I was approached by a TV news crew

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Last week when I was in New York City, I was approached on the street (I'd just left the Apple Store on 5th Ave) by a TV news crew. They asked me what I did when I wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep - I told them, I just walk around, maybe surf the net. I do NOT call people up on the phone, that is a great way to get people to hate you.

Anyhoo, have any of you been interviewed by TV news for any reason? If so, what was it about, and what did you tell them?

(Which network? I think it was FOX 5. I tried watching it that night to see if I was on, but I couldn't find myself. And I remember that the anchorperson seemed to have had enough hair care products to deflect small caliber bullets.)

 

[RoJoHen]

Last year during American Craft Beer Week, the local news station came to my brewery and interviewed me. It was mostly a fluff piece that they aired at the end of the news broadcast, so I didn't say much of importance. However, they took some shots of me doing random things around the brewery, at one point you can hear me grunting really loud as I'm climbing a ladder.

 

[Non Sync]

Many, many years ago, I was on the other side of the camera. We did a daily "man on the street" bit. Our news was targeting So. Cal's Inland Empire (San Bernardino/Riverside/Ontario areas). Really weren't getting the best answers. Internally we called it listening post based on Viet Nam war activity of having to go into the jungle to listen if anyone was trying to sneak up on the base.

A couple of times, we'd end up putting ourselves on camera.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Last year I was interviewed the day before the Red Sox won the series. About how I felt about the Red Sox being about to win the series.

(At the time I was right next to Fenway Park, incidentally there for bowling).

I told them that the Red Sox winning the series would be a good thing.

 

[Silvercrest]

Not interviewed per se, but a couple of near misses. I live right down the road from where the mudslide occurred in Oso, WA this spring. There were news crews all over the place for a long time, including in my church during several prayer services. I gave directions or information a few times and chatted a little. They interviewed several people I knew. I bet I could have been interviewed if I angled for it, but I didn't have anything relevant to say. "Wow, this is just terrible."

Also, in the 1980s I was in Search and Rescue. Just one time, I was on a team that found somebody. When the news guys interviewed us, the team leader did most of the talking. Again, what would I have said? "I heated up some water to warm him up."

 

[MacLeod]

I've managed to avoid TV crews about five times.

 

[Green Shirt]

I was almost on one of those United Way/NFL commercials in 1977.

 

[OmahaStar]

Anyhoo, have any of you been interviewed by TV news for any reason? If so, what was it about, and what did you tell them?

Yep, a few times.

1 - Flooding in my hometown. This would have been back in the 90s, more than half the town was underwater. The reporters had to come in by boat. The edge of the water was just a few feet (as in, less than five) away from the front door of the place I was working, and the corporate office demanded we report for work anyway. During the same "100 year flood" in a nearby town, the graveyard was so saturated with water, coffins rose to the surface, with bodies everywhere. There was no way to identify most of them, as I recall.

2 - After I moved to Omaha, I lived in a very busy area of town, a few blocks away from the trauma center, on the main street in town. There was a pretty major pile-up outside, and I happened to be looking out the window at the time, and saw everything. They interviewed me about what I saw.

3 - Drunk driver incident, about ... oh, six years ago ... Guy stole a car, drove 90+ down a 30mph street, crashed into one car, backed up, kept going, crashed into another one a 1/2 block later, backed up, went around, crashed into a car dealership, while I was on the phone with 911 reporting the first crash. It was about a mile away from one of the news stations, so they had a reporter on the scene before the cops got there.

4 - I was heading into a theater when the first of the 9/11 exploitation films came out ... United 93, maybe? ... anyway, was seeing something else. A reporter came along to ask people their thoughts of seeing the movie - it was opening that day. Again, I wasn't there to see it, but I said there was no way I would be seeing it. She talked with a couple people, then tracked me down to ask my opinion of the movie. I said it was too soon, they were capitalizing on death, and I had no intentions of seeing it (still haven't). Of the three-minute report, I was on screen for more than half of it.

5 - October 26, 2013. My grandpa Don was murdered on his way to work. KETV came out and asked questions, and with Grandma's permission, talked about their life together. I was only on for a little bit, it was more about the two of them ... they had been married for 64 1/2 years, and were planning their 65th anniversary party, when his life was taken. It was in no way sensationalized, and was a tribute to my grandfather.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Last week when I was in New York City, I was approached on the street (I'd just left the Apple Store on 5th Ave) by a TV news crew. They asked me what I did when I wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep - I told them, I just walk around, maybe surf the net. I do NOT call people up on the phone, that is a great way to get people to hate you.

Anyhoo, have any of you been interviewed by TV news for any reason? If so, what was it about, and what did you tell them?

(Which network? I think it was FOX 5. I tried watching it that night to see if I was on, but I couldn't find myself. And I remember that the anchorperson seemed to have had enough hair care products to deflect small caliber bullets.)

About 2 years ago, at UC Santa Cruz when I was still a student, I was interviewed on-campus by a newsman fro KRON 4, IIRC (it was a news anchor hauling his own camera due to budget). I forget the specifics, but it was due to a threat happening off-campus and he wanted me to relate my reaction.

(I recall saying the threat was something to give one pause, but not as big as it sounded. Everyone was pretty much going about their business as usual).

 

[inflatabledalek]

Many years ago when coming out of Hamleys in London a friend and I were approached by an American news crew to be asked about how we felt about a US company buying this ancient British institution (or might have been possibly going to buy, I can't recall now).

We knew nothing about this, and really didn't know anything about Hamleys or it's history, but we bluffed through the conversation in order to get on telly. But as it was American telly we'll never know if it was used or not.

More sadly, when a primary school teacher of mine was murdered back in the February before last I was interviewed by Midlands Today (though I don't think the clip was used as I didn't really play ball with the "How does this make you feel?" stock questions, "Quite bad. Obviously") but did appear in the footage of the memorial service.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

My wife and I were interviewed on opening day of Citi-Field, probably because of having our less then year old son with us. He was dressed in his Mets finest.

Our son Ian was recently interviewed by local television news channel when we attended World Elephant Day at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. He is a huge Elephant fan, he has many dozen stuffed elephants and pictures and posters in his room. He was a bit rambling but got across his love of Elephants.

 

[Kirby]

Shortly after 9/11 I was assaulted by a news crew at the train station as I was coming in to work. I don't know why she picked me, nor why her and the cameraman didn't away when I said 'no' but I ended up answering a few questions about how I wasn't afraid to ride public transportation in light of the 9/11 tragedy.
I think they ended up showing about 10 seconds of it on the news that night.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I'm a semi-pro improv comedian and work at various conventions, so on average I'm on the TV news about once a year. Most recently:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UiNWF-U28c[/yt]

http://youtu.be/5UiNWF-U28c

Mark

 

[Aragorn]

Some internet journalist was waiting at the movie theater to interview people who were going to see The Dark Knight Rises to get a response to the Denver shooting. But he wasn't much of a reporter as he basically led me and put quotes in my mouth.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Never a news crew but I was stopped once to do a "Channel XX is great. Say the tagline" type spot.

 

[bigdaddy]

Last year I was interviewed the day before the Red Sox won the series. About how I felt about the Red Sox being about to win the series.

(At the time I was right next to Fenway Park, incidentally there for bowling).

I told them that the Red Sox winning the series would be a good thing.

I would have told them you were a Yankee / Cubs fan.

I've been interviewed but never on TV because I give them shit answers to their shit questions.

"How do you feel about the project being over budget?"

I love it! I always enjoy being robbed by the state... blah blah blah".

 

[Greg Cox]

I remember a news crew coming around and filming the line in front of "Return of the Jedi" on opening day. Don't think I was interviewed directly. (A friend of mine hid from the cameras because her mom didn't know that she had cut classes to see the movie.)

Not quite the same thing, but The Learning Channel once interviewed me for a TV special on vampires. Along with the actual interview, they also filmed me walking gravely through a historic graveyard in Lower Manhattan, looking all serious and profound.

I didn't have cable at the time, so I never saw the finished special, but I know it kept popping up from time to time because friends would call me up afterwards. "Hey, Greg! Was that you strolling through a cemetery at 3 am on TLC last night?"

"Probably."

Oh, another funny incident: My girlfriend and I were having dinner at an Italian restaurant one night when a film crew showed up to interview the owner of the restaurant, who just happened to be "Grandpa" Al Lewis of Munsters fame. I caught the interview on TV later and, yes, you could glimpse us dining in the background.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I was at the gas station when a reporter asked me about the possibility of the DMV getting hacked and what I felt about that. I made it on to the 5 o'clock news.

 

[Timewalker]

I've been on TV a few times, but only actually interviewed once (sometime in 1982-83). A camera crew had come to the local college to interview students about the coming tuition increases. The next day, one of my classmates announced in my French class that he'd seen me on TV the night before. So I had to explain in French what I'd been asked and what I'd answered.

The other times I was on TV were as background to the main story. The first time was in high school, when the school board decided to switch our school to semesters instead of trimesters. About 90% of the student body went on strike for a day, picketing the school board offices. The camera crew caught me putting on my very distinctive-looking winter coat (this was in December of 1979), slamming my locker door, and leaving the school. I'd never even noticed them. My grandmother told me later that night that she'd seen me on the early news.

The other time was when I'd gone to the Folk Festival with a couple of friends. My grandmother said she saw me sitting on the grass in front of the stage where the ethnic singing and dancing was going on ("I spotted your hat and knew it was you," she told me; that year I had a rather noticeable red and white striped sun hat). Again, I never noticed the camera crew.

 

[2takesfrakes]

For a while, I had long hair, then I got bored of it and shaved it all off and grew a goatee, which was an interesting (if very temporary) look, for me. Which was the reason I believe I was stopped on the street by a local news reporter who wanted to know if I had any questions for our Mayor. When I answered the cameraman had his camera a'pointed right at me, so I figured they got what they needed. But, apparently, this was just a test to see if they liked my answer, or not, then they did it again - only this time, for reals. I said I wanted to know why my taxes were so DAMN high? I hadn't thrown the "damn" in the first time, so when I said it, the reporter sort of seemed startled for a moment, which almost made me laugh!!! But that was MY brush with local fame. I didn't watch it, or know if they even used it, then the next day, I believe it was, someone on the street said to their associate, "... there's that guy who wants to know why his taxes are so high!" He didn't ask for my autograph, or anything, though ...