This footage amazes me. In the 70′s, Channel 8 created a little television by clogging up a highway with speed limit-driving actors. Everyone predictably gets mad and risks his life to get around the rolling blockade. There’s even some Smoky and The Bandit type CB action. I can’t imagine a news station doing this stunt in today’s litigious society. The glory days of Anchorman.
Great video complete with Jewish professor/psychologist
Shepherd to lost sheep, Shepherd to lost sheep!
Was that Gabe Kaplan in that interview?
Love the stereo typical good ole boy Texas CB discussion and the fact that having a CB in your sedan and not just in 18 wheelers was common.
and now you use a cell phone right?……………………. progress my boy,progress!
Besides the kick ass stunt they pulled, check out the spectacular WFAA weather broadcast from 1979, make note of the technology (or lack of) to deliver the weather.
And again during the media frenzied 1980 Heat Wave. Amazing how the one year made a differeance in weather presentation technology, love the waterfall graphic and the early Excel graph.
And who doesn’t love Harold Taft
P.S. you’ve spent me spiraling out control watching all of the news broadcasts from my childhood and their evolution. I can no longer go forth and take on the day. I hate my life now.
Aggggghhh. One more as I sign off for the last time. I hope you’ve had a good day.
You got me following related vid links too. The final analog broadcast vid had some nice clips in it too.
old enough to remember when this originally aired. It was both hilarious and a bit scary. They sure raised the ire of the drivers behind them. At least it wasn’t an infomercial for some local business disguised as a news story.
Ha ha.. Thanks for the research data Mr. Kotter!! Really frustration leads to anger??? Hmmm. I’ll bet that when ice melts it turns back to wet watery substance doesn;t it…. Well I’m no expert.
Cool old cars tho….
“I’m gonna run over that son of a b*tch! This is Ribby Paultz, signing off!”
Here’s a classic example of “You might be an ass if…”
It’s also “the law” that the “left lane is for passing only.” Perhaps that law went into effect since the chimpanzees at Channel 8 did their little experiment. If not, however, then they were just as guilty of breaking the law as the speeders trying to get around them.
Byron Harris equals a young Frankenstein?
Holy crap!! A young Byron Harris. I really like that guy. I always feel his stories contain a high degree of objectivity. Like you know, a real journalist should do. [stewing thinking of other journalists shoving their agendas down my unwilling gullet]
this going to the store stuff sucks worse than any thing has ever sucked before!
Did George Lucas watch this in the 70′s because the guy in the glasses at the end has a very Yoda like take on violence and anger.
I side with the sentiments of the other drivers. Any group driving in such a way as to block all three lanes even though they may be going the speed limit is simply obnoxious and not reflective of how things are in the “real” driving world. Its not their job to be the police. As an aside, I believe if this experiment was attempted in today’s world, some nut would eventually pull a gun.
Retro-Idiocracy!
Gordon, you said: “I can’t imagine a news station doing this stunt in today’s litigious society.” On what basis would someone take a news station to court over this? The speed limit was 55 mph and that was the speed they were driving. Technically, if everyone on the road at the time was driving 55 mph like they were supposed to be doing, then they would have no reason to pass the news station’s cars. (and therefore the news station’s cars would not be blocking traffic).
Why? Well, first of all, because it’s a violation of the Texas Transportation Code to do what those guys did. See Sec. 545.051(c) “Driving On Right Side Of Roadway.
You’re a reporter, told by your producer to go drive a rolling roadblock, and some guy tries to pass you while you do this, getting you into a wreck, and you perish. You don’t think your family’s going to sue the station for having you do something that violates the law? Well, no, mine wouldn’t either, but SOMEbodie’s family would’ve.
I clicked your link but I was too lazy to read all that information ( I got tired head after the first 57 paragraphs). I still say if it was a law back then to not go over 55 mph, then anyone that went above that speed was breaking the law. Therefore, if someone had tried to pass those cars (those channel 8 reporters cars), then that person would be driving faster than 55 mph and, thus, breaking the law.
“An operator on a roadway of sufficient width shall drive on the right half of the roadway, unless:
(1) the operator is passing another vehicle;”
If all three reporters were driving the same speed they should have all been in the right lane. (Or at least the middle.) However, other people speeding were also breaking the law.
Byron Harris looks like he was punched in the face by Joe Frazier. But it was nice for Gabe Kaplan to comment on this story.
Amazing. You’re right – we could never get away with something like that today. And thanks for Gabe Kaplan at the end, too!
Byron Harris has worked here that long???
I was wonderin if they came up with a kick ass CB law while driving? Im thinking the roads would be much safer today with the CB law. I mean to drive and flip channels to find hot lot lizard action on dreary night to Longview sounds dangerous!
If the minorities would learn that the LEFT LANE…yes…LEFT LASE is the FAST lane then maybe there wouldn’t be so much road rage. The LEFT lane isn’t for cruising. Its for passing. I love Dallas, but this city/state sucks for driving. After living in the Chicago area for a while I know whats good and bad driving.
If you think that saying minorities instead of a racial slur makes you less racist, you’re wrong, buddy.
All of you idiots trying to bitch about the left lane being a passing lane forget that it is still against the law to SPEED!!! I am amazed at how idiotic you people are. Do you realize that going 75 instead of 70 gets you to your destination maybe a few minutes before the citizens that are OBEYING the law. I used to speed when I was 16. Then I grew up and started using my brain. This is definitely a metroplex issue though. I can always tell when I’m about 30 miles or less from DFW when the first of many idiots decides that they have the right to drive about 10-15 miles per hour faster than the posted speed limit.
So using your brain means driving at or below a speed arbitrarily set by somebody else even if you are capable of driving safely at a faster speed?
To “Dirtiest of All Dirty P1s”:
It’s not about what speed WE feel we can drive safely at, but it is about the LAW. There may be people that feel they are capable of driving safely at 100 mph, but that would be breaking the law. If the law is 55 mph (as it was back then when the video was made) then anything above that would be breaking the law.
JS,
Did you know that in Maine, residents are required to bring a shotgun to Church so that they are prepared in case of a Native American attack? We’ve all heard many examples like this of arcane laws that have somehow remained on the books.
Or, to give a more extreme example, what about the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany?
Would you insist on following any of these types of laws because they are “the LAW” if you lived in that place and/or time?
These examples are obviously much more extreme than anti-speeding laws, but the underlying principle is the same. Laws should be guided by morality, but they don’t establish morality.
Dirtiest of All Dirty P1s,
So you are saying we should pick and choose those laws we feel it is “okay” to break? In following your logic, that means I could decide to run a red light if I don’t see any other cars near by that are about to cross.The law is the law. We are not suppose to break a law if we do not like it.
By the way, I back that Maine law 100%….
Thank you Dustin!!! I posted earlier the same basic thing you have just wrote … in that it is against the law to go over the speed limit. However, people here for some reason try to justify going faster than the limit.
Everyone: it doesn’t matter if it is a passing lane or not, if someone goes above the speed limit then that person is breaking the law.
Also, from the “Related Videos”. Is this Dustin the P1 or JS? Or it might be Jub.
Oops, forgot the link.