An April Fool's Prank That Was Too Real: ALTERNATIVE 3 (1977)

In 1977, Anglia TV's mistimed April Fool's joke managed to convince a lot of people that the end of the world is coming and world governments are secretly devising a secret plan. The only problem: the plan doesn't involve most of us.
If you're looking for a "review" in the traditional sense, then let me just say I love this movie. This video, however, is a "review" in the literal sense (using the Miriam-Webster definition "a retrospective view or survey"), in that I'm going over the history of the film and its place in cinema history.
In other words, please stop commenting on how my videos aren't what you consider "reviews."
#Alternative3 #Mockumentary #Hoax
00:00 Intro: Swiss Spaghetti
02:00 Production History
04:31 Shameless Self-Promotion
04:58 Casting
06:24 Filming
07:19 Release & Legacy
09:56 The "Leslie Watkins" Book
11:06 Opinion & Analysis
14:28 Outro
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Easy Lemon by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@tachikomakusanagi3744]

Next you'll be telling me Spinal Tap aren't a real band!

[@ClutchCargo001]

Love that flick, but I've spoken with two people (I swear I'm not making this up) who are convinced they went to a ST concert. I wish we still had acid like that available today.

[@tachikomakusanagi3744]

@@ClutchCargo001 I think i can get you some of that acid: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHbGYoqXe9d-bqc

[@LordTeaboBaggins]

@@ClutchCargo001the actors did do small tours as Spinal Tap in the early 90s EDIT: ST did another tour in 2009

[@ClutchCargo001]

@@LordTeaboBaggins So good to know! Thanks! But these guys thought the band was real. Which, I guess it was.

[@jeffwarshaw6838]

I saw Spinal Tap at CBGBs in 1984. Definitely one of England’s loudest bands.

[@wimvanderstraeten6521]

In 1970 a mockumentary called Das Millionenspiel ("The Million Game") was broadcast on German television. It's basically a precursor of The Running Man (a game show candidate is hunted by three men. The candidate will get a million if he wins and the hunters will get the money if they win). When it was shown for the first time the movie was announced as a straight game show and a lot of people applied as candidates or hunters because they thought the show was real.

[@TheUnapologeticGeek]

That's amazing. I am already looking up where I can get it on DVD!

[@mikesilva3868]

​@@TheUnapologeticGeek😊never heard of that

[@wernerviehhauser94]

​@@TheUnapologeticGeek apparently, it's on youtube, and since it had been rebroadcast on 08.04.2024, it is still available in the ARD Mediathek for today until 23:00 CEST

[@jamesmaas7244]

The one actor, who's name I forgot, was in Brainstorm.

[@roy1701d]

A couple of decades ago, Discover Magazine ran a story in the April issue about the Hotheaded Ice Mole, a hairless rodent with a head that got hot enough for it to bore through Arctic ice. Biologists everywhere got very excited and asked for more information. In their May issue, Discover explained that there was no Hotheaded Ice Mole. They figured that their readers were smart enough to catch that the story was an April Fools gag. But...they were not.

[@racookster]

I remember it well. A co-worker showed me that magazine and said, "Isn't that weird?" I glanced at it. "Look at the date," I said. He stared at it, cursed, and threw the magazine.

[@n.d.m.515]

That is because we live in a time when scientists are celebrated more than the science. If a scientist or science magazine says it, then it must be true. Anyone who disagrees or questions the scientists are just conspiracy freaks or anti-science. Follow the concensus or be labeled heretical.

[@pineapplepenumbra]

Everyone is an idiot, one way or another. Some of know that we're idiots, we are the relatively lucky ones.

[@Doctor-vn8es]

I clearly remember the Alternative 3 'documentary'. They used real scientists, and real news presenters. All done absolutely straight faced and with a deeply sombre tone. The end was brilliant. One of the best April fools pranks ever.

[@hopefultraveller1]

As a child when this came out, I recall a heated debate between (among?!) adults regarding the title - those with classical educations claimed there was no such thing as a 3rd alternative: one chooses one one thing or a single alternative, making the choice between 2 things. Even if a 3rd option were to be chosen, it would still be a single alternative to the first option. Some therefore saw that 'Alternative 3' cleverly spoofed the programme right from its title! Ingenious writing indeed, but sadly, such linguistic nuances are rarely encountered now...

[@prokesuk]

The guy pouring the drink at 13:00 is Shane Rimmer. He's the guy that tried to replace Luke Skywalker's beat-up R2 unit. He was also Slim Pickens' co-pilot in Dr Strangelove and worked in Gerry Anderson productions.

[@timelordtardis]

Also at 4:02 is the wonderful Richard Marner best known for playing Colonel Kurt von Strohm in the British sitcom 'Allo, 'Allo. His career is worth looking up on IMDB.

[@davidbarton1928]

Shane Rimmer is Scott Tracy - the pilot of Thunderbird 1. His voice is far better known than his face for kids of a certain age.

[@prokesuk]

@@davidbarton1928 His voice is definitely recognizable, but I didn't discover his Andeson work until later. The first time I recognized him outside of Star Wars was in a movie called White Nights. The most recent was Batman Begins where he played a worker at the water plant. If not for his voice I might not have recognized him.

[@mikekemp9877]

shane was the go to yank for british tv . had several toles over the years in top soap coronation st

[@wbertie2604]

​@@mikekemp9877 It was him or Ed Bishop.

[@rog2224]

1976 was the hottest summer we'd had in the UK since records began. 1977 had some days that beat it, and a ladybird plague that happened within weeks of Alternative 3 dropped. The year sort of played into the apocalypse feel of the time.

[@duncanward1718]

Then the long cold winter of 77-78 hit, and winter 78-79 wasn't much better. By then they were talking about pollution causing a new Ice Age.

[@drewgoin8849]

Whoever decided to air the program after April 1st missed the entire point. Downright devious of 'em.

[@jonasvolitsa3824]

I remember discovering it in the 2000’s in France when it was sold as a real documentary by a paranormal magazine who delivered pictures, videos and conspiracy theories right from obscure forums and Google images back in the day when most of the people didn’t have internet (fun fact : they took their first logo from an 80’s spy RPG). At the time, I didn’t buy it, but when I finally saw it on KZbin a decade, my first thought was to think if they paid rights to the filmmakers ?

[@merky6004]

My April Fool’s News experience was in Los Angeles KTTV 11. Pretty obvious it was joke but played straight anyway. The electric/ phone company had a yard of many telephone poles standing up. No wires, just straight up dark brown wood poles all about 12 feet apart. This was a training site for journeyman to learn the safe climbing skills needed to work on electrical lines. The reporter “ claimed” it was a place where telephone poles were grown like so many 30 foot tall stalks of asparagus. The secret breeding ground for telephone poles. Once matured they’d be cut down and sent to the field. My favorite part was the “seedlings” part. Which was just so many Lincoln Logs stuck into a sandbox. And yes, some people were convinced as real.

[@geminifilms5341]

Ben Elton brazenly cribbed Alternative 3 for his debut novel, Stark

[@UranusMcVitieFish-yd7oq]

I remember thinking the same when I first saw this on DVD.

[@indyspotes3310]

I was pretty impressed by the mermaid "documentary" a few years ago. It had great production value and, clearly, significant effort was put into it to give the science an air of authenticity. Whether it was more effort than some poor bastard repeatedly climbing a ladder to put spaghetti into trees, I'm afraid history will have to judge...

[@gilraybaker826]

Every day is April Fool on the BBC.

[@BeachcomberNZ]

I was 16 when this first aired here in 1977. It aired some time after it did in the UK, so that April Fool's clue was no longer a relevant reveal about what was being depicted. As a result, many people thought it to be true. Airing an April Fool's day joke well after the event was bound to have that effect.

[@geoffreypiltz271]

The song "On Top of Spaghetti" tells you how to grow your own spaghetti bush.

[@jeffwarshaw6838]

Unlike a lot of later “mockumentary” films like “Best in Show” or “This is Spinal Tap,” “Alternative 3” was present as serious, even if it starred recognized actors like Shane Rimmer. The subject was and still is frightening, and the idea of people mysteriously disappearing was disturbing. The final third of the film was just silly, but it was still very well produced and polished. It floors me that so many people still think this April Fools joke is real. Did the general public distrust their governments in 1977? They do now, but it’s well over 40 years later. I listed “Alternative 3” in my review of “obscure 1970s dystopian science fiction movies,” because although it was a television special, it still touches on many of the fears of the time: global warming; overpopulation; dwindling resources, government spending. A fascinating gag, it’s still fi

[@toastnjam7384]

Saw a similar Spaghetti-Harvest April fools' prank by a local LA news back in the mid 70's They had a reporter doing an onsite story from a telephone linemen training center. After their training they tended to the telephone pole farm. It then showed them planting the next crop of telephone poles by sticking wooden dowels into freshly plowed furrows.

[@pineapplepenumbra]

I have discovered that it is impossible to grow spaghetti trees in the UK. I blame the climate.

[@martinmowbray4304]

The WEF saw this and thought let’s do it !

[@ComaDave]

Years after he left Anathema - Duncan Patterson started an avant-garde project he named "Alternative 4", after his final album with the band.

[@Ryansghost]

To this day Americans are still hopefully putting sprigs of spaghetti into cans of tomato sauce.

[@meiketorkelson4437]

An absolute joy to wake up to find this video. Alternative 3 has been a big "guilty pleasure" of mine. Just a hoax done so well. Layering on the small lies to help sell a bigger one. I learned a lot about writing and selling big ideas from it. Glad you enjoyed it too.

[@UranusMcVitieFish-yd7oq]

How's this a guilty pleasure?

[@altohippiegabber]

On April 1st in early 90s on Dutch television a normally serious newsprogram reported about a new dental procedure any dentist could perform whereby your own natural teeth would get invisible protective layer so they will never rot or get cavities or fall out. The next day every dentist in Netherlands was stampeded with people wanting to have that non-existent procedure! 🦷😂 (I admit that for a full 24 hours I also believed it)

[@rehetbutler]

You have brought something new to my eyes!

[@rsacchi100]

These kinds of shows illustrate how easy it is to get people to believe anything. The real service of them is to make people realize how easy it is to get people to believe anything.

[@LordTeaboBaggins]

One of my former best friends absolutely believed this was legit.

[@snapmalloy5556]

Thanks you for normally staying away from politics. I so appreciate it. That being said, I appreciate even more your desire for freedom of expression

[@patrickselden5747]

I watched Alternative 3 when it was broadcast. Thank you for reminding me of this clever, fun and increasingly relevant piece of television history. Peace... ☝️😎

[@HeathcliffBlair]

Watched it as a kid. It actually had me... until Shane Rimmer turned up. 😆 These days, I recognise most of the actors in it, but back then they were fairly obscure except for Shane and his unmistakable Scott Tracy voice. Cheers for the vid. 👍

[@markearnestfromreno613]

Very cool. I had no idea about this one, but I’m suitably intrigued.

[@euansmith3699]

9.51 The cut away to the shrug game me a big smile.

[@spews1973]

Another great video from the Geek. I'll say my favourite mockumentary is Ghostwatch. I watched it when it first aired on 31 October 1992. I knew it was just a drama, but the way it copied live TV so well really made it give me the willies! I also got similar chills when first listened to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. And it's nice to hear an American mention 'Allo 'Allo!

[@TheUnapologeticGeek]

I'm always trying to get my fellow Americans more into British TV like 'Allo 'Allo.

[@theshamanarchist5441]

In WWII the BBC made movies and radio broadcasts telling the general public (plebs) that 'eating carrots would help you to see in the dark' during the German air raids of the blitz. Apparently carrots contained a magic ingredient called 'carrotein' that gave humans night vision. In reality it was propaganda by the Home Office to get people to accept rationing. Hey, you will be half starved to death by a lack of nutrition (for the 'war effort') but at least you'll be able to see during the 'blackouts' thanks to the carrotein in all of those lovely carrots your left with. Even today their are old people (and their kids, the 'boomers') who still believe carrots contain this nocturnal eye boosting ingredient, carrotein. Moral of the story; never underestimate the power of propaganda. And carrots. That's All Folks!

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

Actually the carrot story was to explain the success of British night fighters (and cover up that the RAF were successfully flying aircraft carrying radar equipment). They even praised the success of a particular night fighter pilot: ‘Cat’s Eyes Cunningham’ and claimed his success was down to a diet of carrots.

[@tsr207]

And as soon as everyone heard Shane Rimmer's voice (Scott Tracey in "Thunderbirds") they all realised it was a spoof and turned over.......

[@williamcrowe2576]

I've yet to check out "What We Do In the Shadows".

[@ClutchCargo001]

Definitely worth a watch.

[@euansmith3699]

I remember being taken in by this when watching this as a teenager at the time. It was only when the broadcast date came up at the end of the show, that the penny dropped.

[@alexritchie4586]

The BBC has an absolutely fantastic catalogue of mockumentaries that most people don't even know exist. Perhaps their finest work was the short, stand-alone series 'If...' that ran in the early 2000s, including such episodes as a forensic analysis of an in-air collision of two passenger jumbo jets above Central London, an investigation of the social unrest caused by the older and younger generations of the UK going to Civil War with each other, and the post-mortem of an absolutely devastating smallpox outbreak. Sadly I've never been able to find copies or examples of these mockumentaries anywhere online. Evidence of them and their synopses can be found on archived BBC web pages, but even Aerial, the BBC's media distribution department, has told me that there's no hard copies in public circulation as far as they're aware.

[@brigidsingleton1596]

The film which involved two commercial aeroplanes colliding in the air over London, following a multi-vehicle pile-up on a major motorway, traffic being diverted through smaller towns etc and causing gridlock, after still another accident involving trains, so it was smash, after smash, after smash etc, has been shown multiple times here on KZbin...in fact, if I wanted to watch it yet again, it was on only a day or so ago. I chose not to watch it again, this time!! I don't recall the name of it but I expect it's easy enough for "Uncle Google" to find it for you?!! 🚂🚃🚃🚃🚂🚃🚃🚃🛬🔥✈️🚧🚕🚛🚐🚒🚑🚓🚙🚧🤞🤔

[@stevenhandzel5929]

St. Petersburg, FL, is where I’ll live when I have Type II “Diabetis”

[@TheUnapologeticGeek]

😉 Very good, sir.

[@graemerigg4029]

I remember watching this at the time and being one of three kids in the school who had watched to the end and no one would believe us that it was a fake. I also recognised Shane Rimmer and several other actors from scifi tv programmes.

[@thedon-e6514]

I liked it - please feel free to branch out. And it’s strangely appropriate that your review also came out in July 😜 I would almost think it’s deliberate 😂 And never be sorry to get political GR8 M8!

[@johnlbirch]

I remember Alternative 3 very well - I was nearly 16 and loved it, doubted it, and sort of wished it was true. It was gripping stuff but the appearance of actors I recognised as actors rather ruined the spoof side of things

[@wouterl5316]

Great video.

[@petergleeson295]

I was 18 when it came out. There was big discussion about whether it was real or not

[@robslide3466]

Love Alternative 3 epic show and story, this and Ghostwatch are a pair of treasures we should never forget.

[@ScottLahteine]

12:30 - Fighting disinformation and misinformation does not come from a lack of faith in people to make sound moral and political judgments, but from a plain recognition of the very real bad effects of disinformation and misinformation at the group level. We know that disinformation and misinformation is absorbed and spread by people and that everyone is vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation that lies outside of their personal fields of knowledge, which for most of us are exceedingly narrow. Large scale disinformation and misinformation campaigns can and do have very real effects, such as swinging a consequential public opinion (Brexit, anyone?). We must fight misinformation and disinformation as a society and we do this through institutions, especially in making sure everyone has a good education so they can see through nonsense, and basic media literacy so they can recognize pretty packaged nonsense.

[@TheUnapologeticGeek]

I respect your opinion, but it relies on way too much faith in nebulous "institutions" and fundamentally broken educational infrastructure for me. There's no easy solution, to be sure, but I stand by my opinion that a well-intentioned desire to fight misinformation can easily lead any system across a precipitous slide toward authoritarian repression.

[@susanalderson8267]

The Loof Lirpa was another good one from the BBC, back when they weren't evil.

[@billhumiston9888]

In your "other notes" section, I noticed you had the same difficulty on release date as did this mockumentary. COINCIDENCE??? ;-)

[@morgangallowglass8668]

As a proud collector of "conspiracies" (Birds are not real, the Moon is a hoax, not the landing, the MOON itself and such) I admire a good prank / hoax! A brilliant vid as always!

[@adaddinsane]

Some flat-earthers claim Australia isn't real.

[@morgangallowglass8668]

@@adaddinsane , like Narnia, OZ and most of Canada, it is not real.

[@android65mar]

Yes I remember this one from back in the day- good prank

[@MT-cd7cs]

4:02 is Richard Marner, best remembered at Colon von Strohm from UK comedy series ‘Allo ‘Allo

[@merky6004]

Hide the truth by exposing it. Clever. Or throw the truth in with a bag of lies.

[@melissaherrity]

I remember this. I was watching it with one of my older brothers and found it distrubing. I was only a child though😅

[@jmalmsten]

dog darnit! Now I need to stop the playback just so I can look up and watch the whole thing without spoilers. :D

[@mikesmith2905]

The Ruttles produced some epoch defining music.and Spinal Tap turned it up to 11

[@jamesdye4603]

I don't know if it could be called a mockumentary, but a movie called "The History of Time Travel" was pretty good. Low budget but very clever. Never heard of the spaghetti tree thing before and it made me literally lol.

[@theviewfromthepanopticon1852]

there is a book by Leslie Watkins....that all this was based upon.

[@merky6004]

It’s the Final….Downcount!

[@wesleyrodgers886]

Only available on Amazon. A company i refuse to give money to. 🤬

[@thriddoctor]

Try Threads by the BBC 1984, terrifying back then and still is today.

[@kevinparfitt6452]

Remember this, not fooled , as the actors are too well known anyway, though at the time some people I knew were!

[@paulcropper4717]

I watched this when it was shown at the time in the UK. I was 13. I believed it was real. My Mum who watched it with me wasn't so sure.

[@matthewhood7844]

I never heard of this. Now i'm curious to see it. C.S.A. is a well done mockumentary from 2004. Sort of an alternate history documentary.

[@DonKeyhoetee]

Though it was much darker, 'Special Bulletin' was a 1983 tv movie that's similar to this type of movie.

[@ButcherSevenActual]

If you enjoy stuff like Alternative 3, then check out the films Operation Avalanche, Countdown to Looking Glass, and Without Warning.

[@Alanc789]

I saw it when it was originally aired. Unfortunately I instantly recognised Shane Rimmer! It was a good attempt though.

[@TheUnapologeticGeek]

Shane Rimmer is the dead giveaway!

[@adaddinsane]

The Beatl;es "A Hard Days Night" is a great mockumentary, then there was spoof band "The Rutles" and their two mockumentaries, and the latecomer Spinal Tap of course.

[@mikesilva3868]

Saw this movie on KZbin last year 😊

[@iangalley3464]

Interesting video. I'm going to suggest another piece of UK TV, 1997's comedy show 'Brass Eye.' Each 6 part, half-hour episode looks at different subject, e.g. animals, science, drugs or moral decline. Presented by Chris Morris, (who also plays several characters), there was major debate around how far this show went,(e.g. the drugs episode was debated in Parliament, as they got an M.P. to do a very stupid soundbite). The show initially fooled many that it was a serious current affairs show. I remember talking about it to my Mother, who said she was sold, for the first 10 minutes, but then things started to get too stupid to be true. I wonder if it can be found on YT? Here's the first episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inuyh4GYlLNrf6c

[@DeviantDork]

Not trying to be mean or anything, but it disrupts the flow when you came on camera and said to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE. Maybe do a 10-second logo that comes up or something?

[@TheUnapologeticGeek]

Not a bad idea.

[@SteveBueche1027]

This is Spinal Tap

[@arielhamm-flores6893]

ya there are some guys out there that think this isd like some hidden code or somthing

[@Borella309]

Beyond embarrassing.

[@SteveMacSticky]

Wow ❤ 11:33

[@TheUnapologeticGeek]

So very distracting. 😳

[@dannystaton5386]

UT o

[@throwachair]

wef funded.