{"id":21614,"date":"2014-05-22T11:14:47","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T15:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=21614"},"modified":"2014-05-22T11:14:47","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T15:14:47","slug":"roots-of-the-made-for-tv-pit-audience-the-hardcore-kids-who-stormed-fears-1981-snl-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/roots-of-the-made-for-tv-pit-audience-the-hardcore-kids-who-stormed-fears-1981-snl-appearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Roots of the Made for TV Pit Audience: The Hardcore Kids Who &#8220;Stormed&#8221; Fear&#8217;s 1981 SNL Appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fbDdJ09vtSo\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"color: #141823;\" data-reactid=\".19.1:3:1:$comment663916873655490_663924686988042:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.0\"><span data-reactid=\".19.1:3:1:$comment663916873655490_663924686988042:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0\">Was <a title=\"Fear on SNL\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagoreader.com\/Bleader\/archives\/2013\/01\/28\/reliving-fears-snl-riot\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Fear<\/strong>&#8216;s 1981 performance on <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em><\/a>\u00a0the first example of the <strong>Made for TV Pit Audience<\/strong>\u00a0phenomenon, which has become de rigueur for VH1 spectacles, the Super Bowl halftime show, and the like? You know what I mean by Made for TV Pit Audience, right? It&#8217;s\u00a0the elite group of &#8220;insiders&#8221; of an artist&#8217;s fanbase who are strategically encouraged\u00a0to rush the otherwise guarded pit area so they can show the rest of us how the featured artist truly deserves to be admired and adored. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #141823;\" data-reactid=\".19.1:3:1:$comment663916873655490_663924686988042:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.0\"><span data-reactid=\".19.1:3:1:$comment663916873655490_663924686988042:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0\">I suspect something&#8217;s missing in the story of this &#8220;anarchic&#8221;\u00a0Fear performance on SNL. The hardcore kids slam dancing and stage diving didn&#8217;t just happen to get tickets to th<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #141823;\" data-reactid=\".19.1:3:1:$comment663916873655490_663924686988042:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.3\"><span data-reactid=\".19.1:3:1:$comment663916873655490_663924686988042:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.3.0\"><span data-reactid=\".19.1:3:1:$comment663916873655490_663924686988042:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$0:0\">at night&#8217;s performance, did they? They didn&#8217;t just happen to be standing at a cleared-out spot at the foot of the stage. They were audience props. They were actually the reason for booking Fear, despite whatever <a title=\"Belushi and Fear\" href=\"http:\/\/jakefogelnest.com\/post\/798738330\" target=\"_blank\">story has long been told about Belushi wanting them on<\/a>, which may in itself have been true. Fear&#8217;s appearance on SNL would have added up to nothing without those hardcore kids placed in the pit to show the rest of America how it was done.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Was Fear&#8216;s 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live\u00a0the first example of the Made for TV Pit Audience\u00a0phenomenon, which has become de rigueur for VH1 spectacles, the Super Bowl halftime show, and the like? You know what I mean by Made for TV Pit Audience, right? It&#8217;s\u00a0the elite group of &#8220;insiders&#8221; of an artist&#8217;s fanbase who <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/roots-of-the-made-for-tv-pit-audience-the-hardcore-kids-who-stormed-fears-1981-snl-appearance\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342,17],"tags":[693,639,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}