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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too. And this is the first

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Speaker 2: episode of the two double two six.

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Speaker 1: I thought there was already another episode out.

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Speaker 2: Yes, this is the first one, Chuck. I think this

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Speaker 2: comes out on one to one.

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Speaker 1: Really twenty six, okay, pretty sure. Yeah, I thought we

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Speaker 1: had already crept into twenty six. But that's no matter

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Speaker 1: because it's still two five for us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some weird time stuff that's going on. We're

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Speaker 2: essentially straddling two years right now. And uh, I'm wearing

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Speaker 2: a silver spacesuit because of that.

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Speaker 1: All that to say, if we're a little loose is

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Speaker 1: because this is our last recording session of the year,

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Speaker 1: and so we're closing this out or opening up the

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Speaker 1: next year with a good old fashioned top ten that's

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Speaker 1: not a ten, like just like the old days.

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Speaker 2: That's right, we're finishing out twenty twenty five and stuff

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Speaker 2: you should know fashion.

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Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, look just like we did in probably twenty ten.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, probably, Chuck. If you'll allow me to begin.

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Speaker 1: Boy, it's just a classic old school opening, Chuck, do

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Speaker 1: you have a TV.

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Speaker 2: Have you ever seen TV?

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Speaker 1: I knew it was coming. Yes, it was either that.

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Speaker 2: Or Webster's defined TV right, right, one of the two.

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Speaker 2: I've seen TV too. Not only have I seen ATV,

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Speaker 2: I've watched what's broadcast on TV as well multiple times

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Speaker 2: throughout my life.

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Speaker 1: Same.

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Speaker 2: It's funny we chose this moments that changed the world,

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Speaker 2: TV moments that changed the world. And as you're kind

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Speaker 2: of researching this, she realized, like, for better or worse man,

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Speaker 2: TV is like it may modern culture more than anything

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Speaker 2: else I think in the entire world. Would I would

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Speaker 2: argue more than the internet? Ooh interesting, Yeah, I'm just

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Speaker 2: gonna say it.

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Speaker 1: All right, I'm not going to argue. I'm a not

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Speaker 1: an arguing mood.

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Speaker 2: Well, people who disagree, just follow us on this journey

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Speaker 2: into TV moments that changed the world, and maybe your

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Speaker 2: your opinion will be changed either way. I don't fault you,

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Speaker 2: all right, Great, So let's start at the beginning, when,

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Speaker 2: like the day that TV really kicked off in earnest,

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Speaker 2: there was a day that this happened. It was April thirtieth,

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty nine, in Flushing, New York, on Long Island.

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Speaker 2: And if you are familiar with that date in that area,

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Speaker 2: you may know that this was the nineteen thirty nine

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Speaker 2: World's Fair, and this is where TV got its start,

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Speaker 2: where it was really kind of unveiled to the public

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Speaker 2: at large.

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Speaker 1: That's right, not the nineteen forty World's Fair. HowStuffWorks dot

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Speaker 1: com because there was not one.

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Speaker 2: No.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so, you know, TV had been around for a bit,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't super widespread at this point. I feel

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Speaker 1: like we talked about this a lot lately for some reason.

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Speaker 2: Yes, stuff is just really clicking these days. I'm not

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Speaker 2: sure why.

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Speaker 1: It really is. But they had broadcast limitations. They could

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Speaker 1: only broadcast, you know, for a limited number of miles,

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Speaker 1: like out a limited number of miles. But by the

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Speaker 1: time that World's Fare came along, they were like, hey,

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Speaker 1: this is a chance to make a really big splash.

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Speaker 1: The RCA Corporation, the Radio Corporation of America, which also

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Speaker 1: then led the way in TVs. They were putting out

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Speaker 1: some pretty good televisions at the point, but they were

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Speaker 1: luxury items, and again they didn't have like the most

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Speaker 1: regular broadcasting going on. But they knew that this World's

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Speaker 1: Fare was a chance to make a super big splash.

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Speaker 2: Right, So, yeah, this is where they were going to

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Speaker 2: start selling TVs to the public. The problem is is,

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Speaker 2: you can have all the TVs in the world, but

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Speaker 2: if you don't have anything to watch on it, good point,

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Speaker 2: what are you going to do? Nothing? You're going to

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Speaker 2: sit there like a jackass and look at a blank TV.

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Speaker 2: So Luckily thought of this and they founded NBC, the

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Speaker 2: National Broadcasting Company, to start broadcasting stuff. So they brought

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Speaker 2: the whole thing together, the broadcasting and the TVs themselves,

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Speaker 2: and they debuted it on April thirtieth, nineteen thirty nine,

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Speaker 2: when they I think created the world's first live television

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Speaker 2: broadcast of Franklin Roosevelt kicking off the nineteen thirty nine

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Speaker 2: World's Fair.

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Speaker 1: That's right, And we did mention this one in another episode.

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Speaker 1: But he was, you know, sort of the the first president,

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Speaker 1: daddy of TV, granddaddy of TV. And like you said,

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Speaker 1: he opened it up there and you know, NBC had

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Speaker 1: gotten there and they had their you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: now antiquated TV technology all lined up. It was just

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Speaker 1: pretty whiz bang at the time. Sure, and they sent

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Speaker 1: signals through these mobile broadcasting trucks, which I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: pretty amazing. That in the nineteen thirties they had the

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Speaker 1: technology to even accomplish that, right, So it's pretty impressive

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Speaker 1: still to this day, and broadcasts that signal out to

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Speaker 1: about two thousand viewers, which seemed like a big number

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Speaker 1: at the time.

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Speaker 2: I imagine I'm still impressed with news fans. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: sure of the time, which is our time.

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Speaker 1: I'm impressed with news fans today, That's.

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Speaker 2: What I mean. Oh, okay, I didn't get it across

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Speaker 2: very well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So one thing I saw I was looking up

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Speaker 2: pictures of this nineteen thirty nine Worlds Fair, the RCA pavilion.

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Speaker 2: Apparently they built one of their televisions within transparent I

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Speaker 2: guess class or something like that, maybe plastic, so you

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Speaker 2: could see the internal working part so that people wouldn't

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Speaker 2: think it was just some sort of trick.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, interesting, that's how new it was. Yeah. Oddly,

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Speaker 1: since we're recording our Christmas episode, I feel like this

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Speaker 1: pause before the next one is going to include like

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Speaker 1: jingle bells and things, right, But it's not going to.

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Speaker 1: We're just simply moving on to another one, which is

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Speaker 1: Disney's Wonderful World of Color. I'm sure you like I

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Speaker 1: grew up watching I guess by the time we were

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Speaker 1: watching it in the seventies, and or me in the seventies,

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Speaker 1: and you likely in the eighties, it was called The

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Speaker 1: Wonderful World of Disney.

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Speaker 2: I watched Walt Disney Presents, I think, is what it

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Speaker 2: was for me.

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, so I guess, yeah, since I'm only a

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Speaker 1: year older than you, I was watching The Wonderful World

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Speaker 1: of Disney. Because this show had some title changes. But

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Speaker 1: the reason we're talking about this at all, it's because

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Speaker 1: of the advent of color television, which Walt Disney himself

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Speaker 1: really got behind and was like, Hey, I want to

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Speaker 1: be the dude that kind of brings this to the masses.

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Speaker 2: Right, because just like how you could have TVs but

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Speaker 2: nothing to broadcast, you could have color TVs and if

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Speaker 2: you weren't broadcasting in color, what's the point. And again,

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Speaker 2: this was an issue for RCA, and by then, of

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Speaker 2: course they had NBC, and NBC was rolling pretty well. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but Walt Disney's anthology series had started years before and

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Speaker 2: it was on ABC. NBC wasn't broadcasting in color. So

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Speaker 2: Walt Disney personally held a meeting with NBC and said,

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Speaker 2: we want to do this, apparently saying he said that.

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Speaker 2: He said, Bellas, I want this deal. If necessary, I'll

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Speaker 2: stand on my head in Macy's window.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and all the executives said, you don't have to

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Speaker 1: do that. It's a pretty good idea, So why are

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Speaker 1: you being weird?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but he was just that enthusiastic about the whole thing.

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Speaker 2: But he personally went and pitched the idea of the NBC.

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Speaker 2: And the reason why again is NBC was the first

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Speaker 2: network to broadcast in color, and so Walt Disney really

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Speaker 2: kind of pushed this through because NBC would have broadcasting

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Speaker 2: color either way, but Walt Disney wanted to do it

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Speaker 2: in like high style.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And this is a TV show that

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Speaker 1: launched in nineteen fifty four and ran for thirty four seasons,

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Speaker 1: obviously at first in black and white. And like I

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, you know the name changes. I guess they

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Speaker 1: had one, you know, between My Birth and your Birth,

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Speaker 1: because it was initially called Disney's Wonderful and then Magical

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Speaker 1: World of Disney. Yeah, and then when the color debuted,

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Speaker 1: he was like, we really want to be sort of

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Speaker 1: obvious with this, so let's call it Disney's wonderful World

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Speaker 1: of Color. Yeah, but we still haven't even said what

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Speaker 1: this was. I mean you mentioned anthology series. It was.

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Speaker 1: It was like a variety show essentially. They had cartoons

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Speaker 1: and stuff. I remember when I was a kid that

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Speaker 1: the Davy Crockett TV Show, and it says in this

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Speaker 1: house Stuff Works article it launched the coonskin cap craze.

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Speaker 1: And I have a picture of little five year old

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Speaker 1: me with a musket and a leather vest and a

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Speaker 1: coonskin cap on my head. So I was into that.

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Speaker 2: I had one too, but I don't have a picture

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Speaker 2: of it, so I can't prove it.

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Speaker 1: I can probably dig that up and throw it up

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Speaker 1: on the Instagram maybe to align with this, so I'll

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Speaker 1: try and find that.

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Speaker 2: You got it.

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Speaker 1: I got it.

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Speaker 2: So they were also like a lot of documentary programming, right,

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Speaker 2: and you would think like, okay, hard hitting frontline esque documentaries. No,

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Speaker 2: not at all. It meant that they would go and

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Speaker 2: film stuff under various themes at Disneyland. They were essentially

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Speaker 2: big ads for Disneyland. He used that big time, And

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Speaker 2: I mean they were well produced and interesting, sure, but

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Speaker 2: they really went to that well quite a bit in

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Speaker 2: every episode, not in the first episode though, instead the

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Speaker 2: first episode, and this is the moment that changed the

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Speaker 2: world as far as color TV goes. It was on

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Speaker 2: September twenty fourth, nineteen sixty one, and it was the

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Speaker 2: episode was two parts, and the first one was an

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Speaker 2: Adventure in Color, and it really was a bit of

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Speaker 2: an adventure, like it was a bunch of little segments

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Speaker 2: that really kind of showed off what you can do

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Speaker 2: with color TV and just must have knocked the socks off,

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Speaker 2: knocked the coonskin caps off of all the little kids

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Speaker 2: sitting at home.

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Speaker 1: That's right. And it also featured something called the Spectrum Song,

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Speaker 1: which kind of explained what was going on because I

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Speaker 1: guess they felt the need to explain color to people

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Speaker 1: who had gone around their entire lives seeing real life

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Speaker 1: and color. But I guess, like you said, it was

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Speaker 1: a pretty whiz bang thing to see the thing, to

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Speaker 1: see it on your TV for the first time, so

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Speaker 1: they went to great links to probably over explain that.

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Speaker 1: And this is also when we got the debut of

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Speaker 1: Professor Ludwig von Drake from the Disney Duck World.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he was kind of an eccentric inventor. His self

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Speaker 2: written bio was He's an eminent psychologist, renowned color expert, etymologist,

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Speaker 2: the most sought after a lecturer in the world. He

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Speaker 2: is undoubtedly the outstanding genius of the century. So he

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Speaker 2: was fairly egotistical, but he was also funny, and he

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Speaker 2: became beloved. And this is where he came from that

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Speaker 2: first adventure in color. Half and then the second half

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Speaker 2: was a theatrical release featuring Donald Duck. Because all of

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Speaker 2: these Disney cartoons that we just take for granted today

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Speaker 2: used to have to go to the theet to see them.

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Speaker 2: But when you went to the theater to see them,

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Speaker 2: they were in color. You saw them on TV there

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Speaker 2: in black and white. Now you can see him in

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Speaker 2: color on TV without leaving the comfort of your home.

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Speaker 1: What was their deal with the ducks was that? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I guess it's just like any other cartoon animal, but

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Speaker 1: they really leaned into the ducks.

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Speaker 2: It was a great excuse to draw something without pants.

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Speaker 1: Ah, okay, that makes sense. I never got into any

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Speaker 1: I was a little old for like ducktails and all

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Speaker 1: that stuff.

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Speaker 2: That was a good show.

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Speaker 1: So like Donald Duck was my only I guess exposure,

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Speaker 1: my only duck exposure. His little feathered Fanny. Oh sorry,

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Speaker 1: sorry listeners in England, I know what that means there.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, nice kit to be. To be perfectly honest,

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Speaker 2: I was a little old for ducktails too, but I

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Speaker 2: still watched it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, you know, we all regress.

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Speaker 2: I never progressed, I think.

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Speaker 1: Oh, come on, So, just like.

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Speaker 2: Disney probably promised RCA and NBC, like they started selling

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Speaker 2: color TVs like hotcakes thanks to in large part, the

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Speaker 2: Wonderful World of Color, Disney's wonderful World of Color, to

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Speaker 2: be exact.

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Speaker 1: That's right, And that feels like a great time for

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Speaker 1: a break. Huh, yes it does.

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Speaker 3: All right, We'll be right back everybody.

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Speaker 1: All right.

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Speaker 2: So you might think that we're going in chronological order,

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Speaker 2: we are not. We're going to go back in time

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Speaker 2: a little bit from the debut of color TV, but

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Speaker 2: after the World's Fair in nineteen thirty nine, two years after,

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Speaker 2: and we're going to go to you know, I never

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Speaker 2: found out what network this was on, did you. No,

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Speaker 2: that's silly.

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Speaker 1: Let's just call it ESPN.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so on ESPN in nineteen forty one, on July first.

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Speaker 2: This is a moment that changed the world. Some people

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Speaker 2: who are watching the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Philly at

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Speaker 2: the Philadelphia Phillies essentially saw the first television ad ever.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was either nine or ten seconds long. It

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Speaker 1: depends on the source that you cite, but it was

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Speaker 1: pretty short and all it was. And I know we've

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Speaker 1: talked about this before because I have seen this before

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Speaker 1: and I can't think of any other reason why I

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Speaker 1: would have, right, But it is a scene of a

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Speaker 1: bull of a clockface just sort of superimposed over a

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Speaker 1: map of the United States, and it's had the phrase

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Speaker 1: over the top of it like a chiron the world

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Speaker 1: runs on Buluva time. And about four thousand people saw

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Speaker 1: this ad, and I imagine they were like, what the

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Speaker 1: heck is this? Why am I hearing about Bulova?

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Speaker 2: And why do I suddenly feel like buying a bowl

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Speaker 2: of a watch?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Probably.

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Speaker 2: What's super quaint and sweet is that the ad costs

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Speaker 2: bull of a nine dollars. That's the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: Even for the time, that's crazy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, even at the time, that's one hundred and ninety

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Speaker 2: five dollars today, So that was quite a sweet deal. Sure,

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Speaker 2: And what it did was show like this is a

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Speaker 2: we can do this, we can advertise two people. And

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Speaker 2: it's not to say that there were just no ads

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Speaker 2: on TV before the bulov A ad, but they just

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Speaker 2: followed a completely different format, so much so that the

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Speaker 2: Bowl of A ad is pretty safely considered among historians

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Speaker 2: as the first actual TV commercial.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's for a couple of reasons. You did

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Speaker 1: mention some other ads, But before that, it was like,

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Speaker 1: you know, this program is sponsored by whatever, and that

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Speaker 1: was just the ad. It wasn't actual TV commercial in

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Speaker 1: between content. The first ad, I guess if you count

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Speaker 1: that stuff was a nineteen the year TV debuted, really

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Speaker 1: and it was a furrier. Man, it seems like it

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Speaker 1: would have been from like eighteen thirty, but it was

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Speaker 1: a furrier in Boston called ij Fox Furriers who sponsored

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Speaker 1: the CBS orchestra. It was a program called the Fox Trapper.

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Speaker 1: So that, you know, that's kind of how ads went

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Speaker 1: up until forty one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was the radio format. It was essentially

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Speaker 2: they just took the format that had been pioneered on

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Speaker 2: radio and now they were doing it on TV. That's

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Speaker 2: not really an ad. If you call that an ad,

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Speaker 2: you're just being contrarian, right. Sure, there were still even

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Speaker 2: other ads but they were illegal because it wasn't until

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Speaker 2: nineteen forty one that the FCC started issuing licenses to

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Speaker 2: run commercials on on broadcast networks. But that means that

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Speaker 2: the ads before them were illegal. I could not find

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Speaker 2: any mention of what these ads were for, but I

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Speaker 2: got the impression that they were just experimentation networks kind

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Speaker 2: of on the sly figuring out how to do it

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Speaker 2: as they went along. So again, Buliva is the first

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Speaker 2: actual TV commercial that was legal, and that was also

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Speaker 2: produced with the intent, the sole intent to sell a

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Speaker 2: particular product on air. That was it. That space of

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Speaker 2: air was filled up by an ad. That was the

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Speaker 2: first time ever.

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Speaker 1: That's right, And I knowe we mentioned this before, but

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Speaker 1: for those who aren't familiar with our cannon in the

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Speaker 1: old days of stuff, you should know our boss Connel Byrne,

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Speaker 1: who commissioned the whole show to begin with and changed

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Speaker 1: our lives. Thank you Connell. He came up to us

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Speaker 1: at one point after we had been doing it a

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Speaker 1: while and said, hey, people are running ads on podcasts

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Speaker 1: now and we need to get into this. And we

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Speaker 1: were like, no way, no how, We're not going to

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Speaker 1: foulop our show. By selling it, and then eventually he said, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, if we can sell this thing, it'll make

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Speaker 1: the company money and on down the road, maybe this

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Speaker 1: just becomes your job. I don't know if he said that,

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Speaker 1: but the writing was kind of on the wall, and

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Speaker 1: maybe this can just become the only thing you do

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Speaker 1: here and you won't be writing articles for housetiforks dot

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Speaker 1: com anymore. And we went tell us more.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, here, you make a good case here. Yeah, hey, Chuck,

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Speaker 2: we're real quick speaking of our cannon. So for all

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Speaker 2: of you listeners out there, it's a little behind the

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Speaker 2: scenes peak. Oh yeah, we have like I think, including

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Speaker 2: short stuff in the neighborhood of two thousand, three hundred episodes.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't really get it across when you say twenty

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Speaker 2: three hundred. We have a ton of episodes in our

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Speaker 2: back catalog, and we like people write in all the

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Speaker 2: time and they're like, you should do this episode. We're like,

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Speaker 2: we did like seven years ago, and it's like a

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Speaker 2: lot of people just have no idea the episodes we've done.

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Speaker 2: So we're trying to like figure out how to get

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Speaker 2: it out there better.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, that's the reason we mentioned this. We've

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Speaker 1: been sort of putting our heads together at iHeartMedia because,

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Speaker 1: like you said, a lot of people don't you know,

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Speaker 1: I think iTunes serves up about three hundred. But here's

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Speaker 1: a little trick. If you're on your podcast player for

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Speaker 1: iTunes on your iPhone, if that's how you listen, when

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Speaker 1: you scroll down through like the first five episodes, there's

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Speaker 1: a little button there that says see all two thousand

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Speaker 1: plus episodes, And if you click on that, they're all

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Speaker 1: there and you can scroll through. But you know, a

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Speaker 1: lot of people don't know that. A lot of other

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Speaker 1: players don't you know, who knows how many they display,

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Speaker 1: But it's a frustration for us, and so it's just

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Speaker 1: a gentle reminder that there are literally thousands of these

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Speaker 1: episodes out there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're all also, I think you said on the

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Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app and stuff youshould know. Dot com has the

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Speaker 2: master repository and a pretty good search function. And one

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Speaker 2: of the ways we figured out like we could probably

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Speaker 2: like we could probably do a lot better about mentioning episodes,

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Speaker 2: like specifically when they come up in another episode, like

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Speaker 2: a new episode. But I feel like we're gonna have

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Speaker 2: to do a lot better. Yeah, we normally do, which

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Speaker 2: is like, did we do some episode on something related

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Speaker 2: to this? Yeah, we gotta figure it out, but we will,

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Speaker 2: cause there's just a bunch of great episodes just sitting

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Speaker 2: there waiting for people to discover.

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Speaker 1: That's right, right, And with that we move on to

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Speaker 1: oh wait, yes.

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Speaker 2: We have to do the Super Bowl comparison. You have

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Speaker 2: to do it. If you talk about the bulovcy we

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Speaker 2: really yes.

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Speaker 1: All right, you take it away, then I repe stick part.

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Speaker 2: So if you write or talk about the Bulova ad,

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Speaker 2: it's basically incumbent upon you to compare that ad cost

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Speaker 2: the nine dollars cost to what it would have cost

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Speaker 2: had they run it on a Super Bowl. And so

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Speaker 2: for the twenty twenty five Super Bowl, if Bulova had

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Speaker 2: run this, they would have paid two point three five

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Speaker 2: million dollars for those ten seconds.

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Speaker 1: Amazing.

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Speaker 2: Quite a deal, that's right there. I just kept us

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Speaker 2: from being sued.

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Speaker 1: Uh well, I don't even think we're even I think

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Speaker 1: we're supposed to say the Big Game, aren't we.

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Speaker 2: It's no like we're supposed to not buy into that.

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, I gotcha, all right. Moving on to the

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Speaker 1: next one on the list is the that was a

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Speaker 1: good segue too, because we can't talk about like our

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Speaker 1: old episodes and then say, also, there was a devastating

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Speaker 1: tsunami in two thousand and four in the Indian Ocean, right,

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Speaker 1: because that happened, and we know if you're of a

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Speaker 1: actually you don't have to be much of a certain age.

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Speaker 1: But on December twenty six, two thousand and four, that

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Speaker 1: was an undersea earthquake about a nine point zero magnitude

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Speaker 1: that set off this incredible tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we've done episodes on tsunamis and earthquakes, and

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Speaker 1: we've talked about all this before. But it was about

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Speaker 1: one hundred feet tall, traveling at five hundred miles an hour,

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Speaker 1: not much advanced warning, and was one of the most

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Speaker 1: devastating tragedies in human history. It killed close to two

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty thousand people in fourteen countries. It also

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Speaker 1: sparked the biggest rail disaster in history when it completely

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Speaker 1: wiped out a train traveling along the coast of Sri Lanka.

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Speaker 1: And we mentioned all this because the only positive that

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Speaker 1: came out of this was the media's reaction, which sparked

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Speaker 1: the incredible amount of philanthropy and aid and giving in

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Speaker 1: its aftermath.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because the I was reading a study on this.

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Speaker 2: It is called media coverage and Charitable Giving after the

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Speaker 2: two thousand and four tsunami. It was by Philip H.

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Speaker 2: Brown and Justin Minty, and they said, like, the media

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Speaker 2: coverage was unprecedented, Like it didn't they the world didn't

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Speaker 2: forget about it in like three days. It was twenty

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Speaker 2: four hour coverage of this disaster for weeks on end right.

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Speaker 2: And because these images were broadcast around the world, and

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Speaker 2: because it was so mind bogglingly devastating, people just opened

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Speaker 2: up their pockets. I saw ninety nine different countries donated,

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Speaker 2: and thirteen of those countries had never donated for a

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Speaker 2: natural disaster relief before it got to everybody.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and there are I think about one hundred and

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Speaker 1: ninety five countries in the world.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, which it's kind of like, do better other ninety

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Speaker 2: six countries.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I imagine the countries that didn't give have their

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Speaker 1: own issues, had their own issues going on.

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Speaker 2: You know, Well, no I feel bad, No, don't feel

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Speaker 2: so bad.

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Speaker 1: But they have done studies. That two thousand and six

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Speaker 1: study that you referenced, they said that the Catholic relief

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Speaker 1: charities got a million dollars in three days, which would

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Speaker 1: turn out to be small beans in the long run,

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Speaker 1: but over three days that's quite a haul. Save the

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Speaker 1: Children got more than six million dollars in four days.

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Speaker 1: The Lutheran World Relief raise more money in a week

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Speaker 1: than it does in a year. And the AP found

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Speaker 1: that thirty percent of American families donated in the first

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Speaker 1: two weeks, and just from the United States though, was

439
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:43,920
Speaker 1: about one point six billion, and estimates around the world

440
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:46,080
Speaker 1: were about fourteen billion dollars raised.

441
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:49,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just to kind of go over the power

442
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,600
Speaker 2: of the media, one thing I left out here is

443
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:55,080
Speaker 2: that that same study found that one extra minute of

444
00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 2: coverage on television equated to an increase in Internet donations

445
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,639
Speaker 2: by six seemed to twenty percent. So like this the impact,

446
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:08,560
Speaker 2: it's just essentially like a classroom lesson in the impact

447
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,400
Speaker 2: that media can have, the positive impact that media can have.

448
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 2: And that's I mean, that's that is definitely something to

449
00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 2: TV's credit. Yeah, you want to move on to well,

450
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 2: move backward to Vietnam.

451
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, again, we're jumping all over the timeline and we're

452
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:28,159
Speaker 1: in Vietnam right now because I guess we should talk

453
00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:30,120
Speaker 1: a little bit about pre Vietnam and as far as

454
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 1: media coverage go, because before that World War Two and

455
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: certainly the Korean War, what you got as far as

456
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:43,520
Speaker 1: media coverage was highly sort of curated and regulated, government

457
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: mediated film reels. You would get news updates, they would

458
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 1: play in movie theaters. By the time we got to Vietnam,

459
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,200
Speaker 1: they had, you know, like handheld cameras you could literally

460
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,960
Speaker 1: take to the front lines, and it really changed the

461
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:02,159
Speaker 1: way war coverage went and as result, the way the

462
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: way people felt about the war. Because World War Two,

463
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:06,640
Speaker 1: everyone was they were pretty raw, raw, and you got

464
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:10,160
Speaker 1: these raw, raw films, So morale was big in America.

465
00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 1: You know, they were like, hey, this is great, We're

466
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 1: fighting the Nazis, right.

467
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 2: Another huge factor was that by nineteen sixty six, ninety

468
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 2: three percent of American homes had a TV, and just

469
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:27,520
Speaker 2: thirteen sixteen years earlier, in nineteen fifty, it was nine percent. Yeah,

470
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 2: so TV was firmly established in the American psyche. You

471
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:35,440
Speaker 2: remember in wonder years, whenever they sat down and had dinner,

472
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:39,119
Speaker 2: they always had the TV on showing Vietnam. Yeah coverage. Yeah,

473
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 2: that's what it was like.

474
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:40,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.

475
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 2: And so the fact that everybody had TVs, the fact

476
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 2: that now there was like cameras that you could easily

477
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:53,720
Speaker 2: allow a journalist to embed with, and the idea that

478
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:58,680
Speaker 2: the government really shouldn't control propaganda, shouldn't control the news

479
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:05,119
Speaker 2: like that created this atmosphere where the broadcasters were willing

480
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 2: to show like really heartrending, unflinching stories. Yeah, what the

481
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:15,160
Speaker 2: soldiers fighting for the United States were doing in Vietnam

482
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 2: and what was being done to them, And it really

483
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,880
Speaker 2: shaped America's view of that war.

484
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:26,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it definitely made the mood and how

485
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: we saw the war like pretty dour. But people, you know,

486
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,360
Speaker 1: going into Vietnam, there were a lot of people already,

487
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: like before even the coverage started that were like, what

488
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:36,479
Speaker 1: are we doing in Vietnam?

489
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 2: Again? Right?

490
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 1: It wasn't like World War Two where where the Nazis

491
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 1: were trying to you know, take over the world, and

492
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,840
Speaker 1: so you know, this just made everything worse, but you know,

493
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 1: worse in a positive way because it was showing the

494
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: reality of things. It wasn't government controlled, I'm sure they were,

495
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:58,159
Speaker 1: you know, just countless meetings behind the scenes and the

496
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,920
Speaker 1: Oval Office where they were like we're getting crushed by

497
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,360
Speaker 1: the reality of this war and how it's being depicted

498
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 1: in the media. I'm sure they were pretty upset about

499
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:08,360
Speaker 1: losing control of that narrative.

500
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, they definitely were. And later on, I think

501
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:16,400
Speaker 2: the Iraq War was another considered another television war. Certainly

502
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:22,360
Speaker 2: the Gulf War the first one was. And the government

503
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:26,680
Speaker 2: kind of learned from losing control over the narrative in Vietnam,

504
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,399
Speaker 2: but they weren't able to regain control, and so the

505
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 2: sentiment toward Vietnam and the United States kept getting worse

506
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 2: and worse, and protests were getting bigger and bigger. There

507
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 2: was like a very healthy anti war movement. And essentially

508
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:47,360
Speaker 2: because the public was feeling this way, the public sentiment

509
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 2: was that way toward Vietnam, and because if you turned

510
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 2: on the news, the evening national news, you would see

511
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 2: like terrible coverage that was not flattering at all to

512
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,919
Speaker 2: what the United States was doing in Vietnam, elected official

513
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:03,280
Speaker 2: basically had no choice but to listen to people. And yeah,

514
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 2: it definitely led to the earlier, probably an earlier withdrawal

515
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 2: than the United States may have otherwise taken.

516
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, changed the way that it went

517
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 1: moving forward, because you know, the writing was on the

518
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,720
Speaker 1: wall at that point for the US government, They're like,

519
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 1: we can't go back to World War Two. As much

520
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 1: as they wanted to kind of control that narrative, the

521
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: American people at that point would not have it moving forward.

522
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:29,720
Speaker 1: So it really kind of changed the whole relationship of

523
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: how any kind of conflict is covered.

524
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 2: It did. So now they've struck a balance between allowing

525
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 2: reporters to embed and just relying on those national news

526
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:45,120
Speaker 2: reporters to disseminate the propaganda, because if you watch embedded coverage,

527
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 2: for the most part, it is fairly yeah, raw raw,

528
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 2: even if it's not overtly raw rack. Is that the

529
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:53,639
Speaker 2: American public's a little more savvy than that. It's still

530
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:57,159
Speaker 2: nothing like the coverage was of Vietnam from what I understand.

531
00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:59,400
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and just the way wars are fought now,

532
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,240
Speaker 1: it not like a front line like you had back then.

533
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 1: So I remember watching the Gulf War and it was

534
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,440
Speaker 1: just all those like you know, black and white shots

535
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: of bombing things from thousands of feet above, you know.

536
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the beginning of the Iraq War, remember

537
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 2: it was shock and awe, Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it

538
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 2: was like it was produced essentially for TV, the initial

539
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 2: attack on Iraq.

540
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 1: It's so gross to I don't know, I'm not gonna editorialize,

541
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,920
Speaker 1: but to name something like that, like, hey, that sounds

542
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:30,159
Speaker 1: pretty pretty awesome.

543
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,439
Speaker 2: You know. I think it was either RUMs Fell or

544
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,680
Speaker 2: Cheney who came up with that, And I'm not surprised

545
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 2: either way.

546
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 1: For sure. Should we take another break?

547
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I wasn't expecting that.

548
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 1: Sure, all right, we'll take another break and finish up

549
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: with a couple of more moments that changed TV history

550
00:28:45,080 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 1: right after this. All right, we're going to move on

551
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: to another show. But we should mention that the original

552
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: House of Works article included, of course, the moon landing,

553
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: which was a huge TV event, but we covered all

554
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 1: of that in which episode.

555
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 2: We have an episode on that. It's called How Going

556
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,680
Speaker 2: to the Moon Works from twenty nineteen, and it was

557
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 2: a really interesting episode that really covered in depth of

558
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 2: lunar landing.

559
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: That's right, part of the twenty three hundred episodes plus.

560
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 2: That's right, But we're.

561
00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: Not going to talk about that. We're going to talk

562
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 1: about a TV show that we've talked about here and

563
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: there before called Cops. Because Cops is and I know

564
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 1: I mentioned this in that other episode. Whatever it was,

565
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 1: it was a show that I used to watch with

566
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 1: more regularity than I like to admit now I think

567
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:55,520
Speaker 1: everyone watched it a lot. Well, it was never and

568
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: I'm not excusing it, but it was never like appointment TV.

569
00:29:57,800 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't even know when it came on.

570
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 1: This was just in my younger channel surfing days where

571
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,560
Speaker 1: it was like you're surfing around, Cops was on. I

572
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: would watch Cops and I was never like yeah, yeah,

573
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: go go. But you know, I've found it probably entertaining

574
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: and amusing, and now that i'm a little older and

575
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 1: no more of you know, slightly embarrassed that they were

576
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: sort of exploiting many times people who had mental illness

577
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 1: and who were suffering through poverty and addiction. And so

578
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:30,840
Speaker 1: I'm not so proud of that. But I'll admit that

579
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 1: I watched my fair share of Cops.

580
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 2: I watched it too. So Cops changed the world in

581
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 2: two ways. And this moment was March eleventh, nineteen eighty nine,

582
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 2: which is when it debuted on Fox. This is just

583
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:46,080
Speaker 2: three years after Fox premiered, nine months before The Simpsons

584
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 2: even premiered, Cops started on Fox, and it helped make

585
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 2: Fox the fourth network. It was just such a huge

586
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 2: show right out of the gate. And the two ways

587
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 2: that it changed the world is one set the groundwork

588
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 2: for reality TV. Yeah, you can make a pretty good

589
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 2: case that it was one of the It may be

590
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 2: the originator of reality TV. There weren't scripts, There wasn't

591
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,959
Speaker 2: any star, There wasn't any narrative or plot lines. It

592
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:17,160
Speaker 2: was just like, here's some cops and here's a crime

593
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 2: that they're going to fight. We don't have a script.

594
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 2: We just generally know what's going on, which ostensibly is

595
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 2: the basis of any reality show.

596
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you know what we should do an

597
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: episode on at some point is I can't remember the

598
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: name of it now because it just came to me,

599
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 1: but I think kind of the first real reality show

600
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 1: was that one where they followed the American family around

601
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 1: in the seventies, maybe.

602
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,400
Speaker 2: When a PBS or British or something.

603
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: I think it was PBS, and then they made a

604
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 1: fictional account of that as a movie not I think

605
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: four or five, six years ago. That was pretty good too.

606
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 1: I think James Scandalfini was in it.

607
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 2: Okay, I would have guessed Peter Sarsgard as the dad.

608
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 1: It was really good though. Anyway, that really kicked off

609
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,120
Speaker 1: reality TV. MTV's Real World didn't come out till ninety two,

610
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: but Cops certainly laid the groundwork for kind of like

611
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: trashy reality TV, you know, right. Yes.

612
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 2: The other effect that it had on the world was

613
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 2: it really reinforced unfair racial stereotypes. Yeah, among white Americans

614
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 2: toward Black Americans, people of color in general in the

615
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 2: United States. It was an enormous show. It drew like

616
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 2: eight million viewers each week. That's a crazy amount of people.

617
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,960
Speaker 2: Peaked in the nineties. But even from the first episode,

618
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 2: civil rights groups were like, whoa wait a second here,

619
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 2: like a lot of these criminals are black, and this

620
00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 2: is way disproportionate to reality. I thought this was a

621
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 2: reality show. And the Cops producers, Barber Langley Productions, were like, well,

622
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 2: it's reality ish, you know, like it's not the actual

623
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:58,720
Speaker 2: portrayal of reality. It's a skewed toward entertainment version of reality.

624
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 2: So just settle down. And the civil rights groups are like,

625
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 2: we're not settling down. That actually makes it even worse.

626
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the cops loved it because they were

627
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:10,239
Speaker 1: portrayed as heroes. It was a great recruiting tool for

628
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 1: police officers. And you know, I guess we have some

629
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: stats from the Marshall Project. They did a analysis in

630
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. Most of the officers on balance were white,

631
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 1: suspects were more likely to be black or hispanic as

632
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: far as the numbers go. They found that while sexual assault, robbery,

633
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: and murders account for just thirteen percent of all crime

634
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety four, at least it was forty three

635
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:40,800
Speaker 1: percent of what you saw on cops. I don't remember

636
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: a lot of sexual assault and murder though, Like everything

637
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: I saw on cops were like robberies and drug arrests

638
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 1: or just you know, dy being drunk out in public, stuff.

639
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 2: Like that, or dude hiding under a kiddie pool.

640
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's probably drunk er on drugs, right, Yeah, that's

641
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 1: what I I remember. I don't remember like more serious crime.

642
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:03,840
Speaker 1: So I was kind of wondering about that stat.

643
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember that either. They also found that

644
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 2: same study found that the show was far more likely

645
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 2: to associate black and brown people than whites with violent crime.

646
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:19,399
Speaker 2: They were black and brown people were forty percent. There

647
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 2: was a forty percent chance compared to a thirteen percent

648
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 2: chance for whites. So it was like it wasn't just

649
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,480
Speaker 2: civil rights groups like sensing there's something off about this,

650
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,840
Speaker 2: like people conducted actual studies and found also that a

651
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 2: viewer of Cops was likelier to maintain the racial stereotype

652
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 2: that blacks are typically criminals than a person who didn't

653
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 2: watch Cops. So it had a really large impact. And

654
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:48,240
Speaker 2: yet despite that, this is ninety four that that study

655
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:51,360
Speaker 2: came out, it wasn't until twenty thirteen that Fox was

656
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:55,280
Speaker 2: finally like, okay, fine, fine, yes, okay, well cancel the show.

657
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 2: We've made our money over twenty five seasons, and thanks

658
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 2: to civil rights organization Color of Change, Fox dropped it

659
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,319
Speaker 2: and that was the end of Cops forever.

660
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 1: Right, No, no, no. It was picked up by Spike TV.

661
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,400
Speaker 1: They ran it until twenty twenty. Then after twenty twenty,

662
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 1: with all the you know, sort of light shined on

663
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,520
Speaker 1: police brutality, they said, you know, maybe it's just not

664
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,720
Speaker 1: so good to run this anymore. But Fox Nation stepped

665
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,560
Speaker 1: up and brought it back in twenty one and it

666
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 1: is still going in his thirty seventh season. The other

667
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,200
Speaker 1: thing it did was sort of create the the idea

668
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:33,480
Speaker 1: of the Florida Man because they started I believe they

669
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: debuted in Broward County and shot a lot there over

670
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 1: the years, and they shot I think they shot more

671
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 1: than one hundred cities in the end, but a lot

672
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: of their content was shot in Florida and kind of

673
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 1: sort of reinforced this whole Florida Man thing.

674
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know that that's skewed.

675
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:55,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, fair enough, let's finish up.

676
00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 2: Chuck on like a really happy moment. Well, depending on

677
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 2: which nation you're from, the USSR or the United States.

678
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 2: If you're from the United States, this is a really

679
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 2: good high point for your country. In nineteen eighty and

680
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 2: the nineteen eighty Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York,

681
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 2: to be exact, and there was this one event that

682
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 2: America was really the unlikely winners in and it was

683
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:22,320
Speaker 2: men's hockey.

684
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 1: That's right. This is during the height of the Cold War,

685
00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:28,640
Speaker 1: so the US and the Soviet Union. You know, it

686
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 1: was just it was all you heard about if you

687
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: were a kid growing up in the seventies and eighties.

688
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 1: It was such a big deal. The Soviet Union won

689
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,880
Speaker 1: the Olympic gold medals in ice hockey in fifty six

690
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: and then sixty four, sixty eight, seventy two, and seventy six.

691
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:48,800
Speaker 1: So they ran the Olympics basically from the mid sixties

692
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 1: to the mid seventies, and then nineteen eighty came along

693
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:57,719
Speaker 1: and you had a US hockey team and first of all,

694
00:36:57,760 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 1: the Soviet hockey team. I believe there was a player

695
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:03,919
Speaker 1: Fetisov who said later on that was probably the best

696
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: team that the Soviet Union had ever put together. So

697
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: they were the drago and we were a little rocky

698
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 1: because the American team at the time, this is before

699
00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:16,440
Speaker 1: they allowed pro players to play in the Olympics, there

700
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:18,960
Speaker 1: was a bunch of college kids and they were I

701
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,799
Speaker 1: mean to call them underdogs was a massive understatement.

702
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, And a lot of the credit goes to the

703
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 2: coach of the Olympic men's team, Herb Brooks, who was

704
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,400
Speaker 2: the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey coach.

705
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 1: Kurt Russell. Oh yeah, yeah, he played him in the movie.

706
00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:38,280
Speaker 2: I thought that was Emilio Estevez.

707
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:40,320
Speaker 1: Well done.

708
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 2: So the United States did not this, despite how it ended,

709
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 2: they did not get off on a very good footing.

710
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:52,239
Speaker 2: There was an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden a

711
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:56,840
Speaker 2: few days before the nineteen eighty Olympics, same month and everything,

712
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 2: And they Soviet Union and the States played in this

713
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 2: exhibition match and the Soviets really you could use the

714
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 2: word walloped pretty effectively in this case. The Soviets won

715
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:14,040
Speaker 2: ten to three. So it did not look like the

716
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:17,399
Speaker 2: United States men's hockey team was going to produce much

717
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:19,399
Speaker 2: in the Olympics that year.

718
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't see a lot of double digit scores

719
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:24,839
Speaker 1: in hockey if you're not familiar with hockey, you know,

720
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 1: you see a lot of like two to nothing, three

721
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 1: to two. Right. Once you score over ten goals, it's

722
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 1: a big, big deal. So the Americans weren't even supposed

723
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 1: to advance that much in the Olympics. But they had

724
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: a bunch of comeback wins, had a lot of close

725
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 1: calls that they won, and they got into the medal

726
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:46,359
Speaker 1: round and face the Soviets, who up to that point

727
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:49,960
Speaker 1: in the Olympics had outscored their bonuts fifty one to eleven.

728
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:53,640
Speaker 1: H So on February twenty second, nineteen eighty and I

729
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 1: know I've mentioned this before, but I actually watched this

730
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,440
Speaker 1: match as a I guess it wasn't even nine yet.

731
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:03,799
Speaker 1: It was right before my ninth birthday. Oh yeah, I

732
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 1: wasn't even that into hockey, but we were an Olympic family,

733
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:11,040
Speaker 1: and I remember I have a very distinct memory of

734
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:13,960
Speaker 1: being in my parents' bedroom for some reason, which I

735
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 1: usually wasn't much allowed in because it was I don't know,

736
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:19,560
Speaker 1: it was the seventies. It was like, don't go in

737
00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: my bedroom. But we had this little black and white TV.

738
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:24,359
Speaker 1: I guess my dad was watching other stuff out there

739
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 1: on the larger console TV, but I remember being in

740
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,640
Speaker 1: their bedroom and watching this match on the little black

741
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 1: and white TV and knowing, as a little eight year old, like,

742
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:35,759
Speaker 1: what a huge, huge deal this was.

743
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you said something that I think kind of

744
00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,960
Speaker 2: applied to a lot of the nation. Hockey was not

745
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,759
Speaker 2: really a thing, nothing like it is now in the

746
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 2: United States. Like you had to live in a place

747
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:51,240
Speaker 2: where your rivers froze over every year to like hockey.

748
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 2: It was a very regional sport. And yet, like you said,

749
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 2: the entire United States tuned in for this match because

750
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,920
Speaker 2: it was the evil So yeah, and like to our

751
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 2: younger viewers or listeners, like you don't you can't imagine

752
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 2: what they told us about the Russians, Like essentially, if

753
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:12,040
Speaker 2: you were a kid in the seventies, eighties, probably sixties too,

754
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 2: you were basically taught that if you ever crossed paths

755
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 2: with anybody from the Soviet Union, they would slash your

756
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 2: throat just as soon as look at you. Like that

757
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 2: was essentially what people thought of the Soviet Union at

758
00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 2: and vice versa. So it was the big bad Soviets

759
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 2: who were just this huge juggernaut of a team, and

760
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:35,360
Speaker 2: the Americans, the ragtag underdog Americans standing up to these

761
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 2: these this evil empire. And that's why everybody tuned in.

762
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was I remember very just having the distinct

763
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,840
Speaker 1: feeling it was communism versus democracy, really right.

764
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,440
Speaker 2: Right, which is yeah, yeah, which is I think what

765
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 2: happened in that that Super Bowl with the Falcons versus

766
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 2: the Patriots. Same thing.

767
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 1: Oh man, my my darkest day as a Falcons fan.

768
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:03,439
Speaker 1: Maybe that was rough. It was either that or losing

769
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,799
Speaker 1: to the Jets last week. Oh yeah, oh man, I

770
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:11,040
Speaker 1: can't talk about it. Okay, very sad season ticket holder here.

771
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 1: So Americans of course came back and won, and I

772
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:19,720
Speaker 1: remember our goalie Jim Craig, like skating around after wrapped

773
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:21,840
Speaker 1: up in the American flag, and that was my first

774
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:27,319
Speaker 1: like real taste of like understanding what it was like

775
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: to be an American and again a different time where

776
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,319
Speaker 1: you know, it was the Cold War, and it felt

777
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,120
Speaker 1: like a real win for democracy in a weird way.

778
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. So a lot of people, well I think basically

779
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 2: everybody calls that game the Miracle on Ice. Yeah, And

780
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:44,920
Speaker 2: the reason why is because the commentator who was calling

781
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,799
Speaker 2: the hockey game, al Michaels, who as far as I note,

782
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:51,360
Speaker 2: had only called one hockey game previously at the Sapporo

783
00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:55,400
Speaker 2: Winter Olympics years before. He did a magnificent job. And

784
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 2: as the time is running out in the third period,

785
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 2: America staged to come back and scored two goals and

786
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:03,839
Speaker 2: they were up four to three with several seconds left.

787
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 2: And remember this Soviet team was good enough that they

788
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:09,440
Speaker 2: could score a goal and tie within a few seconds.

789
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:11,959
Speaker 2: So the Americans are just skating around the ice trying

790
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:14,439
Speaker 2: to keep the puck away from the Russians and al

791
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,040
Speaker 2: Michaels is counting down the seconds and I think with

792
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:19,200
Speaker 2: about four seconds left, and it became clear that the

793
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:21,239
Speaker 2: Soviets working to be able to score a goal, he goes,

794
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 2: do you believe in miracles?

795
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:23,239
Speaker 1: Yes?

796
00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:27,520
Speaker 2: And if you watch it today you just get just

797
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:30,120
Speaker 2: amazing chills, just even the last like thirty seconds of

798
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:31,279
Speaker 2: that game. It's really neat.

799
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:34,840
Speaker 1: For sure. I wonder if before the game Al Michaels

800
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:37,440
Speaker 1: was like, it's a puck, al, it's a puck, it's

801
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 1: a match, it's not a game. And if anyone brings

802
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:42,480
Speaker 1: up icing, just you explain.

803
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 2: It, right, just pretend it doesn't exist exactly. So ESPN

804
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:49,640
Speaker 2: called it the most famous hockey game ever played.

805
00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.

806
00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:53,400
Speaker 2: Sports Illustrated ranked it in nineteen ninety nine is the

807
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 2: top sports moment of the twentieth century. It was a

808
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,399
Speaker 2: big deal. And again I would strongly urge you if

809
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:01,399
Speaker 2: you don't go why the whole match, watch at least

810
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:04,120
Speaker 2: a third period, or watch the last couple of minutes

811
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 2: and several minutes after that where they're, yeah, they're celebrating.

812
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 2: It's just you can just feel like the whole country

813
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:11,200
Speaker 2: going crazy.

814
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:14,279
Speaker 1: Yeah. Pretty incredible. Uh. And if you're ever you know,

815
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:15,960
Speaker 1: at a dinner party and a group of people and

816
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:18,279
Speaker 1: they're talking about when the US beat the Soviets for

817
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 1: the gold medal, you can be the actually guy because

818
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:24,840
Speaker 1: that was not the gold medal match. I think a

819
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 1: lot of people remember it that way because it was

820
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:28,959
Speaker 1: such a big deal. But that was an I guess

821
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:31,560
Speaker 1: a bronze round. Yeah, and the US went on to

822
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 1: win that gold against Finland yep, two days later. Pretty great,

823
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:38,239
Speaker 1: Pretty great, everybody.

824
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 2: So that's it. Those are the only moments that changed

825
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:42,759
Speaker 2: the world in the history of TV. All the rest

826
00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 2: of them were pretty whole home.

827
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:50,120
Speaker 1: That's right. You got anything else, I got nothing else, sir.

828
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:52,160
Speaker 2: All right. I think this was a pretty good start

829
00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty six, don't you.

830
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 1: I think it's great.

831
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:57,960
Speaker 2: Okay, Chuck said, great. That means it's time for listener now.

832
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what, Let's let's start off the year

833
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: without a listener mail and just make a push to

834
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,920
Speaker 1: remind everyone that we're still kicking off pretty soon in

835
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 1: a few months, it'll be or eighteen in April. And

836
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:14,839
Speaker 1: we always are still looking to grow the show, and

837
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:16,880
Speaker 1: we don't do it much, but if you could rate

838
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 1: and review the show, that means a lot. If you

839
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 1: could tell friends and family, like, hey, there's this podcast

840
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,359
Speaker 1: been around forever and we like it. We may or

841
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:26,520
Speaker 1: may not be Golden Globe nominated. We don't know at

842
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:28,360
Speaker 1: this point because we're going to find out next Monday,

843
00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:31,919
Speaker 1: but yeah, go out and spread the spread the good word.

844
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 1: And we look forward to seeing everybody on the road

845
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 1: this year in the United States and Canada.

846
00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:39,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to be on the road this month

847
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:42,280
Speaker 2: in January, also in April, and then Canada this summer.

848
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:44,680
Speaker 2: So you can get tickets and info at stuff youshould

849
00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,320
Speaker 2: Know dot com. And if you want to say Happy

850
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:49,720
Speaker 2: New Year or whatever, you can send us an email.

851
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:52,640
Speaker 2: We love that you can send it to stuff podcast

852
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 2: at iHeartRadio dot com.

853
00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 1: Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

854
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:04,759
Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

855
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:06,720
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.