> > And the fact that Candid Camera tried to prank him and it DIDN'T WORK. He's the only person i've ever seen one of those practical joke shows apologize to. It was great.
>
> They did? This is a story I have not heard. Do tell.

They set up in a hotel for some big annual television industry dinner. A lot of the people were critics and such, not just children's show hosts. The joke was that they put several of the people of in hotel rooms without TVs. Alan Funk (or whatever the son's name is that ran the show after his dad couldn't) disguised himself and showed them to their rooms, and the audience enjoyed watching people get indignant in front of a hidden camera because they HAD to have a TV, that it was part of their job, "DO YOU KNOW WHY I'M HERE???????///" and other such silliness.

When they found Fred Rogers was there, they made a special arrangement to add him to the list of guests to prank. Funk shows him to the room, mentions that there's no TV, and Rogers replies, "Oh, that's no problem. I don't really watch it anyway." After a few minutes of TRYING to incite the dear old guy, Funk finally apologized, introduced himself, and left.

Mi "It was almost as good as those old lunch-counter shots of a guy squirting his neighbor with a grapefruit." ke