In 1970, Jerry Rubin and other yippies took over a BBC live-to-air David Frost television show broadcast on 7 November 1970.
The disruption occurred when Jerry Rubin, Stew Alpert and other yippies were being interviewed live on the David Frost Show on BBC television. Rubin offered David Frost what looked like an enormous "joint" to smoke. Then shortly after this the youthful audience came flooding down and took over the stage. This of course, totally disrupted the stage-managed show and everything became chaotic and ad lib after this.....
Jerry Rubin was part of the group that had earlier disrupted the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Australian, John Kirk was in London at the time and shot this video using an early release of the Sony half-inch, reel-to-reel "portapak" (Sony CV format). The ground breaking video group, TVX, and John "Hoppy" Hopkins were involved as producers of the tape.
This is the now-famous event where Felix Dennis became the first person to use a particularly offensive four-letter word live on air. Since then, the BBC has introduced a 15-second delay for all live transmissions.
"Television chiefs will begin an inquiry today into the yippie invasion of the David Frost Show. The probe was ordered by Mr. Brian Young, director-general of the Independent Television Authority. It follows the invasion of the Saturday-night programme by about twenty yippies – members of an American revolutionary cult. They swarmed on to the stage while Frost was quizzing yippie leader Jerry Rubin and forced Frost to change to another studio. Some shouted four-letter words and threatened to take over the programme."