Well, I didn’t find the ratings for that specific week, but this site says the top-rated shows for the period from October 1977 to April 1978 were:
Interesting little trip down memory lane right there.
I haven’t seen the movie since it first aired, but I have the LP and the CD. My husband bought me the CD (turntable’s been dead for years) and he loves it even though he’s never seen the movie. The songs are brilliant. So close to the originals and yet so completely different. I used to go to Beatlefests in the late 70s, early 80s and sing-alongs always included Rutles songs, although some people clearly thought they were, well, blasphemy. Those people needed to get a sense of humor.
According to MS Excel, that date would have fallen on a Wednesday. As you can see from this wikipedia page, if it had shown at 8:00, it would have gotten creamed against “Eight is Enough” on ABC and and “Good Times” on CBS. However, “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” was still in its well-recieved first season at the time, so I doubt NBC would have pre-empted it.
So it most likely would have replaced their unremembered later offerings, and gone up against the first Smith-Jackson-Ladd season of “Charlie’s Angels” (which it would hav done if shown at 8:00 as well), followed by “Baretta”.
Never stood a chance, it didn’t.
It ran from 9:30 to 11:00. But now I’m wondering what NBC broadcast from 9:00 to 9:30 - did they run a special 90 min episode of Grizzly Adams? And what movie was CBS broadcasting on that date?
I love it. Every song is a spot-on perfect send-up. I somehow “inherited” the vinyl from one of my older brothers (who’s not dead), and have the DVD as well.
I saw it on its first broadcast on the telly! Loved it from the get-go! Must have the DVD!
“A musical legacy which will last a lunchtime”
I’m standing on the bank of the Mississippi…
Whatever you do, DO NOT buy the sequel, “The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch”.
A total waste of time and money.
I thought I should point out, for those who are not aware, that there is a flaw in this diamond - a continuity error. There is a scene in a hotel room circa 1964, where they’re having a food fight with the breakfast tray. There were teapots, and they messed around with them, saying how to make tea. Then later they get turned on to the psychedelic properties of…tea. Well, it was the '70s. And it was the original SNL cast. I have an idea how it got by them!
Regarding the possibility of copyright infringement, that’s the primary reason that “Get Up And Go” did not appear on the original LP, due to its unmistakable resemblance to “Get Back.” I think Warner Bros were afraid of a lawsuit. Somehow, that was rectified by the time Rhino put out the CD. It included several more songs from the film that were also not on the album.
It wouldn’t really have mattered. “Charlie’s Angels” was the Wednesday night’s biggest hit, and certainly no one was going to flip over halfway through it for something called The Rutles.
Idiotic programming, when you come to think about it. Nearly identical demographic for the two offerings.
Wow…on my version of the film, this is “Blind Lemon Pie” and his wife. I quoted him just after John Corrado. Did I get a defective copy, or something?
Blind Lemon Pie is the first man he visits. “Surely you were playing the blues 30 years ago?” “No, I was workin’ on the railroad. Then I heard The Rutles and I became a musician. And I’ve been starvin’ ever since.” “So, where did Rutle music originate?” “Next door, at Ruttling Orange Peel.”
I have just had a gander at the Wikipedia entry for The Rutles, and it includes the following
“In settlement of a lawsuit, Rutles’ songs are now listed as being authored by Lennon and McCartney.”
Is this accurate?
I think that might be what made me think that Apple Corps had sued Neil Innes, on my assumption that it owned (at the time) the copyright in L&McC’s (or is it McC&L?) works. George’s individual participation in “All You Need Is Cash” did not necessarily overrule out the company’s right to be petulant.
I thought it was listed under the “fiction history” section, and thus, a joke.
I’ve got a CD "Rutles Highway Revisited (A Tribute to the Rutles)" that’s pretty amusing. The liner notes have a interview with Ron–as written by Neil.
I learned about them kinda backwards. I found the vinyl album, with booklet, in a used record store. I bought it 'cause it had Eric Idle on it. I thought it was fantastic, of course, and somehow got hold of the Rhino VHS later. I still watch it once in awhile. It’s one of my favorite movies.
“It was here … well, not here exactly … a little back there … that Stig invited Nasty to help him stand up. Nasty, merely an amateur drinker at the time, agreed.”
Same for me, and I also found a used vinyl album of “Rutland Weekend Television” songs. I really wish I still had both! I got rid of them when I ditched my turntable, for which I no longer could find a replacement stylus (needle). I still hear snippets of some of those RWTV songs in my head sometimes & chuckle. (Yes, I’m already on meds, thanks.)
Ah, thanks…it’s been quite a while since I watched it.
The band Galaxie 500 cover “Cheese and Onions” on their album Uncollected. In the liner notes (well, on the back of the album), the song is credited to Lennon/McCartney, as is the band’s cover of The Beatles’s “Rain.”