Oops! Bloopers And Other Production Mistakes On TV Shows

[Sandman87]

A place to post all the amusing mistakes that you spot in various shows. For example:

- One character addressing another by the actor's name.

- A distant airplane flying across the background in a western.

- An actor unintentionally doing an entire scene with his fly open.

- A piece of background scenery that disappears and reappears between shots in a scene.

 

--------------------

 

Tonight I was watching a Night Gallery rerun on MeTV ("Dr.Stringfellow's Rejuvenator"), which takes place in the Old West. I see that the town's undertaker has done some renovating, because he has a modern office suspended ceiling in his 1870's shop.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Can they include reels? There are a lot on Youtube.

[Sandman87]

Well...the intent was to talk about stuff that made it to the screen because no one involved in making the show caught it, but I don't suppose it would hurt anything to include blooper reels

[Kromm]

I have to go on record saying that while I liked the first few "Blooper" specials Dick Clark did (yes... old... I know), they soon became more annoying that entertaining.

 

That said, if you gotta go "blooper", the best source is often your local news broadcasts.  They're rarely actually FUNNY, but at least they're plentiful!  I could link to thousands of YT videos and wouldn't even begin to run out.  

 

Oh, and I think the most famous local news blooper in recent years?  

 

The pattern usually seems to be some local reporter getting hit somehow on a remote segment (only occasionally in the nuts--more often in the head), or an anchor having a Freudian slip and saying a naughty word in place of a planned on, or someone's boobs showing up , or some odd instance of "photobombing" in the background of a news report, or an awkward production graphic, or... geez.  There are really too many of these to pigeonhole.

[Irlandesa]

My memory of bloopers as a kid is that they were really funny.  Either my memory is nostalgic or they've gotten worse but I kind of hate "blooper" reals now since they usually involve quick montages of people a) cursing or b) giggling* or c) maybe an actor messing up their line.  None of them feel super light hearted, spontaneous or take me by surprise.  They're mostly boring. 

 

*Not that laughter can't be great.  My favorite "bloopers" are from the Carol Burnett show when the cast would break. 

 

The famous Siamese elephants. 

 

 

Or the Dentist story (which was later retold and co-opted by Billy Bob Thorton's character on Fargo)

 

 

There are more here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIqofVwYi4I

 

But the difference is that often the reason people would break would be inreaction to something improvised or when something that would go wrong.  Maybe that's part of why I don't like recent blooper reels, they edit so quickly that we are robbed of context.

[Kromm]

More on the local news.

 

Poor local news anchor.  Clearly she had either some cameraman or director, or both, out to get her.

 

[turnitwayup]

Someone pointed this a long time ago probably on twop. So every time I watch Castle's Tick Tick Tick, I can't stop noticing the phone held the wrong way at the end of the ep. You should've seen the phone screen & not the back of the phone. I think the explanation was that the explosion was shot once so that's why the phone blooper was left in.

 

 

Also Beckett talking to Castle holding the iphone upside down from this past season.

 

Edited July 27, 2014 by turnitwayup

[Sandman87]

Picking on local newscasts is almost too easy, but as long as we're on the subject...

 

Just in case there's anyone on the internet who hasn't seen these yet, I give you the weathermen and their warm fronts (NSFW).

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

 

[Kromm]

Picking on local newscasts is almost too easy, but as long as we're on the subject...

 

Just in case there's anyone on the internet who hasn't seen these yet, I give you the weathermen and their warm fronts (NSFW).

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Hah, I'd debate that NSFW.  You'd have to have a pretty uptight boss to freak out over warm fronts!

 

Okay, you want NSFW legit?  There are the occasional local newscasts with wardrobe malfunctions.  Now THOSE are the ones to shoot for!  It seems pretty common on news broadcasts from Italy, or Latin America, for example (where apparently being a female news reader is a bit less serious of a job).

 

Also the ones where some local drops an S or F bomb.

There's this (it's someone commenting on something weird & NSFWish that happened on Bloomberg TV, and then showing a recording of it) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWWW0PqkSHU

Edited July 27, 2014 by Kromm

[MrMattyMatt]

More on the local news.

 

Poor local news anchor.  Clearly she had either some cameraman or director, or both, out to get her.

 

I live in the same city as this station and watch this news program every night.  They played this a few times for the viewers.  I pretty much think they definitely did it on purpose so it would go viral.  They often fill in with stories about other viral internet stuff on slow news nights, which tends to be all the time.  The same station has a lifestyle reporter that was rammed by a goat while talking on camera.

[Kromm]

If they wanted it to go viral, I think they failed.  I found it of course, but it was part of a much larger video filled with "random local news bloopers".  Mostly I posted it because I'd previously posted a clip of a reporter drawing a penis, so I didn't want to go in the same direction two posts in a row (and then went right back to that kind of thing in a third post anyway... whoops!)

[merylinkid]

My absolut all time favorite blooper was "movementum" by Ahmad Rashad.   It was a Thanksgiving morning and he was doing the pre-game show before the football game.   He was nervous because in the last segment he had proposed to Phyllicia Allen live on air and was awaiting her answer.   She was announcing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and he asked the NBC folks to bring her into the studio to get her answer.   This took awhile.   He still had to keep reporting.   He meant to say momentum but was so nervous it came out "movementum"   To this day, I will still say "movementum" sometimes.   

[Shannon L.]

Jim Cantore on TWC once said that the rain bands were "coagulating".  Someone on another thread suggested that he meant to say "coalescing".  We definitely did a double take on that one!

[Sandman87]

I've been watching first season Doctor Who on RetroTV, and the production has a wonderfully Ed Wood quality to it. I don't know whether these can be considered bloopers, because I suspect they were relying on the viewers to just let things slide, but just in two episodes tonight I saw:

 

 - A character attacks the machinery that's keeping some evil brains alive, and the brains start dying before she manages to break anything. Maybe they had heart attacks (or maybe brain attacks)?

 - A character who's trying to break down a door barely touches it, but the door gives about 8 inches anyway. The character declares "I can't do it! It's too solid!"

[SnideAsides]

One word: Phenomenon. You would think they'd avoid making a newsreader say it after the first time they stumbled on it, but no.

 

[Joe]

I've been watching first season Doctor Who on RetroTV, and the production has a wonderfully Ed Wood quality to it. I don't know whether these can be considered bloopers, because I suspect they were relying on the viewers to just let things slide, but just in two episodes tonight I saw:

 

 - A character attacks the machinery that's keeping some evil brains alive, and the brains start dying before she manages to break anything. Maybe they had heart attacks (or maybe brain attacks)?

 - A character who's trying to break down a door barely touches it, but the door gives about 8 inches anyway. The character declares "I can't do it! It's too solid!"

Yeah, the early stuff is pretty rough. Not much time or budget for multiple takes.

[Sandman87]

On an old Doctor Who episode tonight we learned that the Whomobile ("hovercraft" car) can also fly, and they switched back and forth between normal footage and "flying" footage of a studio mock-up with a chroma-key background. Unfortunately they painted the regular Whomobile white, while the mock-up was a shiny metallic silver, so it kept switching between white and silver depending on the shot.

[UYI]

As far as newscasts go, does this count? (go to 0:24):

 

 

I'm sure there are people in Chicago who STILL remember seeing this. 

[Haleth]

At least he used "literally" correctly.  Wow.

[janie jones]

Except he pronounced it like Rob Lowe in Parks and Recreation.

[xaxat]

It's not a blunder, but it was a totally unexpected moment on C Span.

 

 

Dallas Woodhouse, who heads North Carolina conservative group Carolina Rising, and his brother, Brad, who runs liberal group Americans United for Change, were on Washington Journal Tuesday morning for a friendly partisan debate. And then a caller told them to knock it off.

 

Edited December 16, 2014 by xaxat

[Princess Sparkle]

Oh lord, that is hilarious.  I can't even imagine getting scolded by your mom on national tv.  "Oh god, it's Mom" actually made me laugh out loud.

[magicdog]

Charmed is infamous for its bloopers and inconsistancies, especially in its first three seasons.  Actors change places, objects switch from one hand to another, etc.

 

This site has a list a mile long from the show's run. 

Edited December 18, 2014 by magicdog

[xaxat]

BBC Reporter Gets High as Fuck Filming in Front of an Opium Fire

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE_Yp2N9-g0

Edited December 23, 2014 by xaxat

[Sandman87]

Not exactly a blooper, but I thought this was hilarious: Last night the local newscast ran a story about how people with iPhones and Android phones are being spied on by their devices, because they track all of your movements and store the information. Then the station went to a commercial break, and the first thing they ran was a promo for the nifty news and weather apps you can get from their web page for iPhone and Android.

[Wings]

The high BBC reporter does not come up on those links, for me.  It is hysterical.  I played that many times when it first appeared.  

[opus]

Some Brady Bunch cast use their real names, and it makes it into the show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4yDxMeZB_g

[UYI]

This went viral a few years ago after Patton Oswalt tweeted about it, but I had blocked it out until I found something about it on the So Bad, It's Horrible page at TV Tropes recently. This is a compilation of events that occurred during the New Years Eve 2012/New Years Day 2013 countdown on LA station KDOC-TV (well technically it's based in Orange County, but it's still an LA station). Anyway, Jamie Kennedy hosted what turned out to be a complete clusterfuck of a countdown show. New Years Rockin' Eve, this is not. The full show isn't available, as KDOC-TV has apparently done everything it can to bury this from memory, but this over six minute compilation video remains. With the uncensored cursing that made it on air, I'm amazed the FCC didn't automatically revoke their license. I can imagine how much money they owed over that. 

 

 

There is a full write up on the AV Club, though:

 

http://www.avclub.com/article/epic-boondoggle-case-file-32-jamie-kennedys-first--91159

 

And even better, they were LATE on the countdown to the new year itself! (Warning: not the best quality video here)

 

He later claimed all of this was on purpose, because it was supposed to be a parody of New Years shows, but I call straight up bullshit on that. 

 

Edited June 15, 2015 by UYI

[BW Manilowe]

In the 2-part Starsky & Hutch episode where Hutch gets the Plague, in 1 episode the hospital where all the infected patients are taken is called "Memorial Hospital" & in the other episode it's called "Lincoln Hospital", without an explanation. Yes, it is the same hospital in both episodes (I've seen them enough to know that); they just somehow managed to call the same hospital by 2 different names without catching, & fixing, it.

[Rick Kitchen]

Dark Shadows was notorious for its bad production values, but I think my favorite of all time was when there was an evil cat, the actor said a line and the camera flashed to the cat, except the cat had wandered off from its mark.  So the camera flashes back to the actor and back to the cat, and you can see the arms of a stage hand holding the cat in place.

[janie jones]

Dark Shadows was notorious for its bad production values, but I think my favorite of all time was when there was an evil cat, the actor said a line and the camera flashed to the cat, except the cat had wandered off from its mark.  So the camera flashes back to the actor and back to the cat, and you can see the arms of a stage hand holding the cat in place.

Just reading about this made me laugh.

[xaxat]

The headline says it all.

 

Fox & Friends Co-Host Throws Ax Directly Into Bystander

 

https://youtu.be/saDmuon6tCg

 

 

[Sandman87]

Today one of the local noon news shows announced that the temperature at that moment in a nearby town was 704° F . Damn, I knew it was hot, but I didn't realize that it was past the melting point of lead!

[BW Manilowe]

Today one of the local noon news shows announced that the temperature at that moment in a nearby town was 704° F . Damn, I knew it was hot, but I didn't realize that it was past the melting point of lead!

I have a similar 1 for you, but in the opposite direction & not quite as life-threatening, temperature-wise.

The other night, the local NOAA Weather Radio station--audio from which is carried on 2 different channels on our cable provider, to accompany video of 2 different local weather radars (from our CBS & ABC affiliates), which makes it a "TV thing"--for some reason, for at least an hour with *no* explanation, gave our local temperature as 27 degrees, with a wind chill of 13 degrees.

The only thing is, temperatures in the area were actually in at least the low 80's at the time (though it was rather late at night), & we were under a Tornado Watch at the time (though nothing actually happened with that, thankfully).

When it came time to update the local conditions at the top of the next hour, the temperature was given as being 81 degrees, which was more in line with the rest of the area at the time, but still no explanation was made for the drastic temperature change given in the previous hour.

[topanga]

I suppose this can't be avoided, but I love scenes with babies where the actors are trying to interact with the infant (or toddler), but the baby is mesmerized by the lights or something off-camera--probably his or her mother standing just off-stage. Sometimes actors improvise by changing the baby's position or making noises to get baby's attention, but they usually just ignore it, which is hilarious.

 

--And say what you will about Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, but on 'Full House,' those were some focused babies. I don't remember them ever staring into the middle distance. They always seemed to have great interaction with actors in a scene.

[Princess Sparkle]

The other night, the local NOAA Weather Radio station--audio from which is carried on 2 different channels on our cable provider, to accompany video of 2 different local weather radars (from our CBS & ABC affiliates), which makes it a "TV thing"--for some reason, for at least an hour with *no* explanation, gave our local temperature as 27 degrees, with a wind chill of 13 degrees.

The only thing is, temperatures in the area were actually in at least the low 80's at the time (though it was rather late at night), & we were under a Tornado Watch at the time (though nothing actually happened with that, thankfully).

When it came time to update the local conditions at the top of the next hour, the temperature was given as being 81 degrees, which was more in line with the rest of the area at the time, but still no explanation was made for the drastic temperature change given in the previous hour.

 

 

Well, I can't explain the "wind chill" piece, but I bet it was a Celsius to Fahrenheit mistake.  27 degrees Celsius is about 81 degrees Fahrenheit.

Edited June 25, 2015 by Princess Sparkle

[BW Manilowe]

topanga: I assume you might've seen the episode of The Cosby Show where his character, Cliff Huxtable, is home alone babysitting his twin baby grandchildren after Clair's been called into the office to write/finish a legal brief for a sick colleague & the rest of the family is at a local Michael Jackson concert (only certain members of the family could go because Grandpa Huxtable wasn't given enough tickets by his friend, who was supposedly in Michael's band... & Grandpa Huxtable knowing someone in Michael Jackson's band always seemed like a big stretch to me, given Grandpa's age & the ages of most pop star band members, at least in reality).

Whether you have or not, that has a great scene of Cosby apparently having to work around the boy baby playing his grandson (the Huxtables had boy/girl twin grandchildren)

a) Spitting up on himself in the baby carrier seat &

b) Losing focus for a fairly extended period & looking up at either the overhead lights on the set or, possibly, some sort of flying bug doing its thing around the overhead lights on the set.

If it's not a "classic" scene involving baby/child actors losing focus, it's at least close. And Cosby's ad libs to cover for/handle the situation were fabulous, if a bit crotchety at times.

Princess Sparkle: I agree. I also thought the temperature discrepancy was probably something as simple as reading the Celsius temperature rather than the Fahrenheit. I can't remember what they said the wind speed was at the time, & I don't know how to calculate wind chill temperatures anyway, so I couldn't tell you if the wind chill figure was based on the given wind speed, but I'm also assuming that's what happened there. When they put down the really cold temperature, they automatically computed a wind chill factor to go along with it--as they tend to do during some parts of the fall & pretty much all of the winter.

Edited June 25, 2015 by BW Manilowe

[topanga]

 

topanga: I assume you might've seen the episode of The Cosby Show where his character, Cliff Huxtable, is home alone babysitting his twin baby grandchildren after Clair's been called into the office to write/finish a legal brief for a sick colleague & the rest of the family is at a local Michael Jackson concert?

 

Whether you have or not, that has a great scene of Cosby apparently having to work around the boy baby playing his grandson (the Huxtables had boy/girl twin grandchildren)

 

a) Spitting up on himself in the baby carrier seat &

 

b) Losing focus for a fairly extended period & looking up at either the overhead lights on the set or, possibly, some sort of flying bug doing its thing around the overhead lights on the set.

 

If it's not a "classic" scene involving baby/child actors losing focus, it's at least close. And Cosby's ad libs to cover for/handle the situation were fabulous, if a bit crotchety at times

I remember that! It was a great scene.

 

Bill Cosby. Why, oh, why do you have to be a serial rapist? *SMH*

[BW Manilowe]

I remember that! It was a great scene.

Bill Cosby. Why, oh, why do you have to be a serial rapist? *SMH*

I know. What I couldn't believe was when the actress who played that batty patient of Cliff's in a later season, Mrs. Minniefield (who wrote all his instructions down, then did the exact opposite--or some other way she got into her head--of everything he said), said she was victimized too. I get actors aren't necessarily like their characters, but she made me crazy & he's got no taste if he did attack her (my opinion). And that's where I'll leave it.

[praeceptrix]

Here is a mistake CNN may never live down:

http://gawker.com/cnn-mistakes-isis-style-dildo-flag-at-pride-parade-for-1714409153?rev=1435436550575&utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Edited June 28, 2015 by praeceptrix

[Princess Sparkle]

John Oliver's bit on that mixup was freaking hilarious.

[Sandman87]

A classic live TV screw-up from our local newscast yesterday: "And for more local news updates, tune in tomorrow morning at 5 AM to Date Rape...uh...Daybreak."

[Taylorh2]

Watching the morons at the Ferguson, MO protest, and one guy's shirt says "FUCK THE POLICE" and it's clearly not blurred out.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Taylorh2

[Sandman87]

In a similar vein: There was a censorship failure last night during an airing of Se7en. Several times during the movie the word "fuck" was cut out, but when Morgan Freeman read a paragraph from the serial killer's journal the word was clearly pronounced. Which I suppose just means that Morgan Freeman can say anything he damn well pleases. Because he's Morgan Freeman.

[bmasters9]

 

15 minutes of bloopers from newscasts of NBC station WLWT in Cincinnati from the 80s (1983 and maybe 1984, back when that station went by Action 5 News): I should warn you that while this is incredibly funny (at least to me), it does have a good bit of bad language

Edited December 5, 2015 by bmasters9

[BW Manilowe]

Steve Harvey made a major blooper on the Miss Universe pageant (now) last night (in the Eastern/Central time zones). He misread the card that announced where the Final 3 contestants finished in the competition. He accidentally announced Miss Colombia as the winner (repeating from last year's winner), though she was actually 2nd place/1st runner-up & Miss Philippines was the actual winner (Miss USA was 3rd place/2nd runner-up). To his (the producers'?) credit, the error was caught, rectified, & apologized for before the telecast went off the air in the east/midwest, including showing the card with the names as they actually finished on air in close-up enough it could be read; Steve also profusely apologized for it on social media (at least on his Twitter account) after the show ended.

[SnideAsides]

Poor Steve "Zapp Brannigan" Harvey.

[DollEyes]

I've got no sympathy for Steve Harvey. To paraphrase the old joke, "he had one job" & he not only fucked that up, he did it on an international level, humiliating Miss Colombia in the process. Apologizing was the least he could have done. If he had done his homework, neither he nor Miss Colombia would have been hurt in the first place.

Edited December 22, 2015 by DollEyes

[Aquarius]

Eh.  Part of me thinks they should all be glad of Steve Harvey's f-up.  When's the last time most people KNEW who won the Miss Universe pageant, let alone who was first runner up?

[BW Manilowe]

I've got no sympathy for Steve Harvey. To paraphrase the old joke, "he had one job" & he not only fucked that up, he did it on an international level, humiliating Miss Columbia in the process. Apologizing was the least he could have done. If he had done his homework, neither he nor Miss Columbia would have been hurt in the first place.

Small point: She's actually Miss Colombia.