyagi · 29-12-2020 5:03am

Garth Brooks crying on Kenny Live in the early 90s.
I'm still not right after it.

KungPao · 29-12-2020 5:05am

doublejobbing 2 wrote: »

This was quite shocking when it interrupted Brookside with the breaking news.

This reminds me of the tragic death of Forbes McAllister at the hands of Alan Partridge. He didn’t know the dueling pistols of Lord Byron were loaded, but I think Tony Hayers was right not to give Partridge a second season after that.

29-12-2020 5:12am

Mike Murphy used to do the sports news on TV back in the early 70's. He was off camera but didn't know his microphone was live. So just as the news caster was telling the main story of the day, I think it was a car load of policemen getting blown to bits in the north by the RA, he breaks into hysterical laughter which is broadcast. It was something fairly harmless like one of the crew told him a joke while he was still in the background waiting to do his bit, he himself did not hear the news as it was being read, it just sounds really bad.

Riddle101 · 29-12-2020 6:09am

Yurt! wrote: »

The leader of the Japanese Socialist Party gets assassinated with a samurai sword by a radical university student. NSFW I suppose, but not terribly gory. Blink and you'll miss it.

Best to watch in slow motion (0.25).

dublinman1990 · 29-12-2020 7:24am

The England riots from 2011 would be the biggest shock live tv moment for me.

Pat Kenny on the late late who was laughing at your man ''Kevin'' who won that holiday to Austria.

Derek Mooney being controversial to a woman suffering from cancer asking 'bad hair day' on the millionaire raffle draw.

Jeremy Thompson on Sky News hearing a bomb blast go off behind him during a live OB while being on the Israeli-Gaza border.

smilerf · 29-12-2020 8:18am

I remember some years ago on the morning programme on tv3 a child with cancer was being interviewed
Sinead Desmond asked this little girl how she feels about dying
She burst into tears
How that wagon kept her job I'll never know

JeffKenna · 29-12-2020 8:20am

dasdog wrote: »

Given the times it seemed almost run of the mill (wall) but when the news came out over 90 people died in a crush watching a game of football...

This wasn't live but around the same time and my 13 year old jaw dropped in horror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFfhkdHIVgA

Instant violence in the 1980's was a look away - thankfully by 1990 MDMA/E's got people interested in enjoying themselves rather than wanting to punch and kill each other.

So it's drugs that sorted the North out, interesting....

branie2 · 29-12-2020 9:55am

The first Clare-Offaly All-Ireland Hurling Semi-final replay ending 2 minutes early, resulting in Offaly fans protesting on the pitch in Croke Park

the purple tin · 29-12-2020 10:03am

Lots of clips of Pat 'Data' Kenny. He still hasn't got the hang of human emotions, bless him.

Say Your Number · 29-12-2020 10:19am

Joe Brolly's unhinged rant about Sean Cavanagh, the aggressive pointing is my favourite bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7EYe42Lln4

Ger Roe · 29-12-2020 10:36am

Thespoofer wrote: »

Noel Edmonds Breakfast show each week one part of the show was a contestant carried out a stunt or whatever anyway this week they hang a car high up in the air with a crane ( from what I can remember ) then drop it, the guy in the car gets killed live on air.
They dropped the show after that, it was a very popular show in the 80s if I'm not mistaken.

Noel Edmonds - Late Late Breakfast Show.

As previously mentioned, that was a stunt that went wrong in rehearsal (not aired), the day before a scheduled live Saturday evening transmission. The participant was to bungee jump out of an exploding box suspended 120 ft in the air, but the rope slipped off it's mount and he fell to his death.

As it happened, I had a friend working in BBC TV centre at the time and I was on the ferry and overnight train journey down to London that Friday - I was going to watch the programme in the studio, when it went out live.

This was back in the days long before mobile phones and I knew nothing about the accident, until I got to London and was told that the programme was cancelled. It was very eerie to go to the studio and see it all set up and lit for broadcast, knowing that someone involved had died hours earlier and the prog was not going ahead.

Edmonds was off air for two years after the incident.

Hangdogroad · 29-12-2020 10:43am

Treppen wrote: »

Zig and zag called Bosco a wanker

That's an urban myth tbh, along with the "balls deep In Bibi Baskin" thing.

happyoutscan · 29-12-2020 10:59am

Niagara Falls (Rainbow Falls) suicide caught on film during a News Broadcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ7N92bapJw

Samsonsmasher · 29-12-2020 11:18am

A group of 7 Protestant construction workers were blown up in their minibus by an IRA roadside bomb.
The Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brook appeared on the Late Late Show and sang My Darling Clementine.
He was forced to resign after howls of outrage from Unionists.

Sac O Spuds · 29-12-2020 11:19am

I can't find a clip of it up on You tube but I saw it live one morning on TV3.
Basically Mark Cagney and Sinead Desmond had a crowd on discussing a book that one of them (a woman I think) had written. In it she was making allegations that some individual had sexually abused someone. The other guests refuted this and it got a bit heated.
Cagney was challenging someone about the allegations when they tried to grab the papers he was holding. Next thing they were all on their feet shouting abuse at the woman, with yer man still trying to grab the sheets of paper from Cagney and Sinead Desmond in the background going "lads lads ye can't do that" or something to that effect. Next thing they cut to an ad break and that was the end of the saga.
I think it was shown yrs after on "Itll Be All Right On The Night".

BrianD3 · 29-12-2020 11:23am

Some hilarious stuff posted, my favourites are Joe Brolly's pointing, Irish Ukrainians not Russians and one of the Pat Kenny ones SIX HUN-DRED TOUSAND POW-END A WEEK...YEAR.... FOR ELEVEN HOURS JOBS!

I can just imagine the RTE producer when that last incident was unfolding - keep that fcuking camera and microphone on that man!

Hangdogroad · 29-12-2020 11:32am

Sac O Spuds wrote: »

I can't find a clip of it up on You tube but I saw it live one morning on TV3.
Basically Mark Cagney and Sinead Desmond had a crowd on discussing a book that one of them (a woman I think) had written. In it she was making allegations that some individual had sexually abused someone. The other guests refuted this and it got a bit heated.
Cagney was challenging someone about the allegations when they tried to grab the papers he was holding. Next thing they were all on their feet shouting abuse at the woman, with yer man still trying to grab the sheets of paper from Cagney and Sinead Desmond in the background going "lads lads ye can't do that" or something to that effect. Next thing they cut to an ad break and that was the end of the saga.
I think it was shown yrs after on "Itll Be All Right On The Night".

That clip was on YouTube a few years ago but seems to be gone now, theres a screenshot on this blog page.

http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2007/11/author-kelly-claims-tv3-interview-one.html?m=1

Ger Roe · 29-12-2020 11:34am

Samsonsmasher wrote: »

A group of 7 Protestant construction workers were blown up in their minibus by an IRA roadside bomb.
The Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brook appeared on the Late Late Show and sang My Darling Clementine.
He was forced to resign after howls of outrage from Unionists.

I actually felt sorry for Brook that night. At first he declined the offer to sing a song and was pressured in to it by Gay Byrne with Mrs Doyle enthusiasm (go on, go on, go on). It got so embarrassing for Brook that he reluctantly agreed to do something.

Gay Bryne should have showed more discretion at the time and I thought that the backlash against Brook was a bit unfair, considering the pressure he was put under on live TV.

Montage of Feck · 29-12-2020 11:46am

Joe Brolly spoke the truth, not on rte anymore.

Memories of mad stuff that happened on live TV.

Comments