Most Shocking TV Moments

[Deleted]

Dude, that Budd Dwyer video still has me in shock, a full day after viewing it. I almost wish I hadn't. The Sid Vicious clips, though? Hilariously gruesome.

When John Lennon's murder was announced on the morning news, I went into a tailspin and I couldn't do a spit of work that day. The reporter was actually wiping away tears. This time of year -- December 8th-ish -- always puts me in a slightly melancholy mood for that reason. Yeah, I'm old.

[grumpygirl]

bstewart said:

When John Lennon's murder was announced on the morning news, I went into a tailspin and I couldn't do a spit of work that day. The reporter was actually wiping away tears. This time of year -- December 8th-ish -- always puts me in a slightly melancholy mood for that reason. Yeah, I'm, old.

Speaking of this, Yoko Ono took out a full page in the Sunday NY Times with a letter to people about the anniversary of John's murder thanking them for thinking of John and his family every year and asking for peace. It was a really nice letter, a little weird, but that's Yoko.

[luciano]

ang said:

You actually saw it live?
God, Im so sorry, that must have been terrible. I'm still traumatised after looking at photos from the event. Im so glad theres no footage of him actually falling.

I saw it on PPV as it was happening. And, yeah, thank God they didn't really show anything. I heard that it was pretty dark in the arena as well, so the fall itself wasn't actually seen clearly by most people. It's always hard to know what's real and what's not with pro-wrestling so in the back of our heads, my brother and I initially thought that it might have been a work. The immediate tears and tributes right after he was taken out pretty much ended that thought, but the death was still a surprise, especially as they announced it and then went right back into the matches. So, basically, for the whole Triple H/Rock match, my brother and I were both, " . . . " The only thing I really remember being said was my brother going, "Wow."

[swanflake]

I was on YouTube trying to find a video of that lady on L.A. Law falling down the elevator shaft, but alas, no luck. I remember seeing that clip on some sort of "Television's Most Memorable Moments" special and being scared half to death. It totally came out of nowhere.

[zivvie]

- Shocking, in a good way: The 1980 Winter Olympics, when the US men's hockey team won over the USSR in the semi-finals (they went on to defeat Finland for the Gold Medal. /Olympic trivia). Every time I hear sportscaster Al Michaels cry, "Do you believe in miracles? YES!", I just get happy chills.
- Also Olympic-oriented, but not happy: When I was a very wee zivvie, I saw the whole hostage-taking at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. After the hostages had all been murdered, Jim McKay was on camera, in total disbelief, and said, "They're all gone." Chills again.
- The streaker who ran onstage flashing the peace sign during the Oscars telecast in the 1970's was pretty weird.

[andreajersey]

Like a million things that happened on Six Feet Under, but the ones that stick out immediately are:

Keith getting shot in the season finale.
Nate putting Lisa's decomposed body in the ground
The reveal about Lisa/Hoyt and Hoyt shooting himself

[Mugsy]

Waking up that August morning to hear that Princess Diana had died in a car crash. Just, wow. Celebs of that calibre of fame seem immortal sometimes, you know?

The Challenger exploding, because the bright blue sky and the looks of pride on the families' faces was such a juxtaposition to what had just happened (they didn't realize it yet).

After the Rodney King verdict, some live news channel showed those hooligans dragging that poor truck driver out of his truck and kicking the crap out of him - for no reason. It made my stomach go in knots, and I couldn't stop thinking about (and seeing that image in my head) for days afterward.

On a more shallow note, I think it was Survivor 5 where two underdog members of a rather dominant and arrogant alliance turned on them and voted with the minority to boot the so-called leaders, one by one. The reason it was shocking was because in Survivor the underdogs so often talk of doing just that, but never do, and then get booted accordingly. It was so deliciously satisfying to see it actually happen, and to see the smug looks on that alliance just drop in shock.

[Deleted]

mugsy said:

After the Rodney King verdict, some live news channel showed those hooligans dragging that poor truck driver out of his truck and kicking the crap out of him - for no reason. It made my stomach go in knots, and I couldn't stop thinking about (and seeing that image in my head) for days afterward.

Oh! I remember that. It scared me to pieces. But I heard that the poor driver ended up with no recollection of the assault.

Yeah, that was an awful news morning. First I was shocked to wakek up and see such vicious rioting in the streets of L.A. I was thinking, "Has the world gone insane???" Then I was further shocked to find out why -- That the cops had been found innocent. I recall feeling truly depressed, on multiple levels.

[monkey]

Yeah, 9-11, of course, but also the breaking of the levees after Katrina. No matter how many interviews I transcribe relating to the storm (I work on a project for a sociology professor - he's doing interviews with civilians, Corps employees, politicians, etc.), I'll never get over seeing that footage for the first time, and then the footage from the Convention Center and the Superdome in the days that followed.

As a close second, Hurricane Rita. My family had evacuated, but I was still at school. This giant storm had been plowing right towards my hometown for most of the week. The Weather Channel and the national news kept talking about Houston, but Lake Charles was right in the center of Rita's path. The first storm-related memories I have are of Hurricane Andrew, when it turned east at the last minute. Rita made landfall around 2 am. I was up watching the news, and my roommate came home after a night of too much partying and her first encounter with Everclear. I was trying to take care of her and watching the updates on CNN. Sanjay Gupta was two blocks from my house - roommate (from first semester, freshman year - not the current dumbass who shares my room) had seen her own house in aerial footage of a flooded neighborhood post-Katrina, and even in her drunken state we managed to comfort each other.

For fictional TV (starred are the ones I saw later on DVD or in syndication):
-Nina revealed as mole, 24 (yeah, I watched it on DVD and already knew that at some point she became a villain, but it still shocked me)*
-Jack kidnapped by Chinese, 24
-Nuclear bomb goes off in Season 6, 24
-Lucy and Carter stabbed, ER
-Adrianna whacked, Sopranos*
ETA:
-"Alan York" smothers Kim's friend Janet, 24*
-Season finale of MASH, with Hawkeye and his chicken/baby*
-Oh, one more real-life one: Columbia disaster.

[dragonfly80]

Katrina was a bizzare experience. You'd get the aerial views of the city and be racking your brain trying to figure out where exactly they were showing and how far away it was from your house. Like the Target they showed with the flood waters, I know where that is but when they panned back and showed the water we'd be begging the TV to pan a wee bit to the side so we could see if it was near our own homes and offices, you know?

Rita was different because we'd come back into our home and had people already living with us who couldn't get to theirs. It was a lot of tense watching to see if it would turn towards NOLA again or hit Western Louisiana. We had all our stuff packed and ready to go just in case we had to leave again.