FOX ends up paying after pulling practical joke

from the houston chronicle

Joke pays off for Panthers fan
Associated Press

Greg Good, the Carolina Panthers fan who dresses up as "Catman" at
home games, received a new Ford F-150 pickup truck from Fox Sports
after an on-air practical joke during a preseason game went awry.

kilroybass...

That sounds like a similar case, but that went to court. the
"Toy-Yoda" ?

During the second half of the Aug. 24 game between the Panthers and
Miami Dolphins, Fox Sports announcers Dick Stockton and Daryl Johnston
started billing a car giveaway as a reason for fans to stay tuned
after the teams' starters left the game.

"Now all you fans out there, you might be thinking, 'Well, the
starting units are out, we might change the channel.' We're going to
do something special to try and keep you here tonight," Johnston told
viewers. "We're giving a car away tonight."

With 1:56 remaining, the telecast went to a shot of sideline reporter
Tony Siragusa standing in front of the 6-4, 340-pound Good, who was
sitting in a front-row end zone seat wearing an electric blue wig and
black-and-blue cape.

"The car is coming in right now," Siragusa said. "Here it comes.
Beautiful. It's white. It's a Porsche."

He then handed a toy car to Good.

Good says he believed the toy was a token of the real car he was to
receive and expressed excitement and joy. That turned to anger after
Good, who counsels troubled youths, found out it had all been a joke.

A Charlotte (N.C.) Observer sports columnist took up Good's cause,
writing a front-page column in Wednesday's newspaper that resulted in
outraged fans e-mailing Fox Sports.

That led Fox Sports chairman David Hill to personally give Good the
keys to a new pickup.

Obveeus...

A pickup IS NOT a Porshe.

Default User...

Think of it as settling out of court.

Barry Margolin...

Since they weren't planning on giving him a real car at all, I'm sure
he's happy with the new pickup.

On a side note, didn't Toyota have to give away a car years ago because of
the 'you asked for it, you got it' ad slogan? Nowadays, they can show cars
getting tossed out of a volcano or tossed around in the surf undamaged and
it still counts as 'truth in advertising'. Seems to me the 'toy car' was as
'truthful' as any other ad these days.

Hill said there would be punishments at Fox Sports over the incident,
but said none of the announcers involved will be taken off the air.

Good expressed excitement at the turn his story had taken.

"I'm so surprised and so happy," he told the Observer. "I thought all
I was going to get was an apology."