#experimental television

[buzzdixonwriter]

Turn-On! Turned Off (part 1)

Turn-On! Is a legendary 1969 TV show legendary for all the wrong reasons:  It was cancelled during its first commercial break.

Typically when TV shows of that era are discussed it’s out of context with the time.  This is okay when discussing conventional westerns or cop shows or comedy-variety shows since they typically took great pains to avoid the social issues of their day in order to maximize appeal.

But there’s a different breed of cat that went out looking for trouble, and boy howdy!, was Turn-On! one of those.  It was a brilliant misfire, w-a-a-a-y ahead of its time, offensive then, and in an odd way, even more offensive now.

First off let’s set the culture temperature for the U.S. on February 5, 1969, Turn-On!’s premiere:

1967’s Summer of Love morphed into 1968’s days of rage

The Vietnam War continued to drag on in the wake of the Tet Offensive in January 1968

Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated

Political infighting split the Democratic Party, culminating with the infamous 1968 Democratic

Convention riot in Chicago “The whole world’s watching!”

White racist George Wallace created the proto-MAGA American Independent Party and siphoned off enough votes from Hubert Humphrey to cost him the election

Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, who until recently were the sleaziest bastards ever to set foot in the White House, won election for the so-called “silent majority”

The popular and innovative 1967 show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour became increasingly more political, rousing both White House and network ire (it would be cancelled on June 6, 1969)

On January 22, 1968 Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In, produced by George Schlatter and Ed Friendly. replaced The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and became an immediate smash hit

The latter bears great importance on the story of Turn-On! and not merely because Schlatter and Friendly produced both shows.

Turn-On! has been accurately described as watching a half-hour’s worth of TikTok videos back-to-back.  While Laugh-In pioneered fast paced rapid-fire editing for skit comedy, it nonetheless maintained enough form for (most) audiences to get their bearings.  Whenever things grew too frenetic, they could always return to hosts Dan Rowan and Dick Martin or announcer Gary Owen to give viewers a chance to catch their breath.  They employed regular skits so the folks at home could find reassuring familiarity each week as well as more or less conventional satirical musical numbers, all backed by well placed laugh tracks.

They also hired a good cast, created several recurring stock characters who remain familiar to this day, and launched several catch phrases emblemic of the era:  “Sock it to me” “The flying fickle finger of fate” “You bet your sweet bippy” “Here comes the judge” (Okay, that last one is actually a call back to African-American vaudeville, but bravo to Laugh-In for sharing it with the rest of the country.)

And while the show didn’t steer clear of political and social satire, they lacked the heartfelt intensity the Smothers Brothers brought to theirs. 

You’re scarcely nibbling the hand that feeds you when you invite Richard Nixon to say “Sock it to me” on national television.

So Laugh-In had a sense of rebellion, a sense of daring, but in truth often appeared no more edgy than a copy Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang.  It was a format swiftly and ironically even more successfully imitated in cornpone by Hee Haw (and don’t get me wrong, Hee Haw could be damn funny).

 © Buzz Dixon

Turn-On! episode one with Tim Conway

Turn-On! episode two with Robert Culp and France Nuyen

[fashionlandscapeblog]

Michael Druks

Off-On, 1973

[haveyouheardthisband]

[golden-west]

[disease]

THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED PSYCHIC TV 丰 1988 丰 7" SINGLE: Ø MATRIX ETCHING [A]: "THERE IS NO MESSAGE"

[blnxpc]

"Cell Observation"

Video feedback collage

*Please be careful of blinking lights*

[phonographica]

Conrad Schnitzler – Con (1978)

[leonardcohenofficial]

longtime friends and mutuals know how 8x22 dreams is my fave MASH episode and how incredible i think it is as is but each time i rewatch it i find myself going “you were so close to bringing it back to a deeper analysis of all of these characters complicity in the imperialist war machine and you juuuuuust scratch the surface for viewers to dive into this in later interpretation”

[dandelionjack]

inviting a girl over for movie date night making her watch twin peaks season 3 episode 8 if she says she doesn’t get it she’s not the one for me

[seancamerons]

[fashionlandscapeblog]

The Endless Sandwich (1972) - dir. Peter Weibel

[haveyouheardthisband]

[golden-west]

[nothing-but-music-videos]

The Flying Lizards

"Money"

Live performance on TopPop, 1979

Song written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford

[broadcastarchive-umd]

#PBSwednesday "Flick Out" (1970-71) was a series of 18 half-hour programs presenting the work of young filmmakers. "U.S. 27 Alt." concerned a young man evading the draft who meets his derelict father (played by Royal Dana, above) as he travels down a mythical highway in the American Northwest on his way to Canada. The series, like much of early PBS programming, was controversial and provoked debate in Congress.

Special Collections in Mass Media and Culture  |  Tumblr Archive

[razzek]

In case you ever wondered why I'm Like That, this was a very formative show for me and a lot of weird kids in the 90s staying up late and sneaking a watch of very questionable tv. :D