Pre Internet Viral TV Moments: It's 1984 And Oh My God! You Broke The Internet!

[Sandman87]

Here's a few for All in the Family, a show that ran on controversy:

- Edith finds a lump in her breast.

- The first toilet-flush sound on TV.

- Edith and the rapist.

- Edith finds out that her late cousin was a lesbian.

[Enigma X]

I know the original post said TV, but there seems to be a hodgepodge here. Here is my hodgepodge:

Edward VIII's abdication and marriage to Wallis Simpson

The reveal that Darth Vader was Luke's father

Rock Hudson sexuality and HIV diagnosis

[Ohwell]

Ok, according to the original post, we're talking about shows on tv, right?  Because if we're talking about real life events, then that's a whole different situation.

[ennui]

5 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Ok, according to the original post, we're talking about shows on tv, right?  Because if we're talking about real life events, then that's a whole different situation.

You are correct, we should stick to television events.

[Shannon L.]

Most of Julia Sugarbaker's rants would be discussed over and over. Some would have have gone viral.

WKRP in Cincinnati deals with The Who concert tragedy. 

Mrs. C telling Fonzi to "sit on it!" would have gone viral.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Shannon L.

[Chaos Theory]

Let's stick with TV for now. . Too many conversations and too many ways this can go bad fast.  

[GaT]

So nothing that was on the news? We're sticking to TV shows?

[ParadoxLost]

10 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

WKRP in Cincinnati deals with The Who concert tragedy. 

Turkeys Away

and

this from LA Law

[Chaos Theory]

18 minutes ago, GaT said:

So nothing that was on the news? We're sticking to TV shows?

For now.  Real life stuff would send this post off on too many directions.  There is enough past tv shows that would have broken the internet had it it existed without news and real life.

[zxy556575]

Luke and Laura's wedding. If only because I'd never watched a minute of that show and still heard all about it.

[callmebetty]

2 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

Turkeys Away

and

this from LA Law

Omg I remember that! oh I can just imagine the websites blowing up and the discourse for pages about how an elevator wouldn't do that, and no yes it would. 

Edited October 28, 2016 by callmebetty

[GaT]

WKRP in Cincinnati "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly" 

Edited October 27, 2016 by GaT

[meep.meep]

TV Shows:

Roz and the elevator shaft

Luke and Laura's wedding

The MASH finale

Who Shot JR?

 

Events that were televised:

Moon Landing

aftermath of Kennedy's assassination

Watergate hearings & Nixon's resignation

Iran hostages come home

[ParadoxLost]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

For now.  Real life stuff would send this post off on too many directions.  There is enough past tv shows that would have broken the internet had it it existed without news and real life.

OK, I just need to share obscure one before I go back to straight tv show.

In the mid- 80s someone hacked WGN and PBS (interrupting Dr Who) in the guise of Max Headroom.  Can you imagine if the internet delivered the news that it was pretty easier to hack a TV signal back then.  I would share the video but no one needs to see his bare butt get spanked by a fly swatter.

So back to TV, TV instead of referential TV.

How abut the time Hutch got kidnapped by a drug kingpin who got him hooked on heroin.

There definitely would have been Dukes of Hazard and Starsky and Hutch comparison threads.

[Joe]

So they're bringing Star Trek back. It's a sound idea. Who are they casting as the captain? A bald middle-aged Englishman. From Yorkshire. His character has a French name, you're telling me he's going to be doing a French accent? This does not sound promising.

[callmebetty]

I have to laugh. one of those clickbaits under this last post is :The Truth behind Mork and Mindy is finally revealed!

 Yes, you want to know the secret? Mork is from Ork!

[ParadoxLost]

When Geraldo got a broken nose.

or a live chat when Geraldo opened Al Capone's vault.

[Sandman87]

Ed Ames' tomahawk throwing demonstration on Carson's Tonight Show would have resulted in an immediate eruption of memes, video clips, and "OMG" tweets.

[kassygreene]

3 minutes ago, Sandman87 said:

Ed Ames' tomahawk throwing demonstration on Carson's Tonight Show would have resulted in an immediate eruption of memes, video clips, and "OMG" tweets.

It was also funny as hell.  

[jhlipton]

6 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

“The Avengers” Steed and Mrs. Peel would have been shipped and the Internet broken with vows of “I’ll never watch again!” when Diana Rigg left the series.  Which, in a more things change, the more they stay the same reminder, it's said pretty much happened at the time.

The first swap of Honor Blackman for Diana Rigg went pretty well, but the swap of Rigg for Linda Thorson was a disaster all the way around -- it only lasted a single season.  Blech.

 

6 hours ago, ennui said:

Elvis Presley on Ed Sullivan. The Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan. The Doors refusing to change the lyrics of Light My Fire on Ed Sullivan.

Topo Gigio and Señor Wences on the Ed Sullivan show: "They're racist!" "No, that's how they act in their own country!"  FIRE!!!

 

4 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

Here's a few for All in the Family, a show that ran on controversy:

Sammy Davis Jr kisses Archie Bunker!

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

WKRP in Cincinnati deals with The Who concert tragedy.

Everybody knows the "As God as my witness line", but one of my favorite lines is the Christmas one where Venus Flytrap sings "I'm Dreaming of a White Christm... what the hell am I saying!"  #BlackDJsMatter!

[Irlandesa]

Two that I thought of so far (but I'm sure I'll have more.)

Newhart:  Bob waking up in bed with his The Bob Newhart Show wife.  I'm almost hesitant to mention this one because I don't know if the show's demographic would have been the internet demographic.  I don't know if I would have watched if it hadn't been my parents.  But it was so amazing that I do think it would have gone viral pretty quickly.

Melrose Place:  Kimberly taking off her wig would have broken the internet for sure.

[ratgirlagogo]

Richard Kimble finds the one-armed man!

[ratgirlagogo]

6 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

The great purge of all rural shows on CBS.

Pat Buttram: CBS cancelled everything with a tree, including Lassie.

[AgentRXS]

Roseanne kissing Mariel Hemmingway's character in one of the later eps of the series; so controversial at the time ABC threatened not to air it

Bill Clinton playing the sax on Arsenio Hall

The episode of the Simpsons where Michael Jackson guest-starred under the pseudonym "John Jay Smith"---people would be flipping out trying to figure out if it was really him or not

[Bastet]

Quote

Roseanne kissing Mariel Hemmingway's character in one of the later eps of the series; so controversial at the time ABC threatened not to air it

And aired a "parental advisory" with it.

[Enigma X]

Ellen coming out would have blown up the internet.

[SVNBob]

Allow me to summarize the entire thread in one sentence:

Anything that has made, or would make a good entry for the King of Disparate TV Things Mountain contest.

[MissAlmond]

Bill Cosby being cast as co-lead on I Spy

Robert Reed's gender reassignment storyline on Medical Center. 

NBC's two-parter The Dark Secret of Harvest Home starring Bette Davis.

The alien, Diana, opening wide and gulping down a small animal on V: the miniseries

David Kimble waking up from plastic surgery and seeing "KILLER" branded on his forehead on The Young and the Restless.

Edited October 28, 2016 by MissAlmond

[King of Birds]

I was gonna say when Jim finally kissed Pam, but uh, I was on twop when that happened. Alas, it did NOT break the internet.

[Spartan Girl]

Lots of moments from the first five years of SNL come to mind, but I'm pretty sure the Word Association sketch with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor would have been the one to break the Internet.

I know we're sticking to TV moments and not news, but John Belushi's death would have been a big one too.

[selkie]

The final episode of"The Prisoner" where Patrick McGoohan drills into the allegory and symbolism with the biggest bore he can find, 1/3 of viewers love, it, 2/3rds of viewers hate it and multiple WTF? moments are whapped into zombie equine status within the first 24 hours after airing. The endings of 'Lost' and the Battlestar Galactica' reboot had nothing on how they ended 'The Prisoner'.

Many an episode of' Soap', which seems like it was designed for the social media age and 'I can't believe they just went there.'

[Blergh]

I know this is truly ancient history but Little Ricky's birth on "I Love Lucy" which not only was aired on the very same day Lucille Ball herself bore Desi Arnaz, Jr. ( January 19, 1953) but also got HIGHER ratings than President Dwight D. Eisenhower's First Inauguration the next day! I mean, if the viewers got THAT excited over their favorite sitcom protagonist giving birth, it's not hard to imagine that 'Net WOULD have crashed and burned had it been in existence.

 

 Oh, and I'd also like to nominate the 1968 "Heidi" Bowl in which the AFL football game between the Raiders and Jets actually got CUT OFF with five minutes to play left so NBC could show the TV movie remake of the children's classic on its previously ordained schedule. The reaction from the furious viewers literally BLEW UP THE NETWORK SWITCHBOARD and then to cap the whole thing off during the movie's climax, they actually scrolled the final score at the bottom of the screen. No doubt quite a few kid viewers learned some colorful terms that evening!  Yep, that would have destroyed the 'Net.

[ennui]

In hindsight, when Star Trek was cancelled.  I wonder if it would have broken the internet, or been a collective shrug. When did Star Trek become such a huge deal?

On Dynasty, when Rock Hudson kissed Linda Evans, and we all suspected by then that he had AIDS.

[Blergh]

Good question, ennui.

 

 My guess is that amongst those who'd have been SUPER 'Net geeks (as opposed to us backwards folks who only got 'Net savvy via osmosis to learn to adjust to the 'Net obsessed world surrounding us ) would have been most likely raised a stink on the then-hypothetical 'Net but those who weren't into it would have just considered TOS's cancellation another "My Mother the Car" deal at the time. 

[cpcathy]

That is a good question, who would have thought a show with only three seasons would be this huge today?

Edited October 30, 2016 by cpcathy

[Joe]

This Betamax thing is pretty nifty. I've bought into it in a big way, I'm sure it will properly catch on soon and be huge!

[ennui]

3 hours ago, cpcathy said:

That is a good questions, who would have thought a show with only three seasons would be this huge today?

I did a little poking around ... it was a combination of Gene Roddenberry working the science fiction conventions and gathering the fan base, and Star Trek was in syndication, gathering new fans. (Never underestimate the power of reruns!) And then ST:TNG came along and was excellent. Resistance is futile.

TOS did have a lot of fans, but it had the Friday night time slot of death. 

[Sandman87]

6 hours ago, ennui said:

In hindsight, when Star Trek was cancelled.  I wonder if it would have broken the internet, or been a collective shrug. When did Star Trek become such a huge deal?

They tried to cancel it once, and the fans raised such a stink that they kept it for a third season, so I'm guessing; yes, teh intertubes would be borken. Or maybe the Jefferies Tubes, in this particular case.

[spaceytraci1208]

When Milli Vanilli got caught lip-synching during a "performance" on MTV

[Ohwell]

10 hours ago, spaceytraci1208 said:

When Milli Vanilli got caught lip-synching during a "performance" on MTV

Awww...I liked Milli Vanilli.  I guess this should go in the UO thread, but I thought they got a raw deal, with all that hoopla about the lip-synching.  I think their dancing sold the songs more than the singing anyway.

[GHScorpiosRule]

11 hours ago, spaceytraci1208 said:

When Milli Vanilli got caught lip-synching during a "performance" on MTV

I'd say the bigger story that would have broken the internet would have been the news that they didn't sing the songs they "performed" as Milli Vanilli. I remember what a huge scandal that was.

[amaranta]

Quote

Newhart:  Bob waking up in bed with his The Bob Newhart Show wife.  I'm almost hesitant to mention this one because I don't know if the show's demographic would have been the internet demographic.  I don't know if I would have watched if it hadn't been my parents.  But it was so amazing that I do think it would have gone viral pretty quickly.

This is the one the popped into my mind first.  I think the moment Suzanne Pleshette sat up in bed next to Bob the internet would have imploded.

Also already mentioned - ".... the plane spun in.  There were no survivors."   That would come in a close second. 

Others:

Maddy and David finally do it on Moonlighting.

Magnum dies at the end of what was supposed to be the last season.  And then the real finale when he doesn't.

When Don Knotts came back for a guest stint on The Andy Griffith Show.  His final show stayed in the top ten of most watched TV shows until the 1980's, which I still find impressive.

Seinfeld's The Contest, aka Master of My Domain

And for some reason, the season finale of Knots Landing's which I'll call Val's Babies. I was in college and it was all anyone talked about.  For what seemed like forever.  Then years later I got hooked on Knots when it was on cable and I got it it.

And one for my grandparents, since this was before my time.  It seemed that at least once a year they brought up how Arthur Godfrey fired a singer live on his show, and then Muzz and Pop-pop would fight about it. Seriously, they argued about this for decades. (Okay, Google tells me it was Julius LaRosa.)

ETA to add the MTM finale.  Aside from the moment when Mary turns out the lights, I seem to remember much ado about the curtain call.  Was this the first scripted series to a do a cast curtain call?

Edited October 30, 2016 by amaranta

[Ohwell]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I'd say the bigger story that would have broken the internet would have been the news that they didn't sing the songs they "performed" as Milli Vanilli. I remember what a huge scandal that was.

I kinda think that's what was meant by the "performance" in quotes.

[Blergh]

3 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I'd say the bigger story that would have broken the internet would have been the news that they didn't sing the songs they "performed" as Milli Vanilli. I remember what a huge scandal that was.

Exactly! I mean, virtually every major commercial act would lip synch to their own previously recorded songs so that the 'live' performances would exactly match the very carefully edited and mixed version of the song that had been released for public consumption. However; Milli Vanilli hadn't made ANY vocal contributions to what was supposed to have been their OWN work which they'd eagerly accepted the Grammy for (and it was only after they'd been caught that they even bothered to attempt to credit the UNSEEN studio singers whose work everyone had loved).  Of course, the other part of the scandal was that it seems there was a very large number of folks behind the scenes and even fellow performers who knew the deal but ALSO at least tacitly aided in the illusion that they themselves had sung those songs. Yep, I think the 'Net would have been done in by this.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Blergh
spell check

[GHScorpiosRule]

29 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

I kinda think that's what was meant by the "performance" in quotes.

 

23 minutes ago, Blergh said:

Exactly! I mean, virtually every major commercial act would lip synch to their own previously recorded songs so that the 'live' performances would exactly matched the very carefully edited and mixed version of the song that had been released for public consumption. However; Milli Vanilli hadn't made ANY vocal contributions to what was supposed to have been their OWN work which they'd eagerly accepted the Grammy for (and it was only after they'd been caught that they even bothered to attempt to credit that UNSEEEN studio singers whose work everyone had loved).  Of course, the other part of the scandal was that it seems there was a very large number of folks behind the scenes and even fellow performers who knew the deal but ALSO at least tacitly aided in the illusion that they themselves had sung those songs. Yep, I think the 'Net would have been done in by this.

D'OH!!!

[roseha]

On 10/29/2016 at 4:27 PM, ennui said:

In hindsight, when Star Trek was cancelled.  I wonder if it would have broken the internet, or been a collective shrug. When did Star Trek become such a huge deal?

To  date myself...my family watched Star Trek when it was first run, but it got *very* low ratings at the time.  So maybe it being cancelled would have broken the internet if a small group of fans could make a lot of noise, maybe not?  The huge cult following of Trek happened later when it was rerun, though I have to say that I always enjoyed the show and still do.

Edited October 30, 2016 by roseha

[spaceytraci1208]

11 hours ago, Ohwell said:

Awww...I liked Milli Vanilli.  I guess this should go in the UO thread, but I thought they got a raw deal, with all that hoopla about the lip-synching.  I think their dancing sold the songs more than the singing anyway.

I never had anything against the guys...I wasn't really into them either; but I think that moment with the track skipping on live tv would've been interesting on Twitter, had it existed back then.

[MissAlmond]

19 hours ago, roseha said:

To  date myself...my family watched Star Trek when it was first run, but it got *very* low ratings at the time.  So maybe it being cancelled would have broken the internet if a small group of fans could make a lot of noise, maybe not?  The huge cult following of Trek happened later when it was rerun, though I have to say that I always enjoyed the show and still do.

Renewing Star Trek during its original run would have broken the Internet for sure.   It was saved for a third season by a letter writing campaign, something that took a lot more effort than clicking a button.   It was that additional season that gave Star Trek enough episodes to be sold into syndication.  Star Trek was also lucky it was on NBC and not CBS because back in those days if CBS's William Paley had said Star Trek was done for, it was done for.  

Edited October 31, 2016 by MissAlmond

[Cobb Salad]

Star Trek was reaching its core demographic according to the market gurus at NBC but overall Nielsen wise it didn't do very well, and that mattered more to the NBC execs.  I wonder what Star Trek would be today if NBC had cared more about it to give it a better time slot for the 3rd season, Roddenberry had not left for Freiberger to take over and NBC renewed it for a few more seasons.  Would we have had the movies and the spinoffs?  Who knows.  

Speaking of William Paley, I think he was the one who got Gunsmoke "uncancelled" thus resulting in the decision to cancel Gilligan's Island.   I wonder if there were enough fans of the show to have broken the Internet back then. 

[Blergh]

Considering how GI's post network popularity and Gunsmoke's longevity, I wonder if there might have been a 'Net war between fans of both shows with each side getting rather . .. uncivil with each other?