Ingenious TV-related scam of the week; or, From the department of silly talks

Long-longtime TV Barn and Late Show News reader Karen Owen keeps her eyes peeled for unusual developments. She was one who saw "The Late Shift" being aired on HBO3 at about 2 a.m. one night late in 1995 (unannounced, it turned out, for Emmy-entry purposes). She taped it and sent it to me, and my subsequent New York Observer review stirred up a poopstorm at TV critics' tour, where HBO reps had been insisting to all the scribes that the movie "wasn't ready to be screened yet."

The other night, a stranger knocked at Karen's door in western New York state, and as soon as her guest left she knew she had to tell me the tale.

"A young college age girl came to the door during the break between some severe thunderstorms last night and wanted my mother and me to give her money," Karen writes. "She wasn't selling anything or collecting for a cause.  She said she was a student at 'Niagara Falls University' (the name is really Niagara University) and lives in the neighborhood.  She said she had waited till the last minute and needed $5,000 by 8 pm that night to pay for her trip to England to go appear in a television program with John Cleese that will be on PBS on October 17. She then went through all of his credits on TV, including 'Upstairs Downstairs.'

"I questioned her on Niagara Falls University but didn't get to Cleese's credits because my mother had a couple of dollars change in her pocket and gave it to her so that she would go away and we could close up the door again before the next storm hit.

"Is there any way to check with PBS to find out if this story has any truth to it?"

Sure there is, Karen.  I post it to TV Barn and then all my public-TV moles write me back to tell me if this was an elaborate hoax by a methed-out college girl ... or whether John Cleese is hosting a new reality program where contestants must perform over-the-top tasks like begging for thousands of dollars door to door.