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Sitting around watching television might not be as useless as you think. Certain shows have been remarkably accurate in their forecasts of the future. The list suggests that British TV producers are far more prophetic than their American counterparts. But that’s OK; when someone invents Warp Drive, I’ll revise the list.
1. The Troubleshooters (1965-1972)
This drama about Mogul, a British multinational oil company, had its finger on the pulse. Three days after BP struck oil in Alaska, viewers saw Mogul do the same – in an episode that had been filmed months earlier. In another episode, Mogul took over a chemical firm. BP did the same later that week. One episode included a huge explosion on an oil rig, but it wasn’t even broadcast before a real explosion happened on the North Sea. Troubleshooters even showed people living in underwater houses as they probed the sea for oil. Within three years, even this piece of science fiction was a reality. Thankfully, none of the episodes portrayed nuclear disaster. “I am staggered how accurate they are in technical matters,” said a Shell executive. “Of course, in real life we don’t have blondes lying about on beds. We miss this facility.”
2. The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968)
Ah, I bet that got your attention! Unfortunately, this British TV play wasn’t as arousing as the title suggested, but it was still amazingly prescient. In the future, 98 percent of people depend on television for everything. To quell the population explosion, they watch “applied pornography” to put them off sex (which is the only excuse for that title, I’m afraid), and they watch gluttony programs to put them off food. But when they lose interest, the network execs have a great new idea: send a family to a deserted island and film them 24/7 in a show called The Live Life Show. Yes, in the space of one episode, the show predicted reality television – and predicted that the masses would go wild for it. No network has yet been allowed to try the show’s main ratings stunt: dropping a murderer on the island to hunt them down. (Though I wouldn’t rule it out…)
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981)
This wasn’t meant to be prophetic, but the celebrated British TV show (formerly a radio serial and a trilogy of best-selling novels) has been hailed as a visionary work. In the series, the Guide was an electronic, hand-held book that, with a few keystrokes, could provide detailed information on any planet or alien race. Fans of the late Douglas Adams, the series’ creator, suggest that he envisioned both the web and e-books. Adams was bemused by this. “When I originally described the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, over 20 years ago, I was only joking,” he said in 2000. “I didn’t see myself as a predictive kind of science fiction writer, like Arthur C. Clarke who more or less single-handedly invented the communications satellite… But it turns out that I, inadvertently, had a terribly good idea. I really didn’t foresee the internet. But then, neither did the computer industry.”
4. MI5 (2002-)
Yet another British series, this spy thriller (known in the UK as Spooks) seems to follow in the prophetic footsteps of The Troubleshooters. “It’s almost like reading series six by opening the newspaper,” said lead actor Rupert Penry-Jones in 2007. “Sometimes the scripts are coming out when the newspapers are coming out with almost the same stories. It’s uncanny.” This hasn’t always been good news. In one of the more unfortunate coincidences, scenes in which bombs went off around London were filmed only a day before the 2005 London terrorist bombings. “We had to change quite a lot of it because it was all a bit tasteless,” said Penry-Jones. “It seemed like we were cashing in on what happened, when we’d pretty much already shot it the day before it happened.”
5. The Lone Gunmen (2001)
Finally, an American show – and this prediction was perhaps the most amazing of them all. In the pilot episode of this short-lived X-Files spin-off, broadcast on March 4, 2001, the heroes uncovered a U.S. Government plot to fly a passenger jet into the World Trade Center (by remote-control) and blame terrorists, thereby justifying an increase in the military budget. On television, this scheme was averted. In reality, of course, two jet planes did indeed hit the World Trade Center barely six months later. (Despite the conspiracy theories, most people don’t blame this on the U.S. Government.) Still, the plot was tragically prescient. After 9/11, many broadcasters banned reruns of this episode for reasons of sensitivity. The whole series (all 13 episodes) is now on DVD, though naturally, this light-hearted show now seems somewhat darker than it was trying to be.
Mark Juddery is a writer and historian based in Australia. See what else he’s written at markjuddery.com.
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Comments (28)
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There are now five books in the Hitchhiker’s “trilogy”.
posted by Chad Cloman on 11-10-2008 at 1:19 pm
don’t forget The West Wing, which had a minority elected as President of the USA.
posted by Teresa on 11-10-2008 at 5:14 pm
The similarities between the final season of the The West Wing and the latest U.S. election were alarming – not just the minority President-elect, but numerous other plot points. (It is fitting that Jimmy Smits was an Obama supporter!) However, as most of the list was written before the election, I couldn’t really include it. Maybe if/when I do a sequel…
posted by Mark on 11-10-2008 at 5:27 pm
What> I thought StarTrek would be at the top??? Wussup wit dat?
jess
http://www.anolite.echoz.com
posted by Jess Minor on 11-10-2008 at 10:09 pm
Its not a TV series, but “The China Syndrome” predicted the Three Mile Island meltdown by about a month.
posted by haid on 11-10-2008 at 10:19 pm
Don’t forget 24 people!
There was a black president…and BAM! look what happened!
posted by ;agh;a on 11-10-2008 at 10:47 pm
Interesting. I have some new movies to watch now.
posted by Free Xbox 360 on 11-10-2008 at 11:18 pm
haven’t seen it in forever but I thought that Max Headroom was a pretty prophetic show given the computer network, security cams etc…
posted by commentator on 11-10-2008 at 11:53 pm
24: Knowing we’d have a black president before the rest of the world.
posted by erichansa on 11-11-2008 at 4:32 am
Black presidents aren’t very original though. I wouldn’t honor any show on a list for “predicting” that.
Morgan Freeman, naturally, was one in a movie. I think there was one on the X-Men cartoon. Etc.
posted by lionel on 11-11-2008 at 5:48 am
Shame on you, Mental Floss, for leaving _Network_ off this list!
-a.
posted by A. Nony Mous on 11-11-2008 at 6:12 am
Wasn’t the first episode of The Lone Gunmen banned? And yes, it was erily close to reality!
posted by UK TV Guide on 11-11-2008 at 9:25 am
Max Headroom, Media will eventually be the Government.
posted by Bobeto69 on 11-11-2008 at 4:53 pm
I was watching Cowboy Bebop recently and in Episode 19 the space shuttle Columbia starts to break up upon re-entering the earth’s orbit.
The heat resistant tiles on it peel off and it starts to burn up.
That episode was made several years before the Columbia disaster, I found that pretty awesome, though they had trouble airing it on American TV after that (It had aired in Japan several years previously but not yet in the USA)
posted by Paul on 11-11-2008 at 6:37 pm
I was watching Cowboy Bebop recently and in Episode 19 the space shuttle Columbia starts to break up upon re-entering the earth’s orbit.
The heat resistant tiles on it peel off and it starts to burn up.
That episode was made several years before the Columbia disaster, I found that pretty awesome, though they had trouble airing it on American TV after that (It had aired in Japan several years previously but not yet in the USA)
(Sorry if this is a double post, my internet disconnected)
posted by Paul on 11-11-2008 at 6:38 pm
Seconded on the Max Headroom – it really was 20 years ahead of its time, almost every episode had something science-fictiony at the time which has since come true!
posted by Ben on 11-13-2008 at 7:08 am
I can’t remember if it was Outer Limits or Twilight Zone, but in one of their newer episodes (mid 1990’s) theres a story about a confederate soldier who gets transported into the future, sees a Lincoln Impersonator, tries to shoot him but ends up hitting the the man who was the first black president (hence the Lincoln impersonator). “The Future” in this episode was 2012. (actually it was 2013, he was visiting Gettysburg, but close enough) Four years off.
posted by Justin on 11-14-2008 at 8:53 am
What about “Laugh-In”? “News of the Future” accurately predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall and the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
posted by Mike on 11-27-2008 at 8:18 pm
Don’t forget about Laugh-In…In the 1960’s they predicted The fall of the Berlin Wall and Ronald Reagan elected president during their “News…Past -Present-future bit!
posted by Mike on 11-29-2008 at 9:36 pm
Just waiting to see if Demolition Man’s prediction of Schwarzenegger as president comes true. With the new congress I can totally see them amending the constitution to allow it. He is incredibly popular as a governor.
posted by Valerie on 12-2-2008 at 12:20 pm
HBO mocumentary predicted Hurricane Katrina a month prior and the subsequent rise in oil prices.
posted by jimmy on 2-12-2009 at 11:32 am
I am guessing we’ll have a women president in about five terms because there was one on 24 this year.
posted by Amy on 6-5-2009 at 4:20 pm
Star Trek Predictions that did come though:
Kirk’s Communicator = Today’s Cell Phone.
McCoy’s Instruments = CAT Scan, etc.
Transporter = albeit only two poor little photons have made the 3 ft trip, so far.
Spock’s computer memory chips = 3.5 Inch disks, or Cd’s – take your pick.
Tricorder = primistive ones today can to temp, humidity, air pressure, infrared, and various other measurements. Then too the tricorder was a portable computer, otherwise known as a laptop.
Phaser = US army woking on an eletrical / light beam assault weapon similar. Then there are the infamous and dangerous tasers…
Romulan Invisibility Cloak = being worked on today, even a sound cloak is being worked on, although this should by attributer to Larry Niven (?) and his cones of silence…
Shields = electronic electromagnetic shields are being worked on now for the proposed Mars mission, although they will not stop a photon torpedo, or move a comet – yet.
posted by Pierre on 6-17-2009 at 1:43 am
What about the shoe phone in Get Smart?
posted by Ram on 10-6-2009 at 8:36 am
It’s funny how the writer intones, (Despite the conspiracy theories, most people don’t blame this on the U.S. Government) Yet, Actually a recent Gallup poll that was dismissed by the Obama White House staff as “inaccurate”, showed that 59% of Americans do NOT believe the “Official” story and DO think the US Goverment was involved in some way. A Whopping 79% of Canadiens feel the same…
posted by Kyle Moody on 11-2-2009 at 7:06 am
In fact most people believe that SOMETHING was covered up about 9/11. I’d like to point out one point of interest: Building 7, which was hit by debris and had a fire in it, fell STRAIGHT DOWN like a controlled demolition. Look at pictures of the Oklahoma City Bombing, and wonder how that building didn’t fall, but a steel building with a fire in it collapsed in 7 seconds…Anyone have evidence of steel buildings collapsing from fire besides the 3 on 9/11?
posted by Rob on 11-2-2009 at 6:43 pm
On “All In The Family”, Archie told Mike that “you’re gonna get Reagan in 1980!”
posted by TG on 11-19-2009 at 2:03 pm
West Wing not only had a minority president elected, but there’s another strange coincidence. Not exact, but it goes pretty much near. Leo Mcgarry dies on the day of the election, Santos was hit by a drama. Obama’s mother died one day before the election.
posted by Andiandi on 11-20-2009 at 6:36 pm