Would this article be as impressive if it talked about some of the Nostradamus predictions that were true? I don’t really think so and that’s mostly because seeing far into the future and foreseeing impending dooms was kind of what he was good at. The people at Saturday Night Live, for example, are entertainers who seemingly couldn’t be further away from being future-readers-premonition-makers, with strangely high odds of being right. Despite that, several TV productions have featured things that, upon revisiting and analyzing in greater depth, have proven to be predictions for things that would happen some time in the future. In order to properly express the idea we’re trying to advance, here’s a list of 4 TV Show Predictions That Came True.
1. Saturday Night Live
The Prediction: 9/11
I never thought I’d get to use these two concepts in the same sentence and be serious about it, but here we are. A satirical news bulletin from the popular Saturday Night Live show featured a multitude of stories that contained some particular elements which were later tied to the infamous 9/11 terrorist attacks. For instance, the host talked about Bush, the Governor of Texas and his attempts to steal oil, Bin Laden supposedly hiding because of an illness and later killed, showed images of the Twin Towers, and lastly, a news report about a plane crash. It would be
It would be ridiculous to assume that the writers of SNL are some masterminds who either plotted the whole ordeal, either possess uncanny paranormal abilities to foretell the future. But, if you really think about it, what were the odds of all the primary points about the attacks to be featured in the same news report sketch? Could something be happening over there?
2. Parks And Rec
The Predictions: Power Rangers movie and Jurassic Park sequel.
When I say Parks And Rec, I’m mostly talking about Chris Pratt. Back when he was a name engulfed in obscurity and bad TV show ratings, Pratt cracked a few jokes through his character, Andy, that maybe made us laugh at that time. Whether they did or didn’t, now they’re making us laugh nervously. In one episode of the sitcom, Andy asks Leslie’s new boss if he could bring back the Power Rangers since surely he had the power to do that. And what do you know? Two weeks after that, the latest adaptation of everyone’s love-and-hate superhero team was greenlit.
Do you think it stops here? Oh, no. Pratt continued to unknowingly make use of his psychic powers on the set of Parks And Rec. During one bonus feature from season two, Andy takes a peek at his phone, then says that Steven Spielberg will have to wait for him to contact him about Jurassic Park 4 after he takes care of his feature list. Is it official now that Chris Pratt is an otherworldly being? Here’s a pro-tip for any people who get in touch with him: pay really close attention to his words whenever he’s talking about the future Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
3. The West Wing
The Prediction: Death of one of its actors.
Contrary to popular belief, before House Of Cards, there actually did exist other political dramas. The West Wing was one of them and it was a show that a lot of people don’t seem to remember anymore since it more or less got buried under a pile of productions that became more current. However, it did excel at its time for several reasons. For starters, the plot involved the aspirations for the White House of Matt Santos, the soon-to-be first non-white president of fictional America. Many of the elements, campaign included, were inspired by the then lesser known Barrack Obama’s presidential campaign. Similarities were so uncanny, that even Obama picked up on them. The biggest difference had to be, though, that his counter-candidates never suffered from fatal heart attacks.
Leo McGarry, a rival politician, survives a heart attack in the penultimate season. This gives a reason to Santos to tell McGarry that if he wants a way out, he’s going to have to pull out another heart attack. However, it’s not McGarry that eventually dies from this exact same cause, because if it were, it would be just a form of foreshadowing. Sadly, it was John Spencer, the actor behind McGarry, who passed away merely three months after the respective scene aired.
4. Frictional Losses
The Prediction: The World War II kamikaze bombings.
World War II is a conflagration that has been apparently built up to and predicted by quite a lot of people. Starting with Nostradamus to various other personalities that dropped hints, a surprising person that was also part of this category is John W. Campbell, the man behind the novel that inspired John Carpenter’s The Thing. Among some of his works, there is a story called Frictional Losses, which is a bit more obscure and less preceded by a reputation. Or, at least, it used to be.
If you give Frictional Losses a read, you will notice that there are several plot points that bear a striking resemblance to the real-life attacks carried by the Japanese, which left the Allies at a loss for words. In the case of this tale, the enemies of Japan are an alien race that threatens to invade Earth (typical). When all hope seems lost, they come up with the idea to load their planes to the brink with explosives, then fly them straight into the otherworldly ships in order to leave them as damaged as possible. This is pretty much an exact replica of the events at Pearl Harbor, except there was no Michael Bay to adapt it into a movie with copious amounts of explosions and unnecessary romantic subplots.
With the exception of Chris Pratt (who is clearly a supernatural phenomenon both physically and mentally), all of these entries raise a certain question. Who is the real psychic here? For The West Wing, was it the writers or the actor, who unknowingly possessed shamanic abilities to curse people? What about SNL, then? You might be tempted to say that these 4 TV Show Predictions That Came True are nothing but coincidences, but what I say is to keep your tinfoil hats nearby.
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