It was Tuesday, November 3rd, 1998 and we had just come out of the commercial break during Felicity… The scene was late afternoon, and Noel Crane, residential advisor at New York’s Kelvin Hall found himself sitting before Dean Allison in an episode about academic dishonesty.
Noel namedropped his website URL, www.noelcrane.com, for the first time on-air during this conversation. It appeared as a moment of nonchalance, nearly lost in a scene of great academic tension. The Dean started by asking Noel if he had ever used the internet. Noel replied, “I actually have my own webpage… Noelcrane.com.” Before many of those watching knew what had occurred, The Dean had already returned to the subject at hand, piracy of term papers via the web.
The Dean’s glassy and unappreciative stare may have interfered with Noel’s immediate need for validation, but curious and potentially concerned viewers everywhere raced to their internet to check this one out.