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A Brief History of Broadcast Panics
🕑 Added 2022-01-11 11:15:00 +0000 UTCThis was a really interesting (and actually quite enjoyable) topic to research. Although each of these broadcasts did cause quite a bit of fear and uncertainty, there were at least no recorded deaths or serious injuries in each case. Phew.
If you want to listen to a recording of the original 1938 The War Of The Worlds broadcast, you can find a copy here. It really is quite convincing! Alternative 3 is also available via Amazon Prime in the UK, and might be available abroad too.
Alas, despite my best efforts, I couldn't find a copy of "Before The Sun Goes Down". A lot of old British Television is lost to the ages... but perhaps one day a copy will turn up in an archive somewhere.
Comments
Fascinating Horror
I've heard a lot about Ghostwatch, and it's on my list of things to watch but I haven't got around to it yet. It's almost legendary; everyone who was alive to see it broadcast remembers it with surprising clarity. I guess we weren't as used to fakery back then, and so it was only natural for something on television to feel like reality!
Fascinating Horror
Amazing - this is the kind of history I'd have loved to learn about in school. And I don't blame you for losing it; looking back from the modern day the whole thing just feels absurd!
Dungeoneer
I see many people have alluded to it on the Youtube comments, but the one that sticks in my mind was Ghostwatch. Watching it now, it's clearly fake but in 1992 it was terrifying! Also, although people didn't think it was real, The War Game was so close to the bone at the time, it caused a lot of terror. Excellent documentary/dramatization, totally believable.
Cherie
I distinctly remember learning about the War of the Worlds incident in history class and getting kicked out along with a bunch of other farm kids because we absolutely could not get it together when she talked about the drunken farmer shooting the water tower. Turns out we were all imagining our paw-paws drunk in the yard shooting at a water tower. She now saves THAT tidbit for the end of class so folks can crack up at will.
