Unintentional College Prank

This incredibly effective fake newscast tele-movie came out when I was a freshman in college. Several of us gathered in one of our dorm rooms to watch. Late to the party was Debbie, one of the more neurotic people living on or floor. A good person, a bit of a hippie, and she was also somewhat gullible.

She did not know what we were watching but joined us anyway. After a few minutes, she asked "Oh my god, is this real?" Well, we were in college so of course someone joked that it was, just to see how long it would go before she realized it was fake.

After about 15 minutes, long after we innocently forgot about what might have been going on in her mind, she left the room. We were all too transfixed on the movie to really notice.

About 10 minutes later, her roommate came into our viewing party yelling at us. The hippie had been crying in her room since she left, thinking the world was coming to an end. The film had been so realistic that even the commercial breaks and warnings that it was not real had no effect on her. It took her roommate finding a TV Guide to prove it wasn't real.

I worked at a video store in the late 80's and we had this on DVD. I popped it into the store's big-screen player one night and went on about my job. I came out of the back office several minutes later and the entire store had gathered around the set to watch the breaking news, despite Ed Flanders having starred on St. Elsewhere for several seasons by then!

A very realistic and well-done film. One of the best TV movies ever made.