"Arrested Development" "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." Michael Nesmith's "Television Parts" "That Was the Week that Was."
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Most Bizarre Shows Ever on Television.
- Thread starter Mark Giardina
- Start date
...Michael Nesmith's Television Parts was a damned good comedy/musical variety show...
..."One Ton Tomato, I eat a One Ton Tomato" ;D ...
..."One Ton Tomato, I eat a One Ton Tomato" ;D ...
I'd say "Turn On" was the most bizarre show I've ever watched on TV. I and the rest of America only watched it once. The ABC skit comedy was considered so controversial that it was cancelled within days of its first epidsode in 1969. Some ABC affiliates in the West, after hearing how East Coast viewers had reacted, wouldn't even air the first episode.
Wikipedia says Chuck McCann and Theresa Brewer were supposed to be regulars, while Tim Conway was the guest star. As I remember, there was no formal beginning or end. The credits to the show ran all during the program. The skits were done similar to Laugh-In but were not presented in any logical way. It moved very fast, although Laugh In also moved fast too, for its day.
I'm sure if we watched it today, we'd wonder what all the fuss was about.
Gregg
[email protected]
Wikipedia says Chuck McCann and Theresa Brewer were supposed to be regulars, while Tim Conway was the guest star. As I remember, there was no formal beginning or end. The credits to the show ran all during the program. The skits were done similar to Laugh-In but were not presented in any logical way. It moved very fast, although Laugh In also moved fast too, for its day.
I'm sure if we watched it today, we'd wonder what all the fuss was about.
Gregg
[email protected]
Gregg said:
Mr. McCann was indeed part of the repertory company - Bart Andrews and Brad Dunning's 1980 book The Worst TV Shows Ever had a picture of him putting his nose next to a film camera lens, making a funny face - but singer Teresa Brewer (of "Music, Music, Music" fame) was not even remotely involved with the show at all. You're probably thinking of the late Teresa Graves (who subsequently joined Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and was later the star of the very short-lived Get Christie Love!).
Incidentally, if the second show aired, the guests were to have been the late Robert Culp and his then-wife, France Nuyen.
Gregg said:
Has there ever been even part of Turn On to show up on the web anywhere?
wbhist said:
True about Teresa Brewer and her lack of involvment with Turn-On and how the show was cancelled very fast, but oddly enough a LOT of stuff that was writen about that show has since been discredited. Denver's KUSA to this day denies ever cancelling Turn-On halfway through the broadcast while Cleveland's WEWS I am pretty sure has since denied ever sening that telegram to ABC about not using THEIR ways if they must write dirty words or something similar. Then there is that "lawsuit" about how Turn-On will be locked up in a valut somewhere and never to been seen again. Who sued who? Why is Turn-On available for viewing at the The Paley Center for Media, formerly The Museum of Television & Radio if a lawsuit says it can't be seen? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Perhaps ABC wanted to milk at least some PR for themselves over Turn-ON even after they had cancelled it and those "stories" had stayed in circulation ever since.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
that Fox reality show where they strapped people into some sort of chair and tortured them
(don't recall the title)....both quite bizarre and very sick.
(don't recall the title)....both quite bizarre and very sick.
FreddyE1977 said:
The show was called "The Chamber".
ABC had a similar show at the same time, "The Chair".
Incidentally, as part of a months old thread about the Paley Center on the Game Show Forums, we've been discussing Turn-On..Quoting from those forums A post I wrote Oct. 8, 2010
Here is a quote from UPI TV Writer Rick DuBrow's column Monday, February 10, 1969-An excerpt from the Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram:Courtesy Newspaper Archive
STATIONS IN Cleveland,
Denver and Little Rock, Ark.,
canceled "Turn-On" last
week. One station manager
wrote ABC:
"If your naughty little boys
have to write dirty words .on
walls, please don't use our
walls. It's all right to be racy,
but this is just plain dirty."
Though it doesnt say here, the station manager that wrote ABC was said to have been WEWS-TV 5 Cleveland Station Manager Don Perris..
Here is a quote from UPI TV Writer Rick DuBrow's column Monday, February 10, 1969-An excerpt from the Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram:Courtesy Newspaper Archive
STATIONS IN Cleveland,
Denver and Little Rock, Ark.,
canceled "Turn-On" last
week. One station manager
wrote ABC:
"If your naughty little boys
have to write dirty words .on
walls, please don't use our
walls. It's all right to be racy,
but this is just plain dirty."
Though it doesnt say here, the station manager that wrote ABC was said to have been WEWS-TV 5 Cleveland Station Manager Don Perris..
H
Hal Erickson
Guest
Tim L said:
Legend has it that a couple of stations actually cancelled TURN-ON while it was on the air, pulling the ABC feed halfway through the 30-minute program. When doing my research on my LAUGH-IN book, I could find no concrete evidence that this really happened.
I have seen the only TURN-ON episode to be telecast. What was tasteless then is merely silly and dull today. Basic problem was the show had no real form, just gags being thrown at the audience.
They had actually filmed several episodes, and both ABC and the show's producers lost a lot of money when the show was axed after a single night. The negative reaction to the series caused ABC to take a pass on ALL IN THE FAMILY a year or so later.
Don't forget one of USA Network's earliest programs, Night Flight. The four-hour weekly anthology featuring concert films and "B"/independent/short movies, as well as "avant-garde" music videos. It still lives on through its creator's website.
Then, there was a short-lived program in limited syndication around 1995 called "Weird TV," from the minds behind '80s-era low-budget commercials for Southern California's now-defunct Federated Group electronics store chain featuring radio talent Shadoe Stevens.
Last, but not least, was "Television Noir" - a show based in Phoenix which aired on a local commercial independent TV station - KAZT - back in 2008. It was basically a public-access show on commercial TV hosted by two guys as alter-egos with a lot of off-beat, left-field humor. Surprising given KAZT's very conservative ownership.
Then, there was a short-lived program in limited syndication around 1995 called "Weird TV," from the minds behind '80s-era low-budget commercials for Southern California's now-defunct Federated Group electronics store chain featuring radio talent Shadoe Stevens.
Last, but not least, was "Television Noir" - a show based in Phoenix which aired on a local commercial independent TV station - KAZT - back in 2008. It was basically a public-access show on commercial TV hosted by two guys as alter-egos with a lot of off-beat, left-field humor. Surprising given KAZT's very conservative ownership.
...Tim Conway himself repeated the story about the show being cancelled between coasts and the bit about WEWS/5 yanking it in mid-screening when he was on Tom Snyder's ABC Radio show in 1990. I suppose Conway's having worked for KYW-TV/3 and WJW-TV/8 in Cleveland gave the WEWS tale a bit more credibility coming out of his mouth...mleach said:
Some of the stuff that sometimes airs overnight on NTV in Newfoundland is outright trippy. One of the things they have aired is a computer animation festival, and it is on Youtube somewhere. I have heard that they once aired an Inspector Gadget cartoon in the corner of the screen during a local newscast; I don't know if that is true but I would believe anything about NTV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CJON-TV#Overnight_programming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CJON-TV#Overnight_programming
...Tim Conway himself repeated the story about the show being cancelled between coasts and the bit about WEWS/5 yanking it in mid-screening when he was on Tom Snyder's ABC Radio show in 1990. I suppose Conway's having worked for KYW-TV/3 and WJW-TV/8 in Cleveland gave the WEWS tale a bit more credibility coming out of his mouth...
[/quote]
Actually it was Denver's channel 9 that I have heard over the yearswho had yanked Turn-On halfway through. That part was discredited some years back by KHOW-AM/Rocky Mountain News columist Penny Parker when she had done some interview on KHOW with an old timer who had then recently retired from KUSA-TV ( then KBTV ). Never heard that it was WEWS who had done the yanking mid way through however.
I am curious about that mysterious "Turn-ON" lawsuit though that I read in various books over the years though.
[/quote]
Actually it was Denver's channel 9 that I have heard over the yearswho had yanked Turn-On halfway through. That part was discredited some years back by KHOW-AM/Rocky Mountain News columist Penny Parker when she had done some interview on KHOW with an old timer who had then recently retired from KUSA-TV ( then KBTV ). Never heard that it was WEWS who had done the yanking mid way through however.
I am curious about that mysterious "Turn-ON" lawsuit though that I read in various books over the years though.
The Chair that John McEnroe did was a very bizarre show. I remember when the Chamber and the Chair both came out at about the same time in 2002. The Chair had higher viewership, and lasted nine episodes, while the Chamber only went 3.
Let's Make a Deal with Billy Bush was also bizarre. They jazzed it up a bit, but the skits they did on there were a little risque even for 2003.
The one that turned a lot of people off was when the goal was to get an item out of a woman with a one-piece bathing suit as the first deal. With the show airing at 8pm, this made people turn it off. They also gave away a trip to Iraq right before the war started as part of one of the big deals. No wonder it only lasted 3 episodes.
Let's Make a Deal with Billy Bush was also bizarre. They jazzed it up a bit, but the skits they did on there were a little risque even for 2003.
The one that turned a lot of people off was when the goal was to get an item out of a woman with a one-piece bathing suit as the first deal. With the show airing at 8pm, this made people turn it off. They also gave away a trip to Iraq right before the war started as part of one of the big deals. No wonder it only lasted 3 episodes.
N
nightfly61
Guest
Swingtown was a pretty awkward show to have on around the house. It got downright ick-ie, since everything revolved around sex or swingers or threesomes. The only thing decent about this short lived piece of crap was the soundtrack.
- Status