Today is the 20th anniversary of the classic last episode of the TV series Newhart, which the local CBS in the Albany-Schenectady, NY area cut off 30 seconds too soon. Watch Bob Newhart talk about The Last Newhart.
It got me thinking about TV events that were interrupted. Surely, one of the most significant is the so-called Heidi Bowl, which I was ALSO watching.
It was an American Football League regular-season game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders, played on November 17, 1968. the Jets were leading 32-29 with only 65 seconds left, and NBC-TV ended the football coverage at 7 pm in favor of broadcasting the premiere of Heidi, a made-for-TV version of the classic children’s story. Meanwhile, the Raiders came back and scored 14 points, winning 43-32. Ultimately, the NFL’s television policies were amended, requiring games to be broadcast in their entirety in the markets of the teams involved.
Lately, I’ve been having difficulty for more prosaic reasons. I hardly ever get a chance to watch a TV show live. I record almost everything to the DVR to watch later. And I’m usually an episode or two behind. So it wasn’t until recently that I discovered that the results show of American Idol on FOX has been running two to four minutes long, the effect of which being my recording of Glee cuts off early. I DO have the ability to extend the recording of the later show and have. But it seems weird that a RESULTS show can’t end on time.
Any shows cutting off for you?
I have had an experience or three with Comcast. They would sneak in extra commercials during broadcasts of the Red Wings’ games. You could tell it was them because you would get a half second of the game’s broadcast coming back, and then a commercial for a local business. The one time it really irritated me was when all the goals the Wings scored that night were not seen live because of these kind of commercials. Needless to say many complained and this practice soon stopped.
I share similar experiences with broadcast TV these days. After moving to Thailand, we watch it less and less. Apart from news and music chart shows (my two teenagers!), almost everything we watch are downloaded first, and watched at a later date/time. That’s why my hubby keeps complaining about running out of HDD space…
I was living in Albany when Newhart aired, th T.V. station got death threats,but they couldn’t or wouldn’t show the show again.
I lived in the Schenectady area until I was 11 and remember watching WRGB-TV when it was an NBC affiliate. WTEN was with CBS and WAST (now WNYT) with ABC.
I had the same problem with the last Newhart in that I was out the night it aired and only had my VCR set to record 30 mins, so for me the show ended right before Bob’s last line to Emily. I also missed the full end credits, so it’s neat to have them here.