Does anyone know if there is website or a place to purchase the show "Turn On". When I was 14 in 1968, our local ABC outlet WFAA, postponed it until around 2:00am, because it was supposed to be very controversial. Well, I thought I would wake up to watch it, but I slept through the alarm. Because it was so bad, the sponsor pulled out during the one and only showing and ABC cancelled immediately. Tim Conway was the main host.
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"Turn On"
- Thread starter stevezodiac
- Start date
I didn't see the show...form what I've heard, it was amazing that it made it onto the airwaves. Somebody's head probably rolled for that decision. Generally, any network show in the late 60s that tried to play off hippie youth culture and drug-use language (i.e.: "turn on, tune in, drop out") was a major embarrassment. The one exception I can think of was "Laugh In," which got away with a few drug jokes, not to mention getting Goldie Hawn and Judy Carne as close to naked as Standards and Practices would allow in those days, then cover them in psychedelic body paint. Quite daring for the time, considering it was only a year or two before Laugh In that Barbara Eden was forced to cover up her belly button.
Although at least one station, WEWS Cleveland,
pulled "Turn-On" after about ten minutes, and
gm Don Perris sent a wire to ABC saying, "If you're
going to write dirty words on the walls, please don't
use OUR walls," the segment that caused the most
flack came later; Tim Conway and an actress were
making silly faces at each other while the word "SEX"
flashed on-screen in different colors and emphasis
("SEX? SEX!").
I think there were, maybe, three or four more episodes
"in the can" that never made it to the air, but I'd be
surprised if they're out there anywhere. George Schlatter,
who also did "Laugh-In," would be the man to know, I
would think.
pulled "Turn-On" after about ten minutes, and
gm Don Perris sent a wire to ABC saying, "If you're
going to write dirty words on the walls, please don't
use OUR walls," the segment that caused the most
flack came later; Tim Conway and an actress were
making silly faces at each other while the word "SEX"
flashed on-screen in different colors and emphasis
("SEX? SEX!").
I think there were, maybe, three or four more episodes
"in the can" that never made it to the air, but I'd be
surprised if they're out there anywhere. George Schlatter,
who also did "Laugh-In," would be the man to know, I
would think.
...sure it wasn't shot on videotape and preserved as a kinescope? ABC seems to have done that later than CBS or NBC...
Ultimajock said:
You may be right about Turn-On being preserved through a kinescope since one of the comments I read from someone who saw it ( I think it was Jump the Shark ) mentioned how poor the quality was. The person who posted the message was expecting a show shot on video tape ( like Laugh In and The Smothers Brothers ) but instead saw the show on film. B&W kines were bad enough, but color? I would think the quality would be worse.
Turn On BTW sounds like it was done very much on the cheap. I never saw the show myself but from what I read about Turn On was shot for the most part on a white sound stage with no sets and unlike Laugh-In, no laugh track was used. And the credits ran throughout the entire show.
Tim Conway of course was the guest on the show that did air , most everyone knew that. But on the other Turn-On episodes that were taped but never aired the guests were...Sebastian Cabot and The Monkees.
Here a link I found to WIKIPEDIA that explains "Turn On" and other one showing shows.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_shows_canceled_after_one_episode
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_shows_canceled_after_one_episode
I can confirm it's at the Museum of TV and Radio at least in Beverly Hills, since I've seen it there. It's pretty boring and pretty unfunny. It probably would have gotten some latitutde (and maybe a few more episodes) if it was funny or exciting. The Moog loop that plays throughout the show will also get on your nerves after about 5 minutes.
--Mike
--Mike
A couple of examples of the "humor" on Turn-On:
MAN #1: I just bought the Washington Senators
(meaning the baseball team that's now the Texas
Rangers).
MAN #2: All Icould afford was a Congressman.
A very attractive young woman is about to be shot
before a firing squad.
MAN: I know this is unusual, but in this case the firing squad
has one last request.
Periodically, a computer would interrupt things to present a few
of the credits.
This show was originally offered to CBS. One executive said that
the show's frenetic pacing (by 1969 standards) made some CBS
programmers physically ill. He also said that the show he saw was
"an Academy-Award winner compared to that thing ABC put on."
Wonder what that unaired show was like?
MAN #1: I just bought the Washington Senators
(meaning the baseball team that's now the Texas
Rangers).
MAN #2: All Icould afford was a Congressman.
A very attractive young woman is about to be shot
before a firing squad.
MAN: I know this is unusual, but in this case the firing squad
has one last request.
Periodically, a computer would interrupt things to present a few
of the credits.
This show was originally offered to CBS. One executive said that
the show's frenetic pacing (by 1969 standards) made some CBS
programmers physically ill. He also said that the show he saw was
"an Academy-Award winner compared to that thing ABC put on."
Wonder what that unaired show was like?
BPatrick:
You were in Birmingham back in '69, weren't you?
Any recollections of how WBRC-6 treated "Turn On"? Did they preempt it (wouldn't surprise me), or were they one of the infamous stations which bailed mid-show?
--Russell
You were in Birmingham back in '69, weren't you?
Any recollections of how WBRC-6 treated "Turn On"? Did they preempt it (wouldn't surprise me), or were they one of the infamous stations which bailed mid-show?
--Russell
I didn't move to Birmingham until June of '69.
I was living in Greenville, SC, the night Turn-On
aired, so I saw it on WLOS. They ran the show
in its entirety, and I'm still surprised that TPTB at
Bob Jones University didn't demand that they
pre-empt it altogether. (Off-topic, but WLOS also
carried those early controversial episodes of Soap
in September and October 1977.)
I was living in Greenville, SC, the night Turn-On
aired, so I saw it on WLOS. They ran the show
in its entirety, and I'm still surprised that TPTB at
Bob Jones University didn't demand that they
pre-empt it altogether. (Off-topic, but WLOS also
carried those early controversial episodes of Soap
in September and October 1977.)
In many of my trivia books that mention Turn-On, it always brings up to two things. The comment from Cleveland's WEWS and as result of a settlement between the sponsor and ABC, it was agreed that the tapes of Turn ON be locked up and never seen again.
The latter has to be an urban legend. After all I heard the exact same thing about the Star Wars Christmas Special that CBS aired in 1978 and the Science Fiction Awards of 1977 where William Shatner seemed "out of it" doing Elton John's Rocket Man, yet both are available to watch on You Tube. Dittos with Pink Lady & Jeff yet you can BUY the show on DVD now.
Then there was Desi Arnaz hosting the Emmy Awards back in 1957 (?) drunk. Yet some of the authors of those Lucy books saw it and comment about it in their books, plus Ihave been told that the Lucy-Desi Museum in Jamestown, NY even they have a copy.
so much for the settlements.
Actually the only TV event I can see actually being well locked up is the infamous Chris Chubbuck TV suicide back in 1974. I understand that even todat the Sarasota,FL police department still has the tape. Now I have doubts we'll see that on You Tube ( or anywhere else ) anytime time. Not that I want too anyway.
The latter has to be an urban legend. After all I heard the exact same thing about the Star Wars Christmas Special that CBS aired in 1978 and the Science Fiction Awards of 1977 where William Shatner seemed "out of it" doing Elton John's Rocket Man, yet both are available to watch on You Tube. Dittos with Pink Lady & Jeff yet you can BUY the show on DVD now.
Then there was Desi Arnaz hosting the Emmy Awards back in 1957 (?) drunk. Yet some of the authors of those Lucy books saw it and comment about it in their books, plus Ihave been told that the Lucy-Desi Museum in Jamestown, NY even they have a copy.
so much for the settlements.
Actually the only TV event I can see actually being well locked up is the infamous Chris Chubbuck TV suicide back in 1974. I understand that even todat the Sarasota,FL police department still has the tape. Now I have doubts we'll see that on You Tube ( or anywhere else ) anytime time. Not that I want too anyway.
mleach said:
Not meaning to throw the thread too far off topic, but along that same line I hope that Australian police officials manage to keep the tape of Steve Irwin's death locked up.
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