Bloopers (TV Series)
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''TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes'' is an American television program. Debuting as a weekly series, new episodes have been broadcast as infrequent specials during most of its run. It premiered on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
in 1984, moved to
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
in 1998, and was revived in syndication in 2012. The NBC run of the series was co-produced by
Carson Productions Carson Entertainment Group (formerly Carson Productions and Carson Productions Group) is a television production company established by Johnny Carson in 1980. The company primarily produced ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' from 1980 to ...
and
Dick Clark Productions Dick Clark Productions, LLC (DCP, stylized in lowercase as dick clark productions or dcp) is an American multinational television production company founded by radio and TV host Dick Clark. The studio primarily produces Awards ceremony, award sh ...
(Known in the end credits as the C&C Joint Venture), and the ABC and syndication runs have been produced solely by Dick Clark Productions.


''TV's Censored Bloopers'' and ''Television's Greatest Commercials''

The series was predated by two separate series of specials, one devoted to television and film
blooper A blooper, or gag reel, is short clip from a film, television program or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or ...
s—humorous errors made during the production of film and television programs, or on live news broadcasts—and the other a series of specials featuring classic television
commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...
. The ''TV's Censored Bloopers'' specials were hosted by longtime TV producer
Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American television and radio personality and television producer who hosted ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid (game show), ...
starting on May 15, 1981 (and were dedicated to 1950s TV producer
Kermit Schaefer Kermit Schafer (March 24, 1914 – March 8, 1979) was an American writer and producer for radio and television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known for his collections of "bloopers"—the word Schafer popularized for mistakes and gaffes o ...
, who had pioneered the concept of preserving bloopers), and the ''Television's Greatest Commercials'' specials, which started on May 25, 1982, were hosted by
Ed McMahon Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer, and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the American Bro ...
(which he continued to co-host even as he moved on to co-host the weekly ''Bloopers'' series). Both sets of specials garnered high ratings, and following a combination special (''TV's Greatest Censored Commercial Bloopers''), in the winter of 1984 it was decided to combine the two programs into one series, hosted by Clark and McMahon.
Charlie O'Donnell Charles John O'Donnell (August 12, 1932 – November 1, 2010) was an American radio and television announcer, primarily known for his work on game shows, and for his distinctive baritone voice. Among them, he was best known for '' Wheel of Fortun ...
(who was also Clark's announcer on ''
American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'' (AB) is an American Music television, music performance and dance television series that aired in various iterations from 1952 to 1989. It was hosted by Dick Clark who also served as the program's Television producer, pr ...
'' from 1958 to 1968) would be added as announcer (to intro both McMahon and Clark, and to announce bloopers in the "Coming up next" bumpers).


Regular features

Besides dividing the series between bloopers and classic TV advertisements of yesteryear, the original version of the show also featured at least two practical joke segments per episode, with celebrities caught in ''
Candid Camera ''Candid Camera'' is an American hidden camera and practical joke reality television series. The show was created, developed, and presented by Allen Funt. Various versions of the show have appeared on television from 1948 to 2014. The program ...
''-like situations (a forerunner of the later series ''
Punk'd ''Punk'd'' is an American hidden camera–practical joke reality television series that first aired on MTV in 2003. It was created by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, with Kutcher serving as producer and host. It bears a resemblance to both ...
''). Like the blooper and commercial segments, the "practical jokes" were first seen in a television special, ''Johnny Carson's Greatest Practical Jokes''—hence Carson Productions' involvement in the series. Other regular features included: * Man-in-the-street interviews (sometimes supplemented by child-in-the-street interviews), conducted by
David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer, and auto racing team owner. He hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of ''Late N ...
and, later,
Robert Klein Robert Klein (born February 8, 1942) is an American stand-up comedian, singer, and actor. He is known for his appearances on stage and screen. He has released four standup comedy albums: ''A Child of the 50s'' (1973), ''Mind Over Matter'' (1974 ...
. * Video segments featuring songs played behind real-life scenes that gave an
ironic Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
twist to the lyrics. * Len Cella's "Silly Cinemas", a series of absurd short films. * Thom Sharp's "Book of Hollywood", a tour of unusual sights of the city. *
Wil Shriner Wil Herbert Shriner (born December 6, 1953) is an American actor, comedian, film director, screenwriter and game show host. Life and career Shriner was born in New York City, New York, the twin brother of soap opera actor Kin Shriner, and the ...
's Video Vault, where various humorous video clips were screened. * Stand-up comedy performances, including appearances by
Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version ...
and Jenny Jones. * Throughout its entire run on both NBC and ABC, the series featured animated inserts by cartoonist
Sergio Aragones Sergio may refer to: * Sergio (name), for people with the given name Sergio * Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found * Sergio, the mascot for the Old Orchard Beach Surge Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungar ...
, who is known for the comic book series
Groo Groo the Wanderer is a fantasy/comedy comic book character created by Sergio Aragonés. His stories are written and drawn by Aragonés, dialogued and edited by Mark Evanier, lettered by Stan Sakai and colored by Tom Luth. Over the years, Groo h ...
and his contributions to ''
Mad Magazine ''Mad'' (stylized in all caps) is an American humor magazine which was launched in 1952 and currently published by DC Comics, a unit of the DC Entertainment subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. ''Mad'' was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman an ...
''. As the original two-year weekly run of the series progressed, adjustments were made to the format and eventually the commercials were phased out, along with other segments, leaving only the bloopers and practical jokes.


Return to specials format

The weekly series ended in 1986. In 1988, Clark revived it as a series of specials retitled as ''Super Bloopers and New Practical Jokes'', and returned with McMahon as co-hosts. Titles of the specials included ''TV's Censored Bloopers'' in 1993, and simply ''Bloopers'', as the practical joke element was ultimately dropped. These specials aired irregularly on NBC until as late as 1998, often appearing as "filler" for cancelled series, and acting as a low-cost summer replacement series; the series even briefly returned to a weekly format in 1998 (as ''TV Censored Bloopers 98'') with Suzanne Whang as co-host. The specials often drew a larger audience than their competition, which consisted mainly of
rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word "repe ...
s. In the later years of the series' run on NBC, the bloopers shown tended to be drawn mostly from programs produced by NBC.


Move to ABC

In 1998, Clark moved the series to ABC. New specials aired periodically until 2004, when Clark suffered a
stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
. ABC continued to air reruns of these specials until 2006, and they frequently appeared on TBS as well, mainly in the
graveyard slot A graveyard slot (or death slot) is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually situated in the ea ...
as filler to bring the schedule back into kilter at the start of the broadcast day after the end of
Turner Sports TNT Sports is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery in the United States that is responsible for Sports broadcasting, sports broadcasts on its parent company's streaming service, Max (streaming service), Max, and primarily the TruTV, TBS (Americ ...
coverage in primetime. As with the specials from the later years at NBC, the ABC specials mostly focused on outtakes from series produced by ABC itself, or from productions of
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
, which owned ABC. In addition, logos of networks other than ABC, and of stations affiliated with those networks, were obscured. In March 2007, ABC aired the special ''Celebrity A-List Bloopers'', produced by Dick Clark Productions, with
John O'Hurley John George O'Hurley Jr. (born October 9, 1954) is an American actor and game show host. He played Jacopo Peterman, J. Peterman on the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld'', provided the voice for King Neptune on ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', and hosted the game s ...
as host in Clark's place.


Syndicated revival

In the fall of 2012, the series was revived by Dick Clark Productions and Trifecta Entertainment & Media under the title ''Bloopers'', in a half-hour, syndicated format, airing twice per week.
Dean Cain Dean George Cain ( né Tanaka; born July 31, 1966) is an American actor. From 1993 to 1997, he played Clark Kent / Superman in the TV series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''. Cain was the host of '' Ripley's Believe It or Not! ...
acts as host and comedian Jack Vale stars in the hidden camera pranks and acts as co-producer. Instead of television and movie outtakes, this incarnation of the series focuses on web and
user-generated content User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), emerged from the rise of web services which allow a system's User (computing), users to create Content (media), content, such as images, videos, audio, text, testi ...
. However, the practical joke segments in the vein of ''
Candid Camera ''Candid Camera'' is an American hidden camera and practical joke reality television series. The show was created, developed, and presented by Allen Funt. Various versions of the show have appeared on television from 1948 to 2014. The program ...
'', which were dropped from the series during the time of the NBC specials, have been reintroduced."'Bloopers' to Premiere in Weekly Syndication This Fall"
from Broadcasting & Cable (December 20, 2011)


Imitator series

During the show's original two-year run on NBC, it sparked a number of imitators on other networks, most notably the ABC series '' Foul-ups, Bleeps & Blunders''. That show aired bloopers from ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...
'' for the first time on American network television. ABC's ersatz series never matched the ratings of the original, however. After ''Bloopers'' left NBC, the network launched its own similar series, '' Most Outrageous Moments'', which lasted until 2009.


References

* Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''
The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
''.


External links

*
Official site for new series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tv's Bloopers and Practical Jokes NBC reality television shows American Broadcasting Company reality television shows 1980s American comedy television series 1990s American comedy television series 2000s American comedy television series 1984 American television series debuts 2004 American television series endings 1980s American reality television series 1990s American reality television series 2000s American reality television series Television series about television Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television series by Dick Clark Productions Blooper shows American English-language television shows Television series by Carson Productions