The Darkest Moments in TV History

For the Twilight Zone segment. The combination of a night scene, child actors, live explosions, and a helicopter overhead. In my eyes, that's just asking for something bad to happen.

oh my god watching those people shove Tetsushi’s face back into the mud again and again with a broken neck was absolutely infuriating.

Oh my gosh, I am so RELIEVED that Tetsushi lived. I thought for certain he was going to drown. I can't believe none of them realized something was wrong. Even if he hadn't been paralyzed, he seemed to be at the very least unconcious. I was gritting my teeth watching them bob his head up and down in the mud. Painful to watch. Happy he's doing okay.

Just a small correction to the Renard Spivey story. Although a lot of news outlets didn't report it because it made for a more clickbaity article, the wife he killed was not the one he was "happily married to for 27 years". The wife he killed, Patricia Spivey, he had only been married to since 2015 (which was towards the end of the run of the show). He had three wives, I believe the one he was married to for 27 years at the time was his second wife and he divorced her at some point after that episode which aired no later than 2008.

I couldn’t imagine the kind of guilt that family member felt knowing they left and he fell

The video of Donald Herbert broke my heart. I can't imagine waking up and being told I was out for ten years. I hope he's in a better place now.

Collinson: "Can you get a shot of his gun?" Dryden: "You can get one mate"

It should not have been up to the family to stay up ALL NIGHT with the firefighter. Hospitals and nursing homes have "babysitters" for that EXACT reason. I know because I was one. When I worked as a CNA/GNA at my hospital, one of the many things I did daily was to sit with patients who were deemed "wanderers" or who were fall risks or at risk of becoming violent.

I find it so upsetting that Morrow and the children got no justice following their deaths. It was a dangerous idea from the start and the director should be held accountable.

The producer of the Twilight Zone not only had dangerous props, not only had child actors in a dangerous situation, which was illegal, not only indirectly caused the death of 3 individuals, but managed to escape legal punishment and got away with the cash from the film... This guy must have hired Saul Goodman.

For a little more context regarding The Twilight Zone movie, I listened to a podcast that went over that whole tragedy. Apparently, the helicopter pilot was a Vietnam veteran, and had warned Landis that there were too many explosions, and that they were too close to the helicopter, which will cause it to malfunction and crash. Landis then proceeds to tell the crew to add MORE pyrotechnics for an even bigger explosion, without informing the pilot. He is an absolute scumbag, and I am amazed that he never seen a day in jail for that atrocity.

22:50 after he says "can you get a shot of this gun" and the camera pans over.. its like you can see what Dryden is thinking in his eyes. He looks around, takes in the situation, probably realizes hes already on camera with a bunch of witnesses, and then you can literally SEE his face change as he makes the decision to take aim and fire. That is an absolutely haunting few seconds.

The thought of slowly drowning in mud without the ability to move or escape while people are slamming you deeper in is terrifying|

I'm glad for Tetsushi, he's made quite a stunning recovery, and him having the mental strength to come back to the show, shows what kind of a spirit the guy has. It sucks that this happened but I was happy to learn it at least had a good ending.

What gets me about the Twilight Zone incident is that Morrow actually had a feeling he was going to die before they filmed that part. If he had just listened to that part of him that felt that way and not agreed to the scene, I imagine that this could have been avoided. Always trust your gut feelings, people.

The case with Donald Herbert upsets me because that was clearly a case of negligence by the place keeping him. If someone is putting their life at risk with violent thrashing, relying on someone observing them is begging for something terrible to happen. I don't know enough about the cause to suggest medication that could have been used, but simple restraints would have sufficed.

The Twilight Zone incident hits even harder when you see the clip of crew going to try and rescue the trio. One man bends under the downed chopper to see if they're still conscious, then visibly reels back in what looks like terror, before wading back away from the crash. Truly heartbreaking

Why aren’t we talking about Donald’s story more? When I heard “10 years” my guts tightened up so hard. I’m 25 and imagining losing 10 years of my life and waking up at 35 is unfathomable. All of his life plans and goals over those 10 years, just gone in the blink of an eye; think about all of the families members who passed away while he was gone and he didn’t get to say goodbye to. It’s beyond heartbreaking. And then you have to think about the family member who left him alone that single night. The amount of guilt they must’ve felt is unimaginable. That whole story is so tragic and gut wrenching.

13:15 I can't imagine how guilty that person must have felt for falling asleep. Logically it was a blessing that he even woke up in the first place and there was no guarantee his health wouldn't deteriorate again, but how awful it must have been to loose him in such an abrupt way after just getting him back...

The Tetsushi event bears a lot of similarities to what happened to the prop comedian Tommy Cooper. Cooper was known for his unscripted antics, so when he had a heart attack while performing live, the audience thought he was joking around and continued laughing at him as he lay dying. When I was covering America's Got Talent for a now defunct website, I often criticized danger acts who mocked safety "for comedy". This is why. The only thing worse than someone dying on camera is someone doing that without anyone realizing it.