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Superman's son embraces his pantless moment: 'I'm a lousy camera operator'

Journalist Will Reeve went viral for wearing barely visible shorts under his suit coat on Good Morning America.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

Good Morning America reporter Will Reeve, son of the late   Superman star Christopher Reeve, is embracing his new role as a viral superhero. Reeve showed up in a video appearance Tuesday on the ABC morning talk show with a suit jacket on top but no pants underneath. (He was wearing barely visible shorts, but it very much looked like he just forgot his pants.) And on Wednesday, Reeve turned his moment in the spotlight into a helpful lesson, delivering a report on how to avoid video-chat mistakes -- like his own.

In the Wednesday report, Reeve laughed at himself, cautioning anyone using a video program to "make sure you frame your shot." He showed a montage of embarrassing viral moments, including his own.

"Yep, that's me," Reeve said. "Busted! Wearing shorts on GMA, my casual bottom half going viral." Reeve also spoke to Claude Taylor, whose Twitter account rates the rooms from which journalists shoot their video reports. Taylor awarded Reeve a 7 out of 10 and guessed that "probably 20 to 30 percent" of reporters are wearing mismatching bottoms on-air.

Reeve also noted that he didn't want anyone to think he didn't love his job or take his work seriously. "And I'm a lousy camera operator," he said.

Back on Tuesday, Reeve was reporting for GMA about pharmacies' plan to use drones to deliver medications to Florida's The Villages, the nation's largest retirement community. At first, his news report looked normal, but later on, when fewer graphics were covering up the bottom of the screen, viewers definitely saw some skin.

Reeve himself was able to laugh at the exposure, tweeting, "I have ARRIVED* *in the most hilariously mortifying way possible."

He later explained. "Trying to be efficient, I got ready for a post-GMA workout a little too soon this morning. The camera angle, along with friends, family and several hundred strangers on the social media, made me rethink my morning routine."

And in a second tweet, Reeve said, "When (work from home) goes wrong (or, your self-framed live shot goes too wide). Hope everyone got a much needed laugh."