Rolling Stone 10th anniversary TV special 1977... WHAT the...

Not sure if this topic should be in Music or Visual Arts, but I guess it fits here better.

I've heard about this CBS TV special and how bad it was said to be, but YouTube didn't have much evidence of it when I checked a couple years ago, and I kind of forgot about it. But for some reason I thought to look for it yesterday and there it was, hiding in plain sight on me for the past year and a half. And today marks the 37th anniversary of the night it aired, so I was destined to post about it

As I said, from what little I could find it was reputed to be really bad (Rolling Stone ran a damage control piece after it aired, basically apologizing for it), so I had it built up in my mind that it was this Star Wars Holiday Special level of awfulness. And, well, it's not that bad (what is?), but it certainly has its share of "WHAT the...?"

The Star Wars Holiday Special comparison didn't quite pan out, but I would describe it as a weird mix of Saturday Night Live, the Bee Gees Sgt. Pepper movie, The Apple, In Concert/Midnight Special, and a bit of some random '70s stoner movie thrown in. So I'm just going to make a bunch of running observations mixed in with some questions here.

1:32 and 3:21 - the first guy has gotta be Ben Fong-Torres, but is the other guy also a Rolling Stone staffer? - he looks an awful lot like Frank Bonner (Herb Tarlek from WKRP). There are quite a lot of uncredited extras performing throughout this show so if you recognize anyone of interest, please point them out.

9:35 - this what I mean by the Sgt. Pepper movie This sequence, right near the beginning of the show, is by far the cheesiest, and I'm sure it must have been the biggest source of the magazine's embarrassment. If there is one parallel with the Star Wars special, it's how something like this happens when a bunch of '70s TV people try to write for a property they don't really understand.

10:06-10:28 - Gotta love the literal acting out of the lyrics, capped off by how wobbly that pole is.

13:13 - According to Robert Draper's book about the history of the magazine, Wenner loved this bit, to the point of excitedly showing it to people around the office before it aired.

23:20 - yes, those are candles on their heads.

28:54, 35:01 and 38:08 - these trippy animated sequences are by Rollin Binzer and Bob Hickson, the same guys who did those awesome Levi's ads.

30:10 - Steve Martin sure made the most of some thin material here.

36:45 - wow, was that an awkward cutaway from Mike Love or what? Imagine how incoherent his ramblings must have gotten, considering what got left in.

42:57 - maybe this is what the show should have been built around all along, a bunch of musical performances with some wraparound segments.

1:06:11 - slow down, Martin!!!!

1:18:50 - if you've seen The Kids are Alright you probably remember this sketch. I bet some people just assume it's from SNL because Steve Martin's in it, but nope, it was from this! It's definitely a highlight but I wonder how many viewers had tuned out by this time.

1:26:48 - couldn't they have gotten a better singer there?

1:53:45 - I don't know much about the Rubinoos or how they managed to get on this show, but I like this Jackson Browne-ish version of "Hound Dog Man". I don't suppose it's available anywhere?

Okay, so does anyone remember actually watching this back in '77? Vidiot, any insights?

 

Jesus, that is just horrible. I honestly don't remember this, and maybe that's best.

 

I don't remember it. Unfortunately I remember Mary Tyler Moore's Incredible Dream, which she edged away from even before it aired.

 

You sat through that whole thing?

Even when viewed by the cheesy standards of the era, that's just abominable. All those people who think "RS" went to crap in recent years are wrong - the mag's probably never been associated with anything worse than THAT!

 

I thought this was about The Rolling Stones anniversary in some way. Thanks for posting anyway.

 

Wow, I thought I had imagined the whole thing.

 

I taped it on an audiocassette. I still have it somewhere. Almost as bad as the Doonesbury special they also put on.

 

Everything was so earth brown, rust brown, sky blue, lime green, and banana yellow in the 70's.

 

Well, @off_2_the_side , you ask " but is the other guy also a Rolling Stone staffer? - he looks an awful lot like Frank Bonner (Herb Tarlek from WKRP). "

That's Jann Wenner. I was likely working that night ( 3pm - 11pm )

 

Lime green was "avocado" and banana yellow was "harvest gold".

Hated the colors then, and couldn't wait to hate them all over again as the mid-2000's harkened.


Dan

 

Keith Moon was worth it!

 

God bless Mr. Binder for the fruits he has given us.

 

I remember it well. Just a horrible waste of time, time I will never get back. I read a book on Rolling Stone years later and I stopped my sub afterwards. IIRC, the special was Jaan's baby, he was all over it, making many of the horrid cheesy decisions that were presented. To him, this was great stuff (until he saw the reaction). He had to make sure that his friends (Midler, Garfunkel, etc) were presented as totally hip and got nice air time. It just shows again Jaan was just a rich boy who couldn't wait to become a hob nob'er who wanted out of the greasy side of rock and roll.
Think of all the cool bands and artists around in 1977 (many of them appeared on SNL) and gee, none of them are here.

 

I watched that, too, as an avid Manhattan Transfer fan. The horror.

 

The best part is the old commercials.

The picture quality is too good for a VHS tape copy it seems. Is this from a Beta tape?

 

Did anyone notice the special was produced and directed by Steve Binder, also the director of "The T.A.M.I. Show" Elvis' 68 comeback special and (yes) "The Star Wars Holiday Special."

Edit: I guess one person did.

 

I am completely surprised at the lack of coherence across this entire program. It seems almost impressionistic in nature, considering how random parts of it are with absolutely no linking material for context.

Amazing they put on an uninterrupted 15 minute (!) Beatles medley as a kind of opening number. By starting with "A Day In The Life" and superimposing the title "A Day In The Decade," I assume the material in the segment was intended to represent events between 1967 and 1977, but it was nearly half-way through before I got anything like that. And using Harrison's "Long, Long, Long" - what an unexpected and surreal musical choice, it brought the mood down in a weird way.

I was really surprised to see Teri Garr in here (she gets an extended monologue right after the Mike Love bit, in addition to being in one of the Steve Martin bits).

And then featuring such an extended section from a Bette Midler concert... I guess I just don't understand the variety special format these kinds of programs were designed to fit. Say what you will about the MTV generation having their attention spans assaulted, I can say that our television programs were almost too literal and scripted, using hosts and narration to be sure everything makes sense.

 

The YouTube description notes it was an unlabeled Beta tape found at a flea market in 2002.

 

Great!!! Now I know what to watch in order to induce vomiting. Hideous claymation. The exception being the Keith Moon bit.

Hey Jann? Was it the drugs???

 

Steve Binder is one of the greatest TV directors who ever lived. But... occasionally he was saddled with having to work on a dud, and this was one of them.

 

Mary's Incredible And Very Expensive Dream

 

I didn't know RS sold out before the 80's (too young to remember the good old hip, underground days).

 

I'd forgotten about this until now.

 

I never knew about it...now I probably won't forget it. Thanks for posting off2theside!

 

I would like to know the full story about this. One source says CBS wanted a late night special but Jann Wenner wanted prime time. Wenner had pissed of so many stars that CBS had to recruit Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowl...dancing-strawberries-and-donny-osmond_b111838