Outtakes, Bloopers & Goofs

Bloopers, outtakes, gaffs. Call them what you will, but these goofs prove that even the most consummate actor is only human. Actors and actresses blow their lines during filming all the time. Most of these mistakes are never captured for posterity. But when they are, the resulting footage is often revealing, hilarious and sometimes downright naughty. During the early-to-mid 1980s, television seemed to have a love affair with blooper specials, especially those hosted and produced by Dick Clark.

Outtakes, also commonly known as bloopers or goofs, are the result of someone involved with the production of a television program messing up. Perhaps an actor or actress forgets or flubs a line and then curses out of frustration. Or maybe a member of the crew accidentally walks in front of a camera, ruining a shot. Improvisation on set, practical jokes, and accidents can all result in mistakes that are caught on film (or video). Often, these goofs are strung together into “blooper reels” that are then shown at wrap parties or other events for the cast and crew to enjoy.

During the era of live television in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, mistakes were seen by viewers right as they happened, provoking laughter or, in some cases, anger. An August 1954 article in The New York Times about Dean Whitmore, stage manager for Television Playhouse on NBC, mentioned several examples of production gone awry: an actor who kept yelling “Bang!” when he fired his gun during rehearsals did the same thing on the air; during a commercial a lace handkerchief prop goes missing and is replaced on the fly with Whitman’s own hankie; an actor forgets to mime making a phone call in a phone booth, walks off stage and is thrust back on to make the call [1].

The Chicago Times ran an article in May of 1957 about goofs, recounting practical jokes that included spiking drinks, writing lines on a cue card in reverse (or holding them upside down) and even sketching nude drawings on cue cards [2]. Popular programs also provided goofs for viewers. In an episode of The Honeymooners, according to legend, after a door jammed, Art Carney climbed on set through a window [3]. Dinah Shore, Bob Cummings and Gale Storm once rehearsed a number seated on a bench — when the show was televised, the bench had been replaced with one without a back and when the three sat down they promptly tumbled over [4].

One of the most infamous goofs of all time occurred during the premiere episode of Climax!, broadcast live on October 7th, 1954 on CBS. The episode, entitled “The Long Goodbye” and based on a story by Raymond Chandler, starred Dick Powell, Teresa Wright and Cesar Romero. After one of the characters — an alcoholic author — is shot and killed, his body is covered with a blanket. As the action continued around him, the actor playing the deceased author crawled off stage, blanket and all [5, 6].

During the 1960s and 1970s, actors and actresses continued to flub their lines, crewmembers continued to interrupt filming, and practical jokes continued to be played on unsuspecting members of the cast. It was not until the 1980s, however, that television viewers began seeing these bloopers. On Friday, May 15th, 1981, NBC aired an hour-long special entitled “TV’s Censored Bloopers,” hosted by Dick Clark and Milton Berle, with special guest Mariette Hartley. The special drew a 22.3 rating and ranked fifth for the week [7].

Bloopers featuring Ronald Reagan from his acting days were withheld from the special after Dick Clark attempted to contact the then-President through an attorney and never heard back [8]. The same bloopers were again withheld from the second NBC special, “More TV’s Censored Bloopers,” although this time Reagan’s TV advisor officially denied permission for their use [9]. “More TV’s Censored Bloopers” was aired on Friday, November 13th, 1981.

Ironically, despite being titled “TV’s Censored Bloopers,” a repeat airing of the first special was itself apparently censored. Bloopers from M*A*S*H, which had been included in the original broadcast, were cut from the repeat, which was shown Friday, December 4th, 1981 [10]. Additional “TV’s Censored Bloopers” specials were shown through 1983. On Monday, January 9th, NBC premiered TV’s Bloopers, Commercials and Practical Jokes, usually called TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes, hosted by Dick Clark and Ed McMahon.

The following day, ABC introduced Foulups, Bleeps and Blunders, hosted by Don Rickles and Steve Lawrence. NBC’s bloopers show drew a 25.0/35 rating and ranked fifth for the week; ABC’s a 20.1/29 rating, good enough for 13th [11]. For the 1983-1984 season as a whole, TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes ranked 11th [12]. Foulups, Bleeps and Blunders, although renewed for the 1984-1985 season, was never as successful as NBC’s show and was cancelled in May of 1985 [13].

TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes continued as a weekly series until it was pulled in March of 1986 and replaced by You Again and Valerie [14]. During the summer of 1988, NBC aired several “best of” editions of the show [15]. Over the years, NBC has brought back TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes in a variety of incarnations. Additionally, it is not uncommon for individual shows, chiefly sitcoms, to air bloopers during the end credits.

Blooper specials still pop up on the networks every few years. On November 26th, 2001, CBS broadcast an hour-long special entitled “Carol Burnett: Show Stoppers,” filled with bloopers and goofs. It topped the Nielsen charts with 29.8 million viewers [16].

Of course, given the nature of network television, blooper specials are forced to “bleep” out foul language. Unfortunately, this robs the outtakes of their hilarious impact. The adult nature of some gags or practical jokes also keeps them off the air. Still, uncensored blooper reels have been floating around for decades, sold by fans on bootleg video tapes and DVDs at conventions and, eventually, over the Internet. Perhaps the most famous of all the blooper reels are those for NBC’s Star Trek.

According to David Gerrold’s The World of Star Trek, it was creator Gene Roddenberry who made sure there was a blooper reel for each of Star Trek’s three seasons, “an expense that most producers won’t go to” [17]. Initially, these blooper reels were only for the enjoyment of the cast and crew, but when conventions devoted to Star Trek began appearing in the early 1970s, Roddenberry would bring the blooper reels to show to fans.

Joan Winston, in discussing the very first Star Trek convention (held in New York in January of 1972), gives an account of the Star Trek blooper reels:

“If I may digress for one moment, I will try to explain what a blooper is. Sometimes an actor goofs a line and says a funny word–or a dirty word–or makes a funny face. These snippets of film are spliced together to form a “blooper reel.” When you have an imaginative nut like Bill Shatner on the set, the blooper reel becomes an art in itself. He would concoct very elaborate practical jokes (i.e. the arrow bit from “Private Little War”) and the crew would go along with him, filming all the way as if it were a regular scene. Nope, you can’t really describe it. You have to see it.” [18]

Winston also states that it is her believe that other shows also have blooper reels, “but not too many, as you really needed to have someone on the crew with a good sense of humor to sift the chaff from the grain” [19].

I believe the following footage is presented exactly as it was put together back in the 1960s by a ingenious editor, complete with edited opening credits and even the theme from Mission: Impossible at one point. One of my very favorite bloopers can be see at the end: William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols and guest-star Sherry Jackson dancing atop a set piece from the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”