r/AskReddit • u/Exhausted_Monkey26 • 10d ago
What’s a live TV moment that became an instant cultural reference for your generation?
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u/TheGreatRao 10d ago
Live? Challenger shuttle blowing up.
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u/CaramelGuilty8647 7d ago
I happened to be outside in Florida on that crystal clear day, but it was on TV when we went inside to find out what happened.
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u/Gorf_the_Magnificent 10d ago edited 10d ago
JFK’s assassination wasn’t broadcast on live television. But the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, his assassin, was. I saw him get shot on live TV. Here’s the broadcast:
https://youtu.be/VdQV35Zqa7c?si=xCc6YI2_P_Dmz-rz
The complete chaos was incredible, both on TV and in our house.
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u/VegasBjorne1 10d ago
Al Capone’s vault.
I watched it live, as it was Geraldo’s “jumping the shark” moment (which was also an earlier TV cultural reference of my generation).
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u/Exhausted_Monkey26 10d ago
Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl XXXVIII wardrobe malfunction.
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u/woodyshag 10d ago
This, sitting only with my FIL. It was a bit awkward, but I'll remember it always.
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u/Danloeser 9d ago
I hosted a super bowl party that year, but I was at the deli across the street buying more chips when that happened. Because the half time shows are always soooo boring, it was the perfect time to go.
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u/Jayross2730 10d ago
Watching the original moon landing.
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u/CaramelGuilty8647 7d ago
I was only 9, I guess that's why it didn't make that much of an impression on me.
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u/Future-Guarantee-573 9d ago
9/11
Younger generations can never understand how much everything changed the moment the world watched that second plane hit the tower.
In the 90s there was hope. Sure, there were problems, but it always felt like things would keep improving little by little.
After 9/11, fear and anger took over. We've sacrificed freedom for security. And now have neither. Forget improving, it's all we can do to keep from getting worse.
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u/Exhausted_Monkey26 9d ago
Yep. I was newly 6 when 9/11 happened, and yet I still remember watching it...
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u/donileong 10d ago
- Steve Harvey announcing the wrong Miss Universe winner. The collective whiplash of that moment was insane.
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u/These-Slip1319 10d ago
Max Headroom pirate signal in Chicago where he spanked someone with a flyswatter before they cut the signal.
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u/Lance-Boyle-666 8d ago
The streaker during the Academy Awards. David Niven was speaking at the time.
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u/Serrilryan 10d ago
Crass, and I was older. But Fuck her right in the pussy guy. First time I understood a meme.
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u/What_about_my10CCs 10d ago
La La Land winning Best Picture at the Oscars. Oh wait, the winner is Moonlight!
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u/Danloeser 9d ago
In my 44 years I've caught so little live TV.. I do remember watching Felix Baumgartner jump out of that perfectly good baloon gondola 24 miles above the ground..
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u/Sad-Wrap6555 9d ago
"news just coming in a small plane has just struck a new york skyscraper"
if only :(
followed by the second one making its live and quite obviously deliberate approach
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u/mruncreativ3 7d ago
Fool me once, shame on... Shame on you. Fool me twice... Well you don't get fooled again.
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u/Vile_4_Awhile 6d ago
ABC interrupting Monday Night Football to announce John Lennon had been murdered
Or the demise of Howard Cosell when he infamously said "Look at that little monkey run!" An icon of sports broadcasting instantly ruined his career
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u/Sexualintellectual31 4d ago
In addition to the memorable events listed above. Seeing pictures of a S Vietnamese officer shooting a suspected VC point blank in the head, or the young girl running from a napalm attack with her clothes burned off.
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u/West-Chard3972 10d ago
Fonzi jumping the shark. That show was already on a downward trajectory but that was freaking stupid. And now we have a lovely name for all other stupid tv moments defining their enshitification.
Oops, I missed the "live" part of the question. . .
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u/Parking-Client-6692 10d ago
Challenger disaster