Michael Nesmith's Television Parts – Could a home video release be coming soon?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Michelle66, Sep 9, 2017.

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  1. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    I just came across Videoranch's new YouTube channel, and it features a ton of material from Television Parts (not to mention some things from Elephant Parts as well).

    The picture quality is excellent, and features content that had been removed from earlier home video compilations. So, it looks like the clips must have been sourced from the original masters.

    In the comments section for the first clip posted, someone asked this:
    The reply (from Videoranch themselves) was this:
    So, is this a crytic way to say the series might be forthcoming? Or will YouTube be the only place to see this stuff?

    Anyway, when "El Dorado to the Moon" was put out on the "Television Parts Home Companion" compilation, the opening bit with the girl crying about the broken toy was cut off. Now, it's back again for the first time since the episode was aired in 1985.

    What's more, Mike's intros for each bit of comedy (all removed from the "Dr. Duck's Super Secret All-Purpose Sauce" VHS/LD) can be see again.

    Hopefully, these clips being up on YouTube – direct from Videoranch themselves – means that a home video release is in the cards. I'd love to get the entire series in the quality seen here.

     
  2. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Hurricane Irma in the news is actually what caused me to have flashback to Television Parts ("stupid, ugly, Irma!")...


     
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  3. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    One of my favorite comedy bits from the show:
     
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  4. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    And more music:
     
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  5. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I was one of the few people who truly looked forward each week to Mike's silly little TV show on NBC. No doubt that his humor, sketches and music videos were far too over the heads for most people to "get", when the show was new. I so loved those funny "Five Second Concerts" with John Hobbs at the grand piano. I would easily buy a true hi-def version of this show on Blu-ray, if Mike can get something released. Maybe the show has reverted to his control after so many years?

     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2017
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  6. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Those were fun. All of the shows were shot on regular 16mm, so they're not ideal for HD release. There's also a ton of standard def video editing, visual effects, and titling done for the show, so redoing that for HD would be incredibly costly... but possible.

    Man, the only time I ever saw that bit was when I worked on it in 1984, but I never forgot it! "Irma, Irma, Irma... stupid, ugly Irma!" Very funny sketch.
     
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  7. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    When the sketch first aired, I didn't "get" its humor as easily as the others.

    But years later, rewatching it on the Dr. Duck's compilation, I had thought it was one of the best things there. (Cigarette smoke coming from the popped bubblegum bubble never fails to make me laugh. That, and "Look at your clothes, Irma! You can't even get a guy! Look at you! Look at you! A-ha ha ha! Dun-dah-da-dun-dah-da-dun!")

    Looking back at it now, Mike Nesmith was pretty adept at spotting talent. So many then-somewhat-obscure comedians/actors later became extremely famous.

    Jay Leno...Garry Shandling....Jerry Seinfeld...Whoopie Goldberg...etc. etc. etc.

    Television Parts might have been the place where I had first seen all of those folks (except for Jay Leno's appearances on the Letterman show).

    "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey" also debuted on the Nesmith series long before the bits turned up on SNL.



    "...I remember a bigger, older guy we called 'dad'..." :laugh:
     
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  8. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Maybe these will be digital streaming in HQ, but definitely I would love a Blu-ray release of the entire run finally!
     
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  9. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    All of the comedian videos were based on one of their stage routines. I have seen Lois Bromfield do Why I Never Went To College years ago.
     
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  10. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    The non Nez music videos were some of the highlights like
    I Got A Radio- The Coyote Sisters
    Laura- MFQ
    They Never Met- Martin Mull
    La Vie Dance- Jimmy Buffet
    Great Balls Of Fire- Jerry Lee Lewis
     
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  11. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    My favorite recurring Television Parts bit was Life With Rogar.
     
  12. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Beer Barrel Prokofiev.
     
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  13. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    The very first sketch I ever worked on for Television Parts was one with Bobcat Goldthwait, and I was kind of appalled at his "comic" voice... but behind the scenes, he did speak in his real voice. I eventually got his kind of comedy and saw that some of what he did was very funny.

    Some of the bits didn't work at all, and I think the show was very hit and miss. I know the producers were really upset with NBC, because they kept moving it around, pre-empting it for weeks, then bringing it back on with no promotion. Nesmith spent a fortune on the show, too. Again, it would be very, very hard to redo for HD because it was all shot in regular 1.33 16mm negative with a ton of standard-def video effects and titles. Anything could be done if they want to spend the money, but my guess is that trying to resurrect a very obscure 33-year-old failed TV show today is gonna be a losing proposition.

    I'll say this: we would be able to do the green-screen keying a lot better today. Some of the green-screen VFX I did for that show were absolutely horrific, just a nightmare to work on. I'm still traumatized about a pirate sketch that was the worst looking thing I ever saw. I realized quickly that green-screen VFX did not work for 16mm film, at least not in the 1980s. NOW it can be done, because the VFX is all digital and they can really get in there and fix all the little fringy gnarly problems.

    Michael himself was pretty good to deal with and he mentioned to me during a session that Monkees producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider had an office in the Sunset & Gower building we were working out of for the show (at Complete Post/Hollywood). Nesmith said this was the first time he'd been back in the building since about 1969 or so. I was warned by his producer not to bring up The Monkees, but Michael himself brought it up and was actually very amiable and mellow about the old show and had no resentment or bad things to say about it.
     
  14. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Around the time Television Parts was aired, both Bobcat Goldthwait and Sam Kinison began to regularly appear on TV, in movies, and in music videos.

    Both men were kind of portly and often screamed during their acts. (Back then, the shouting seemed to be merely a mid-80s gimmick to me.) My taste in humor was different those days, so I tended to ignore their antics. (Granted, the traits listed above are purely superficial. But at the time, neither man appealed to me, so I just lumped them together in my mind.)

    A few years ago, I stumbed across some Sam Kinison YouTube clips while looking for old Late Night with David Letterman material.

    My god, he was funny!

    His humor was extreme, but oh how I laughed! It made me sorry I hadn't paid more attention to his comedy back when he was still alive.

    But, Bob Goldthwait's appeal continues to elude me. That stupid, quirky voice... and the random shouts that seem somewhat spastic.

    So, I had been completely wrong about Sam Kinison. I now understand why his comedy is still held in such high regard.

    As for the other guy? That voice still gives me the hives...

     
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  15. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Now, to cleanse the palate...:
     
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  16. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    A GREAT ONE Chris! Do you remember "Jaws The Knife", which was the theme from Jaws mixed with Mack The Knife? By the way, John Hobbs is still an active session keyboardist in Nashville!
     
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  17. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Oh my GOD, the editing of that skit was brilliant! Pure crazy Nesmith at it's best!
     
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  18. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Still one of my favorites sketches from "Television Parts", which my wife and I still often reference, when the subject of "potatoes" comes up ...

     
  19. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    I loved when Mystery Science Theater 3000 referenced it with Jim Henson's Edgar Winter Babies (ff to 5:30)



    Dah-dah-da-da-de-de-de-de- DAH-DAH Dah-da dah-de-de-dah!

    The original mashup!
     
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  20. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Kinison also despised Bobcat and they got into some verbal battles-by-phone on the Howard Stern Show several times in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Kinison was a lot more than a guy who occasionally screamed in his act: his routines definitely came from a lifetime of observation, along with a lot of pain, darkness, and anger. I always got the feeling that Bobcat was doing an act, where Kinison was relating his life. He was a very angry guy who had a lot of issues, particularly with drugs and alcohol. Sadly, just as Kinison had gotten off all the bad substances and was attempting a comeback, he died while driving on the road to a gig in Tahoe, killed by a teenage drunk driver. :sigh: The tribute show Stern did for Kinison the day after the comedian's death was one of the saddest shows they ever did.

    Wow, I use that line all the time: "My, and isn't it a bloody shame about the po-TAY-toes," in a fake Irish accent, whenever I see a fake-Irish person in a movie. I had forgotten that I worked on that sketch 30+ years ago. I rarely saw the finished episodes -- I only saw all the raw takes and footage, often dozens of takes of each bit. It was definitely a fun show.
     
  21. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Too funny! For what it's worth, tonight for dinner we are having some "PO-TAY-TOES", LOL!
     
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  22. Michelle66

    Michelle66 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Here is is entire "Irish Language Lab" sketch. (The clip above removes Mike's intro.)
     
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  23. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
     
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  24. MarkTheShark

    MarkTheShark Senior Member

    Nez posted on Facebook recently that he'd been advised by an attorney (IIRC) to assert his intellectual property rights and to create the You Tube channel as a legal place for his stuff. He added that he personally didn't care about people posting his stuff, but this is what he was advised to do. Whether this has anything to do with making the content officially available, who knows.
     
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  25. George C.

    George C. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Littleton, CO
    I haven't seen Bobcat Goldthwait in ages. That segment was hilarious watching him after all of this time with fresh eyes! I used to find him amusing, but I don't think I ever really laughed at him before like I just did.

    Thanks for the laugh, even if his humor still eludes you

    Kinison's segment was really funny too.

    I like Elephant Parts, and was wondering if I'd ever really see Television Parts one day, so thanks for the heads up.
     
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