ABC News Good Morning America (film #2 on Television Archive). [Category: News]

Why has a recent episode of "Good Morning America" been preserved on the internet? Well, the date of broadcast was 9-11-01––does that give you a clue? The Television Archive contains streaming videos of 9-11 "we interrupt this program" footage from around the world. This 30-minute clip of "Good Morning America" is mostly ordinary and uneventful: a veterenarian talks about special pet food that increases the lifespan of dogs and cats, the lead actor of "The Mind of a Married Man" talks about the premiere of that show, the weatherman makes silly comments about audience members (this segment just screams "slow news day"), Sarah Ferguson talks about Weight Watchers, cut to commercial. And then the biggest news story in years breaks. This doesn't happen until about 3/4ths of the way through the clip, so be patient. This is real "we interrupt this program" stuff, as the GMA hosts are totally confused about what has just happened and are flailing around to find things to say. They make contact with an ABC reporter on the scene, who tells them he heard the initial explosion and is sure it wasn't a prop plane that crashed into the building, but thinks it might have been a missle. This is exactly the sort of thing I really want to collect for the News category––breaking news stories exactly as they were originally broadcast. The Television Archive deserves a lot of credit for preserving this stuff. Unfortunately, the site is rather undependable––sometimes you can watch the footage and sometimes you can't. I encourage readers who are unsuccessful with the archive to keep trying at other times. Eventually, you'll pick a day when the site is working properly and the footage is worth the effort.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: N/A. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****+. Overall Rating: *****.