What I did see in the 1960s, and would like to see again, were the precursor shows to Monty Python: The Complete and Utter History of Britain (Palin and Jones), Please Do Not Adjust Your Set (Eric Idle, with The Bonzo Dog Dooh-Dah Band), and At Last the 1948 Show (Cleese and Chapman with Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor). The last, especially, has a lot of the sensibility that went into Python. There are a few bits and pieces on YouTube, probably recorded of people’s home sets, but I believe all the original broadcast tapes of these shows have long since been wiped.
I remembered another. In 1974, KING TV in Seattle did a show called Pompeii on Elliott Beii; it was set in the far future when archaeologists were unearthing the ruins of Seattle (Queen Anne Mound had erupted and buried the city) and interpreting what they found. A golf course represented man’s struggle against the elements and the amusement rides at Seattle Center were for torturing misbehaving children.
Very obscure. A web search turns up a previous thread from here as the first result.
I believe the name of the show was STUMP THE STARS
Deanna was a regular one season, and I remember she did a week wearing her LAND OF THE GIANTS costumes.
There are DVD sets of At Last the 1948 Show and Do Not Adjust Your Set containing what apparently are all the surviving episodes (five and nine shows, respectively).
In 1984 I was entranced by everything Nickelodeon had to offer which tended to be repurposed UK shows. My favorite was The Third Eye, which I later found VHS bootlegs if on eBay. But I was fond of some of their other animated shows too.
Then there’s Water Babies.
There were other things I was happy to find again, though in some cases merely identifying them was enough.
Martin Short meeting Bette Davis on Carson.
Years ago I saw Martin Short on Letterman telling the story of meeting Bette Davis on Carson ‘live’. After the internet and YouTube were common I looked for years for this clip. It seems that every clip of Letterman and/or Short was there… just not this clip. Then finally someone uploaded it. Now if I could just find the actual Tonight Show clip he referenced.
BETTY!
Incredibly, I’d just logged on to request help tracking down a song, and this thread topped the page.
Ca. 1965, the American That Was the Week That Was, a number sung by series regular Nancy Ames (if memory serves). Tense, scary orchestration. Three verses, identical except for the names (two lines went approximately: “They’ve got your wife, -----------. / Run for your life, -----------.”), about people escaping from secret police or somesuch similar. The first two verses dealt with foreign names, the third a very American name, I think “Jack Johnson.” It ended with the screamed word “Hide!” Left quite a scar on a 10-year old’s mind nearly fifty years ago, and I’d sure like to hear it again. YouTube and Grooveshark have been no help, but then, they’re not the Straight Dope Message Board!
It ran on TV until 1978, and continued to tour as late as 1987.
“the secret diary of Desmond Pfeiffer” and “Homeboys in outer space”. I found both of these to be hilariously bad when they aired (especially Desmond, as my fathers one of those civil war reenacting morons), and can only find 2 episodes of the former on youtube, and none of the latter ANYWHERE. Of course if anyone knows anyone…
There was a movie on TV in the 70s [guessing] can’t remember the name of it, might have been Soul Survivor, but it was about a squadron of US fighter pilots who’s planes had gone down in the desert and they were waiting to be rescued
Turns out they were all dead
Never been shown on TV since, and doesn’t appear to be available on VHS, DVD or anything else. It often gets asked about online.
Another one was Abigail’s Party which was on the BBC in the 70s, “everyone” over 30 had seen it and it was remembered with great reverence, it was re-shown a few years ago.
back…WAY back in the early 60’s my Dad was on the original “Price is Right” with Bill Cullen. He won, in early 60’s dollars over 30 thousand dollars worth of stuff including a Leopard Jacket (illegal now) a full length white beaver cape trimmed in mink and a HOUSE in Florida. What I would give to see him on the show! (I was 2 at the time)
Mine is a movie (I think) that I saw at the drive-in. But I may have mixed up some of my memories about it.
I was very young so it would have to have been in the early to mid sixties. One of the actors was a young Indian boy and he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I fell deeply in love, as only a six to ten year old little girl can. He took my breath away and I cried myself to sleep for weeks over him. Now I have no clue who this was. It may have been a Johnny Quest movie or something. I’ve googled a bit, but can’t find anything that matches my vague memories.
David Letterman, when he was on NBC, having as a guest a guy who bred exotic poultry.
I saw it exactly once, and there’s a moment in the segment that quite literally had me on the floor for ten minutes and makes me smile even now, some 20+ years later.
That I can easily believe.
I remember the 'bomber in the desert" one! I’ve seen it repeated once - Bill Shatner was in it. IMDB link
No quotes on the IMDB page, but as I recall
The crew left their desert survival gear on the plane, and bailed out with their ocean gear. Because the desert “looks like the sea at night.” Also, Shatner 's character bailed early and survived, coming back to the site years later. The ghosts of the rest of the crew appeared to him just long enough to get hm to confess, and have a breakdown.
I think I remember this. Might it have been a Twilight Zone episode?
I’d like to see the Gene London (local Philadelphia celebrity and kids’ show host) episode on which my first guitar teacher appeared.
I’ve also poked around youtube hoping like mad that there was any footage of (again, Philaldelphia) WPVI’s weatherman Jim O’Brien – there’s the tribute stuff from when he was killed, but I’d love to see one of his funny weather predictions again. I was just a kid, but I thought he was the funniest thing ever.
I was quite happy when someone put up John Lennon’s version of local Philly weather – I was also little when this happened, and for years I couldn’t get people to believe me that John Lennon (who was a friend of Larry Kane, another WPVI newsman) did a guest appearance as the weatherman (JL was down in Philly to do the Mike Douglas show). It’s not the entire clip, but at least I could prove to a skeptical friend that I wasn’t crazy!
Maya (1966) with teen idol Sajid Khan (befriending a post-Dennis the Menace Jay North)?
The Great Lost TV Sitcom is Remember WENN. It ran for several seasons on AMC long before Mad Men. Everybody loved the series, which was entirely written by Rupert Holmes who is brilliant despite being stuck with that idiot Pina Colada Song tag as the one thing people know about him.
You can find bunches of fan websites for the show and pleading invocations for it to be issued on any format. DVD. Videotape. Laser disk. 8" floppies. It never has. And there has never been any explanation why or why not. It can’t even be a problem with the song rights - the thing that plagued WKRP in Cincinnati - because Holmes wrote all the music - perfect pastiches of 40s hits.
You can’t even find it in syndication because the first three seasons were shot as full 30 minutes episodes, meaning that either they’re cut to pieces for a 30-minute with commercials timeslot or given the hated 45-minute one.
If there were any explanation it wouldn’t be as frustrating. As it is it’s just bizarre.