NBC Expresses Regret for Air-Crash Skit

[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 6:33am

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/28/D8JP84A01.html

By GARY GENTILE
Associated Press Writer


LOS ANGELES



It was meant to be funny. But a fake plane crash during the opening Emmy awards skit made many cringe on Sunday _ the same day 49 people died in a fiery plane crash in Kentucky.
The skit, aired live at the start of NBC's Emmy telecast, brought a swift response from the general manager of NBC's Lexington, Ky., affiliate, WLEX.

"It was a live telecast. We were completely helpless," Tim Gilbert was quoted as saying on the Lexington Herald-Leader's Web site.

"By the time we began to react, it was over. At the station, we were as horrified as they were at home," Gilbert said.

Criticism of the sequence also appeared on other Web sites Sunday night, including the Los Angeles Times, where television columnist Scott Collins called it "cringe-inducing" and "of questionable taste."

The prerecorded opening segment began with Emmy host Conan O'Brien boarding a private plane to Los Angeles. Asked by a stewardess if he was nervous about hosting the show, O'Brien answered "Nervous? What could possibly go wrong?"

The plane then shook and pitched violently, sending O'Brien out of his seat and seeking shelter in an overhead baggage compartment.

The skit didn't show the plane crashing. Instead, it cut to O'Brien emerging from the ocean onto an island resembling the one in "Lost," where he meets a cast member.

Emmy show executive producer Ken Ehrlich declined comment when asked about criticism of the skit at the Governors Ball after the show.

The skit aired live on NBC just hours after a commuter jet in Kentucky crashed into a field and burst into flames, killing all aboard except a co-pilot.

Gilbert said he was home watching the Emmy show with his family when he was "stunned" by the Emmy skit. He said if he had known about it beforehand, Lexington viewers wouldn't have seen it.

Gilbert said he plans to ask NBC for an apology.

"They could have killed the opening and it wouldn't have hurt the show at all," Gilbert said. "We wish somebody had thought this through. It's somewhere between ignorance and incompetence."

___

Updated On: 8/28/06 at 06:33 AM

[TomMonster]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 6:49am

The sequence was shot. How could they have known? It worked for the show...

Insensitive, maybe. My prayers go to the families. As a 9/11 survivor, I try to find humor in the worst places...

How else can we all go on?

Thanks, jimnysf for posting this.

I'll continue to pray and laugh.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 7:00am

None of this matters, cause Mariska Hargitay finally won an emmy.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 7:25am

Fair enough, Zoneace! (I love her too)

At least, Bob didn't have to die!

[TomMonster]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 7:35am

OK! Honeymoon couple? Not fair. Nothing funny about that. Yet...

Seriously, sorry to make any joke. My deepest sympathy goes out to every family involved.

.

[KelRel]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 7:37am

That plane crashed about 5 miles from my house. Everyone here is pretty upset, I'm glad I didn't see the Emmys now.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 8:19am

Oh my dear, KelRel. I so hope you, your family and friends are all OK.

Please keep us posted about this terrible event.

[KelRel]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 8:23am

So far from the names that have been released I didn't know any of the victims personally, but three of them went to my church. It really touched home for me though with the newly wed couple leaving on their honeymoon. My husband and I took that exact flight for our honeymoon three years ago. I remember how excited we were and can only assume that they felt the same and to have it all end so quickly for them.

Another victim was a teenage girl who was traveling with her mother. Her mother was bumped to another flight and avoided the crash. I can't imagine how she must feel right now. I just pray that they weren't watching the Emmys last night.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 9:20am

Ok, now I'm actually gonna be serious. All the bitching about the skit at the Emmys needs to stop. it was completely unrelated to the crash in Kentucky and people are just trying to find controversey and any reason they can to bitch even more about Hollywood. Just watch, the conservative media bias will run with this bull**** story about how crude it was to show a plane crash the same night as a plane crash. Its just the same bull**** over and over and over.

yes, its tragic that a plane really crashed, but the skit at the emmys was pre-recorded, probably well in advance, and well, it shouldn't have been changed, or scrapped. Like I already, it was completely unrelated.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:42am

and Zone, I totally disagree.....I found it extremely offensive. I've never thought plane crashes funny.
The 28th anniversary of PSA Flt 182 comes up in less than a month. I lived 5 blocks from the crash site in San Diego, and I still now and then have nightmares about that horror.
While this is nowhere near the horror of 9-11, for my tiny San Diego North Park neighborhood, it was as if the devil himself had risen up and smacked us.
No, I'm sorry....airplane crashes are not funny

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:46am

"Another victim was a teenage girl who was traveling with her mother. Her mother was bumped to another flight and avoided the crash. I can't imagine how she must feel right now. I just pray that they weren't watching the Emmys last night."

Would you be watching the Emmys the day of your daughter's death?

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:48am

Since I tuned in a few minutes late . . . I have no idea.

But perhaps it would have been a bit more tasteful to have him in a hatch rather than a crashing plane. But, since I did not see the scene, I may just be full of it!

All in all though, I though the show was better than expected. The Bob Newhart gag was pretty funny.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:52am

No one is suggesting that plane crashes are funny. The skit wasn't making light of plane crashes, it was making light of a TV show. One of the major plot points (and in fact the event that "caused" the action of the series) was a plane crash.

and YWIW, he did go into the hatch which led him into the set of The Office.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:58am

zone, I know that....still isn't funny. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:58am

Ahhh - I turned it on just as he fell through the ceiling in the Office!

I liked Conan's singing "We got Trouble" but O/T on this thread.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:02am

thats all well and good elphaba but you suggested with your post that someone did find plane crashes funny (and since the topic is the emmy skit that the people who did it found plane crashes funny) and that insinuation is ridiculous. The skit had nothing to do with plane crashes. The skit had to do with the TV show Lost, of which a plane crash is a central IDea. the reason they are all ont he island, is because of a plane crash. Thats what they were making fun of, THE SHOW, not plane crashes.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:18am

I think it's a pretty important thing to learn that life is often full of unfortunate coincidences.

I felt uncomfortable during the pre-recorded moment when O'Brien's plane was having difficulty, but I knew it was a Lost parody. And, you know, sometimes life is uncomfortable.

In 1980, after John Hinkley tried to kill Ronald Reagan to prove his love for Jodie Foster, ABC went and edited the existing episodes of The Greatest American Hero because William Katt's character was named Ralph Hinkely. The dialogue of his students was dubbed so as to change every "Mr. Hinkley" reference to "Mr. H." It was kind of stupid.

I think a plane crash plays into our primordial fear of having absolutely no control over what happens to us. And so, sometimes in reaction, we want to control as much as we can around us, including completely unrelated things that happen on awards shows.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:25am

It really wouldn't have been too difficult to edit the sequence so that you see Conan talking to the stewardess, see the first bump and then see Conan coming out of the water onto the island. I think people would have gotten the joke without all the dramatic crash footage.

And Rath, I agree. I somehow doubt that the Mother of the girl who died was watching the Emmys last night.

[Magdalene]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:32am

I'm sorry we are all so thin-skinned....

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:33am

I gotta side on the "unfortunate coincidences" side here.
television is littered with shows which were canned, postponed, edited time and again by unfortunately-timed real-life events.
High school shootings always seem to occur whenever an episode of a television show is set to deal with the issue, among other unfortunate events.

[Kitzarina]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:33am

And then you have people like me who had no idea that a plane crash occured until I was driving to work this morning.

The girl who was separated from her mother was from Kansas, so the news stations are rather inundated with the story right now. She, her mother, and her trainer were in Kentucky looking at horses. The daughter and the trainer were on the flight that crashed while her mom got bumped to another flight. Very, very sad.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:34am

whatever zone.....justify all you want. OBVIOUSLY it was about Lost (that was apparent to an amoeba) it STILL was inappropriate and offensive, and you ALWAYS pull this CRAP when anyone has an opinion different than you. What(the Feck)ever.
I tried to end this nonsense with let's agree to disagree...but NO....you won't let it go, fine.....fight by yourself, justify by yourself, and tell me when you GROW-UP and realize people think differently.

Updated On: 8/28/06 at 11:34 AM

[jimnysf]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:34am

I have to say I agree with you Sueleen. When I saw the skit (which I liked), the first thing I thought of was why didn't they just show him on the plane and then skip the horror inside of the plane? I would have felt that way regardless of the day's events since the first thing I thought of was a plane that I saw crash and burn when I was a child.

TomMonster: I'm glad you survived 9/11 and that you are still here with us!

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:35am

I can understand a debate over whether or not the timing of the sketch and a plane crash happening that day is bad or not.

but to reference a plane crash of 28 years ago as reason for the sketch to have been in bad taste is ludicrous. and it was a parody of Lost--not plane crashes as Zone has stated.

If we edit everything that might upset people, the tv wouldn't exist. nor would any art. and life is full of tragedies but we have to learn to cope. and we can't demand the rest of the world edit themselves.

I did think of the plane crash when that sketch happened. and I felt bad for the people affected by the crash and I also felt bad for conan and the emmy folks behind the sketch that this unfortunately timed out the way it did. clearly no harm was intended and the sketch was already filmed with no time to create a new opening. we can certainly debate how nbc should have handled things.

and to think that the conservative blowhards will turn this into more fodder against hollywood is revolting. and you know fox news will seeing how conan slammed them (rightfully) last nite in his intro to colbert and stewart.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 8/28/06 at 11:37am

its not about someone having a different opinion than me, its about someone making a big dieal out of something, really rather small, as people here have pointed, an unfortunate coincidence.

you however seem stuck on it like it some how intentional. you are giving it too much weight. it was nothing, and you have turned it into something.