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Phony Newscast
- 147 statements
- 27 feature instances
- 19 referencing feature instances
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The Phony Newscast has two particular uses. One is when a fictional program wants to appear to be an actual News Broadcast. The other is when a commercial for something is pretending to run a newscast related to the product. Orson Welles did this on the radio (see below), but this trope is mostly used for television dramas. Often a controversial format if the story being told is one that might be expected to (or, in the case of Welles' production, does) inspire panic, such as end-of-the-world or warfare scenarios. If real reporters and anchors are recruited for the sake of a familiar face, it's a Newscaster Cameo. See also Mockumentary, a similar format in which a story is presented in fictional documentary form. |
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Dropped link to AdvertisingDisguisedAsNews: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Phony Newscast / int_222a8847 | type |
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The movie RoboCop (1987) has a series of newscasts where horrible events are described during the news in an upbeat fashion, such as when a police officer is brutally gunned down. The reporter cheers on the cop, saying how he's rooting for the officer to live. Its sequels, several episodes of the TV series, and and reboot also opened with a similar faux newscast. | |
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RoboCop (1987) | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_2261210f | type |
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The Day Today, a BBC parody of the tropes and structure of TV news in general, and Brass Eye, made by some of the same creators, which moved into more direct political humour and became notorious for its pranking of real public figures and celebrities. | |
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The Day Today | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_231df7d2 | type |
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Initial episodes of the original V (1983) TV series opened with a faux newscast on resistance activities. | |
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V (1983) | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_2abd5315 | type |
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The "Weird Newscasters" game from Whose Line Is It Anyway?. | |
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Whose Line Is It Anyway? | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_2e2f2a4b | type |
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Countdown to Looking Glass, a dramatization of the events leading up to a nuclear war, presented as breaking news broadcasts. | |
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Countdown to Looking Glass | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_370e34a1 | type |
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A local example: the comedy-sketch show Almost Live! used to be produced by and air on the NBC affiliate in Seattle, Washington. One week (on April Fools Day) they "interrupted" the show with a serious-seeming "newscast" which announced that the landmark Space Needle had fallen over in a windstorm. Enough people believed the report that the station later issued a formal apology. | |
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Almost Live! | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_3d2de25 | type |
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Animalympics, which was originally meant to air as a TV special, plays as Olympic coverage from channel ZOO, "the station that brings you the beast in sports." | |
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The Made-for-TV Movie Without Warning (1994) presented an Alien Invasion in newscast form, even making the titles part of a home-invasion drama which is interrupted by the news. The introduction to the film openly acknowledges Welles' War of the Worlds radio play as its inspiration. The inclusion of real-life news figures like Sander Vanocur and Bree Walker add to the verisimilitude. | |
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Phony Newscast / int_44cbf0b3 | type |
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One of the extras in the campaign mode of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the Dominion's own news network, whose hilariously incompetent attempts to be a propaganda machine for Emperor Mengsk provide comic relief between missions. | |
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StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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The Peoria Plague, produced by Peoria, Illinois radio station WUHN in 1972, involves the station's easy listening music format being interrupted by a breaking news story about a Big Blackout that soon turns into a combination of The Virus, Zombie Apocalypse and Alien Invasion. | |
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Phony Newscast / int_4d8e5ec | type |
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The Daily Show mimics regular news shows, to the point where many fans treat it as one. | |
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The Daily Show | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_544b938e | type |
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This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a comedy series poking fun at Canadian issues, presented in the format of a news broadcast. | |
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This Hour Has 22 Minutes | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_585e42e5 | type |
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Elf features NY 1 broadcasts after Santa's sleigh crash lands in Central Park. | |
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Elf | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_5db577ba | type |
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The Dark Knight has newscasts during the film reporting on the Joker and the Batman; in the DVD extras you're treated to 4 fake in-depth newscasts about Gotham. | |
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The Dark Knight | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_6b338f0 | type |
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The 2004 Thunderbirds somehow manages to shoehorn a reporter into every scene in which the Thunderbirds appear in the outside world. No idea how anyone could consider this remotely plausible, since she'd have to have advance warning. Maybe the Hood tipped her off? | |
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Starship Troopers: "Would you like to know more?" | |
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Phony Newscast / int_77a8e804 | type |
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Colossatron: Massive World Threat is a game that is presented as a news broadcast on theaforementioned Colossatron, complete with on-the-scene reporters and jagged static lines. | |
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Colossatron: Massive World Threat (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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The Two Ronnies started and ended their programme with one. | |
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The Two Ronnies | hasFeature |
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The DVD release of Independence Day includes the faux newscasts depicting how TV news reported on the arrival of the alien craft. One of the Making-Of featurettes used to promote the film also opened like this. | |
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Independence Day | hasFeature |
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Saturday Night Live features a faux newscast segment called "Weekend Update'' poking fun at real news stories note That segment was titled "SNL NewsBreak" in the 7th season (featuring Brian Doyle-Murray, Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole), and was known as "Saturday Night News" from 8th to 10th season, first with Brad Hall as anchor and later with many guests in the chair, going back to the original name when Lorne Michaels returned to the show in 1985. | |
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Saturday Night Live | hasFeature |
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The DVD for Dawn of the Dead (2004) includes fake newscasts. We see the Zombie Apocalypse spread, and the anchor becomes more and more disheartened. (Some footage from this featurette is incorporated into the film itself.) | |
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Dawn of the Dead (2004) | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_ca5d97f1 | type |
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Phony Newscast / int_ca5d97f1 | comment |
Monty Python's Flying Circus frequently satirized TV newscasts (as well as BBC Radio newscasts). The surprising appearance of Richard Baker, an authoritative figure at BBC News since 1954, as the newsreader in one of these sketches was Monty Python's Richard-Nixon-saying-"Sock-it-to-me?" moment. | |
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The second half of the prologue in TRON: Legacy is mostly various newscasts on the disappearance of Kevin Flynn and the subsequent aftermath regarding ENCOM, ending at the home of his parents, who try to cheer up their now-orphaned grandson Sam, who refuses to believe his father is missing. | |
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TRON: Legacy | hasFeature |
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Phony Newscast / int_d372b6b3 | type |
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Some More News is a youtube-based version of this trope, presenting itself as an investigative news programme presented by The News Dude, a high-strung madman incapable of subtlety. | |
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Some More News (Web Video) | hasFeature |
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"The War of the Worlds", the Ur-Example and Trope Maker, was an October 30, 1938 broadcast of Orson Welles' CBS radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air that featured a dramatization of H.G. Wells' novel updated for 20th-century America. The program depicted a generic big band music performance getting interrupted by a series of news bulletins covering what turned out to be the vanguard of an Alien Invasion of Earth by Martians. Adding to the realism was that there was no commercial break until after the first act which consisted of the newscast; the second half was a standard play. Only those tuning in right at the start, or who listened through the commercial break, heard disclaimers that it was only a play. The program was said to have created widespread panic among thousands of listeners who believed an actual invasion was occurring – mostly listeners who were unable to reason that the sequence of events, as dramatized, was happening a little too fast (20 minutes from "explosions on Mars" to the "end of the world") or read the radio listings in their local newspaper promoting "War of the Worlds" as that night's dramatization. Or who simply didn't keep listening to the rest of the play, and Welles' final remarks at the end reminding listeners it was just a story (reportedly made under duress as the network was well aware of what was happening during the broadcast). In any case, "War of the Worlds" cemented Orson Welles' fame as a radio/movie/TV broadcaster, writer and producer. Although people are still arguing about this, it seems the tales of mass panic caused by the Welles broadcast did not happen. Welles' first Hollywood movie Citizen Kane also begins with a faux newscast, though in that case a faux newsreel. |
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The War of the Worlds (1938) (Radio) | hasFeature |
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The BBC's infamous 1992 special Ghostwatch was presented as a live documentary following BBC personalities (playing themselves) investigating a poltergeist that eventually commandeers the BBC studio and the transmission feed. Although the special was shot months in advance and the paranormal happenings were fictional, many frightened viewers assumed the events depicted were true; an investigation by Britain's media regulator found that the special contributed to the suicide of a panicked teenaged viewer. Ghostwatch was subsequently banned from being transmitted again. | |
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Phony Newscast / int_f8eaad5b | comment |
Welles' first Hollywood movie Citizen Kane also begins with a faux newscast, though in that case a faux newsreel. | |
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Citizen Kane | hasFeature |
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