TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes

Did You Know?

• In March 2007, ABC aired the special Celebrity A-List Bloopers, produced by Dick Clark Productions, with John O'Hurley as host in Clark's place.
• The 2012 syndicated revival, titled Bloopers, was hosted by Dean Cain and focused on web and user-generated content, with hidden camera pranks reintroduced.
• During the ABC run, logos of networks other than ABC and of stations affiliated with those networks were obscured.

TV's Censored Bloopers and Television's Greatest Commercials

The series was preceded by two separate specials: TV's Censored Bloopers, hosted by Dick Clark from May 15, 1981, and Television's Greatest Commercials, hosted by Ed McMahon from May 25, 1982. The blooper specials were dedicated to Kermit Schaefer, a 1950s TV producer who pioneered preserving bloopers. After a combined special titled TV's Greatest Censored Commercial Bloopers aired in winter 1984, the two programs were merged into a weekly series hosted by Clark and McMahon. Charlie O'Donnell, Clark's former announcer on American Bandstand, was added as announcer.

Regular features

The original show divided its content between bloopers and classic TV advertisements, and included at least two practical joke segments per episode featuring celebrities in Candid Camera-like situations, a forerunner of Punk'd. These pranks first appeared in the special Johnny Carson's Greatest Practical Jokes, explaining Carson Productions' involvement. Other regular features included man-in-the-street interviews by David Letterman and later Robert Klein; video segments with ironic song lyrics; Len Cella's Silly Cinemas; Thom Sharp's Book of Hollywood; Wil Shriner's Video Vault; and stand-up comedy by performers such as Jerry Seinfeld and Jenny Jones. Animated inserts by cartoonist Sergio Aragones appeared throughout the NBC and ABC runs. As the weekly run progressed, commercials and other segments were phased out, leaving only bloopers and practical jokes.

Return to specials format

The weekly series ended in 1986. In 1988, Clark revived it as specials titled Super Bloopers and New Practical Jokes, with McMahon returning as co-host. Later specials were called TV's Censored Bloopers in 1993 and simply Bloopers, after the practical joke element was dropped. These specials aired irregularly on NBC until 1998, often as filler for cancelled series or low-cost summer replacements; the series briefly returned to a weekly format in 1998 as TV Censored Bloopers 98 with Suzanne Whang as co-host. In later NBC years, bloopers were mostly drawn from NBC-produced programs. From 2000 to 2002, the NBC specials reran daily on TNN.

Imitator series

The show inspired imitators on other networks. After the original TV's Censored Bloopers specials, ABC aired Life's Most Embarrassing Moments in 1983, produced by Alan Landsburg Productions. Dick Clark Productions sued over it in federal court, but the case was dismissed and the dismissal affirmed on appeal; the court ruled that copyright does not protect a show's format. ABC then debuted Foul-Ups, Bleeps & Blunders in 1984, which aired Star Trek bloopers for the first time on American network television but never matched Bloopers' ratings. After Bloopers left NBC, the network launched Most Outrageous Moments, which ran until 2009.