Not a gear head, but I had a friend in high school who was an idiot. While his girlfriend was driving on the main drag one day he stuck the car in reverse or park, not actually sure. We all braced for catastrophe, but nothing happened. The car basically was in neutral.
He also shut off the car while driving, but because it was in drive was unable to remove the keys. The driver had to shift to neutral, then she was able to restart it. Basically while it was off, there was no power steering, or power brakes.
ETA: this was in an 89 LeBaron.