3 times that TV bloopers were just too good to cut
We all know how it goes – movies and television shows are never recorded in one smooth take – there are table reads, rehearsals, blocking, more rehearsals, and then everything is taped (usually out of order) and then edited together to become a coherent, seamless story. Nobody’s perfect, however, and sometimes an actor just can’t get a line right – whether because of a hilarious co-star, a forgotten word, or some pharmaceutical influences. More often than not, these flubs are left on the cutting room floor, or only ever seen in special blooper reels. Occasionally, however, they’re accidentally – or purposely – left in.
1. Seinfeld
The episode: The Parking Lot
This classic episode sees Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer lost in a car park, searching for where they left their car. It’s absurd, and hysterical, and sublime. But, according to the cast, was an exhausting episode to film. By the end of filming, the director insisted that they were on their final take, and that whatever they ended up with, would go into the final cut. When Kramer shoves his air conditioned into the boot of the car, he smacks himself in the face and starts to bleed a little – causing Julia Louis Dreyfus (Elaine) to start laughing. Michael Richards (Kramer) stays in character, and chastises Elaine for laughing at his injury. The script then dictated that the group would get into the car and drive away. However, when Michael Richards turned the ignition, the car would not start. If you look carefully, you can see the cast laughing hysterically inside the car at the sheer absurdity of the moment.
Pure. Television. Gold.
2. Sherlock
The episode: The Sign of Three
Modern crime fiction lovers will no doubt be familiar with the contemporary update on the Sherlock Holmes stories, which are the perfect blend of creepy, engrossing, and mysterious. They also find time for a little humour, too, as in The Sign of Three, in which Sherlock and John get drunk before John’s wedding. A case lands in their laps, however, right when they have been indulging in pre-wedding day drinks, and a drunken Sherlock has trouble being his usually eloquent self. He loses track of his words, and fumbles for the right one, “my… you know… thing.” Apparently, that particular moment wasn’t scripted, but was star Benedict Cumberbatch genuinely forgetting his line. It worked so well, however, that it was left in.
3. The Brady Bunch
The episode: Law and Disorder
Actor Barry Williams, also known as Greg Brady, revealed that he accidentally taped a scene of The Brady Bunch while high on marijuana. In his 1992 memoir, Growing Up Brady, Williams revealed that on a day off from filming, he got high with some friends. Unfortunately, the show’s producers called him to tell him he was needed on set after all. The scene he had to film was mercifully light on for Williams. But you can still see him managing to trip somewhat on a bicycle pump he has just dropped, wave awkwardly, and grin sleepily through the entire scene.
When have you noticed a TV gaffe that made the final cut?