Anybody ever been on TV?

[rmayer]

I was on "Bowling For Dollars" in the mid 70s. They filmed it at the bowling alleys in Madison Square Garden.

 

[AcadianBassman]

Been on the local channel with two of my bands, one of which is still the most requested show they've ever had 20+ yrs later. Been on a telethon for a children's hospital on a major network here. And, been on a morning variety show a couple of times that was broadcast across the country. I remember my folks getting together with other family to watch it and later that day, my aunt and uncle who lived in Iqaluit in the Canadian Arctic. Also, another saw us on the West Coast. Still got a couple of old tapes of it around here somewhere.

 

[LT131]

No. But, I know for a fact that the lead singers girlfriends girlfriend videoed us on her IPhone last night. Well, she videoed him, I just play bass.

 

[LowActionHero]

Drove home from work one morning and saw the News set up at a park filming towards the road. Turned the News on when I got home and saw my car driving past the park. VERY exciting...

My previous band's first 'gig' was live radio, from the studio. Just show up and do what you're told, as helpfully as you can. And make sure you are all practiced up, ready to nail the first take (it's probably all you get), and have fun with it!

Edit: it was AM radio, BUT IT STILL COUNTS!!

 

[tlc1976]

In 2nd grade our class was on a local show done at the news station called Deputy Don. Don't remember what exactly we did. In 8th grade there was footage of me on the news as I was the class, school, and county winner of the Scripps Howard spelling bee.

 

[Hahaha]

Back in the early seventies a friend of mine joined a rotten band just to make a little money while he looked for a better band. They did a TV appearance on a local show. He didn't tell anyone that he was going to be on TV since he didn't want to be seen playing in this band. After the TV show he went over to his parents house and as soon as he walked in the door they said "We saw you on TV this morning. You need to quit that band!"

 

[nonohmic]

I hosted a science show for 2 seasons/20 episodes.

 

[BassUrges]

My entire first grade class filmed a commercial for Sears kids’ clothing on the steps of the school. They paid us in popsicles, but I got banana so I didn’t eat it.

I do remember seeing it at least once.

 

[catcauphonic]

Only once that I can recall... it was a taping of the Jimmy Kimmel show in 2003(?), and in the beginning when he ran thru each aisle saying 'hi', 'hi', hi' to most of the crowd, he stopped to point at me and say "Hey, Jane's Addiction! Thanks for coming!" and shook my hand, thinking that I looked a lot like Perry Farrell

Oh, and that one time on the 5 o'clock news

 

[gsquare]

I've done it several times. My words of advice:
1. MOST IMPORTANT: Find out in advance how the audio is feeding to the video and who's running it. Will it be a pa feed or ambient mic's, and do they have the system or do you need to bring it. My experience is it's best if you can mic everything, then do a feed off a board and give them one mixed and ready to use source, but go with whatever they want. Either way, having someone familiar with your band's sound to help mix the audio feed will be helpful too.
2. Pack everything you might possibly need, but unload and bring in as little as possible. The less stuff to deal with on the stage, the better (the same can be said for stage volume too).
3. Be as early as permitted, the more time to setup and troubleshoot the inevitable issues of broadcast the better.
4. Be kind to everyone...they can make you look and sound like an idiot if you act like one .

Probably over a hundred times, NBC Today Show, CBS Morning Show, QVC, HSN, numerous talk shows, and local news as well, even did the National Anthem at a NLCS game. Dr. Love gives the same advice I would, especially about not letting the broadcast engineer handle the mix unless you are confident with him/her, control as many variables as you can, and be overly nice while you’re there!

 

[NOVAX]

Do you mean like this?

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Quite a few times. Everything from local morning shows to a live jazz oriented cable program, to a syndicated PBS program called Colores. Also been on the Jumbotron a few times at the Albuquerque Isotopes stadium. Kinda fun, but doesn't count for much...

Assuming it's just a segment on a local morning show, my experience has been pretty good. The sound and video crew are pros and know what they're doing. We typically set up an hour before, do at least 2-3 run-throughs to get the mix right, then do the segment. It's not typically live the way they do it here; they pre-tape the music segments for the most part. It wouldn't matter if it was live, though. We've usually been able to get a good first take. The only thing that is hit-or-miss is when the video doesn't catch solos and what not until halfway through. They're usually pretty good about trying, but don't always get it right.

 

[catcauphonic]

Oh yea... that other time on the local news i was interviewed in the mid 90s when they were doing a feature on the rise in popularity of body modifications (ie: piercings being worn in other parts of the body besides the earlobes.)

I remember my dad was really proud of that one as in not at all

 

[b_carville]

My first band in 1967 was on a local dance show called "The Ed Hurst Show". We were on "Teen Talent Spotlight" & were called The Satisfied Minds. Think we played Mickey's Monkey,badly I might add.We were also on another Ed Hurst dance show held at a aquarium theatre/dolphin show place called Aquarama.We lip synced to a tape we made that was going to be our 1st single next to some huge fish tank. We were upstaged by a group of trained seals who played "How Dry I Am" on bicycle horns.
Did a bit of TV in the 80's. Was on a morning show called AM Philadelphia (I think that's what it was called).We were upstaged by the Chippendale's Male strippers. Highlight was the band arguing about what song we were going to play right on live TV.Everybody wanted to be the lead singer. Ahh..band ego's. That was the Flamin' Caucasians
The Flamin' Caucasians were also the house band on a sports blooper show on ESPN called "The Lighter Side of Sports" I think that was 1986-88.(My memory can be faulty) We did all the ones Jay Johnstone hosted. I recall playing "Heartbreak Hotel" with Reggie White & "7 Nights to Rock" with Lyle Alzado. They were all taped at a Sports bar or Atlantic City bar/lounge during working hours.
The Flamin' Caucasians were also on "The Morton Downey Show". We were the band the week that it was taped at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. The band wasn't really featured,we just played intros & outros and commercial breaks. We were on camera off & on. Their idea of mixing the band was to hang one SM57 over us.We were there the night Roy Innis & Al Sharpton got into a fight on stage. The place had about 1100 people there & it just exploded. It almost became a riot.Yep,I was in a band called the Flamin' Caucasians in the middle of a near riot in Harlem. It made national news. We also did Morton Downey shows in Detroit & Atlantic City. Might of done one at the studios in Seacacus,NJ too.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Last year my trio was featured statewide on a morning chat show. (For the record I have some background in TV as a producer, camera, sound and lighting op on many cable access shows.)

The show runs live, and we arrived at 7am to set up and prep. My pianist was skeptical of the worth of the whole endeavor, but I wanted the video to help sell, so I had to pay him fifty bucks to show up and physically prompt him out of his hovel. My drummer was in urgent need of dental attention, and was more than a little grumpy. They told me they wanted no more than two minutes of music at a time, so I'd prepared two pieces with abbreviated arrangements.

The pianist and I had wireless body mics for the interview bit in addition to the stand mics for all of us for the vocals. The director scheduled us for the second eight-minute slot of three, and we had our own set in the studio. We ran a soundcheck before air, and everything was to be left as it was at the end of that. We sat on set waiting during the first segment. We hit the break and the floor director told us two minutes. My drummer had been needing to pee and ran for the little room. The FD called places after a minute and a half, and was suddenly concerned about no drummer. Pianist went and fished him out, both of them rushing in just before the count-in.

The segment started with the affable (substitute) presenter saying something affable and flubbing the drummer's name. Behind him, cranky drummer stage-whispered his name correctly, several times, without effect, cracking us up. The presenter then turned to him and asked a couple of affable questions, further annoying drummer. He then talked with me, and I plugged an upcoming restaurant gig. Pianist plugged his teaching program. Then presenter cleared out and we played our stuff, pretty well I thought. After another dollop of affability we played the second number into the break.

We had to wait through the third segment before we could load out, and everything was peachy. I paid the receptionist 35 bucks for a DVD copy of the segment, and we left.

When I got the DVD a few days later I discovered that the sound op had left his mics muted (both wireless and wired!), so for a third of the first number there was only piano and bass on the track, and the video was useless. The upside is that I've yet to hear anyone say they saw the show.

They asked us back a few months later, but we couldn't find the time.

Things to know:
Be prepared for a lot more hassle than it looks.
Don't wear white, black or solid red.
Pee first, and be ready at all times.
In the break, doublecheck that your mics, inputs and monitors are hot.
Pretend you're kind of stoned so you move and talk more slowly.

The Big Six Trio, Prescott AZ:
View attachment 2789762

Thank you for describing and inventorying my fears.

 

[okcrum]

Redhead has been invited to be on a local (community cable) TV show next month. We'd do two songs for a telethon (raising money for the high school band). I have absolutely no idea what to expect, except I know we'll get a pro video for free that we can use to promote our wiggly selves. Tech advice, war stories, etc. greatly appreciated.

I've done a couple of TV appearances. One thing: don't necessarily expect great audio, but be appreciative if you get it. The audio person will be used to mic'ing up people...unless you're in a larger market (1-10).

 

[okcrum]

Shameless self promotion alert!

Does this count?
View attachment 2789796

Was it broadcast? That seems easy enough to figure out. Otherwise, no.

EDIT: I'm not trying to be snarky. A buddy of mine used to run the ABC remote shop in NJ and told me they trucked in the equivalent of 3 local TV stations' worth of gear to do a game. So it really depends on what was actually on the feed leaving the stadium - not the one feeding the Jumbotron necessarily. Still that's one BIG picture.

 

[okcrum]

Yep!

I was on the news once! A reporter was doing a story and I drove by in my minivan

Easy there, big fella!!

 

[devnulljp]

We did a local community access TV show, and it was fun to do. They had us open up the show, then some talking, baby yoga, some interview with a lady that runs the local thrift shop, the n we played a bit, then a cooking segment, some psychobabble tarot card reader or something, then we played again.
No horror stories, they were pleasant, we did a quick run through of the cues once then they turned the cameras on and we did it live (but recorded, so they could fix any major trainwrecks ... there weren't any so the whole thing went through in an hour).

For your edification ...


Mostly tv students learning how to put together a show. What was cool though was they interviewed a local legend jazz teacher, so the pressure was on for us.

Bring everything you need -- and a spare of everything just in case. I brought my own DI (a Broughton P15, thank you very much), no amp. Drummer brought brushes, piano player DI'ed. Sax went into a mic.
We were in and set up in 10 min, get out was the same. I'm planning to do it again in the new year with another project (so, don't be a prima donna and you'll get invited back).

 

[mcarp555]

In 1981 the band I was in was asked to do a local PBS show in Orlando called "Sunshine Music Hall". A half-hour of just us. We did all originals for the show, which we rehearsed like crazy for several weeks to make sure we could do it all in the allotted time. On the day, we drove out to their studio and set up. We took a few family members along to fill out the "audience" (two or three rows; as it was, they had some stagehands fill out the ranks, all of them clapping like crazy). We rehearsed a few numbers while they did a technical walk-through (setting levels, camera angles, etc.). Our roadie sat with their audio guy to cue him on who would take solos, etc. After the tech run-thru, we ate, then changed into our "TV clothes" and did our set, in one take. We only had to stop once when someone broke a string, but they ended up editing that out so it was seamless. My main memory is that it was very cold in the studio, and very hot under the lights. I was pretty nervous, but as the bass player I didn't have to do anything (lol). They seemed to like us, and we packed up and left.

A few weeks later, we were playing an apartment Christmas party in Orlando the night of the broadcast. We timed one of our breaks so that we could wheel out a small TV and sit on the floor of the apartment clubhouse, watching ourselves! The people at the party were amazed, not least because we had changed guitarists since then, replacing a tall guy with shoulder-length hair for a tall guy with a short, professional trim. After the show was over, we rolled the TV back and carried on. At home, I had recorded the show (on beta!), but eventually lost it after loaning it to the drummer. Many many years later, the lead singer emailed me some photos from the tech walk-thru. I don't recall ever meeting anyone who said, "Hey, I saw you on TV!"