In honor of the 40th anninversary of Dungeons & Dragons, which is being celebrated non-stop here at GeekDad’s Saving Throw Headquarters, we present Five Amazing TV Moments from D&D History. In these clips, we see the how the famous game has been portrayed, from being ridiculed and used as a scapegoat to being celebrated. Journey back into the dark past with us … and for light, just “Use your lightning bolt!”
1. Freaks and Geeks, 2000
In this famous Freaks and Geeks “Discos and Dragons” episode, James Franco, as the bad-boy Daniel Desario, connects with the A/V nerds who play D&D. This wasn’t meant to be the series finale, but it was.
2. TSR TV Commercial, 1980s
“You’re playing the most phenomenal game ever created …” In this Dungeons & Dragons commercial from 1983, the announcer seems to be using his Spell of Suggestion to get susceptible teens to purchase the game.
3. 60 Minutes, 1985
In this  famous 60 Minutes segment from 1985, D&D co-creator Gary Gygax defends the game that supposedly caused kids to commit suicide and summon demonic spells. Also features Patricia Pulling, whose son committed suicide, and blamed his death on D&D. Apologies for the bad video quality. (Click here to watch video; first part only.)
4. Community, 2011
From the NBC show Community, about a fictional community college in Greendale, Colorado. This widely-seen “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” episode focuses on a student known as “Fat Neil,” whose friends try to cheer him up by pretending to be interested in D&D.
5. Mazes and Monsters, 1982
Police sirens. News reporters. A worried detective. “Look, we heard a game of Mazes and Monsters got a little out of hand over at the university.” That’s how this 1982 made-for-TV movie, Mazes and Monsters, opens. Dreamy college kids take their interest in a fictitious role-playing game too far. Based on the Rona Jaffe 1981 novel which itself was loosely based on the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III from Michigan State University in 1979. Poor Tom Hanks (in his first leading role) — he took the game too far. You can watch the entire movie here.
6. Bonus Clip
And here’s a bonus clip by our pals at Network Awesome, who made a mash-up of several of these clips. Let it play through and look for a few more gems that reference D&D, including a very rare Super 8 movie of yours truly, and my pals, playing D&D back in 1981, set to Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help from My Friends.” All true.
What this misses is that, at least in its original cut, the movie E.T. features Elliot, his brother and friends playing D&D at the dinner table.
How could you leave out E.T.?
Also (because it’s funny) Kanye the Giant from Key & Peele
I had this idea back in July http://randomwizard.blogspot.com/2013/07/dungeons-and-dragons-on-television.html
I also did a comparison of 60 minutes to a similar broadcast in Canada
http://randomwizard.blogspot.com/2013/06/80s-dungeons-and-dragons-scare.html
yes! E.T. is a great idea. although it is not TV — it’s the movies. interestingly the story was that TSR / Gygax would not let Spielberg use the D&D name, so the game as played in the movie feels fairly generic.
Perhaps they left out “E.T.” because it’s a movie, and not a TV moment?
Speaking of Patricia Pulling…
If you’ve got a moment and haven’t seen it, give a Google for The Pulling Report by Michael Stackpole. Great essay/article on the D&D Satanism scare of the 80s.
The Freaks and Geeks episode (and the Community episode) drives home the magic RPGs have for me by being centred on the players enjoyment moreso than the avatars’ conquest, which tabletop can do deftly by lowering the barriers between player and player avatar. Without worrying about system, in fact regardless of the game, it was about the people at the table. This is a spirit of tabletop RPGs that too often seems to be missed today. Thaks for sharing this Ethan. I will post this to the LinkedIn RPG group: a group that is more anout the players and less about the game. (Drop in sometime – you’d be welcome)
Does anybody have any idea how we can see the second half of the 60 Minutes report? I’d settle for a transcript.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=445_1232224067
@ Random Wizard– thanks for the help. I was not able to get the second clip to play on the URL you suggested, just the top one, first half only. any ideas?
Entire 60 Minutes piece here:
https://archive.org/details/60_minutes_on_dungeons_and_dragons