It's been 30 years ...

How did we let this moment pass? On Nov. 7, 1991, TV -- and our lives -- changed forever.

The day started out so well. Everyone looked happy.



Then tragedy struck ...





RIP Scott Gunkid. I loved you in The Client.

 

I was a freshman in college and remember seeing a spoiler for it in one of the NYC tabs. That night, most of the dorm was huddled around the one TV in the building that had cable and a bunch of the girls were devastated when the show started because they thought Brandon or Dylan or Steve was going to get bumped off. I had a hard time trying to keep a straight face.


When it was Scott Gunkid, you could feel the sighs of relief from the girls, followed by the requisite “oh, that’s sad” response.

The ending of the episode did hit me a little bit in the feels because three kids had died during my senior year in high school and the reaction on TV was pretty similar.

And earlier in the day, Magic announced he had HIV. The dorm TV lounge was SRO for that announcement too.

 

The story that got lost that day was someone making a believable claim they'd found Amelia Earhart's remains. They broke in with the Magic Johnson story on CNN and nothing more was mentioned about Earhart.

 

I gave up on the "someone will die" episode teasers after this one. Then I watched the british show MI-5 - and well, they delivered...regularly.