My God, did Pat Prescott have the sexiest voice ever or what!
Any of you late-30-somethings (or older or younger) remember this truly bizarre USA network cornucopia of videos, short films, silent films, even “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger” episodes, iirc.
What a creative breath of fresh air it was. Back in '85 or so, I was 21, lived in Oceanside, CA, and would watch this into the wee hours on Friday night; my first wife would grow tired and usually fall asleep with her head in my lap as I watched on.
Anybody else remember it? Does it bring back memories of those days, being up late, maybe stoned, etc.?
I loved Night Flight too! I saw “video art” for the first time on there, any number of controversial music videos, and of course Captain Video. Plus I remember a great feature on the Residents. Thanks for the link!
Awesome memory!!! THat was such a cool show…it was “back in the days” where not everyone had cable. I can remember having Friday night gatherings at a friends house that had cable and we always watched it…we thought we were so rad and gnarly.
These are fond memories of my teenage years! Remember the Some Bizarre Show of videos by bands on said label? And MTV’s 120 Minutes, when it first started out, actually showed some videos you couldn’t find anywhere else. And how about Hazel O’Connor and the new wave band documentary Breaking Glass? Or Susan Seidelman’s first film Smithereens? Ah yeah.
I loved Night Flight because it introduced me to some really cool music and visuals, like George Melies’s “From the Earth to the Moon” accompanied by Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”
Night Flight really loved Kate Bush, and would play videos and her live Hammersmith Odeon concert often. In 1985, when Kate came to New York to promote Hounds of Love, we (through friends of friends) managed to get an invite to the taping. We sat in the control room and tried to be very quiet, but it was so hard to keep from laughing. The interviewer was an ignorant dip (though with good notes that someone else, obviously, put together) and kept saying such stupid things (here is a hilarious transcript of the unedited interview, you can feel the atmosphere is getting testier and testier). There wasn’t a window between the interview room and the control room, but you could see Kate and the interviewer on several different monitors. Kate is a very polite person, always, but this interview tested that politeness severely).
Ah! Night Flight! There was a good year in there when we didn’t have cable, and I’d just stare at the TV guide decriptions (which went on for about ten lines in their case) and dream about what I was missing. Then we got cable!
I want to add, I am NOT in my LATE 30’s.:mad: I was, like, 13 then.
(The “like” seems appropirate since I’m talking about being 13 in the eighties.)
Slight correx: Breaking Glass was not a documentary. But it did star Hazel O’Conner (and Jonathon Price).
Remember Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains? I remember their ten year anniversary special for Rocky Horror which I thought was so cool (this was in the midst of my RHPS period) – they even played “Superheroes.”
I loved that movie in all its campy goodness! Diane Lane and Laura Dern in a movie they would probably rather forget–now that they are big stars. I watched it every time it was on.
I would watch the whole show every Friday night. Wasn’t it on Saturdays, too? I remember one night in particular–I was supposed to be writing a paper that I put off for the last minute and was up until 3:00 watching an hour of OMD videos and interviews, while trying to write the paper.
I loved when they would feature one artist for an hour and play all of their videos (Tears for Fears, OMD, Kate Bush). Since it was the early-mid 80s and the videos were somewhat limited, we got to see some really obscure ones. I love obscure! God, it was great! They started to suck when they had comedy on…but I still watched it anyway.
Damn this takes me back! I was about 11 to 13 during it’s heyday on USA. Since I bounced between my parents’ homes on weekends I didn’t get to run around with my buddies much (yep, a loser). But I would stay up late watching old movies, videos and what not. Then I found this, I loved the free form format of the show. A mix of the obscure, the cutting edge, the bizarre, and the forgotten gems and garbage of our pop culture past.
Dynaman, cartoons old and new (that Porky the Pig saying “son of a bitch” short being my favorite). Those wild movies like Nick Danger In The Case Of The Missing Yolk (I still remember that Boobiechew commercial!), Fantastic Planet (moody downer sci-fi animation from France!), those Warhol (in name only) horror flicks, The Red Barn, etc. Those montages of videos, bloopers, “Bob, Church Of The SubGenius” material, old anti-Commie propaganda shorts with Jack Webb, cartoons, trailers for various old movies. I was probably too young and impressionable to come away from seeing this stuff on a regular basis mentally intact.
<sniff> And here I thought I was the only one who remembered Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains! I bought it on eBay a while back. I taped the RHPS special (while at RHPS) and watched it I don’t know how many times. And Another State of Mind on the band Social Distortion. And the half-hour special on drag queens, and a separate one specifically about Divine including videos for several of his songs. And what I think was the American debut of what would later become Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Same outfits, no giant robots that I remember, with the actors overdubbed a la What’s Up Tiger Lily?
Then after USA bagged it, it was picked up in syndication for a season or two. My NBC affiliate used to show it in half-hour chunks after Saturday Night Live. One thing I vividly remember is “Twin Geeks,” a Twin Peaks parody featuring a re-edit of http://us.imdb.com/Title?0043397Chained For Life with conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton. Hilarious.
My all time favorite Night Flight moment was when they showed a clip that somebody had stitched together from Ron and Nancy Reagan’s speech on drugs. Hysterical. “Nancy and I…[obvious edit] have been hooked on heroin [cut] for many years. [another edit] Caspar Weinburger [cut] has been [cut] selling marijuana [cut] out of the [cut] White House [cut] since 1984.” I wouldn’t mind seeing that again…it’s been far too long.
I watched it every time it was on.
