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Most Bizarre Shows Ever on Television.

A local live show in the early 1960s on NBC affiliate channel 3 in Cleveland. On one Good Friday they did a 3-hour live program ... from Noon until 3:00pm ... with Priests and Nuns in commemoration of Christ's march to Calvary and his eventual crucifiction on the Cross. I was a little kid at that time, and my memory is fuzzy, but I do know we had the it on for the whole 3 hours. How much of it I actually watched is up for debate. I do remember my mother saying something like, "boy, I'm glad that's over" at 3:00 pm. I seem to remember it being exceedingly boring (but without a Popeye cartoon thrown in to spice things up now and then, what's a kid to think anyway). I have a fuzzy image in my mind of one close up shot of a nervous looking Nun, trying to come up with something to say as they apparently ran out of material. She was talking very slowly. The slower you talk, the less material you have to come up with. The next year, the program lasted one hour.
 
A local live show in the early 1960s on NBC affiliate channel 3 in Cleveland. On one Good Friday they did a 3-hour live program ... from Noon until 3:00pm ... with Priests and Nuns in commemoration of Christ's march to Calvary and his eventual crucifiction on the Cross. I was a little kid at that time, and my memory is fuzzy, but I do know we had the it on for the whole 3 hours. How much of it I actually watched is up for debate. I do remember my mother saying something like, "boy, I'm glad that's over" at 3:00 pm. I seem to remember it being exceedingly boring (but without a Popeye cartoon thrown in to spice things up now and then, what's a kid to think anyway). I have a fuzzy image in my mind of one close up shot of a nervous looking Nun, trying to come up with something to say as they apparently ran out of material. She was talking very slowly. The slower you talk, the less material you have to come up with. The next year, the program lasted one hour.

You can see that stuff all the time now on EWTN.
 
Has anyone mentioned "Manimal" (a guy who can change himself
into any form of animal)? The premise was weird enough; the
makeup, even worse.

Another that comes to mind is "The $1.98 Beauty Show," Chuck
Barris' satire of beauty contests, a show overflowing with potential
customers for Jenny Craig and with Rip Taylor as host (no threat to
Bert Parks).
 
Ken Tucky said:
How 'bout the lovely "Pink Lady & Jeff?"

If we are going there, then how about that children's program starring Xuxa in the early 90's?

She was perhaps best known as the star of Brazillian soft-core porn....a fabulous resume for a
childrens show host, wouldn't you say? And her English was absolutely incomprehensible. After
a few episodes they added a very menacing character (guy in a panda suit) to translate for her.
Show seemed to consist of little more than children and costumed animal characters dancing around
and singing as Xuxa struck cheesecake modeling poses for the camera. Then she would babble
something in fractured English and the Panda would translate.

The addition of the non-sequitur translators (Panda and Jeff) was what these two shows had in common.
Still not enough to save them.
 
bpatrick said:
Has anyone mentioned "Manimal" (a guy who can change himself
into any form of animal)? The premise was weird enough; the
makeup, even worse.

Another that comes to mind is "The $1.98 Beauty Show," Chuck
Barris' satire of beauty contests, a show overflowing with potential
customers for Jenny Craig and with Rip Taylor as host (no threat to
Bert Parks).

as irony would have it, the star of Manimal passed away today.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...n-MacCorkindale-dies-after-cancer-battle.html
 
The more I think about it what about that reality show some years back that had teamed up the late Tammy Faye Bakker and porno's Ron Jeremy?

Then again..maybe not so bizarre afterall considering that Jim Bakker is now doing informercials and their son Jay Bakker looks like he could pass as being the lead singer for some metal band.
 
gr8oldies said:
Jim Bakker's hawking real estate again!
Come to think of it the Jim J. Bullock and Tammy Faye Bakker show was pretty bizarre.

At one point in the 80s I made an audiio tape from TV cable-surfing and a pretty darn weird and random bit from Tammy Baker got saved.
It airs regularly on my part 15 AM. It's in a mixed music/voice element.

She goes on about someone is so purty and shiney and we just love her......

I'll have two of whatever SHE'S drinking.
 
gr8oldies said:
Jim Bakker's hawking real estate again!
Come to think of it the Jim J. Bullock and Tammy Faye Bakker show was pretty bizarre.

Jim Bakker may be hawking real estate but the other night I caught him selling some kind a power bar "not available at GNC". I was like..what a minute..geeeee UGH JIM BAKKER ! ! !

Never did have the chance to catch the Jim J. & Tammy Faye show though but I did hear it was awful.
 
mleach said:
Jim Bakker may be hawking real estate but the other night I caught him selling some kind a power bar "now available at GNC". I was like..what a minute..geeeee UGH JIM BAKKER ! ! !

Pat Robertson, another televangelist, did something similar -- hawking vitamins and an "age-defying shake" at GNC, and using The 700 Club as a vehicle to sell them. GNC later pulled the products off the shelves after learning that his claims that he could leg-press 2000 pounds has been proven false.
 
Even James Robison and his wife got into the infomercial act awhile back.
Then it was Tammy Faye with her industrial strength mascara. "we are clean, praise Him!"
 
...since we're getting into religious TV territory, I'd like to suggest:

a) Festivals of Faith with Dr. Gene Scott, a live production on which, whenever Doc got pi$$ed off enough at something or someone, he'd walk off the set and order that the camera simply focus on his empty chair for hours at a time...

b) The Ernest Angely Hour -- haven't seen it lately, but I recall from the late '70s that his toupee looked like it was made of cast iron (yes, one that was actually worse-than Howard Cosell's, heh heh)...
 
Ultimajock said:
The Ernest Angely Hour -- haven't seen it lately, but I recall from the late '70s that his toupee looked like it was made of cast iron (yes, one that was actually worse-than Howard Cosell's, heh heh)...

One would think the money this snake-oil salesman pulls in weekly that he would spend a few bucks and go to Hair Club for Men and buy a decent rug. ::)
 
Ernest is 89!

The Bakker's were on my radio station at 5am every weekday morning. They were ALWAYS prompt paying their bills.

I hope people are saying that about me in 29 years.

Whatever is under that toupee is working well enough to keep him breathing.
 
1) Anything with PeeWee Herman. Was it PeeWee's Playhouse?

2) Benny Hinn with the "Flock of Seagulls" hair-do.

3) Mr. Rogers going into the closet to get his sweater.

4) Dragnet was really weird if you think about the characters and then think of human beings.

5) "The Bowman Body" for those living in Richmond VA. Also Charles Fishburne doing the news on Ch. 6 (really horrible toup ) and Don Dale doing the weather on Ch.6

6) Gulla Gulla Island with the talking tadpole.

7) Watching Joey Bishop on ABC trying to be Johnny Carson

8) Nixon saying "Sock it to me' on Laugh In
 
Yes, it's a classic, but Mary Martin playing Peter Pan. A middle aged woman playing a little boy? Then you could see the wires.
 
I thought it was weird that both Darren McGavin's characters, Mike Hammer & Carl Kolchak never went home.
 
MsMusicRadio said:
3) Mr. Rogers going into the closet to get his sweater.

Then you have the WQED/Pittsburgh special "Kennywood Memories". Kennywood as in Pittsburgh's amusement park. Nothing wrong with doing a special about Kennywood but why did WQED have author Charles Jacques speak on the show was bizzare in its own right since the man's voice was a lot higher than Richard Simmons, Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Riley and Truman Capote..all put together. "...GEEEEEEE KIDDIELAND !! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ! ! "

and the sight of middle aged Jacques getting on the kiddie rides with children and that voice...

Story goes that when "Kennywood Memoires" had aired on Denver's KRMA ( WQED syndiecated the show to other PBS outlets ) an announcer at local rocker KBPI joked that Charles Jacques "...looked like Tarzan...but talked and acted more like Jane".
 
"The Letter People". . hands down. .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Letter_People

I seem to recall one episode that had this crappy CGI with a character named 'Lucky Star'. All he could do was a dance in a continuing loop while singing, "I-mmma LUCKY STARRRR". . .sounded like a bad Todd Rundgren tune. .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq25jFiVpvI

Another part of the show had a 'news cast' with the news cast theme sounding like a rip off of 'I Just Want To Celebrate' by Rare Earth.

(Of course, I may be confusing the above memories with another PBS show).
 
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