Mars Invades

[Kathleen Fitzpatrick]

At 3:48 PM -0400 11/27/96, LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU wrote:

>Well, it *did* happen--not quite meeting the massive mass hysteria that is
>sometimes reported, but a whole lot of people were scared or nonplussed by the
>thing--the point was that if anyone was listening to the broadcase (Oops! I'
>d better explain that this is the notorious WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast on
>the Mercury Theater of the Air by Orson Welles and co.)--where was I?
>
>Oh, yes, if anyone listened to the broadcast from the start or caught the
>commercial breaks, there was no illusion.  But many people were
>channel-surfing
>(especially from the popular Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy show--what
>a Pynchonian or Pynthonesque concept: a ventriloquist on radio!) and they
>happened across what seems to be a new broadcast in progress.

The same sort of reaction occurred when CBS ran what was supposed to be an
homage to WOTW about two years ago.  Alien ships were seen approaching
Earth; assuming this was a threat, the US military blew them up.  Then four
more came in, aiming for major world cities -- this time a definite threat.
(Of course, "we" nuked those four and managed to celebrate for about 15
seconds before seeing the 500 now coming in on radar.)

The entire movie was structured as a "live" news broadcast a la CNN, and
the next day the network reported having received hundreds of phone calls
from frantic people who thought it was really happening.

The only proper response was, of course, Letterman's:  "Yeah.  Earth is
being attacked by alien invaders and *CBS* manages to get the exclusive
story.  Right."

K.

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Coordinator, Computer Division
Expository Writing Program
New York University
kqf3143 at is2.nyu.edu
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