TV Moments that Shook the World

[sojourner]

Sadly, the Challenger accident was not fictional and I did not see it on TV.

I saw it live.

 

[J.T.B.]

However, this does say allot about arguing semantics.

You claimed that BOBW was the second highest-rated cliffhanger of all time. That doesn't sound right to me, so I asked for a cite. You posted a link, it doesn't back your claim, and I said so. Where's the semantic issue?

--Justin

 

[exodus]

Sadly, the Challenger accident was not fictional and I did not see it on TV.

I saw it live.

I can empathize, I saw the Towers fall first hand as well.

 

[Dar70]

What's wrong with being 25?

Nothing. But much of the "Shook the world moments" of tv happened way before you were born. You guys are listing stuff that wasnt ground breaking or world shaking. "Best of Both Worlds" for example was great but it didnt shake the foundations of the general tv viewing public. Many people of your generation and even mine have never seen it. But All in The Family was seen by my generation (though I was only 1 when it first aired) the previous generation and even yours now. Its widely know.

No offence but I find people arrogant who sort of talk down to people who weren't around in a time when certain things happened. It just comes across as saying that the younger generation doesn't know anything.

I am VERY aware of a large number of things that have happened, past and present, because I involve myself in entertainment related things from then and now. I am sure events like the Moon landing and Lennon getting shot, things like that, are well known by a number of younger members in this forum. We just name things that haven't been mentioned yet or simply things that just stick out in our minds. That doesn't mean that we have no clue as to what happened before we were born.

You said yourself that you were only a year old when All in the Family first started so it's not as if you even remember the shocking events that took place at that time yet you somehow feel the need to use that as your example and then proceed to basically tell us younger people "pfft, you guys have no idea what's shocking".


I'm not saying that was the point of your post but that is how you seem to be coming across in this thread. I'm not the only person you've quoted and said "that's not shocking" and proceeded to give your example. Everyone here is from different times and we all have events that stick out in our minds and all are shocking in one way or another.

Sorry to bring up an old thread. But I dont know how I missed this response.
Sorry if it came across and arrogant. Thats the problem with the written word. I should have used some emoticons. I wasnt being arrogant at all. Its just that most of the "shook the world" moements of television happned years ago and people here younger or older were mentioning things that really didnt shake the world of television. Some of that stuff happened even before I was born. I know alot of younger people know about All in the Family etc. but they werent lising that stuff but silly stuff like Buffy and BOBW that only shook the fandom community.

Sadly most barriers have been broken in televiosn shows today so there wont be many more shook the world moments from scripted tv but of course their will be little shook the fan community moments. Now news and worlds events are different stories. There will always be big mements in that.

 

[CaptMurdock]

Yeah! Consider yourselves chastised! Get my thwacker!

Greg Morris' entrance in the classic Dick Van Dyke Show episode "That's My Boy?". It was unheard of for something like that back then.

(Rob Petrie thinks he and Laura got the wrong baby at the hospital. The Peters family had a baby the same day. Rob calls them over to talk about it. Turns out the Peters are a black couple. The longest laugh in the history of the series. They had to cut a lot of the laugh out of the final episode because it was so long.)

--Ted

And then they punched it up when Rob says "You could have just called," and Mr. Peters replies "And miss the look on your face?"

Friends: Everybody goes on about Ross and Rachel. Okay. But the real shocker: Chandler and Monica waking up in bed The Morning After. Now that brought the house down!

And, for truly ground-breaking: Saturday Night Live. Dan Aykroyd plays a refrigerator repairman. Male cleavage takes center stage on national television.

 

[Rincewiend]

The first season of Big Brother (do you have this show in the US?).

I remember years ago how hotly debated this show was.. where our society is headed if we allow such voyeuristic shows, how some little things happening on that show made top headlines in the yellow press and how everyone was just waiting for the first couple to fuck.

Same here in the Netherlands, where it all started...

The first season of Big Brother (do you have this show in the US?).

I remember years ago how hotly debated this show was.. where our society is headed if we allow such voyeuristic shows, how some little things happening on that show made top headlines in the yellow press and how everyone was just waiting for the first couple to fuck.

Yes, we have it over here, season 11 is about to start in a month. Though it is not as raunchy as the European versions I have seen. I don't think it garnered much controversy over here either.

Well, the Dutch edition was always pretty tame...

 

[KB24]

Why, 'Who Shot JR?' of course. It's who I'm named after!

 

[NileQT87]

Here's an impressive one as far as Nielsen ratings go:

Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii had 1.4 BILLION people watching it in about 46 countries in 1973 (and this was without the population of Red China). There were only 3 billion people on Earth at the time. By comparison, more people watched this special than watched the moon landing.

An American Trilogy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moUifEmOcbU

Aloha from Hawaii is a music concert that was headlined by Elvis Presley, and broadcast live via satellite around the world on January 14, 1973. It was watched by over one billion viewers worldwide.[1] The concert took pace at the International Convention Center Arena in Honolulu (now known as the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena) and aired in over 40 countries across Asia and Europe (who received the telecast the next day, also in primetime). Despite the satellite innovation, the United States did not air the concert until April 4, 1973 (the concert took place the same day as Super Bowl VII). The show was the most expensive entertainment special at the time, costing $2.5 million.[1]

The event being the first-ever such performance to be broadcast live via satellite, Presley taped a January 12 rehearsal concert as a fail-safe in case anything went wrong with the satellite, during the actual broadcast. For both shows, Presley was dressed in a white "American Eagle" jumpsuit designed by Bill Belew.

Audience tickets for the January 14 concert and its January 12 pre-broadcast rehearsal show carried no price. Each audience member was asked to pay whatever he or she could afford. The performance and concert merchandise sales raised $75,000 for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in Hawaii. (Kui Lee was a Hawaiian composer who had died of cancer in 1966 while still in his thirties.)

Not many other things can claim to have been watched by half the people on Earth (pretty much anyone who had a television set or wasn't in a country that practiced censorship watched this special).