When Gameshows Go Horribly Wrong

I can think of a couple of well known examples from America- a kid's radio host in the 30s who called his listeners "*******" when he thought he was off air, and Groucho Marx making an obscene remark on You Bet Your Life in the 50s. No evidence either happened (Groucho used to deny it vehemently), but countless people have insisted they saw it. I think it's the same with the Snake Charmer incident, as the clip's been repeated and shared on line so often. I wouldn't be suprised if many of the people who think they saw it never even saw the original broadcast, only the clip years later.

The Jimmy Savile Have I Got News For You fake script is another example of mis-remembered telly

Of course TV sometimes propagates its own urban legends and rewrites its own history, then presents it as fact.

For example, the belief that a Mickey Mouse cartoon was interrupted in mid-flow on the BBC in 1939 at the outbreak of WWII with the transmission closing down suddenly, then the same cartoon appearing again at the resume of service in 1946 and the infamous "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted" quip. This is documented here.

The illusion that the cartoon was interrupted the way it was actually dates from a documentary aired in the 1980s and I believe was presented in such a way that people now think it was actual off-air footage of that day and is established fact. When it clearly isn't.

I guess with the Snake Charmer thing is it at least is something that actually happened and people have seen- it just wasn't broadcast that way. People are misremembering where they saw it, not remembering something that never happened.

Danny Kendall's death scene on Grange Hill is another example of this.

Clips on YouTube of the episode in question show's his lifeless body slump out the car with a close up of his face as it fades to black. A lot of people state that they remember on the original broadcast that he actually blinked, presumably as to not to scare younger viewers who might be watching at the time.

Indeed just like the Snake Charmer, I believe this was discussed on another show who may have shown an amended clip. I believe Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids TV Shows may have shown this clip as I vaguely remember some discussion about the actor blinking on the death scene in question.

Great, that's half an hour of my night gone watching various Grange Hill deaths on YouTube. Makes current Eastenders look like Balamory.

Makes you realise though how gritty Grange Hill was at the time, particularly through the 1980s. A lot of that you'd never get away with now.

Why would they air a "censored" version of the snake charmer as part of the original Catchphrase series? It would be odd for audiences to see the contestants and Roy roaring with laughter and what appears to be a totally innocuous visual.

The death of Judi Jeffries is particularly chilling in hindsight, considering the real life death of actress Laura Sadler in similar circumstances.

I feel it would be wrong not to remember Simon Luxton at this juncture.

Indeed and I think a character in the first series of I'm Alan Partridge died after falling off a roof, a year or two before Rod Hull died this way. It was alluded to in the DVD commentary.

Still looks quite rude though with the arm moving and Mr Chips expression....plus the snake seemed to be doing something naughty itself.... 😉

I'm sure the uncensored version of Snake Charmer has been on YouTube once before?