Set issues and changes happen all the time during television production. However, when something breaks on live TV, it can’t be covered up. The latest episode of G4TV’s Attack of the Show! saw an accident go down live on air, with cameras catching it all. The fly-by-the-seat nature of AOTS! leads to these kinds of mishaps from time to time, such as the messy, hilarious chocolate stunt gone wrong we covered in the spring. This time, instead of less of a mess being left behind, there will be a repair bill.
The Thursday episode, which streamed live on Twitch and YouTube ahead of its linear TV airings, was centered on both Top Gun: Maverick and the new video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The minds behind AOTS! decided to combine both concepts for absurd character sketches throughout the episode, and the idea manifested into Mr. Splunther (played by writer/actor Case Blackwell). Not to be confused with the TMNT character Master Splinter, Mr. Splunther is Splinter’s landlord a “middle-aged monster wood guy pilot.” It came off as a strange and slapdash concept, and the show played into that with strange bits. The first segment featuring Blackwell’s new wood-armed character ended with a screen on the set accidentally being broken, as shown in the screenshot and video below
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As Mr. Splunther bantered with AOTS! co-hosts Will Neff and Austin Creed (a.k.a. WWE Superstar Xavier Woods), he swung his right 2×4 hand into one of the LCD monitors that comprised the set backdrop. It instantly impacted the screen, fracturing the display. Creed and Neff instantly reacted, erupting into laughter.
Woods improvised to bring attention to the blooper, saying, “You just cracked the TV, Splunther. We don’t have the budget for another one!” Blackwell, who totally saved the bit during that aforementioned chocolate malfunction, was quick on his feet again, replying, “That’s impossible, I don’t know kung-fu. I couldn’t have broken anything.”
Despite the broken screen momentarily throwing the series into chaos, the hosts went with the flow. Co-host Kassem G noted the colorful fracture “actually works with the design” of the graphics G4 uses for the screens. Gina Darling wanted to double down on the destruction, saying, “At this point, can’t we just destroy the TV more?” Neff weighed in on Splunther’s unhinged segment, saying, “I was worried that’d be our worst character ever, and I was wrong. That was the best thing we’ve ever done.”
The Attack of the Show! revival premiered in fall 2021 alongside a rebooted version of the video game discussion/review series Xplay. New episodes air typically live on Twitch and YouTube Thursdays at 5 p.m. ET., but the program is going on a two-week hiatus. In the meantime, edited versions are shown on G4TV’s linear cable channel, YouTube TV and G4 Select, the network’s Pluto TV channel. The show also has three spinoffs, Vibe Check, Fresh Ink and The Loop, which can also be found on G4’s platforms.
