TV Talk Discussion Group -- Balloon Boy

TV Talk Discussion Group

Topic: Balloon Boy

Topic Posted by: Elliott
Date Posted: Fri Oct 16 10:46:30 2009
Additional Comments:

So, what do you think about all that?

Posted by: Lucidity22
Date posted: Fri Oct 23 17:04:58 2009
Message:
I was confused at the break of the story because I heard them talk about a basket that wasn't there - so why are we following a balloon when the kid is obviously wherever that basket is?!

Then when I saw the video of the parents launching the balloon, and getting a sense of the balloon's size - it was way too small to float with the weight of the boy, and there was no basket at all!

The kid has more of a conscious than the parents ('cause he kept puking).

I hope the parents get tossed in the slammer for a long time. Hey! He wants to do a reality show so bad, he can do one from prison. I won't be watching.

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The only other reality show I thought might actually help this man and his family is *Supernanny.* You get some real scary dads on that show, who seem to come around by the end. As for why we kept watching that balloon ... it was all just speculation as to whether the boy could still be in it; I was horrified/fascinated with the idea that the balloon could have been really high when the boy had fallen out. We had to wait before it came down to know the REAL story, and even the news anchors were wondering why the heck those farmers and others weren't going right up to the balloon when it did fall to check on whether someone was anywhere inside it. My favorite report afterward came from a scientist who pretty much said *duh - one look at the size of that balloon and I knew that small amount of helium couldn't carry the weight of a boy!* We lay people wouldn't have known that. As the old saying goes, hind sight is 20/20. -Spell

Posted by: Thalia
Date posted: Tue Oct 20 0:20:19 2009
Message:

Well at least we got a hilarious SNL skit out of it. SNL was pretty funny all the way through Saturday, but the talking saucer during Update was dead on.

It did not really look like there was anything/body in the balloon because of the way it was flopping. I said to myself there is nobody in there, the news has been duped again.... and there are so many things that need to be reported on... and I turned the set off in disgust and watched not one interview, that is until the reruns of the vomiting child were flashed on the screen over and over.

I wonder is this the point where cable jumped the shark?

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Good question. It probably is. eom Elliott

Posted by: H20
Date posted: Mon Oct 19 14:11:42 2009
Message:

The innocent victims of this whole shenanigan are the wheat farming couple who had their crop ruined by emergency vehicles ripping through the field to get to the empty balloon. Looked like nothing on TV, but it was their livelihood, those budding wheat plants.

The wheat can only be planted once every two years, and this crop is destroyed.

Farmers deal with a lot of uncontrollable factors but a balloon landing in your field and 30 rescue vehicles plowing up the plants? That's some Farm-Aid needed.

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Gosh, I never thought of that. If the farmer is an independent, he should most definately move to the front of the line for finacial reimbursement. All of the organiztion have budgets that can cover emergency actions. Granted, it's our tax money, but put that farmer first!! Midge

Their first concern was the child not their own crop. Good folks, yeah? H20

Posted by: daydreamer
Date posted: Mon Oct 19 6:15:23 2009
Message:
I think a lot of us figured it out once we heard he was found in the attic. Who doesn't search their whole house for a missing child in a place like an attic?? After that revelation I knew it was a hoax. Way before the kid spilled the beans.

The best news was that the police once they heard the slip were planning all along to get one or both the parents to admit it was all made up. They let them think they'd anly be hit with a small fine and tricked the father in to coming into the police station. They then started talking to him as well as the wife separately and with the family being divided the truth came out!

Posted by: IWatchTooMuchTV
Date posted: Sun Oct 18 20:01:09 2009
Message:

I think it's disgusting! All of that time that Americans held their breath, tuned into their tvs/radios, worried about the plight of that six-year-old boy....hoping for the best and still fearing the worst; then to have the balloon finally land and find no child inside, which led to more worry about where the child may have been and whether or not he was alright. And, it was all just a publicity stunt that the father came up with in hopes of getting the family on a reality show???? And then we find out today that the little boy probably was not hiding all of that time in an attic and may very well have been a couple of blocks away playing with his friends!

The father needs his butt whipped! Whatever charges can be thrown at him, I hope they are.

Posted by: diamond girl
Date posted: Sun Oct 18 11:35:05 2009
Message:
Definitely a HOAX. I think that father and Mother should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.They should have thier children taken away too.

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CNN reported that there will more than likely be charges brought against the father. eom/Klo

The sheriff said they know it was a hoax and publicity stunt. Hope they throw the book at them. eom./

This IS the same sheriff who said 'We know it ISN'T a hoax' right after that was floated as a possibility. He stuck to that since the incident ended, now he is just as sure it WAS a hoax?! I don't trust him anymore than the father or the mother! eom

yes initially he believed them. It's his job to investigate and he did. Now he has proof of the hoax. That's what investigations are for. eom/

Slap the book at him!

Posted by: HAMCAT
Date posted: Sat Oct 17 0:46:23 2009
Message:
I think it was all a hoax gone wrong. If you look at video that the family filmed when the balloon first got away there is NO BLACK BASKET! The parents said that they believed the boy was in the black basket that was on the bottom and that it must have fallen off. It is clear as day there was no basket when the balloon was in their yard. Look at the dads face in the interview when the boy says it was for the show. The Dad is looking down at him and it looks like he grits his teeth for just a second. I was watching the story as it was transpiring Thursday morning when I found out it was the looney family from Wife Swap I turned to my Husband and said that little boy is is hiding soemwere he's not in that balloon. I told him you watch and see they are gonna find that kid is hiding in the bushes somewere. The Dad is a nut case to the extreme. I watched both of the Wife Swaps when they were on and I told my husband they need to take those kids away from them. The Mother appears to me to be a servant to her Husband. I believe the kids are scared of him. When the little boys made the comment about doing it for the show the other kids got wide eyed like they were thinking UH OH!! he wasn't supposed to say that. Wolf Blitzer said something yesterday that was a good question. The family drops everything to go storm chasing but they didn't take off to follow the balloon that there kid was in. I think that it is because they new the boy was hiding and they knew they couldn't leave him behind to go acting like they were following him. I hope they get some proof it was a hoax and the have to pay big time.

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Later, the father said that he was concerned that his son might be electracuted (sp) because there was a part of the silver area that had open electrical stuff in it. So where was talk of the 'basket' then? eom

Posted by: Raena
Date posted: Fri Oct 16 20:58:01 2009
Message:
In all honesty it was a nice break from that other family with all the drama.....yes, Jon and Kate Plus 8.

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As Entertainment Weekly is calling them...Jon And Kate plus HATE. eom/WE

Posted by: SpellingAddict
Date posted: Fri Oct 16 18:51:00 2009
Message:

As of yesterday I was groaning that it kept coming up on the news; oh my GAWD, what is our society coming to, beating to death a story about a family (plus all of us watching the incident as it happened) going thru hell over their kid's horrendous predicament, and then the relief when it ended happily? I thought, just leave them alone!

Then ... on my local news broadcast last night I saw a tape of what the kid let slip in that interview. He mumbled, "I thought it was for show" (or maybe "the show"). Say what?? (There's an old saying, "out of the mouth of babes" - meaning, kids'll tell you the honest-to-God truth when we grownups hide, hedge or manipulate it.)

When this family was on that "Wife Swap" show - twice, I heard - I think it's reasonable that the parents had to tell their kids more than once to cooperate with the camera, and not fight, make too much noise, pick their nose or talk out of turn; that's to be expected. But for the kid to be questioning whether they need to do this when they're back at home ... very suspicious.

This afternoon I'm seeing tape of yet another interview of the family on a morning show today. To watch that kid suffer through what may have been an asthmatic episode (which is often brought on by stress) right there in the parents' laps - complete with squirming, complaining and finally vomiting - as the dad continued to intently focus on the camera was horrendous.

So now, I've made a 180-degree turnabout on this issue. These parents may need their kids taken away from them, or at least from this publicity-obsessed father. I think a full investigation needs to be made by the authorities - away from cameras, in private. And the dad may need to start making reparations (is that the word?) for the huge cost the public has had dumped on it with the runaway balloon rescue efforts.

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I posted on Y&R earlier today. I think you might be surprised to see that the boys a very savvy and not in a good way. Dad and mom encourage it. I pasted one of the things I posted there, inside here, with links to the family's very own youtube account and also a very telling segment of their time on Wifeswap, which someone posted in reply. Look inside..........Midge

Posted by: Tricia
Date posted: Fri Oct 16 16:37:09 2009
Message:
I must say Elliott that the title of your post had me laughing. The whole situation is absurd.

Posted by: katiesbeach
Date posted: Fri Oct 16 15:34:32 2009
Message:
As soon as I heard that the father & mother had been on Wife Swap, I immediately said that this was a publicity stunt. And I was watching The Today show this morning, and that kid was getting sick all over the place. If I was that child's mother, I would have gotten that child immediately out of the room as soon as he started. They just let it go on and on until Meredith finally stopped the interview and said that they were going to break to give the family time to get their act together. I mean, either the kid was scared to death of having to lie on tv, or maybe had the damn swine flu! Crap.

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It seemed like the interview was more important the kid being sick. Sad. eom Elliott

Posted by: Rosebud1
Date posted: Fri Oct 16 14:59:36 2009
Message:
Glad the kid is safe. However, if this wasn't a hoax, I wish that the authorities would bring charges against the parents--at least for child endangerment. What business did the parents have keeping such a thing in their backyard?! Any kid under the age of 15 would have been enticed by it. If they are serious about their 'work' (hobby, whatever), then they should keep such things stored far from the house, where curious kids couldn't get their hands on it.

What if a neighborhood kid had gotten in there & really gone for that ride? It is pure stupidity to have something like that where any kid could have been injured or killed.

Posted by: Miss Harold
Date posted: Fri Oct 16 13:27:33 2009
Message:
By the time I heard about it yesterday, the little boy had already been found safe so I thought it was sort of funny. However, after hearing about some of the interviews since then, I am suspicious that it was a hoax. The little boy apparently let something slip in one of the interviews, and he has also gotten sick on camera. Poor kid. I think his parents are coaching him in what to say.

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This is a family that has done reality shows (yes, more than one), so I doubt that the kid would be getting sick over being in the public eye or on camera. He has been there before. eom

The interview on Good Morning America was just awful this morning. The poor kid was going to throw up and the parents just sat there. Finally one of them got up to go to the boy who you could hear in the background yakking. The father is really strange. I'm having a hard time believing anything he says. eom Elliott