Have you ever appeared on television? If so, tell us about it. If you've been on television often, tell us about as many of your appearances as you'd like.
Only been on Tv once that I recall. It was kinda strange. It was in Georgia and I was to speak on drugs, but since I was not originally from the South, they coached me to slow down my speech. Well, I slowed down, but it made me sounds like I was the one on drugs.
Yall added too many words to your sentence, so it speeded up your performance, where us southerners got our subjects across without all that un-necessary work.
Not my story, but the story of a guy I worked for. He and a friend cut school and rode their bikes waaaayyyyy across town to the seedy part where the local arena was in order to go to a trading cards exhibit. There were reporters and a camera guy there from the local station doing a bit for the evening news, and the two of them were interviewed. Their parents watched the news that night, and they got busted.
I was on the nightly news once..Oue towns having a selectmen's meeting to discus whether we should declare the town a guy- friendly then..A friend asked if I wanted to go with him..I agreed. When the discussion turned t the gay question, several peopler got up to defend it.In fact an airline steward got up and said that in his experience on the plane people supposed it and he thought the item should pass..It was at that point that I got up to say that I thought a whole lot of people would not come to our town if the item passed. the item was voted down and the meeting adjourned..Outside the meeting room people had gathered.I was approached by a woman who invited me to visit her gay family. I had just heard the previous day a pastor from a church in Florida a sermon on truth. So I said the women "God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve"...the next day when I arrived at work one of my coworkers said "Al didn't know tou were a poet". Surprised I asked him what he meant and he informed me that he had seen me on the 22pm news say 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve"
When I was young, I think I was on Bozo the Clown Show. I say "I think", because I remember something about being on the show in the Cub Scouts. If the movie, Air Force One is on tv, my wife was an Extra in that movie. We have the movie, pause it and see her sitting at a table during the banquet when Harrison Ford (President) is at a podium talking about terrorism. We can also pause and see her, and her girlfriend, standing by a large doorway when Harrison Ford, and his Secret Service men, walk thru. When I had a rodeo at The Forum in Los Angeles, where the NBA Lakers played, a local pay sports channel was there filming us in the arena the entire weekend. And, lastly, I was interviewed by a Los Angeles tv station, where homeless people were staying in their vehicles in a church parking lot in Buena Park, CA. I was staying in my vehicle at the time as well. I was asked "So, what happened to you that got you into this church parking lot, living in your vehicle.........drinking, drugs or what?" I said, on camera "None of that. I didn't control my finances good enough." Yep, that was my answer and a true one at that!
The first time was on the Captain Kangaroo Show. He would broadcast his show from different television stations around the country, and he was at a Green Bay, Wisconsin station then, and our Boy Scout Troop was on. I was probably eleven. I never actually saw that episode, though, and I don't know if everything filmed during the show aired. I know it was being filmed. I was pictured on the steps of the Justice Department during a 1971 anti-war demonstration. I didn't know that at the time, but several years later - after moving to Maine in 2000 - I saw the footage during a retrospective report on the antiwar movement that one of the networks did. If it ever shows up again, I am wearing a brown leather jacket with an upside-down US flag patch on the sleeve, and my hair is pretty long. I must have been photogenic because it was practically a close-up. During that same demonstration, I was interviewed by a news reporter as I was sitting on a bench at the National Mall. I had a newspaper, and he started off by asking me what I was trying to accomplish in Washington, DC. I told him I was trying to read the comics. Then I went on to give him some BS about ending the war and so on, but I don't know what, if any, of that actually aired. In the late 1970s, I was on a couple of Southern California news shows during a strike by Champion Paper Company's box plant employees. I actually worked at Champion's bag plant, not far away, and we weren't on strike, but we walked the picket line in support of their strike. I was the VP of our UPIU Local, so I was briefly interviewed about the strike when a couple of news stations decided to cover it. I avoided mentioning that I wasn't even a box plant employee. As a paramedic in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, my face was on a bunch of news reports on various auto accidents, shootings, and a building collapse, although I didn't have talking parts. My photo appears on a couple of episodes of Forensic Files, although they had a girl play my part in their reenactment videos. This had to do with the shooting of a Brownsville auto dealer. Forensic Files did a report on it after his wife was convicted of the crime, then they did an update on it when her conviction was reversed several years later. I was a witness for the prosecution during the trial in which she was convicted, although I thought it was a suicide. I wasn't called to testify at the retrial, in which she was acquitted. As the program chairman of TSTC's EMT Department, which was then transitioning from Texas State Technical Insitute to Texas State Technical College, the difference being that we were offering degrees rather than certificates, I did the rounds of a couple of television channels and radio stations. I didn't actually watch any of those but the Dean was happy with them, so I guess I did okay. I suppose I was on a few news broadcasts when I ran for the State Legislature once, here in Maine. I know I was interviewed, but I didn't watch any of the broadcasts. News shows don't air everything they film, so I don't know what might have actually aired. I won the primary but suffered a devastating defeat in the general election. Had I actually campaigned, that might have helped, but the guy I was running against had been in office forever, moving between the State Senate and the State House as he ran up against term limits, so I still would have lost. Lastly, as far as I am aware, a couple of Maine television stations covered our effort to unseat a few of our town counselors here in Millinocket. I was elected to be the spokesperson, so I was standing on the steps of the town hall giving what I hoped to be an inspirational speech. I think I did okay. We didn't manage to recall the town councilors we were trying to unseat, but none of them were reelected. Oh, I also had a public access channel show called "Coffee Time" on our local cable television network in which I interviewed local residents about whatever they wanted to talk about.
@Ken Anderson - The Captin was the first Clarabell the clown on Howdy Doody. He and Buffalo Bob would ride in a van arounfd our neighbhood throwing out Toms peanuts and small candy pieces. Was to help promote his show , I think . My brother was in a band that was on the Mr Pepermint show. the name of their band was Chocolate Water Buffalo . LOLO why I do not know.
My sister was on television in the early days of AIDS when no one had any idea how it was transmitted (or at least there was no official determination published), and there was debate over whether or not to permit HIV-positive kids to mingle with non-infected kids. I have no idea how she got selected for this panel. She lived in New Jersey and I saw the broadcast outside of DC, so it was not a local thing.
Anyone else? I was involved in public access television in Anaheim, California but, as far as I can recall, I was on the other side of the camera. I may have narrated some stuff, but I wasn't the focus of any of it. They had a few public access channels, supported by a local television network. At that time, large, professional camera systems were used, and the network would train people to use them, and make them available for public access broadcasting. I liked the way they handled their public access channels, as anyone could find an empty slot on one of the channels and sign up for it. Like regular network television, in order to maintain a regular weekly slot, you had to show some public interest, which was much like ratings, although the bar was a lot lower than for a network show.
After reading about all those great debuts, my day in the spotlight is rather paltry. Once on WFAA news when they did a story on the State Fair and I went down to show a heifer for one of my great uncles. The reporter was fascinated that a Colorado girl would come down to Texas to spend time with her great Uncle and Aunt and then win showmanship. I probably got about 1 minute air time. After that when spending time with another great aunt that lived on the beach in Calif. They filmed some teen show near her. We were on the beach both in bikinis (she was 75 and still a babe) when she told me to smile and wave because one camera was turning toward us. I did and that debut lasted a few seconds. She later asked me how it felt to be a Hollywood star. She had a sense of humor that way. Next was when I worked for a TV station as a studio engineer. I was always filling in for the weather guy. A few times for the news guy, but that was during the Viet Nam war and I slaughtered the names of those places terribly. The station manager after about three times of me never getting any of the names right, had the program manager fill in for the news and she got the names right but was mundane and had an irritating voice. The station was bombarded with calls asking for me to come back until the regular guy could return. When the manager saw how ratings were increased with my comic mispronunciations, he asked me to fill in again. That time in the spotlight lasted a couple of months. Back in the 80s when I lived in the mountains, I was evacuated four times because of fires. At the last big fire that had gone on for days, I held on to the last minute to evacuate. I had all my things packed and ready to go. I was the last one out by sheriff's order and when I got down to the fire camp and where they had the road blocked, I was signaled to pull over and get out and be interviewed by 60 Minutes. I was interviewed for 6 minutes or so and asked many questions. I was on 60 Minutes for 6 seconds when I was telling about a giant snag that was hit by lightning and exploded. All the viewers saw was me saying "and it just exploded and blew wood everywhere" and saw me doing my hands and arms to show the explosion. No makeup, my face all dirty with soot smudges, my hair all wild and crazy looking and my long sleeve shirt was all dirty from spraying water on my cabin and falling a tree that was on fire. I even had ashes on me. One young beautiful lady that lived far below me in a fancy place had left hours before and was spending time around the fire camp. Her makeup and hair were perfect and dressed in clean clothes like she was a Hollywood star. She was carrying around her little toy dog. They played her interview for a good 6 minutes and she said nothing about the fire just about how her house burning would be traumatic and about how much her dog meant to her. The last I can remember was on a Portland station that was doing a documentary about the state police in our area and their protesting the governor cutting their budget resulting in layoffs. They interviewed me for over 10 minutes and I made a case of why they needed more funding not less. I talked about how they had done wonders with gang, meth, and crime reduction. The gal interviewing me saw one of my guitars and ask me to play something. I played a tune for about a minute. My only appearance on the documentary was me playing 3 SECONDS of rasquedos on an E chord..I decided never again! Why waste my time giving an informative interview when it is rejected and the others they starred said nothing of substance? I was asked to be interviewed about covid. I refused saying, you won't broadcast anything I say, so no. Go interview that idiot over there wearing two masks that didn't sanitize his hands. Now that is a super spreader. In 1969, I was also an extra for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid since I lived near there and also in a theater group that sponsored old west reenactments during tourist season. I am the one at :51 sec at the end of the train that tips my hat. I was on the Silverton NG train when we were asked to look out the window as the robbers went by and the ladies look smitten by the handsome outlaws. I have never received an Emmy , but I have an enema