" Turn-On " What survives?

It sounds awesome.

So the answer to the question “what survives” of it is: nothing online and two half-hour episodes in A/V museums on each coast?

 

Wikipedia claims there are only two episodes: Conway and the unaired Culp-Nuyen.

However this press release implies there is at least one more episode, w/Joey Heatherton:



The Culp-Nuyen was to have aired on the 12th. Was another episode set for the 19th?

 

The Corporation will keep the old good stuff in a tomb so we can watch "Bachelor in Paradise".

 

But they ALL watched.

 

Does it say "Kockamamie" there for episode title?

 

It also says that the Conway episode was number 2. Unless the pilot was number 1.

 

The good stuff? All of the episodes of Laugh-In weren't available to the public until very recently. I'm guessing that every episode of Laugh-In was probably better than Turn-On.

I am curious about Turn-On as well, but everyone that has seen it reports that it's boring, unfunny, and sucks.

 

You say that as if it were a meaningful number of people. And their criticisms mean even less if they’re squares.

 

I got to see that first episode in '69 and I, too found it generally unfunny with stuff just thrown at you in rapid succession, maybe the intention being well, something's bound to stick. The odd thing is, we were a week behind in air dates so the controversy was full blown before it even got to air here yet the local affiliate put it on anyway.

 

Maybe you're confusing Turn On with the Monkees' appearance on Laugh In?

 

No, in Andrew Sandoval's book The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the '60s Pop Sensation, they taped an appearance that was supposed to air March 12, 1969 but the show got cancelled

 

I actually watched the cut-off Cleveland version as a kid because my dad was a huge Laugh In fan (and liked Goldie Hawn, heh). All I can remember thinking was that it looked like what it was: a knock-off of the original. I thought Laugh In was so cool, but watching the occasional rerun nowadays on Me TV, the humor doesn't seem to me to have aged all that well.

 

Does his book make clear the nature of their appearance? Were they the main guest stars (as they were on their Laugh-In episode)? Or was the appearance more like a "cameo"?

It's very probable, as someone pointed out earlier, that much of the unaired material that exists is in unedited form. But you could still make a reasonable guess on how many episodes were shot if Schlatter would simply tell who the guest stars were.

 

Nothing is mentioned other than they taped an appearance. Love to know what it consisted of

 

The humor wasn't really all that humorous. The popularity of the show was more based on the quick cutting and other editing techniques which were unique for the time. When the show finally went into syndication 20 years later, all of that was old hat and the content itself didn't hold up very well.

 

So I’m going to L.A. in a month and have always wanted to see this show. Realistically, is it possible for me to view it?

What do I need to do to make this happen?

 

I don't know, what other show really used that format? SNL copped Weekend Update from Laugh-In, and that's the SNL tentpole sketch, but the other parts of SNL are more traditional length skits.

It really is an adjustment for me to watch the show and get into the rhythm, and that combined with the topicality of the material makes it a tougher slog for today's viewer.

 

It’s like going to a library, the difference is you can’t take it out and can only view it on the premises. You search for the title you want to see on their computer and view it there.

 

Thanks.

 

I saw this when it originally aired. I remember the 'pornograph' and 'sex' jokes.
After all these years I still think Laugh-In was the funniest show on TV.

 

The L.A. Paley Center closed so you're out of luck. You would have to come to New York, as long as they stay open. Really, I don't understand how they even stay in business. They pick the most expensive real estate in the country to house their facilities, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Fifth Avenue in New York. And if you go in, there's never anyone in the place.

 

Prestige, that's why.

As for the legend of Turn On, it was indeed a product of its' time. The pixilation and frenzied editing of television commercials that led to the unique feel of Laugh-In and Sesame Street was as much of a triumph of form over substance, as was ABC's desperation to stay relevant. Sponsors were on board because they had already become convinced of the power of juxtaposed, lightning-edited imagery, and their own role in this new renaissance of "television as art". What Turn On seems to have embraced, beyond the shockingly-out-of-touch fever of the humor, was dada itself.

This was a show developed in the minds of advertising practitioners, when freed of their streetwise instincts, and just focusing on their excitement to be on the cutting-edge of something. Anything. And in this fervor to celebrate the unique craft they were getting cred for in art circles and the hoi polloi, nobody bothered to ask themselves, "Yes, but, will it play in Peoria."

 

Anyone can go in, eh? For some reason I had the impression that it was a resource for researchers and professionals, not someone off the street who might want to check out Turn-On.

 

I went to the one in LA once or twice as a kid, and the one in NY, on a whim, when I was in NY a few years ago. They're just museums, really. There was also a website (Museum of Broadcast Television, maybe) that was associated with them and you could stream things (some things weren't streamable, though). It vanished probably around 2010/11.