Photobooths in Television
RECENT ADDITIONS
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (4/6/08)
Crossing Jordan (3/17/08)
Neighbours (3/16/08)
Photobooths have made appearances in television shows ranging from "The X-Files" to "The Simpsons" (Richard Lester, meet Rupert Murdoch) over the past thirty years.
Television producers don't usually have as much time or money to invest in their set designs and props as do film producers; this applies to photobooths as it would anything else, and photobooths in television shows are often faked, or seen only from the exterior. Many of the appearances here are also simply uses of photostrips, rather than appearances by photobooths.
Around the time the site launched in early 2005, photostrips began cropping up in many new television shows, perhaps a result of our closer scrutiny but also likely a product of the renewed interest in photobooths and the kind of immediate power photobooth photos possess.
This page will feature all of the TV appearances we've captured, as well as some (unsubstantiated) rumors regarding other photobooth appearances.
Unconfirmed Appearances:
- In episode 282 of "Power Rangers in Space," "Carlos on Call," (aired October 31, 1998), a child discovers that someone is a Power Ranger (who knew they were still making a show related to this flash in the pan?) when she sees photos of him "morphing" in a photobooth. In other words, someone watched Superman III and was "inspired." Blurb here.
- In Episode 1 of NBC's "Average Joe," Melana and the Joes go into a photobooth, which, from the looks of the now-defunct photos on the NBC website, seems to be a booth that takes photos, but not really an actual photobooth. I didn't see the show, though, so I'm not sure.
- A Flash cartoon series "Larry the Suburbanite Ninja" features a photobooth in Episode 2, "The Curse of Aisle 8." Watch it here.
- In a recent episode of "The District" (apparently on CBS), some characters were shown in a photobooth strip. You can see the photo and read about it here.
- A reconstruction of a lost 1967 "Doctor Who" episode apparently features a photobooth, from the reviews posted here.
- In "Summer Song," Episode 24 of The Wonder Years, Kevin and his summer girlfriend Teri take photos in a photobooth at the beach. This episode, from the show's third season, first aired October 3, 1989.
- "The Haunted Carnival," an October 27, 1973 episode of The New Scooby Doo Movies (not to be confused, of course, with the actual new Scooby Doo movies), was also known as "Scooby Doo Meets Dick Van Dyke." Thanks to this bloopers site, it's clear a photobooth, that omnipresent attraction at a carnival, makes an appearance on the one show famous for the haunted carnival setting. With guest stars like van Dyke, Tim Conway, Sandy Duncan, Don Knotts, and the Harlem Globetrotters, maybe we'll see these episodes on DVD one day.
