Howdy Blog Otters, seriously quality discussion yesterday. So serious I completely forgot to post today's QOTD...well, more like QOTN, until now. But, it being so late, I started to think about how we've all had experiences with late night TV that either blew our mind, confused it, angered it, or all three at the same time.
Thus:
What are your Late Night TV memories, and what's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen after Midnight on television? Bonus points for links.
I remember being a kid and stumbling across Anime for the first time without really intending too, becoming scarred for life at a young age after watching 'Akira' and having no clue it was going to be so violent and mentally disturbing. Similarly I saw Pearl Jam's 'Fear The Revolution' and Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' this way, both things I thought would be typical cartoons then turned into ridiculously horrifying experiences for a kid who still dug Power Rangers at the time.
I also remember coming across quality movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Casino, Goodfellas, and Scarface on basic cable late at night, staying up far too late to experience the magic of these basic cable classics for the first time. Basic Cable Classics is a QOTD for another day, though.
Of course then there's infomercials and religious programming, a favorite of mine being "Virtual Memory" and "Generation Cross" both programs that bring such energy to the religious proceedings you almost wanna go to church. Almost.
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Blog Otter Award: Everyone for yesterday's thread. While we all share different opinions on the matter, very little of the thread turned into name calling and yelling, which I appreciate. Your award can be found here.
1. Sorry for the late post again, I'll endeavor to post this earlier.
2. I didn't mention Liquid Television or Beavis and Butthead as I knew about them before I stumbled across them first, but talk about mind fucks, right?
Thus:
What are your Late Night TV memories, and what's the most bizarre thing you've ever seen after Midnight on television? Bonus points for links.
I remember being a kid and stumbling across Anime for the first time without really intending too, becoming scarred for life at a young age after watching 'Akira' and having no clue it was going to be so violent and mentally disturbing. Similarly I saw Pearl Jam's 'Fear The Revolution' and Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' this way, both things I thought would be typical cartoons then turned into ridiculously horrifying experiences for a kid who still dug Power Rangers at the time.
I also remember coming across quality movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Casino, Goodfellas, and Scarface on basic cable late at night, staying up far too late to experience the magic of these basic cable classics for the first time. Basic Cable Classics is a QOTD for another day, though.
Of course then there's infomercials and religious programming, a favorite of mine being "Virtual Memory" and "Generation Cross" both programs that bring such energy to the religious proceedings you almost wanna go to church. Almost.
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Blog Otter Award: Everyone for yesterday's thread. While we all share different opinions on the matter, very little of the thread turned into name calling and yelling, which I appreciate. Your award can be found here.
1. Sorry for the late post again, I'll endeavor to post this earlier.
2. I didn't mention Liquid Television or Beavis and Butthead as I knew about them before I stumbled across them first, but talk about mind fucks, right?
I was up ridiculously late one night when I was like twelve years old, probably around 3 AM or so. I remember sneaking by and turning on AMC... and being shocked to see nudity. The film, which turned out to be a horror film called Rosemary's Baby, had me riveted, but because it was so late—or I was so naive—I couldn't figure out what the twist was in the end. So as soon as the big reveal happened in the end, I crapped out a proverbial lung and went straight to bed.
ReplyDeleteBenny Hill
ReplyDelete/thread
Watching the Honeymooners and old shows on Nick at Night.
ReplyDelete...and Bizarre with Jon Byner.
ReplyDeleteStaying up all night, flipping through channels, watching absolutely anyting that looked like a bare boob might make an appearance.
ReplyDeleteI was almost always disappointed, although Saturday night baby blues on City TV were pretty reliable.
Rhonda Shear and Gilbert Gottifried on USA's Up All Night.
ReplyDeleteHell, for that matter, Duckman.
Going to go waaaaayyyyy old school with the first one. Watching Mr Ed and Patti Duke with my best friend when we would stay over each other houses.
ReplyDeleteFor number two it was winter 2010. Now for perspective other then old DVD's I had not watched a second of wrestling since 2005. One night I was drunk as SHIT and could not fall asleep. I threw on the TV just in time to see the HBK/Taker promo where Shawn offered his career for the WM rematch. It wasn't enough to get me back into wrestling at the time, (the Taker/HHH cell match did that) but for those 15 minutes I sat in my stupor memorized that these two guys were still doing their thing as good as ever.
I just said something about Up all Night a couple of days ago.
ReplyDeleteChecking out late night movies and debating if I should stay up to watch a movie that presented brief nudity.
ReplyDeleteReal Sex on HBO or anything with Shannan Tweed was a win.
Also I became a weekly viewer of Jack Van Impe presents and his end of the world predictions.
ReplyDeleteBesides the obvious hunt for all nudity, I always loved watching local public access growing up. There was indy wrestling, backyard wrestling, idiots running around harassing people at businesses...always captivated me.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how late you'd consider late-night, but there was Spanish WWF Superstars back in the '80s.
ReplyDeleteAlso infomercials. I once freaked out pretty heavily to get a Ron Popeil pasta maker because I truly believed that they were the only pasta maker on the market, and that they would be available for only a limited time.
ReplyDeleteAlso overnight religious call in programs, once I was a little older. For a period in my late teens I used to get home from work and rip bongs watching the RAW repeat at midnight, and then it was religious call in shows, or video games til dawn.
About 2 years ago I'm just flipping through the channels and I come across this funny British guy trying to drive a Reliant Robin, and crashing it every time he tried to take a corner. That funny guy was Jeremy Clarkson, and the show was Top Gear. I've been hooked ever since.
ReplyDeleteAlso, am I the only one that thinks it's nuts that there's TV commercials for vibrators and penis pumps?
Seriously my favorite episode of top gear ever.
ReplyDeleteOlder still I would watch the classic game shows on Game Show Network. Match Game was the best, and What's My Line and Beat the Clock. Bomb.
ReplyDeleteMine too. Hell, James May drove to the top of that volcano that would blanket all of Europe with ash later on. Most of the specials are awesome too.
ReplyDeleteBack in 2001 or so they used to have CZW on public access. "Fake you TV", WTF...
ReplyDeleteBoobs.
ReplyDeleteBush.
ReplyDeleteA barely pubescent parallax1978 thought Rhonda Sheer was hot... he was wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe Truth of God weekly program with the preacher who sounds like a frog. They enjoy ranting against women leaving the kitchen and the white man. Its hysterical.
ReplyDeleteAn infomercial for miracle holy healing water from Chernobyl. I laughed until tears were streaming down at my face due to the dead seriousness of the salt and pepper haired middle aged priest who was shilling this.
ReplyDeleteBizarre was good for two things: Super Dave and hilarious sound effects for editing cuss words.
ReplyDeleteThe next generation will never understand how lucky they are that there's a world of depravity at their fingertips. And they'll never understand how the random hodge podge of weird old swingers of Real Sex made the evenings of many a lonely boy (or desperate enough girl, I reckon)
ReplyDeleteSaturday nights in the late 80's. The local NBC affiiate would air roller derby until 1 AM, then some kind of animal show hosted by Christopher Lee, and then World Wide would come on about 3 AM. I remember one of the episodes of the animal show, where Christopher Lee was quoted as saying "Monkeys are strange creatures" and thinking "Fuck yeah. Why do they throw their crap anyway?"
ReplyDeleteMy Dad used to tape World Wide for me, it was my first exposure to WCW/NWA.
ReplyDeleteThere's this religious show on around here on Sunday mornings that has this preacher that's clearly coked out of his fucking mind. Weird thing is that he's not one of those insane fanatic guys, just the normal Praise the Lord stuff. But he's clearly so fucked up on blow that I expect his heart to explode at any moment.
ReplyDeleteSpawn on HBO. The cartoon, not the movie.
ReplyDeleteEver watch porn through scramble-vision? I have. Kids got it easy, back in my day we had to put in a lot of effort to jack off.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, how the hell are porn stores (AKA "Adult Bookstores") still in business? People still pay for porn? WHY?
ReplyDeleteReally weird analogy but I see them similar to comic book stores. The ones that survived moved off the staples and onto toys
ReplyDeletePublic access all the way. There was this one really odd one (that I think was supposed to be a comedy) starring a bunch of kids who looked at oldest 16, but it stuck out to me because of the pig puppet they used to represent the character of Satan. Don't know why that's always stuck with me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, although I can't recall if it was late night or midday TV where I first came across it, but Bibleman.
Yeah, most of the porn stores around here have expanded to where they're now half porn store, half head shop. Most of them sell airsoft guns too, for whatever fucking reason.
ReplyDeleteI always got a big kick out of the late night Spanish broadcasts of Nitro, almost exclusively for how they pronounced "Bam Bam BEEgalow." Plus, the Triad was awesome.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing that popped into my head was "The Red Green Show" which I used to love on PBS. First time I saw it late at night it just grabbed me.
ReplyDeleteAlso NXT House Show photos from tonights show if anyone wants to see: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109031611740264491040/albums/5925899767249411825
Kassius Ohno is still jobbing to random non-TV NXT wrestlers, tonight he was in an extended squash against Sawyer Fulton. And Kalisto (Samurai Del Ray) was awesome in person. I can see WWE making him into Rey Rey's successor. Was actually a very lackluster show sadly, no Sami Zayn who wrestled the WWE House Show in Ketucky instead, Tyler Breeze and Bo Dallas only had an in ring promo segment, Emma was testing being a heel in a match taggign with Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss (Whose arms look very scary, like twigs, super anorexic looking, ewww), against Paige, Bailey and Renee Young (Who knew no moves, much better as a ring announcer.). Emma was fine as a heel, but everytime I see Paige you can tell she wants to be a heel, and Emma is so natural as a face, kind of a weird move if they are going to turn someone I think.
Other than that nothing too much to write about, when a shows main event is The Ascension vs Enzo & Cas it's kind of a bad sign.
Just some random thoughts I'd like to share:
ReplyDelete-I damn near cut my thumb off at work earlier, and seeing as how I'm pumped full of blood thinners that shit would just not stop bleeding. And I've been working at my job for nearly 6 months, and never cut myself once. Today I cut myself twice in the span of 15 minutes.
-I can't get any herb to save my life, it's dry as fuck right now.
-Ever see the video for the John Mellencamp song "Wild Nights"? The cab driver chick is insanely hot.
-I'm straight up jonesing like a dope fiend for the NHL season to start. GO AVS GO! And fuck the Sabres.
-Speaking of dope fiends, fuck them.
-I'm calling it now, GTAV is the greatest video game ever made.
I remember fighting to stay up on a weekend night and catching those B-Movies that you ONLY saw after midnight. Two movies always stuck out as extra weird: "Eating Raoul" a comedy about a cannibal and some movie on Cinemax that had a guy who found a girl with a "snapper"... that's a vagina that.. well you figure it out..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3N5l-URMJw
I don't quite know how to explain this, but I'll give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, at about 2:00 AM there's a one-off 8-10 minute segment about a Russian woman whose husband had disappeared back in the '50s or '60s, and she's pleading to the world if anyone has any information about it. I'll preface the next part by mentioning that she appears completely serious, which you think wouldn't need mentioning.
Here's the kicker: he was a contestant on a primitive Russian reality show where he was a housemate, a la The Real World or Big Brother... in the '60s or even earlier. They showed black and white footage of the show. Evidently, they "wrote him off" the show and the other contestants went on acting like he never existed.
The wife had not heard from him since.
So, this raised many questions:
Is this a very dark ribbing, or did this poor widow actually scrape together whatever money she had to air this over the globe in the small hours of the night?
Were the Russians really the pioneers of reality TV, or was the humour based in the fact that that very notion is ridiculous?
Did somebody actually produce this piece for virtually nobody to see, only to get a rise out of a handful of people?
About ten years later this is still stuck in a dark corner of my mind and I haven't heard anything about it since. I don't know what to make of it.
Not bizarre, but from probably age 11 and under, any late night rerun of Unsolved Mysteries......Robert Stack out in a foggy forest with that theme music? No sleep on those nights
ReplyDeleteAny NY/NJ people on here remember the Robin Byrd show? Now THAT was comedy. and there was a guy named Al something or other that used to give people the finger.. LOL
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/LTpeurtMYWs
Tales from the Crypt
ReplyDeleteUnsolved Mysteries was the shit back in the day.
ReplyDeleteGTA 5 is sooooooooooo great. I'm on my way home to play it right now. That sucks about your herb situation. I've got some hash jolly ranchers to go with my weed. I'm trying to kick it up a level for this game. And what's up with 49ers schedule, play the colts and then the rams Thursday night? Ruthless first 4 games.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks you didn't get to see generico but I'm glad he's already working house shows with the main roster.
ReplyDeleteReal Sex. In a world before reality tv it was weird seeing people be so candid about that kind of stuff.
ReplyDeleteYea, have been lucky to see him as much as I have already at the NXT tapings. Really look forward to his WWE debut in the near future hopefully.
ReplyDeleteYup, I remember UP All Night on USA back long ago. I remember it had Duckman, Wierd Science (the tv series) and Weekly World News on it. Good stuff. Between the hosts boobs and Lisa from Wierd Sciences boobs I was a happy 11 year old.
ReplyDeleteToo true, kids today just have it waaaay too easy when it comes to masterbatory material. It used to be work to masterbate to something resembling porn. You had to stay up super late, get to a tv with a cable box, make sure there was something softcore on like a Skinemax flick or Red Shoe Diaries, make sure your parents were asleep, no fast fowarding so you had to watch the crappy storylines/acting/dialogue. We earned those orgasms back then!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have you as my plug, too bad there's those pesky "shipping illegal narcotics across state lines" laws. If you could be my good Cali connect we'd both be fucking rich.
ReplyDeleteGTAV is the shit.
I'm not worried about the game this weekend (the Colts aren't really that good), and every team gets fucked over somehow by TNF. As long as the Niners don't have to play a playoff game in Seattle I don't see why they can't go all the way this year.
Ah, scramble vision, that takes me back. Having to decipher what was going on was half the fun. I don't know if anybody else's cable did this but every once in a great while if I put my tv on the PPV channel when it switched from regular pay movies to adult pay movies I could sometimes get 5 to 10 minutes of unscrambled porn. That was like hitting the puberty jackpot.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was great. Free Porn!
ReplyDeleteI used to love watching the old school game shows as a kid. They were on afternoons here on some channels. The original Family Fued with Richard Dawson (complete with him basically tounging wives and daughters in front of their fathers. Match game was great, my mom would tell me where all the celebrities were from, Let's Make a Deal and Press Your Luck (I love me some Whammys). I even liked Super Market Sweep!
ReplyDeleteThats how I found out abt ECW.
ReplyDeleteDream On.
ReplyDeleteI used to really enjoy watching Nick at Night as a kid, I was introduced to some great, classic shows there. It's funny though, not many people remember F Troop and it was a very funny show.
ReplyDeleteECW of course, I remember seeing wrestling was on The Sun Channel at like 3 AM on a Friday and ended up turning it on. I was blown away by it, it was so gritty and real. I think a match on that night had Sabu in it and I was in awe of this crazy basterd. And it was cool to see Cactus Jack again, I had thought he died or something since my friend told me he saw a match with him that went wrong and he died. Yeah, I was a bit gullible.
MTV shows like Beavis and Butthead, The Head and Aeon Flux were great introductions to more adult cartoons. As was Spawn on HBO.
Old monster movies were great to find around this time of night as well. Although I remember as a young kid on Sunday or Saturday mornings they would show old Godzilla movies but presented by some wierd professor guy who would do/say crazy things before and after commercial breaks. Anybody else remember this?
I loved watching Tales from the Crypt, The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits as a kid. None of them ever scared me but I remember a show called Sightings, I believe it came on after X Files, and that show scared young me. It was a show about "real" phenomenon like alien abductions, Bigfoot, monsters, etc. I believed this show was telling the truth and it freaked me the fuck out!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to point out I'm in the 'slightest hint of nudity' camp, I just chose to avoid it and see if anyone else was on the same wavelength. You're all a buncha pervs.
ReplyDeleteI used to laugh hysterically when watching Don West shill sports memorabilia on the "Shop at Home" network. I never seen anyone lose it after opening a pack of basketball cards and finding a Chris Mullin rookie card.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Red Shoe Diaries on Showtime and Tales From the Crypt on HBO
I owe Dream On a huge thank you for my 11/12 year old self mental health. In early middle school masterbation was used by guys to make fun of other guys. "You whack off" was an insult. The other guys made it seem like guys don't masterbate, if you did there was something wrong with you and you deserved to be made fun of. This was disheartening to me at the time as jerking off was becoming my favorite hobby. Then I saw an episode of Dream On that revealed to me that all guys jerk off and there was nothing wrong with it. It was a huge relief to me. Did I just into TMI territory?
ReplyDeletethe weirdest thing i ever saw on tv after midnight was on the local tv channel, and it was a man violently beating the shit out of, and screaming at, a toaster. like, imagine the most horrific scene of domestic violence you can imagine, only instead of a man and a woman, its a man and a toaster. that's what he was saying and doing. unfortunately, no video. just the weirdest thing i ever saw.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mr. Rambo's Neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThere was only one channel that any sane person could possibly watch on a Saturday night at 11:00 and that's The Movie Channel because that was when the greatest late night show in the history of mankind would air. I am of course referring to the one and only "Joe Bob Briggs' Drive-In Theater".
ReplyDeleteHere are just a few examples of that show's greatness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Kv3E0tH2s
I remember when NBC aired that on Friday nights, good times.
ReplyDeleteI've always gotten a laugh out of those bogus Kevin Trudeau infomercials as if anyone in their right frame of mind would want to aspire to be like that loser. His current legal troubles just makes those infomercials even more hilarious.
ReplyDeleteThe audio's a little rough but what the hell, it's hilarious all the same.
ReplyDeleteHere's Don shilling an absolutely worthless Michael Jordan stamp and making it sound like something you should give up your house for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymEfMUBVE3A
TNA totally dropped the ball on him, they did not use him well at all.
Dream On phased out nudity towards the end because FOX was airing edited versions of the show in prime time and the show's creators didn't want FOX to have to edit out too much so the nudity started to go by the wayside much like how Dexter was briefly toned down because CBS started airing re-runs but eventually the show returned to its old ways once CBS decided to stop airing the re-runs.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I remember The Movie Channel airing "Eating Raoul" in the afternoon on quite a few occasions back when TMC was literally the only channel that aired uncut R-rated movies in the afternoon, of course nowadays everybody except HBO does it and it's not nearly as cool anymore.
ReplyDeleteI remember doing that once. I caught the last fifteen minutes or so of "Debbie Does Wall Street" that way. I am not making this up.
ReplyDeleteFirst time I ever saw soft level porn or a naked chick was on late night Cinemax.
ReplyDeleteMan, I thought you guys were talking about Night Calls from Playboy for a second. Had forgotten about that gem
ReplyDeleteAdd "Trivial Pursuit", "Joker's Wild", and "Tic Tac Dough" to that list for me.
ReplyDeleteCan't beat "Let's Make a Deal" and "Press Your Luck", though. Those were amazing.
Yes, commercials for vibrators/pumps on mid-day network television seems very wrong to me.
ReplyDeleteI friggin' LOVED Ron Popeil as a kid. The pasta-maker and food-dehydrator were my faves, but for pure entertainment value, nothing beats those "GLH #9" commercials. You may remember them as "hair in a can", or "the one where he spray-paints a bunch of bald people".
ReplyDeleteI second your thoughts on Anime. I was stoned with a friend one night in college and stumbled across one late at night. Im not disturbed or offended by much hut this shit was really fucked up. Gang rape scenes on a young chick, crazy ass violence, etc. Really fucking weird
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember "Spicy City" on HBO? I think it was a three-part cartoon miniseries or something (three different thirty-minute stories, IIRC).
ReplyDeleteSex was depicted, but it was more of a stylized action/drama set in a dystopian future, like "Aeon Flux". One episode featured a guy going to a virtual-reality bordello, where you'd put on a headset and body-sensors; the idea was that his wife didn't consider "fake" women to be cheating.
Really interesting show.
Yea, saw it a handful of times. Wouldnt say I liked or dislike it, it was just out there.
ReplyDeleteThat one was quality. They don't make infomercials like they used to.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was around 11-12 I'd stay up and watch Smith & Smith, the precursor to the Red Green Show, I loved it at the time.
ReplyDeletei religiously watched headbangers ball from around 89 (or whenever adam curry was still hosting) to when i left for college in the fall of 94, so i discovered tons of bands as well as finally heard bands i'd only read about
ReplyDeletefor while there after an ep ended, mtv would then would show installments of stephen kings 'this is horror' which i loved to watch to see all the weird stuff it talked about. 'lair of the white worm' in particular sticks out
fun fact: when hbb re-aired an hour or 2 later, they sometimes actually had different vids than played during the earlier airing, and/or they let vids play or start differently (in terms of whether a video played to the end or was cut off a few seconds early). you think they'd just play the earlier tape again, but it makes me think that someone was actually there programming vids for the encore...?
I will say watching Revenge of the Nerds on USA dozens of times, I was shocked to find out how dirty of a movie it really was.
ReplyDeleteonly time i ever watched akira was when i was REALLY tired and falling asleep. my one friend was watching so it kept going. i woke up at one point when tetsuo or whoever was blobulating. freaked me out
ReplyDeletebetter yet, how many people watched scramblevision after dark? we didn't have cinemax as part of our cable package but on a good night i could get a signal with a clear shot of boobages. i remember one sort of real sex type show that featured a burlesque performer who after the show took "tits on the head' pix with fans where she'd rest her massive boobs on peoples heads.
ReplyDeleteliquid tv ftw, except i would watch it when it aired at 9 or 10 pm or whenever it had the 1st run. winter steele, mighy-o's, cut-up camera, psychograms, stick figure theater...
ReplyDeleteproud to say i was one of those who discovered beavis and butthead when frog baseball aired on liquid tv, and not when the actual series aired
I remember watching "Night Flight" late nights on the USA network. They would show music videos, odd clips from old movies, stand up comedy bits, clips from cartoons you just don't see....it was pretty cool.
ReplyDelete"Sightings" was awesome.
ReplyDeleteOh man, pleasant memories of USA and CBN/Family Channel game show reruns, though that would be more afternoon than late night. But as far as that goes, I'd see some oddities in the wee hours back in the day. Like Crosswits (the '80s version), the 1990 Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough (Patrick YOU WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN Wayne!), Tom Kennedy on The Price is Right, and others.
ReplyDelete