hilarious Y2K movie disclaimer

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"This is only a movie like Twister, Armageddon, or Jurassic Park. This is not a news broadcast or a documentary. This is not a prediction of things to come. We hope you enjoy the show."

This from an Eastern Iowa station.

-- funny (hilarious@disclaimer.com), November 21, 1999

Answers

Philly went further, too far in my opinion. Without quoting it all exactly, they said that the movie was not depicting things that "could" happen. That goes over the line for me.

-- tree (thetrees@bigfoot.com), November 21, 1999.

There's a fine line between saying "this doesn't depict what could happen" and "this depicts what can't happen". I expect that line to be crossed with impunity.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), November 21, 1999.

Howdy--

Funny, are you serious?! They compared the movie to Jurassic Park?

Oh, my...God!

Still watching, commercial break over....go Ken Olin!

-- William in Dallas (bcheek@onramp.net), November 21, 1999.


Dallas here. No disclaimers whatsoever. Obviously they aren't worried about people here freaking. Or even watching the movie.

Although our local news just said that after the movie they would be airing a segment called Almost Out of Time. Creepy.

I would find the disclaimers a little weird.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 21, 1999.


The disclaimer should have said

This is not just a bad made for T.V. disaster flick, this is a VERY bad made for T.V. disaster flick.

-- (warning@shot.com), November 21, 1999.



Yes that is a verbatim quote from eastern iowa NBC affiliate KWWL. We Iowans got real scared by them big tornados and gigantic din-saurs, you see. Tee Hee.

-- (hilarious@disclaimer.com), November 21, 1999.

Yes, a verbatim quote from eastern Iowa NBC affilate KWWL. We Iowans are real scared a them gigantic thunder lizards!!!! Tee Hee

-- (hilarious@disclaimer.com), November 21, 1999.

FWIW :

my sister in Las Vegas just said that in an ad aired on the tube preceding the movie, Nevada Power ran an announcement stating that "since Nevada Power will not be ready by 1 Jan, all residents of LV should have candles and flashlights".

she confirmed with her daughter that she heard it right...

others care to comment?

-- Perry Arnett (pjarnett@pdqnet.net), November 21, 1999.


No disclaimer here that I saw, however Mayor Daly in the great city of Chicago is trying to downplay the Panic that might ensue from the movie by flooding the media with people we, to this date have never heard of who have been working on this problem for four(allegedly) years. They are very Pollyanna. The Mayor will be doing the 'Milly' on New years. I hope he can dance a marathon.

-- Sheila P (Sheilamars@aol.com), November 21, 1999.

Here in Philly twice during the movie, they captioned the screen, reduced it to 1/3 the size then posted a "help line" phone number to the left of it, and ran the disclaimer at the bottom again, and advised to call the help-line if viewers had questions about the state of banking, utilities etc. Also PECO energy ran a cheesy commercial complementing the movie, which I didn't pay much attention to, but it was to reinforce that they were completely Y2K ready.

I think the only panic over this movie was the PR machine's. JQP probably switched channels 1/2 hour into it, but then maybe JQP likes cheesy dumb movies. I'm not a good judge since I don't watch tv. I myself feel dumb to have wasted 2 hours watching it.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), November 21, 1999.



Perry: I live near Vegas, and the movie doesn't start for another 15 minutes. Have not been watching NBC, but that seems odd. The chamber of commerce would not let anything like that come to light due to the big $$ the casinos have put up to promote new years.

Will let you know.

-- nearvegas (bill@tinfoil.com), November 21, 1999.


Oklahoma City had a couple of disclaimers run as lines at the bottom of the screen (like a weather alert).

I thought the movie should have been titled, "McGyver Saves America."

The last punch line -- the blacked out TV news studio in LA, and the radio voice, "I think we have a problem in LA" -- was pretty clever.

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), November 21, 1999.


I am glad the there was a warning saying that it was fiction, BECUSE THE REAL THING IS GOING KICK THE SHIT OUT OF THE SYSTEMS . AND NO SUPER MAN AND HIS WONDER TWINS TO SAVE THE DAY!!!!!!!

MAN I FEEL SICK ... MONGO

-- mongo (mongo2@prodigy.net), November 21, 1999.


The above post about Vegas was pure crap. 1. The post appeared at least 15-20 before the movie even showed. 2. After the movie the local press release readers said that Nevada Power is a-ok, hunky dory, etc..... They did say that if there were any problems on the strip on New Years Eve that 500 National Guard troops will be standing by, and that they have been training for this for 6 months. Maybe they have been attending alanon meetings on how to handle hundreds of thousands of drunks?

Ignore the above Vegas post. B.S......

-- nearvegas (bill@tinfoil.com), November 22, 1999.


Milwaukee station's disclaimer (paraphrasing): The movie you are watching is not based on fact. It is for entertainment purposes only. WTMJ does not imply that any of the events could take place. Etc. I taped it, so if anyone's interested, I'll get the exact wording.

They ran it at least a dozen times, always twice at a time. At the beginning of every segment immediately after return from commercial, and again at (coincidentally?) every quasi-scary part. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 22, 1999.



Similar disclaimer from Mobile, Alabama station...

The movie you are watching is not based on fact. It is designed for entertainment purposes only.

-- CD (not@here.com), November 22, 1999.


The movie was basically worthless, from what I saw.

I saw no disclaimers at all, but of course, there was a commercial from the local electric company saying they are ok. Of course, this is the electric company that gave us TMI and of course, Peach Bottom isn't too far away. I'm glad I'm upwind of both of those places and have Thyroblok.

The movie wasn't too helpful in encouraging people to prepare, and I consider it basically a spiffied up McGyver movie.

-- Bill (billclo@msgbox.com), November 22, 1999.


Actually, if I knew next to nothing about Y2K and saw all those disclaimers, THAT would make me wonder what is up and research a bit more. No disclaimers in Dallas , though. We find it best to completely ignore things here!!!

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 22, 1999.

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