I kind of wonder whether WKRP’s writers got their inspiration from this.
Naw; of course you know that WKRP got their inspiration for people actually doing variations of the turkey drop for real. Never from a helicopter, but sometimes thrown off of roofs.
And, apparently, once actually out of a plane. Turned out that SOME turkeys can fly. But not all…
Yes, ianosmond, but the Santa Drop was much earlier and could have inspired all of them.
And was a disaster.
If the fault was in the parachute release mechanism, then perhaps the originally planned live stuntman would have been killed. So it could have been worse.
It’s quite possible that the pilot didn’t hook up the static line, or even didn’t know he was supposed to. A non-drunk parachutist wouldn’t have made that mistake and could have manually opened the chute.
In Rockford, Illinois, a real live Santa was to do this stunt, in 1965. Yes, his chute failed to open. Yes, he fell to earth right across from the North Town Mall. That was the day hundreds of kids witnessed Santa actually die. I (age 17) wasn’t there, fortunately.
It was one of the elves who had on ‘rocket boots’ . . . NOT that that makes it any less disastrous.
Just to further correct myself, according to a local newspaper’s article, he was a very experienced skydiver, costumed as “Santa’s Helper,” and he landed in someone’s back yard too, not a vacant lot (which landing has apparently caused problems for the current and subsequent homeowners, due to morbid curiosity seekers.) Apparently Santa remained in the airplane. A horrible Christmas spectacle, all around.
Did you listen to the interview I posted?
I believe MARRIED — WITH CHILDREN had an episode involving a skydiving Santa dying in the Bundy back yard. (I didn’t see it, but recall some brohaha at the time.)
I see now that wild turkeys are becoming rather aggressive.
“In Toms River, N.J., they have terrorizedan over-55 community, attacking cars and pecking kiddie pools unto deflation. While flocks (a group of wild turkeys is called a rafter) have left their notable calling cardsin communities in New Jersey, they have crashed through windshields in Florida, pecked their way into police stations in Massachusetts, and in Utah become such a nuisance that 500 were rounded up and relocated to the deep woods.”
Comics I Don't Understand 
As God as my witness, I thought Santa could fly.
I kind of wonder whether WKRP’s writers got their inspiration from this.
Naw; of course you know that WKRP got their inspiration for people actually doing variations of the turkey drop for real. Never from a helicopter, but sometimes thrown off of roofs.
And, apparently, once actually out of a plane. Turned out that SOME turkeys can fly. But not all…
… https://www.cbr.com/tv-legends-was-wkrps-famous-turkey-drop-based-in-reality/
Yes, ianosmond, but the Santa Drop was much earlier and could have inspired all of them.
And was a disaster.
If the fault was in the parachute release mechanism, then perhaps the originally planned live stuntman would have been killed. So it could have been worse.
It’s quite possible that the pilot didn’t hook up the static line, or even didn’t know he was supposed to. A non-drunk parachutist wouldn’t have made that mistake and could have manually opened the chute.
In Rockford, Illinois, a real live Santa was to do this stunt, in 1965. Yes, his chute failed to open. Yes, he fell to earth right across from the North Town Mall. That was the day hundreds of kids witnessed Santa actually die. I (age 17) wasn’t there, fortunately.
https://1440wrok.com/remembering-rockfords-santa-parachute-incident-at-north-towne-mall/
It was one of the elves who had on ‘rocket boots’ . . . NOT that that makes it any less disastrous.
Just to further correct myself, according to a local newspaper’s article, he was a very experienced skydiver, costumed as “Santa’s Helper,” and he landed in someone’s back yard too, not a vacant lot (which landing has apparently caused problems for the current and subsequent homeowners, due to morbid curiosity seekers.) Apparently Santa remained in the airplane. A horrible Christmas spectacle, all around.
Did you listen to the interview I posted?
I believe MARRIED — WITH CHILDREN had an episode involving a skydiving Santa dying in the Bundy back yard. (I didn’t see it, but recall some brohaha at the time.)
I see now that wild turkeys are becoming rather aggressive.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/angry-turkey-stalks-mail-truck/2019/12/23/6e7e9fda-2bfc-4641-a4a9-99f2c402b60c_video.html
“In Toms River, N.J., they have terrorizedan over-55 community, attacking cars and pecking kiddie pools unto deflation. While flocks (a group of wild turkeys is called a rafter) have left their notable calling cardsin communities in New Jersey, they have crashed through windshields in Florida, pecked their way into police stations in Massachusetts, and in Utah become such a nuisance that 500 were rounded up and relocated to the deep woods.”