Plan B Forum

That whole Manchukuo thing! Hilarious!

Can you imagine trying some of that shit — like the trap-door elevator — here on the average American?   Can you say "lawsuit"?
Either that, or they'd have had to sign off on so many releases and waivers beforehand that anyone with half a brain would KNOW something was afoot, and any sense of spontaneity would be lost.

-"BB"-

Not slapstick tricks like this, but I recall a few years back there was a show (on a cble network as I recall) where people were tiricked by well-contrived special effect stunts while filmed on a hidden camera. One had a baby sitter (a 20 something girl), apparently from an agency, watching a young girl while the parents went out. The set up was that the parents said this was the first time out since their other girl died in an accident, and that she should ignore anything the girl says about seeing her as the psychologist says this is just her way of coping. This was followed by typical things--lights blinking, phone ringing with static when answered, the girl begging her to help because her sister wants to take her with her, topped by a ghostly looking presence rapping on the sliding glass doors. The reactions appeared genuine and reflected almost pure terror.

I think it lasted only a few episodes.

ETA: I googled it, and the show was called Scare Tactics; it ran for two seasons (I guess I didn't see many) in 2004 and 2005 and was then picked up for three more seasons in 2008 - 2012. It ran on SyFy.

ETA2: I honestly thought that show was a lawsuit in the making; someone with a bad heart or some nascent mental condition would have a problem because of the extreme flight, but I guess that never happened.