There was a similar program that aired in the early 1980s, but it was about nuclear war instead of aliens. We were living in Hawaii at the time. And at one point, my brother and I thought it would be funny to trick our mom into believing it as real. Since we were in HI and everything was supposed to be happening on the mainland, this wasn't hard to do. We about gave her a heart attack before we started feeling like awful people and finally broke down and told her it was fake. 😅 I've seen several compilation videos on this topic, but no one ever mentions this one. I wish I could remember what it was called or who was involved in it so I could look it up. I have no idea whether or not it caused any notable panic. I was only 11 or 12 so don't remember anything more than what I mentioned.
My mother would always tell me about that radio broadcast, granted we are french speakers, but she knew of it. One day, since I'm also an English speaker, I listened to The Shadow, wich Welles played, it lead TH-cam to recommand me the infamous War of the World radio show, listened to the first half hour. Afterward I went to see my mom and said, "You were right mom, that man was pure genius, if I was living in that era, I would have gobble up that entire story". Plus, being from Belgium, we have our story with those type of broadcast, thanks to a little one called "Bye Bye Belgium" that caused the biggest panic I have ever seen in my life. Man, the mood at school the day after that, that was something! (In short, they made a false news bulletin where Belgium was gone, Wallonia and Flanders were two separate countries, starting the very night of this broadcast, meaning that we, in Brussels, were now french speakers in Flemish territory, and would probably be kicked out of our homes and sent either to France or Wallonia if we weren't able to speak Flemish correctly)
... Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
What disturbed me the most was when they panned over to the radar screen and it showed dozens more anomalies quickly descending upon our planet. It's like that guy who filmed a tornado as it approached his neighborhood and tore everything apart, including his own home.
The reveal of the dozens of asteroids approaching earth was so good, gave me goosebumps even knowing it was fiction I bet some people really lost their marbles watching it live.
@@moonlightrobberyI thought it was alien ships too. I wonder what would be more terrifying. I feel like multiple small asteroids heading to earth wouldn't be as scary as aliens. We can assume some of the asteroids might burn up to some degree in the atmosphere. But that many aliens with little warning would be terrifying.
it’s genuinely a super well crafted sequence. it’s a climax of suspense without any jumpscares, but rather, a realization - a realization that has just as much, if not, more impact. absolutely love it
I feel really bad for that guy that killed himself. I have a few learning disabilities too and even when I know if certain stressful media is fake or not I still get shooken up afterwards and often have trouble telling what’s real and what’s not. To know that he went through that pain for days without any of his family being able to tell what was wrong or help him before what happened is really tragic.
Yeah. I was only 4 when this came out so I didn't get to watch it but I do blame the parents partly because they should have kept an eye on him or should have checked the paper because this was before the era of smart TV.
i also have trouble discerning media that i know is fake but seems real!! this heavily shows in gore, and even realistic rides at theme parks like the fast and furious ride at universal. i was literally covering my face like “all those people in the cars and helicopters r dying!!!” and i was 17😭😭😭
I honestly don’t think it was due to that one show, think the parents were laying it on thick looking for a lawsuit or possibly publicity… imagine if that kid saw an episode of Doctor Who on BBC, he’d REALLY have flipped out! Or Hell ANYTHING on tv for that matter!
@@quaygrass6212 I was trying to figure out why the parents didn't change the channel or explain what was happening. I would see horror movies with my kids, a lot were old clasics. If they were getting scared I'd comment out loud about the special effects or production values and it would take them straight out of the horror of the moment. Very effective.
@@rrsaga It was on CBS, on the anniversary of the WoW broadcast. Frankly, there were a number of problems with the show that made it totally non-realistic.
I watched "Without Warning" on TH-cam earlier this year while on the hunt for any horror-themed mockumentaries. Absolutely brilliant film that I heavily recommend, especially with how chilling its ending was. Unfortunate that the heads-up that it was all fictional was lost on a lot of people.
Amazon Prime and Apple+ both have it (in the US, anyway), but you'll have to rent it. I'd say if you're not strapped for cash, it's worth the 3-5 bucks to see it.
The fact that "Ghostwatch" and "Without Warning" caused national panics speaks to the gullibility of the public conditioned by generations of network TV and the inability of those networks to predict their degree of success.
But they said the first one was exaggerated by other news sources? And that it was not as much panic other than having people being confused or raised anxiety since they thought it was either a natural disaster or a war since they had been covering Germany directly before ww2 happened. You should have more faith in people. They weren't sissies like they are now. And most of the people you're talking about died in ww2 so that's pretty insulting.
You can say they warned people all you want to but they had reputable, actual newscasters presenting the piece as an actual event and then added a tiny disclaimer hours before the show officially aired, which kinda destroys your entire narrative. If you wanted enough plausible deniability to say "hey this was/is clearly a prank" maybe don't use actual anchors in the same time slot as the news. They got the response they were aiming for all along, and they were clearly willing to color outside of the lines in order to get it.
@@pugachevskobra5636 I am of a mind that people are responsible for making sure their beliefs have evidence to back them up. TV shows should should never count as evidence. Movies and telly programs never contain disclaimers. Should we believe Spiderman is real because NYC is a real place? Doctor Who is real because England is a real place? Why not accept Jigsaw is kidnapping people IRL? This line of thinking is ridiculous.
Gullibility, a bit like the BBCs coverage of lockdown, covid and the war in Gaza? They should be proud of Ghostwatch as although fiction, it was still more accurate than anything they air as fact today?
One of the reasons Ghost Watch was so believable is Michael Parkinson being the face of it. He was always known for being a serious presenter and interviewer. Imagine you sit down to watch a show about something supernatural and the most serious presenter in your country who's known for serious journalism is the main presenter. His inclusion lent it some real believability.
There is also the cultural significance of the BBC. It's always been held in high regard as a reliable source for real information for the British people. I think many felt sort of betrayed and lied to, even if that wasn't the intention. It would sort of be like if Associated Press published a bunch of articles on a haunted location as if the reporter had seen it happen.
EDIT: I feel I should clarify, I wasn’t intending to correct ST at all, his coverage of the broadcast was amazing as always! I was just trying to add some context to the mention that reports of panic may have been exaggerated. Like SC stated, not many people listened to the broadcast and people that tuned in late were confused and worried about an attack from another country, but it was much less widespread or intense than the newspaper articles made it out to be The War of the Worlds broadcast didn’t actually cause mass panic. Newspapers were scared that radio was going to push them out of business and made up most of the panic
My dad remembers it and definitely said it scared a lot of people hearing the show on the radio. He said it was so realistic that people were looking outside trying to find the aliens
5:52 "Lord they're turning into flames!" Followed by that scream; no wonder they panicked, how authentic and dedicated that scream was to capture the scene of the martian's attack was enough to make me say; "Jeez... "
I was 13 when Without Warning was on. I had a TV in my room and I must have been scrolling through the channels and found the show in the middle so I didn't see the notices that it was all fake. I remember that I must have tuned in when they showed that all the asteroids were being shown to hit earth. I remember being really scared and looking out my window. I do remember switching to other channels to see if they were covering it and being confused why they weren't. I'm 43 now so it was a long time ago. I think I only saw like five minutes of the show, but I saw it right at the scary part and I must have saw that it wasn't real pretty soon after that but I do remember being terrified and actually looking out my window.
I'm the same as you, I also remember when Without Warning was on TV. I was a sophomore in high school and our physical science teacher had the whole class watch it for a homework assignment. Because of this, we already knew it was fake. I wasn't that surprised they went with a fictional alien apocalypses, aliens/space/UFOs were a big thing in pop culture back in the mid-90s. Also, I'm not sure I'm remembering this correctly, but I don't think all the CBS stations were airing it. Where we were wasn't that far from Detroit and some kids in class mentioned that our city's local affiliate (Toledo) aired it, but when they switched to Detroit's, it wasn't on.
Ghost watch is perhaps the finest piece of lost media to come out of Britain. Highly recommend watching, it was absolutely masterful how they slipped in the ghost “Pipes” into the background of different camera shots. In one scene, they are interviewing the neighbours out on the street, and as they go one by one talking to each person, behind the group standing at the very back is a ghostly figure with a bloody scratched up face. Really incredible.
One thing the British do well is to take something ordinary and assign it a supernatural and scary value; Doctor Who does this a lot. I.e. birdsong as an indicator that you are dreaming and about to wake up; the bees disappearing as an indicator that the world is about to end; and the noises of water hammer being an actual ghost. It gives you a moment of doubt the next time you see or hear that happening in real life.
I got a panicked call from a friend during Without Warning. You missed a big one: Special Bulletin from 1983 about a nuclear incident in Charleston. Some people in Charleston freaked out. I wonder why?
I saw "Without Warning" when it was first broadcast in our area. Between commercial breaks, they would play a disclaimer that stated it was not a real news broadcast. Also note the presence of John De Lancie aka Q from Star Trek among the cast. I watched it anyway because it was quite gripping as a story.
It sucks but it really isn’t the BBC’s fault. He made the decision to ultimately do what he did and it isn’t fair to blame others for that type of thing.
exactly, people need to stop blaming entertainment for this. reminds me of when there was a wave of parents telling every newspaper they could find that beavis and butthead was somehow responsible for their kid having fatal accidents, just to try and get money out of mtv. like maybe you should have done your job as a parent. some of those it came out later the kids had literally never watched beavis and butthead, so it's a different scenario but my opinion is the same
I was a kid when without warning was on TV. We caught it a few minutes after it started, it seemed to have extended time between commercials and I remember my dad and I going outside to see if we could see anything coming. Took us about 20 minutes before we figured out it was a movie. I was telling my husband about this 1 or 3 years ago and found the movie online and watched it with him funny now that it seemed so real back then!
I remember watching the Without Warning thing with my Mom. We LOVED it. For legal reasons, they had to make it as clear as possible that it WAS NOT REAL.
If you like Orson’s War of the Worlds, I also recommend the radio play “Sorry, Wrong Number” from 1943. It’s a bit confusing SEO-wise as most searches will give you the film version, but I was actually stunned how well the radio version holds up.
“Sorry, Wrong Number” was first aired on the radio show Suspense sometime in the 1940’s. It would go on to be re-aired at least six or seven more times, always with Agnes Moorehead in the title role.
Wow, that scene of the news broadcaster staring at the screen in horror and the cameraman turning around to reveal hundreds or thousands of asteroids coming to Earth...what a great scene.
I remember when a documentary came on about Mermaids on Discovery i believe, it clearly said it was "faux" but the amount of people who believed that was amazing.
Same with the one they did about dragons. Because of the lowest common denominator of humanity calling in to complain, the higher ups said no more fake documentaries. We were going to get a Bigfoot and a unicorn doc, but they got shut down.
Ghost Watch still holds up. Not as a real event, but as a good found footage movie. Really, all of these hold up, in their own ways. It shows how fantastic the storytelling was.
even still....I----------feel literally bad for those people (and the guy who took his life and many others) who legit actually thought this was real and started literally panicking. I get they're into entertainment. but most normal house holds don't entirely want to hear this kind of stuff. and if by chance you were in the other room with "Without Warning" even if said many times they were fake, imagine being in the other room or listening to it another way to where you wouldn't actually know to where it starts panic. there's entertainment and then there's just horrible actions of the network who disregards all feelings of people for a quick buck. they really honestly shouldn't have done that and if they wanted to make it really fictional around that time Universal was starting since Universal was around since April 10th 1912 they had the money to produce an actual just film, they could've done things right and showed it like that or even like most movies would start with "And now for your feature presentation" they just had words on screen. and doing the research unfortunately, only 4.7 percent during that time was liberate so imagine seeing something on t.v that you couldn't even read since schooling back then was also different. And if we're talking 1994, that's 13% who couldn't properly read......and sadly that still goes true to this day where 21% of the US is sadly illiterate so we only got worse with time.
I remember Special Bulletin. Well done. I have a picture of my dad standing on the bow of the destroyer where the broadcaster was standing when the bomb exploded. Shook me a bit when I saw his picture.
I remember "Without Warning." I missed the beginning, so I thought it could be real. I did think it odd that Dan Rather wasn't hosting, but didn't devote much time to it. When they broke for a commercial, I switched to another network. There was nothing. I instantly thought, "Oh, it must be an updated version of 'War of the Worlds.'" I switched back to CBS and when the show resumed, I saw the disclaimer. It was still really good for the time.
The reporter in Without Warning who was looking at the computer at the end of it is an amazing actor holy shit. ive never seen someone look so actually terrified before. he looked like he was about to faint.
Hearing that people ended their own life once they thought they saw proof of the afterlife just to be with their loved ones is one of the most tragic things I’ve ever heard.
Woah, didn't know about Without Warning, that was honestly awesome for its time. They should do a remastered version updated to the modern era sometime. I'd be down.
Right?? Maybe frame it around space debris instead of asteroids. If all the stuff we've thrown up there suddenly came down all at once, we'd be *_screwed._*
It could never be done again well. Any attempt would be doomed by the simple fact it's already been done, you can't recreate the magic and shock on something people hadn't seen done before.
Social media and instant communication with anyone on the planet means something like this could never be made again. The last time a show as convincing as this could be made would be just after 9/11 which seemed to herald in the age of everyone and their uncle buying a mobile phone.
Another cool movie in the genre is "The Day Britain Stopped", though it's a mockumentary instead of a live broadcast. It's fun to note that in the UK if you're showing a fake news broadcast, you can only show it inside a TV, never fullscreen, like a character watching it in his living room or on a store window.
I never knew we had that rule here. Interesting. Although there was a short snippet of a fake Channel 4 news broadcast in a later episode of The IT Crowd, even presented by Jon Snow.
This one is so good, you can find it on youtube here too. I watched it for the first time when I was super messed up from covid vaccine side effects and my fever was so high I spent a good 2 hours thinking it really happened lol. Was going to comment that people should watch this one
The War of the Worlds broadcast is something I know a lot about. It did not cause nationwide panic. The panic was essentially manufactured by the newspapers. At the time, the radio was overtaking the newspaper, so they utilised the few calls that were made to make a hitpiece on the radio. Welles recieved a lot of positive and sympathetic fanmail after the broadcast. Most people just looked at their radio schedules or simply looked outside.
We had a lesson in my english class about the war of the worlds broadcast in my middle school (around the year 2014) . The premise of the lesson was mostly about media literacy and not believing everything you see in the news or online at face value. Definitely one of the most important lessons that stuck with me the most during my time in public school. Great video.
@@CDN_BookmouseFair enough, but in my defense I was a 7th grader and didn’t have enough interest in the topic to look into it beyond the classroom lesson 😂 You are right though, it is very ironic.
@@CDN_Bookmouse That's not the point of the lesson. I'd compare it to fairy tales that teach kids morals. People heard a fictional broadcast and didn't think about it critically, just assumed it was real and panicked. Lesson: don't take everything at face value. The fact that it was a myth has nothing to do with the lesson taken away from it.
omfg... No, you absolute dingus. The real lesson was that the teacher trying to teach THAT lesson didn't actually practice what they were preaching. They consumed media saying "those morons in ye olden times totally fell for this, let's laugh at how media-illiterate they were!" and never thought critically about it, leading them to repeat a myth as fact. Falling victim to the practice they were trying to teach the students was bad. You complete and total goober. @@SamGarrett
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I've never heard of Without Warning before until this video, it looks cool. That ending is one of the most bone chilling and scariest endings I've ever seen.
I think the messages from the little girl and French climber was one hundred forty member states, at the time, that was a speech from the golden record Voyager on the Voyager 2 space probe. Though not explained but I believe the ETs had probably found Voyager 2 and came to Earth. Though I do know an episode of the outer limits had something similar except though the message they got was said backwards from the newly elected US president and like in Without Warning the government did open fire on the aliens.
Without Warning is honestly an amazing piece of fiction regardless of the situation around it. That twist at the end sends chills down my spine every time, and that last shot is still gut wrenching.
Have you seen the halloween episode of inside number 9? Same concept, but much more recent. Still was successful cause they played on social media in bits
Without Warning was great. I was a young kid, and we all knew it was fake but still very intense. The payoff at the end when you see all the meteors on the screen sent a chill up my spine.
Things like these actually changed the laws in the UK, meaning that whenever a fictional news broadcast is shown in a tv show or movie, it must be obvious that it isn't real based on the context. For example, you will almost never see a full screen of news broadcasts in tv shows or movies and if it is a close up, it will usually be the broadcast being played on a tv in the show/film.
Didn't The Day Britain stopped skirt that line with full screen Match of the Day and at least a few seconds of full screen not quite BBC News coverage about the air crash part though? I seem to remember they had the MOTD set or something very close to it, and it was full screen for a few moments as was the news studio for the crash in Hounslow though
About the first case: I think many people are prone to dismiss it as "Oh, they were idiots back then. How could they have believed that?" But just imagine you can't just google basically everything that is going on in the world. And even if you could, you would probably panic for a few minutes if you heard that while listening to your radio.
Not much has changed considering TikTok. I think these days it is a bit more forgivable since trusted sources lie all the time too. Finding the truth is a lot of work these days.
I don't think I fully agree with that. 40 or more years ago you had basically NO way to confirm information. There were like 3 different newspapers to read in your home, but they may be as well lie to you. You had no way to confirm that. You could have travelled to places where things have happened and asked people there. But aside from it being way too expensive and time consuming, they also could have lied to you. Today you have about 300 sources you can find online. Pretty much everyone knows that 5 of them lie to you and another 200 copy those liars. But you still know that there are sources you can still trust. I am not that comfortable with Britain and/or American newspapers, so please excuse me if I use german news papers, but nonetheless let me explain. No one is using "Die Bild" as a reliable source. It is basically "The Sun" for Germany. Basically trash. More reliably news papers are like "Der Spiegel". They at least don't pull their news out of their ass. But you still can be sure that they are using information for their own agenda. On the opposite site we have "Die Zeit". A news paper you can always trust that they are objective and reporting things as they are. Of course I can't talk about every country in this world or even europe, but I am sure that if you inform yourself about the sources in your country or even in another country, that you can build a pretty unbiased opinion.
The show Inside No. 9 pulled off a people thought it was real broadcast with a Halloween episode I think was called Dead Line. They incorporated other media such as Twitter for effect and plenty of people fell for the technical issues aspect and got salty over having missed a really good show.
I remember this airing, I was disappointed at first cos they were just going to show a old episode again. Then 9 minutes in a realised it was part of the show. It was fun and exciting realising it was 9 mins into the show and something was happening. Such a good show.
Without Warning is one of my all-time favorite movies along with the other amazing faux news movie, "Special Bulletin" in 1983. One problem I have is the aliens drop massive rocks as a way to say hi and WE are the bad guys for stopping the one headed for the arctic? If that thing had hit it would have melted massive amounts of water. Those aliens always wanted us dead and the way the movie tries to write humans as the bad guys is kinda weird.
I wasn't paying too close of attention, was it actually confirmed that the first was a meteor or was it just assumed to be and was actually a ship or something?
I watched Special Bulletin in 1983. Even though I’d watched it from the beginning, and even though I saw the disclaimers that “none of what you are seeing is actually happening”, that show scared me to death. I was 19 and that night, I went to bed clutching a stuffed animal. I made the mistake of watching “Adam” (about the Adam Walsh abduction case) the next night. It wasn’t as scary as Special Bulletin, but I remember the day Adam’s parents went on Good Morning America and then when they learned he was dead (I was living in FL at the time.) That was scary in a different way.
You should have included the live séance that aired on UK TV by Derren Brown. It featured real students NOT actors and was broadcast live. The live broadcast was setup so members of the UK public could call in and talk about any weird happenings during the broadcast in their own homes. Loads of people called in, actually using Ouija boards at home and told the hosts what their boards had said. It attracted one of the highest number of complaints EVER registered by a UK TV programme in 2004. I won't reveal the twist but it's super worth a watch if you can find it online!
That final part of without warning was realllly good. From the part where you can see the look of horror on Matt's face looking at the many other asteroids heading towards earth all the way to the ending where the news anchor just stares blankly into the camera while you hear the radio in the background before the screen cuts to static. Makes me wish it was a full length film where we could see more lol.
It's hard to pick 3 finer broadcasts to represent here. it's easy nowadays to see the campiness and cheese of the broadcasts but from hearing War of the Worlds and seeing Without Warning and Ghostwatch, it's easy to imagine late tuners watching the programs to be tricked into believing they're real. glad to see these gems brought to the surface today
I remember reading war of the worlds in 6th grade then the teacher letting us listen to the full broadcast. I think about this radio show at least once a week, it's fascinating the skill put into it for the time
At 18:12 ...I saw this show...It was a fantastic TV movie!...and yes! they would go on commercial break and say it was fiction...I remember that vividly...
I remember watching the Without Warning episode with my first husband and his friends. They were freaking out and certain that it was real. I knew that it was not and told them so. We argued back and forth a while. I finally reasoned, "If this is real, it would be broadcast on all the stations. Change the channel and see if they're covering this." Flipping through all the major stations helped assure them that we were not being invaded.
It's worth noting that at the time of the War of the Worlds broadcast, many people did believe there was life on Mars as well as the Moon. These cultural beliefs would have definitely contributed to a mass panic, if indeed there was one.
One of the brilliant things about Welles's broadcast is that he knew that his show did not have as many listeners as the top-rated radio show. However, he also knew that this other show had a segment that was not very popular, and which started at the same point in the show, every time; and that listeners would often choose this moment to switch stations to see what was on other networks. So, Welles started with all of those fake weather reports and music programs not only to create the illusion that a regular broadcast was being interrupted; they were also there to fill time until the segment in their rival broadcast started, and people started switching channels. Also, it's pronounced van-O-ker
15:56 I love how you can tell that that's fictional because that Female News Anchor is played by Jane Kaczmarek who also played Lois in Melcom in the Middle 😂👌
“Back in our day we weren’t so sensitive about things” *literal panic and pandemonium from a radio drama that if people actually paid attention and looked at what was going on around them they’d realize was just a story and not real*
Except you’ve never been under the shadow of a potential military invasion, and lived in a time where radio was one of the only legitimate sources of information to be spread across the country. Hearing without context or disclaimer would have you shitting your pants way more than people from the late 30s lol.
Say it again! We've always been sensitive. Always had a reason to. Each generation just picks and chooses what they like and don't like. The basics should always remain the same, don't hurt people. Be kind. Live in peace with each others differences. BUT, humanity will always be a bunch of cry babies, no matter what ❤
I feel like there's people out there who'll believe anything no matter how many disclaimers you plaster on there. I mean even no sleep gets the occasional "is this real?" comment
Many don't realise just how primitive the human race really is Despite our technology and scientific understanding, we still have one foot in the caves. That ancient , animal part of us that still fears the dark
I remember Without Warning so well! I was walking through the living room thinking my mom was watching another melodrama (apparently starring Loni Anderson), when the news of the initial impacts came in. I mentioned to my mom that the US impact site was near Area 51 (I was wrong - by a few states! Ha!). But it caught my attention and we watched the rest of the broadcast. However, I also remember every commercial break started or ended (or both) with a visual and verbal notice that this was fiction. No one in my neighborhood or midwestern city was phased or panicked by the fun TV movie. Five years later I remember getting duped by a flyer at a movie theater looking for three missing film makers. :)
Just got home from work, good to see a new ScareTheater upload. Just want to say, I've been watching this channel since the start, debunking obvious creepypastas 😂 Your growth is phenomenal and I hope that you continue improving!
So happy you covered “without warning” I was 9 when this aired and often think about it and remember the feeling I had before my grandmother told me it was just a movie. It was really good, especially since I didn’t recognize any of the actors and Sanders was a real reporter
The problem with the “Without Warning” broadcast is that people tune in and out at different times. When you’re broadcasting to tens of thousands of people, unless you keep the disclaimer on screen at all times, inevitably multiple people will “thread the needle” and miss those disclaimers. Someone may tune in the middle right after the disclaimer, for example, and be too much in a panic to notice the next, either because they’re contacting family or for any number of reasons. Also, if those disclaimers were purely text on screen, then people with vision impairments are left entirely out of the loop and have no reason to believe it’s fake.
Love this! This is exactly the type of content I sub to this channel for. Thank you for not following the herd and turning this into a “lost media” or “iceberg” channel.
I don't know if this caused nationwide panic per se, but I remember when the emergency alert system was messed with and aired that fake message about 'the bodies of the dead rising from their graves.' I was in elementary school and I vividly recall my friends chattering about it at recess one day. I guess the time for these has arguably passed, but it's interesting to look back on the OGs. Unrelated, been watching your videos for years and I just want to say that you've never strayed from making good content. Ty for years of entertainment :)
Without warning reminds me so much of Independence Day. Especially the attack on the incoming target, the celebration and then realizing that they didn’t succeed
The Without Warning movie's final scene where the journalist was staring at the radar in horror was brilliant. We'd be so fucked if an advanced civilization came to Earth. If they have the technology to close the distance between us and them and have bad intentions, we wouldn't stand a chance.
I LOVE Ghostwatch! I was 9 at the time and staying at my dads. Before my dad switched over to Ghostwatch, I remember watching a show called Beadles About, which was this hidden camera prank show, with the host Jeremy Beadle revealing it was all a prank towards the end of each sketch. At least one sketch that night was Halloween themed, with Jeremy revealing himself dressed as a vampire. My dad switched the TV over right after the initial "this is fake" message, or at least I didn't see that part. I was interested as I loved scary films and films like Ghostbusters(I still do). There was more to the show than mentioned here. There was a street report from Craig Charles(poet, comedian and star of the TV show Red Dwarf) where he would talk to neighbours in the area and get some really creepy stories. Throughout the show there were glimpses of the "ghost", not only in passing shots inside the house, but also one on the street during one of Craig Charles' neighbour interview sections. Even as the show was climaxing and I was sitting there shitting myself, covering my ears to the freaky voices, I wouldn't leave the TV. It scarred me that much that I didn't stay at my dads for about 5-6 years. I remember people talking about it in the years after, and even reading that it got a ban from being broadcast for 10 years, but it has still yet to be shown again. In 2010 I managed to get hold of a copy on DVD. I watched it around Halloween that year and it STILL scared the shit out of me. Maybe it's the memory of the initial scare from all those years ago, or some other deep seeded fear. Ghostwatch was actually the inspiration for films like The Blair Witch Project, which coincidentally also scares the shit out of me.
without warning is genuinely so good and so well done, i can see why some people thought it was real. in the current era of nothing really being that believable anymore i doubt it would have been taken as seriously. i would kill to have watched it live
Even though these broadcasts were all ficional, They still really give me the chills, especially the first one, And the one with the ghost is also pretty disturbing cause of the tragedy.
I remember when "Without Warning" aired ... I knew it was just a made-for-TV movie, but I was still shaking at the end of it, and couldn't sleep for the next two nights...
I remember watching ghost watch when it was on, I was 29 at the time and not once did I think it was real.I was really surprised with all the craziness surrounding it the next day. My Nan didn't watch it and she was disappointed that she had missed out, but luckily I had recorded it, so I took it around and we both had a great laugh watching it together!
I didn’t watch this at the time (wasn’t old enough). I’ve just noticed though, watching this clip that the phone number on the screen is the same that was used for live and kicking. 😂
OMG!!! I have been trying to remember what I was watching years ago when I was a kid. It was Without Warning! Thank you so much for posting about this!
I came across Without Warning on YT a few years ago. Learning that it caused a panic is fascinating, and sad. The panics described in the vid remind me of when several cities in the US became the setting of a prank in 2007 by an artist that placed displays of characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Most of these cities realized what the displays were, but Boston freaked out. The displays looked electronic, which made them appear, in some eyes, like Improvised Explosive Devices.
I remember watching one of these types of shows back in the early 1980's called "Special Bulletin", a fake 2 hour newscast covering the group of scientists who stole a nuclear bomb and were threatening to blow up Charleston, SC. It was very well done and was incredibly creepy and disturbing, as it all seems completely possible.
I was like nine years old when Without Warning aired. We were at a friend's house, our parents were all in a band together and would meet up in the basement to practice, and the kids were left to hang out upstairs. I gotta admit, as a kid they totally had me going... I even tried to get my mom's attention to warn her about what was happening, but the music downstairs was too loud... I was in a panic, but then I saw John de Lancie playing a reporter, and realized what was going on. I don't think the Canadian station that I saw broadcasting it had included much of the text and bumpers denoting it as fiction, so it seemed pretty real at the start.
I saw Ghostwatch live when I was 8. I was at a sleepover with friends and completely unsupervised from adults. My god, I thought we were seeing proof of the afterlife right before our eyes. We were terrified, but also there was a weird excitement, like we were part of a discovery of something! Thankfully my friend's parents came in before Michael Parkinson became possessed and confirmed it was fiction, haha! We got to enjoy the final parts without fear, but I'm glad I got to experience part of it believing every word.
I had heard about the first and last broadcasts talked about on the video but the middle one was completely new, thank you for talking about it as these cases are so interesting to me, I wish they could still be done nowadays.
GhostWatch is such a fascinating part of horror film history! It's really a great film with an even better story behind it. There are some great documentaries made about it that i reccomend to anyone who loves horror and found footage
Ghostwatch is so amazing, i got the anniversary boxset last year and it came with the documentary and the annotated script too, it hoods a special place in my heart
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@simplymaplelythe glazing is crazy 💀
@simplymaplelylike bro i like scaretheater but this is meat munching to the next level 😭 you do you tho keep that dog in your mouf if you wish lil bro
@@yuriscynicism lmao you typed more than him
So I have to “get Surf Shark or you’ll find me?”
Come here, big boy * purrr *
There was a similar program that aired in the early 1980s, but it was about nuclear war instead of aliens. We were living in Hawaii at the time. And at one point, my brother and I thought it would be funny to trick our mom into believing it as real. Since we were in HI and everything was supposed to be happening on the mainland, this wasn't hard to do. We about gave her a heart attack before we started feeling like awful people and finally broke down and told her it was fake. 😅
I've seen several compilation videos on this topic, but no one ever mentions this one. I wish I could remember what it was called or who was involved in it so I could look it up. I have no idea whether or not it caused any notable panic. I was only 11 or 12 so don't remember anything more than what I mentioned.
Regardless of whether anyone was fooled by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, the very idea of formatting it as a live news broadcast was pure genius.
My mother would always tell me about that radio broadcast, granted we are french speakers, but she knew of it. One day, since I'm also an English speaker, I listened to The Shadow, wich Welles played, it lead TH-cam to recommand me the infamous War of the World radio show, listened to the first half hour. Afterward I went to see my mom and said, "You were right mom, that man was pure genius, if I was living in that era, I would have gobble up that entire story".
Plus, being from Belgium, we have our story with those type of broadcast, thanks to a little one called "Bye Bye Belgium" that caused the biggest panic I have ever seen in my life. Man, the mood at school the day after that, that was something! (In short, they made a false news bulletin where Belgium was gone, Wallonia and Flanders were two separate countries, starting the very night of this broadcast, meaning that we, in Brussels, were now french speakers in Flemish territory, and would probably be kicked out of our homes and sent either to France or Wallonia if we weren't able to speak Flemish correctly)
True genius. Its been beyond influential
i love that broadcast, it’s amazing
...
Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today
Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven
There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today
Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell
Come to Jesus Christ today
Jesus Christ is only way to heaven
Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void
Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today
Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today
Romans 6.23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Mark 1.15
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus
Great marketing but it definitely worked it spooked the whole world.
You call it "analog horror before analog horror" I call it "Old school Trolling of the masses"
The actor’s look of absolute horror in Without Warning is fucking incredible. I would give him an Oscar for that one shot.
Right? Then we see the screen and...silence. THAT'S how you do horror, baby!
Yes.
Yes You're Right ✅️
What disturbed me the most was when they panned over to the radar screen and it showed dozens more anomalies quickly descending upon our planet. It's like that guy who filmed a tornado as it approached his neighborhood and tore everything apart, including his own home.
It was good until I saw the mom from Malcolm in the Middle. hahaha
the without warning one actually made my heart drop, props to the actor for putting on that performance
The reveal of the dozens of asteroids approaching earth was so good, gave me goosebumps even knowing it was fiction I bet some people really lost their marbles watching it live.
I honestly thought they were alien ships at first.
@@moonlightrobbery It leaves it vague and i think thats for the best
What's messed up is this is probably how an event like that would unfold when it does happen😟
@@moonlightrobberyI thought it was alien ships too. I wonder what would be more terrifying. I feel like multiple small asteroids heading to earth wouldn't be as scary as aliens. We can assume some of the asteroids might burn up to some degree in the atmosphere. But that many aliens with little warning would be terrifying.
it’s genuinely a super well crafted sequence. it’s a climax of suspense without any jumpscares, but rather, a realization - a realization that has just as much, if not, more impact. absolutely love it
I feel really bad for that guy that killed himself. I have a few learning disabilities too and even when I know if certain stressful media is fake or not I still get shooken up afterwards and often have trouble telling what’s real and what’s not. To know that he went through that pain for days without any of his family being able to tell what was wrong or help him before what happened is really tragic.
His parents hold responsibility for letting him watch it while he was becoming more and more agitated
Yeah. I was only 4 when this came out so I didn't get to watch it but I do blame the parents partly because they should have kept an eye on him or should have checked the paper because this was before the era of smart TV.
i also have trouble discerning media that i know is fake but seems real!! this heavily shows in gore, and even realistic rides at theme parks like the fast and furious ride at universal. i was literally covering my face like “all those people in the cars and helicopters r dying!!!” and i was 17😭😭😭
I honestly don’t think it was due to that one show, think the parents were laying it on thick looking for a lawsuit or possibly publicity… imagine if that kid saw an episode of Doctor Who on BBC, he’d REALLY have flipped out! Or Hell ANYTHING on tv for that matter!
@@quaygrass6212 I was trying to figure out why the parents didn't change the channel or explain what was happening. I would see horror movies with my kids, a lot were old clasics. If they were getting scared I'd comment out loud about the special effects or production values and it would take them straight out of the horror of the moment. Very effective.
"Without Warning" was something I have never heard of, and honestly, the twist actually shocked me. Thank you for talking about that broadcast.
Yeah, I’m 52 years old and don’t remember this without warning broadcast. What channel was it on? Fox?
Oh, I remember Without Warning!
@@rrsaga CBS (according to the video). 1994. I remember this & I'm 53.
@@rrsagait ran against very popular prime time line-ups at the time so it actually wasn't very popular.
@@rrsaga It was on CBS, on the anniversary of the WoW broadcast. Frankly, there were a number of problems with the show that made it totally non-realistic.
I watched "Without Warning" on TH-cam earlier this year while on the hunt for any horror-themed mockumentaries. Absolutely brilliant film that I heavily recommend, especially with how chilling its ending was. Unfortunate that the heads-up that it was all fictional was lost on a lot of people.
Most people are extremely stupid
That without warning ending is one of the coolest things I've ever seen, I need to see it as soon as possible
Amazon Prime and Apple+ both have it (in the US, anyway), but you'll have to rent it. I'd say if you're not strapped for cash, it's worth the 3-5 bucks to see it.
It's available on TH-cam for free
@@justsomeguy9968Correct. I've watched it youtube
I’m gonna go watch it after this video
It’s actually pretty good.
The fact that "Ghostwatch" and "Without Warning" caused national panics speaks to the gullibility of the public conditioned by generations of network TV and the inability of those networks to predict their degree of success.
But they said the first one was exaggerated by other news sources? And that it was not as much panic other than having people being confused or raised anxiety since they thought it was either a natural disaster or a war since they had been covering Germany directly before ww2 happened. You should have more faith in people. They weren't sissies like they are now. And most of the people you're talking about died in ww2 so that's pretty insulting.
@@breewasherelol "sissies" I forgot that word existed 😂
You can say they warned people all you want to but they had reputable, actual newscasters presenting the piece as an actual event and then added a tiny disclaimer hours before the show officially aired, which kinda destroys your entire narrative. If you wanted enough plausible deniability to say "hey this was/is clearly a prank" maybe don't use actual anchors in the same time slot as the news. They got the response they were aiming for all along, and they were clearly willing to color outside of the lines in order to get it.
@@pugachevskobra5636 I am of a mind that people are responsible for making sure their beliefs have evidence to back them up. TV shows should should never count as evidence. Movies and telly programs never contain disclaimers. Should we believe Spiderman is real because NYC is a real place? Doctor Who is real because England is a real place? Why not accept Jigsaw is kidnapping people IRL? This line of thinking is ridiculous.
Gullibility, a bit like the BBCs coverage of lockdown, covid and the war in Gaza? They should be proud of Ghostwatch as although fiction, it was still more accurate than anything they air as fact today?
One of the reasons Ghost Watch was so believable is Michael Parkinson being the face of it. He was always known for being a serious presenter and interviewer.
Imagine you sit down to watch a show about something supernatural and the most serious presenter in your country who's known for serious journalism is the main presenter. His inclusion lent it some real believability.
And in later years we had Strange But True? With Michael Aspel. There was also a live version of that show at one point.
Lmao imagine if Anderson Cooper was reporting on the events of Paranormal Activity
There is also the cultural significance of the BBC. It's always been held in high regard as a reliable source for real information for the British people. I think many felt sort of betrayed and lied to, even if that wasn't the intention.
It would sort of be like if Associated Press published a bunch of articles on a haunted location as if the reporter had seen it happen.
Imagine Shane Madej hosting that one and appears to be seriously horrified by the ghosts.
@@merckmaguddayao6814 i'd cry if that happened
I’ve actually never heard of Without Warning till now and that ending was one of the scariest moments of anything I’ve seen. It was really well done.
EDIT: I feel I should clarify, I wasn’t intending to correct ST at all, his coverage of the broadcast was amazing as always! I was just trying to add some context to the mention that reports of panic may have been exaggerated. Like SC stated, not many people listened to the broadcast and people that tuned in late were confused and worried about an attack from another country, but it was much less widespread or intense than the newspaper articles made it out to be
The War of the Worlds broadcast didn’t actually cause mass panic. Newspapers were scared that radio was going to push them out of business and made up most of the panic
You learn something new every day
Three seconds into the first segment, I had to come down and make sure it'd been said.
My dad remembers it and definitely said it scared a lot of people hearing the show on the radio. He said it was so realistic that people were looking outside trying to find the aliens
@@PressAtoJsame here
@@dOlli3cOutur3 how old is your dad? if he was old enough to remember it that clearly he must be nearly 100.
5:52 "Lord they're turning into flames!"
Followed by that scream; no wonder they panicked, how authentic and dedicated that scream was to capture the scene of the martian's attack was enough to make me say; "Jeez... "
I was 13 when Without Warning was on. I had a TV in my room and I must have been scrolling through the channels and found the show in the middle so I didn't see the notices that it was all fake. I remember that I must have tuned in when they showed that all the asteroids were being shown to hit earth. I remember being really scared and looking out my window. I do remember switching to other channels to see if they were covering it and being confused why they weren't. I'm 43 now so it was a long time ago. I think I only saw like five minutes of the show, but I saw it right at the scary part and I must have saw that it wasn't real pretty soon after that but I do remember being terrified and actually looking out my window.
I'm the same as you, I also remember when Without Warning was on TV. I was a sophomore in high school and our physical science teacher had the whole class watch it for a homework assignment. Because of this, we already knew it was fake. I wasn't that surprised they went with a fictional alien apocalypses, aliens/space/UFOs were a big thing in pop culture back in the mid-90s.
Also, I'm not sure I'm remembering this correctly, but I don't think all the CBS stations were airing it. Where we were wasn't that far from Detroit and some kids in class mentioned that our city's local affiliate (Toledo) aired it, but when they switched to Detroit's, it wasn't on.
I knew it was fictional, but it was so realistic that I was still extremely creeped out by it.
Ghost watch is perhaps the finest piece of lost media to come out of Britain. Highly recommend watching, it was absolutely masterful how they slipped in the ghost “Pipes” into the background of different camera shots. In one scene, they are interviewing the neighbours out on the street, and as they go one by one talking to each person, behind the group standing at the very back is a ghostly figure with a bloody scratched up face. Really incredible.
good news: it's not lost! the whole thing is available to watch.
One thing the British do well is to take something ordinary and assign it a supernatural and scary value; Doctor Who does this a lot. I.e. birdsong as an indicator that you are dreaming and about to wake up; the bees disappearing as an indicator that the world is about to end; and the noises of water hammer being an actual ghost. It gives you a moment of doubt the next time you see or hear that happening in real life.
The alien invasion one was quite insane considering when it was made
Wym with considering when? Humans now have the same creativity as all previous generations its just the tools that were different
@@Memeguppypre 911 world hits diferent
@@ShadowProductionsXD Meh pre 2012 hits different since that was the dimensional split
Do you mean War of the Worlds? I mean, considering it was based on an HG Wells novel from _1898..._
@sandrafaith I know that but it mostly applies to the Without a Warning one. It feels very unerving
I got a panicked call from a friend during Without Warning. You missed a big one: Special Bulletin from 1983 about a nuclear incident in Charleston. Some people in Charleston freaked out. I wonder why?
Without Warning is awesome. The ending is super well executed and haunts me to this day.
Yeah, pretty great.
Didn't ever hear of it, but it looks like something that I'd see being done today by analog horror channels like Local58.
So it wasn't real? Where did the asteroids actually impact?
@@stephenpmurphy591 This video is literally about the fact that it's not real
@@stephenpmurphy591 There were zero asteroids.
@@joeligma4721 Sarcasm.
I saw "Without Warning" when it was first broadcast in our area. Between commercial breaks, they would play a disclaimer that stated it was not a real news broadcast. Also note the presence of John De Lancie aka Q from Star Trek among the cast. I watched it anyway because it was quite gripping as a story.
If they knew their son had a disability and was getting agitated from watching the show then they should've turned it off.
It sucks but it really isn’t the BBC’s fault. He made the decision to ultimately do what he did and it isn’t fair to blame others for that type of thing.
exactly, people need to stop blaming entertainment for this. reminds me of when there was a wave of parents telling every newspaper they could find that beavis and butthead was somehow responsible for their kid having fatal accidents, just to try and get money out of mtv. like maybe you should have done your job as a parent. some of those it came out later the kids had literally never watched beavis and butthead, so it's a different scenario but my opinion is the same
I was looking for this comment holy shit.
@@buttershy_ Weird fact: The lady in that story didn't even have cable TV.
@@flamefusion8963 that's not really fair to say considering his mental disability. Still, RIP Martin
I was a kid when without warning was on TV. We caught it a few minutes after it started, it seemed to have extended time between commercials and I remember my dad and I going outside to see if we could see anything coming. Took us about 20 minutes before we figured out it was a movie. I was telling my husband about this 1 or 3 years ago and found the movie online and watched it with him funny now that it seemed so real back then!
I remember watching the Without Warning thing with my Mom. We LOVED it. For legal reasons, they had to make it as clear as possible that it WAS NOT REAL.
Yep, every single commerical break. even with that, it still freaked me out. An incredibly well done mock broadcast
What shocked me the most is the fact that Without Warning was made by the same director as She's All That and From Justin to Kelly.
If you like Orson’s War of the Worlds, I also recommend the radio play “Sorry, Wrong Number” from 1943. It’s a bit confusing SEO-wise as most searches will give you the film version, but I was actually stunned how well the radio version holds up.
A lot of those old time radio shows still hold up. That Sorry, Wrong Number one's a classic.
Seconded, that's a good one
My favorite version of War of the Worlds is the musical version by Jeff Wayne! I grew up listening to it, and I still listen to it regularly.
I love old radio programs why I like serious having them on. Nothing better than using your imagination.
“Sorry, Wrong Number” was first aired on the radio show Suspense sometime in the 1940’s. It would go on to be re-aired at least six or seven more times, always with Agnes Moorehead in the title role.
Wow, that scene of the news broadcaster staring at the screen in horror and the cameraman turning around to reveal hundreds or thousands of asteroids coming to Earth...what a great scene.
I remember when a documentary came on about Mermaids on Discovery i believe, it clearly said it was "faux" but the amount of people who believed that was amazing.
Mermaids: the hidden body or something like that. I though it was animal planet?
My sister believed it lol
Same with the one they did about dragons. Because of the lowest common denominator of humanity calling in to complain, the higher ups said no more fake documentaries. We were going to get a Bigfoot and a unicorn doc, but they got shut down.
@@WobblesandBean I remember watching that when I was a kid. I always thought the whole point of it was “what if dragons existed” type of thing.
@@EbonyNaughtMermaids The Body Found, it was Animal Planet
Ghost Watch still holds up. Not as a real event, but as a good found footage movie. Really, all of these hold up, in their own ways. It shows how fantastic the storytelling was.
even still....I----------feel literally bad for those people (and the guy who took his life and many others) who legit actually thought this was real and started literally panicking. I get they're into entertainment. but most normal house holds don't entirely want to hear this kind of stuff. and if by chance you were in the other room with "Without Warning" even if said many times they were fake, imagine being in the other room or listening to it another way to where you wouldn't actually know to where it starts panic. there's entertainment and then there's just horrible actions of the network who disregards all feelings of people for a quick buck. they really honestly shouldn't have done that and if they wanted to make it really fictional around that time Universal was starting since Universal was around since April 10th 1912
they had the money to produce an actual just film, they could've done things right and showed it like that or even like most movies would start with "And now for your feature presentation" they just had words on screen. and doing the research unfortunately, only 4.7 percent during that time was liberate so imagine seeing something on t.v that you couldn't even read since schooling back then was also different. And if we're talking 1994, that's 13% who couldn't properly read......and sadly that still goes true to this day where 21% of the US is sadly illiterate so we only got worse with time.
Timestamps:
Part 1 2:48 (War of the Worlds)
Part 2 11:16 (Without Warning)
Part 3 19:10 (Ghostwatch)
fanks
fanks
fanks
fanks
fanks
For anyone interested in more stuff like this, I highly recommend The Last Broadcast, Special Bulletin, and (my personal favorite) the Peoria Plague.
I remember Special Bulletin. Well done. I have a picture of my dad standing on the bow of the destroyer where the broadcaster was standing when the bomb exploded. Shook me a bit when I saw his picture.
I remember "Without Warning." I missed the beginning, so I thought it could be real. I did think it odd that Dan Rather wasn't hosting, but didn't devote much time to it.
When they broke for a commercial, I switched to another network. There was nothing. I instantly thought, "Oh, it must be an updated version of 'War of the Worlds.'" I switched back to CBS and when the show resumed, I saw the disclaimer.
It was still really good for the time.
The reporter in Without Warning who was looking at the computer at the end of it is an amazing actor holy shit. ive never seen someone look so actually terrified before. he looked like he was about to faint.
Ghost Watch was such an incredible piece of media. Still holds up to this day.
I always thought the shot of Pipes standing under the stairs was really creepy
Hearing that people ended their own life once they thought they saw proof of the afterlife just to be with their loved ones is one of the most tragic things I’ve ever heard.
Woah, didn't know about Without Warning, that was honestly awesome for its time. They should do a remastered version updated to the modern era sometime. I'd be down.
Right?? Maybe frame it around space debris instead of asteroids. If all the stuff we've thrown up there suddenly came down all at once, we'd be *_screwed._*
I've seen it, and I *highly* recommend it! I don't really think it needs a remake (not that I'd be against a well-done one), it's great just as-is.
It could never be done again well. Any attempt would be doomed by the simple fact it's already been done, you can't recreate the magic and shock on something people hadn't seen done before.
Social media and instant communication with anyone on the planet means something like this could never be made again. The last time a show as convincing as this could be made would be just after 9/11 which seemed to herald in the age of everyone and their uncle buying a mobile phone.
as a fan of spooky shit, the ending of without warning is one of the coolest things i’ve ever seen. that’s how you do horror!
Another cool movie in the genre is "The Day Britain Stopped", though it's a mockumentary instead of a live broadcast. It's fun to note that in the UK if you're showing a fake news broadcast, you can only show it inside a TV, never fullscreen, like a character watching it in his living room or on a store window.
That’s why doctor who always had those funny shots of the tv with the tv broadcasts.
I never knew we had that rule here. Interesting.
Although there was a short snippet of a fake Channel 4 news broadcast in a later episode of The IT Crowd, even presented by Jon Snow.
This one is so good, you can find it on youtube here too. I watched it for the first time when I was super messed up from covid vaccine side effects and my fever was so high I spent a good 2 hours thinking it really happened lol. Was going to comment that people should watch this one
@@jamiebowler4693 Exactly!
I live in the UK and I'm not sure if that's true
The War of the Worlds broadcast is something I know a lot about. It did not cause nationwide panic. The panic was essentially manufactured by the newspapers. At the time, the radio was overtaking the newspaper, so they utilised the few calls that were made to make a hitpiece on the radio. Welles recieved a lot of positive and sympathetic fanmail after the broadcast. Most people just looked at their radio schedules or simply looked outside.
Ironic, considering a strong point of Citizen Kane was to warn against newspapers🤔
@@J0SHUAKANEI heard Citizen Kane was a criticism of William Randolph Hearst, but now I’m going to wonder how much of it was Welles being salty. 🤔
We had a lesson in my english class about the war of the worlds broadcast in my middle school (around the year 2014) . The premise of the lesson was mostly about media literacy and not believing everything you see in the news or online at face value. Definitely one of the most important lessons that stuck with me the most during my time in public school. Great video.
Too bad your school didn't teach you that there WAS no mass panic. That's a myth. Your teacher fell for it and so did you--pretty ironic.
@@CDN_Bookmouse The American education system is full of shit like that. lol
@@CDN_BookmouseFair enough, but in my defense I was a 7th grader and didn’t have enough interest in the topic to look into it beyond the classroom lesson 😂 You are right though, it is very ironic.
@@CDN_Bookmouse That's not the point of the lesson. I'd compare it to fairy tales that teach kids morals. People heard a fictional broadcast and didn't think about it critically, just assumed it was real and panicked. Lesson: don't take everything at face value. The fact that it was a myth has nothing to do with the lesson taken away from it.
omfg... No, you absolute dingus. The real lesson was that the teacher trying to teach THAT lesson didn't actually practice what they were preaching. They consumed media saying "those morons in ye olden times totally fell for this, let's laugh at how media-illiterate they were!" and never thought critically about it, leading them to repeat a myth as fact. Falling victim to the practice they were trying to teach the students was bad. You complete and total goober. @@SamGarrett
Without Warning as a kid scared the crap out of me...well...until after the first commercial break was over and the disclaimer was shown on screen.
"Hey, the video I just released, centered around an authentic crime documentary, consumed a whole 14 hours of my time. Your feedback is precious, so please share any positive or negative comments. Stay well, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you."
I've never heard of Without Warning before until this video, it looks cool. That ending is one of the most bone chilling and scariest endings I've ever seen.
I think the messages from the little girl and French climber was one hundred forty member states, at the time, that was a speech from the golden record Voyager on the Voyager 2 space probe. Though not explained but I believe the ETs had probably found Voyager 2 and came to Earth. Though I do know an episode of the outer limits had something similar except though the message they got was said backwards from the newly elected US president and like in Without Warning the government did open fire on the aliens.
Without Warning is honestly an amazing piece of fiction regardless of the situation around it.
That twist at the end sends chills down my spine every time, and that last shot is still gut wrenching.
Ghostwatch really caught the last chance of doing that kind of "prank" on people - and it was masterful. My favourite horror movie probably also.
Watch Derren Browns live séance. It came out in 2004 in the UK
Have you seen the halloween episode of inside number 9? Same concept, but much more recent. Still was successful cause they played on social media in bits
@@nottheredhead i've seen still not quite as succesfull but i agree decent. That's how i've learned about Ghostwatch
My girlfriend at the time just a few years ago believed Ghostwatch was real until I told her otherwise
@@SamuelBlack84 that sounds plausable, especialy considering memeories can be bit twisted.
Without Warning was great. I was a young kid, and we all knew it was fake but still very intense. The payoff at the end when you see all the meteors on the screen sent a chill up my spine.
Without Warning just feels like an X-Files episode without Mulder and Scully.
Things like these actually changed the laws in the UK, meaning that whenever a fictional news broadcast is shown in a tv show or movie, it must be obvious that it isn't real based on the context. For example, you will almost never see a full screen of news broadcasts in tv shows or movies and if it is a close up, it will usually be the broadcast being played on a tv in the show/film.
Didn't The Day Britain stopped skirt that line with full screen Match of the Day and at least a few seconds of full screen not quite BBC News coverage about the air crash part though? I seem to remember they had the MOTD set or something very close to it, and it was full screen for a few moments as was the news studio for the crash in Hounslow though
About the first case: I think many people are prone to dismiss it as "Oh, they were idiots back then. How could they have believed that?"
But just imagine you can't just google basically everything that is going on in the world. And even if you could, you would probably panic for a few minutes if you heard that while listening to your radio.
Not much has changed considering TikTok. I think these days it is a bit more forgivable since trusted sources lie all the time too. Finding the truth is a lot of work these days.
I don't think I fully agree with that. 40 or more years ago you had basically NO way to confirm information. There were like 3 different newspapers to read in your home, but they may be as well lie to you. You had no way to confirm that. You could have travelled to places where things have happened and asked people there. But aside from it being way too expensive and time consuming, they also could have lied to you.
Today you have about 300 sources you can find online. Pretty much everyone knows that 5 of them lie to you and another 200 copy those liars. But you still know that there are sources you can still trust.
I am not that comfortable with Britain and/or American newspapers, so please excuse me if I use german news papers, but nonetheless let me explain.
No one is using "Die Bild" as a reliable source. It is basically "The Sun" for Germany. Basically trash. More reliably news papers are like "Der Spiegel". They at least don't pull their news out of their ass. But you still can be sure that they are using information for their own agenda.
On the opposite site we have "Die Zeit". A news paper you can always trust that they are objective and reporting things as they are.
Of course I can't talk about every country in this world or even europe, but I am sure that if you inform yourself about the sources in your country or even in another country, that you can build a pretty unbiased opinion.
Anyone who dismissed those people as idiots are likely millennials or zoomers
When I went to high school (1997-2001) I had a classmate who believed The Blair Witch Project was real. Falling for hoaxes didn’t end in the 1930s.
People fall for all kinds of ridiculous conspiracy theories now. Same difference.
"She calls it the Glory Hole, but I rather not call it that!"
That was so unexpected, it made me laugh for 5 minutes lmao.
"Now entering glory hole" - Bortus
The show Inside No. 9 pulled off a people thought it was real broadcast with a Halloween episode I think was called Dead Line. They incorporated other media such as Twitter for effect and plenty of people fell for the technical issues aspect and got salty over having missed a really good show.
I remember this airing, I was disappointed at first cos they were just going to show a old episode again. Then 9 minutes in a realised it was part of the show. It was fun and exciting realising it was 9 mins into the show and something was happening. Such a good show.
Without Warning is one of my all-time favorite movies along with the other amazing faux news movie, "Special Bulletin" in 1983. One problem I have is the aliens drop massive rocks as a way to say hi and WE are the bad guys for stopping the one headed for the arctic? If that thing had hit it would have melted massive amounts of water. Those aliens always wanted us dead and the way the movie tries to write humans as the bad guys is kinda weird.
I wasn't paying too close of attention, was it actually confirmed that the first was a meteor or was it just assumed to be and was actually a ship or something?
I watched Special Bulletin in 1983. Even though I’d watched it from the beginning, and even though I saw the disclaimers that “none of what you are seeing is actually happening”, that show scared me to death. I was 19 and that night, I went to bed clutching a stuffed animal.
I made the mistake of watching “Adam” (about the Adam Walsh abduction case) the next night. It wasn’t as scary as Special Bulletin, but I remember the day Adam’s parents went on Good Morning America and then when they learned he was dead (I was living in FL at the time.) That was scary in a different way.
You should have included the live séance that aired on UK TV by Derren Brown. It featured real students NOT actors and was broadcast live. The live broadcast was setup so members of the UK public could call in and talk about any weird happenings during the broadcast in their own homes. Loads of people called in, actually using Ouija boards at home and told the hosts what their boards had said. It attracted one of the highest number of complaints EVER registered by a UK TV programme in 2004. I won't reveal the twist but it's super worth a watch if you can find it online!
What was it called
@@sillerbarly4927 I think it was literally just called Seance: Live
That final part of without warning was realllly good. From the part where you can see the look of horror on Matt's face looking at the many other asteroids heading towards earth all the way to the ending where the news anchor just stares blankly into the camera while you hear the radio in the background before the screen cuts to static. Makes me wish it was a full length film where we could see more lol.
It's hard to pick 3 finer broadcasts to represent here. it's easy nowadays to see the campiness and cheese of the broadcasts but from hearing War of the Worlds and seeing Without Warning and Ghostwatch, it's easy to imagine late tuners watching the programs to be tricked into believing they're real. glad to see these gems brought to the surface today
I'd have swapped in Special Bulletin for Without Warning, myself
16:57
I felt a goddamned goosebumps all over me when he started spitting that Shakespear quote.
I remember reading war of the worlds in 6th grade then the teacher letting us listen to the full broadcast. I think about this radio show at least once a week, it's fascinating the skill put into it for the time
Sure you do
to be fair its Orson Welles, one of the all time greatest
Same, did you go too a elementary school that taught spanish?
At 18:12 ...I saw this show...It was a fantastic TV movie!...and yes! they would go on commercial break and say it was fiction...I remember that vividly...
this is the only channel on TH-cam that I've watched consistently for years its crazy
Same it’s great
for real ive been here at least 7 years
I remember watching the Without Warning episode with my first husband and his friends. They were freaking out and certain that it was real. I knew that it was not and told them so. We argued back and forth a while. I finally reasoned, "If this is real, it would be broadcast on all the stations. Change the channel and see if they're covering this." Flipping through all the major stations helped assure them that we were not being invaded.
It's worth noting that at the time of the War of the Worlds broadcast, many people did believe there was life on Mars as well as the Moon. These cultural beliefs would have definitely contributed to a mass panic, if indeed there was one.
i miss your videos digby
@@franz.francisco I haven't forgotten about you all
@@cumbrap do you ever plan on posting a video again?
@@franz.francisco most likely, but it won't be anything like my old videos
@@cumbrap alright, i'm excited to see them when the time comes anyway :)
One of the brilliant things about Welles's broadcast is that he knew that his show did not have as many listeners as the top-rated radio show. However, he also knew that this other show had a segment that was not very popular, and which started at the same point in the show, every time; and that listeners would often choose this moment to switch stations to see what was on other networks. So, Welles started with all of those fake weather reports and music programs not only to create the illusion that a regular broadcast was being interrupted; they were also there to fill time until the segment in their rival broadcast started, and people started switching channels. Also, it's pronounced van-O-ker
15:56
I love how you can tell that that's fictional because that Female News Anchor is played by Jane Kaczmarek who also played Lois in Melcom in the Middle 😂👌
Malcolm was like 5 years away from premiering. BUT, if you grew up watching "The Heavenly Kid"" or "Vice Versa", then you would.
“Back in our day we weren’t so sensitive about things”
*literal panic and pandemonium from a radio drama that if people actually paid attention and looked at what was going on around them they’d realize was just a story and not real*
Except you’ve never been under the shadow of a potential military invasion, and lived in a time where radio was one of the only legitimate sources of information to be spread across the country. Hearing without context or disclaimer would have you shitting your pants way more than people from the late 30s lol.
@@Bowseefuss101 "you've never been under the shadow of potential military invasion" that's a bold claim, you don't even know where they live
Say it again! We've always been sensitive. Always had a reason to. Each generation just picks and chooses what they like and don't like.
The basics should always remain the same, don't hurt people. Be kind. Live in peace with each others differences.
BUT, humanity will always be a bunch of cry babies, no matter what ❤
I feel like there's people out there who'll believe anything no matter how many disclaimers you plaster on there. I mean even no sleep gets the occasional "is this real?" comment
Just like The Onion frequently gets mistaken for actual news
Many don't realise just how primitive the human race really is
Despite our technology and scientific understanding, we still have one foot in the caves. That ancient , animal part of us that still fears the dark
@@SamuelBlack84and yet we continue to put our selves in the dark for the pure evil truth of fear
people really don't read shit thats why
I remember Without Warning so well! I was walking through the living room thinking my mom was watching another melodrama (apparently starring Loni Anderson), when the news of the initial impacts came in. I mentioned to my mom that the US impact site was near Area 51 (I was wrong - by a few states! Ha!). But it caught my attention and we watched the rest of the broadcast. However, I also remember every commercial break started or ended (or both) with a visual and verbal notice that this was fiction. No one in my neighborhood or midwestern city was phased or panicked by the fun TV movie. Five years later I remember getting duped by a flyer at a movie theater looking for three missing film makers. :)
Just got home from work, good to see a new ScareTheater upload. Just want to say, I've been watching this channel since the start, debunking obvious creepypastas 😂
Your growth is phenomenal and I hope that you continue improving!
Thanks
So happy you covered “without warning” I was 9 when this aired and often think about it and remember the feeling I had before my grandmother told me it was just a movie. It was really good, especially since I didn’t recognize any of the actors and Sanders was a real reporter
Just a few years after that first
broadcast Orson Welles made Citizen Kane, completely changing the face of Cinema.
A movie about corrupt journalism, funnily enough.
The problem with the “Without Warning” broadcast is that people tune in and out at different times. When you’re broadcasting to tens of thousands of people, unless you keep the disclaimer on screen at all times, inevitably multiple people will “thread the needle” and miss those disclaimers. Someone may tune in the middle right after the disclaimer, for example, and be too much in a panic to notice the next, either because they’re contacting family or for any number of reasons. Also, if those disclaimers were purely text on screen, then people with vision impairments are left entirely out of the loop and have no reason to believe it’s fake.
I remember watching your videos when I was 10 and now I’m 21. Keep it up Scare theater!
I live about 5 miles from where HG Wells set his alien invasion and my home town has large statues marking this marvelous piece of literature.
Another scare theater classic
These are so cool when you consider that they're basically like the analog horror genre of today except made by real broadcasting companies.
Love this! This is exactly the type of content I sub to this channel for. Thank you for not following the herd and turning this into a “lost media” or “iceberg” channel.
I don't know if this caused nationwide panic per se, but I remember when the emergency alert system was messed with and aired that fake message about 'the bodies of the dead rising from their graves.' I was in elementary school and I vividly recall my friends chattering about it at recess one day. I guess the time for these has arguably passed, but it's interesting to look back on the OGs.
Unrelated, been watching your videos for years and I just want to say that you've never strayed from making good content. Ty for years of entertainment :)
Without warning reminds me so much of Independence Day. Especially the attack on the incoming target, the celebration and then realizing that they didn’t succeed
I'm really loving the more uploads, and ive been really enjoying the type of content covered, keep it up scaretheater! :)
Seconded
The Without Warning movie's final scene where the journalist was staring at the radar in horror was brilliant. We'd be so fucked if an advanced civilization came to Earth. If they have the technology to close the distance between us and them and have bad intentions, we wouldn't stand a chance.
I hope to see more horror-based videos (as opposed to true crime) from this channel!
I LOVE Ghostwatch!
I was 9 at the time and staying at my dads.
Before my dad switched over to Ghostwatch, I remember watching a show called Beadles About, which was this hidden camera prank show, with the host Jeremy Beadle revealing it was all a prank towards the end of each sketch.
At least one sketch that night was Halloween themed, with Jeremy revealing himself dressed as a vampire.
My dad switched the TV over right after the initial "this is fake" message, or at least I didn't see that part.
I was interested as I loved scary films and films like Ghostbusters(I still do).
There was more to the show than mentioned here.
There was a street report from Craig Charles(poet, comedian and star of the TV show Red Dwarf) where he would talk to neighbours in the area and get some really creepy stories.
Throughout the show there were glimpses of the "ghost", not only in passing shots inside the house, but also one on the street during one of Craig Charles' neighbour interview sections.
Even as the show was climaxing and I was sitting there shitting myself, covering my ears to the freaky voices, I wouldn't leave the TV.
It scarred me that much that I didn't stay at my dads for about 5-6 years.
I remember people talking about it in the years after, and even reading that it got a ban from being broadcast for 10 years, but it has still yet to be shown again.
In 2010 I managed to get hold of a copy on DVD.
I watched it around Halloween that year and it STILL scared the shit out of me.
Maybe it's the memory of the initial scare from all those years ago, or some other deep seeded fear.
Ghostwatch was actually the inspiration for films like The Blair Witch Project, which coincidentally also scares the shit out of me.
“Or I will find you.” Lmao! You had me cracking up in an ad I usually resent.
Have a great week. 🙏🏻
😁
I love how all of these are just performances and not a single one of them is real
12:43 I can already tell it's fictional. There's no such thing as a journalist showing that much compassion
without warning is genuinely so good and so well done, i can see why some people thought it was real. in the current era of nothing really being that believable anymore i doubt it would have been taken as seriously. i would kill to have watched it live
Even though these broadcasts were all ficional, They still really give me the chills, especially the first one, And the one with the ghost is also pretty disturbing cause of the tragedy.
I remember when "Without Warning" aired ... I knew it was just a made-for-TV movie, but I was still shaking at the end of it, and couldn't sleep for the next two nights...
I loved all of these, but Ghost Watch HAD to be my absolute favourite of them all.
I’m surprised I’ve never heard of Without Warning before, I love this genre of filmmaking
Those screams! Didn't know how intense that broadcast was. Thanks for covering it.
I remember watching ghost watch when it was on, I was 29 at the time and not once did I think it was real.I was really surprised with all the craziness surrounding it the next day. My Nan didn't watch it and she was disappointed that she had missed out, but luckily I had recorded it, so I took it around and we both had a great laugh watching it together!
I didn’t watch this at the time (wasn’t old enough). I’ve just noticed though, watching this clip that the phone number on the screen is the same that was used for live and kicking. 😂
2:47 to skip the surfshark sponsored bit
OMG!!! I have been trying to remember what I was watching years ago when I was a kid. It was Without Warning! Thank you so much for posting about this!
I came across Without Warning on YT a few years ago.
Learning that it caused a panic is fascinating, and sad.
The panics described in the vid remind me of when several cities in the US became the setting of a prank in 2007 by an artist that placed displays of characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Most of these cities realized what the displays were, but Boston freaked out.
The displays looked electronic, which made them appear, in some eyes, like Improvised Explosive Devices.
I remember watching one of these types of shows back in the early 1980's called "Special Bulletin", a fake 2 hour newscast covering the group of scientists who stole a nuclear bomb and were threatening to blow up Charleston, SC. It was very well done and was incredibly creepy and disturbing, as it all seems completely possible.
Without Warning made me have goosebumps, that was really good.
I was like nine years old when Without Warning aired. We were at a friend's house, our parents were all in a band together and would meet up in the basement to practice, and the kids were left to hang out upstairs. I gotta admit, as a kid they totally had me going... I even tried to get my mom's attention to warn her about what was happening, but the music downstairs was too loud... I was in a panic, but then I saw John de Lancie playing a reporter, and realized what was going on. I don't think the Canadian station that I saw broadcasting it had included much of the text and bumpers denoting it as fiction, so it seemed pretty real at the start.
I saw Ghostwatch live when I was 8. I was at a sleepover with friends and completely unsupervised from adults. My god, I thought we were seeing proof of the afterlife right before our eyes. We were terrified, but also there was a weird excitement, like we were part of a discovery of something! Thankfully my friend's parents came in before Michael Parkinson became possessed and confirmed it was fiction, haha! We got to enjoy the final parts without fear, but I'm glad I got to experience part of it believing every word.
I had heard about the first and last broadcasts talked about on the video but the middle one was completely new, thank you for talking about it as these cases are so interesting to me, I wish they could still be done nowadays.
GhostWatch is such a fascinating part of horror film history! It's really a great film with an even better story behind it. There are some great documentaries made about it that i reccomend to anyone who loves horror and found footage
Ghostwatch is so amazing, i got the anniversary boxset last year and it came with the documentary and the annotated script too, it hoods a special place in my heart