Oh, Uncle Arthur!
Picture it. The year is 1976.
The heady peak of the "malaise era" in America. The beginnings of the Carter administration, the first commercial flight of the Concorde (not to be confused with the Flight of the Conchords), and gas crisis just around the bend.
Oh sure, it wasn't all bad. Apple Computer was formed that year by a couple of post-hippies/pre-slackers who are now brazillionaires. And Patty Hearst was convicted of that bank robbery she committed when she was kidnapped/brainwashed by the SLA. So that was pretty cool. But for the most part, America was fashionably, artistically and comedically bereft.
Case in point: The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
It's not hard to imagine this turd darkening TV sets when a mere month earlier Don Knotts and Loretta Swit joined the Captain and Tennille for their televised special/series which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy, to give you an idea how low the bar was for entertainment back then.
This show has been an underground sensation and a much-traded low-quality videotape for years thanks to two important factors. Primarily being that it was the network television debut of KISS, and secondarily that KISS fans will inexplicably devour any and all things even remotely KISS related with a ravenous passion that defies all logic.
Not wanting to be outdone by the high-wattage star power that Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille could offer, Paul Lynde not only rocked out with KISS, but he enlisted the talents of Margaret Hamilton (as in THE Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz), Billie Hayes (Witchiepoo from H.R. Puffenstuf), Tim Conway, Pinkie Tuscadero, Florence Henderson, the Osmonds and Betty Effing White. With that 1.21 jiggawatts of fame electricity why did this show suck so royally? Was it because the comedy vignettes were loosely tied together with a paper-thin narrative about how Paul is a man about town who helps some mismatched witches improve their public image in exchange for three wishes with the same goal of him winning the heart of Happy Days' Pinkie Tuscadero? Personally I think it's because the script was obviously written by someone who was either minimally functional retarded or hates comedy so much they wanted to hurt it with a TV script.
Packed front to back with stilted musical numbers, flat gags and lame jokes delivered with a relentlessly mugging Lynde who was outside his element and seemed visually pained by the material.
Take a look at some samples of the musical pain:
Disco Lady
Kids:
As you can see, this was poop. Halloween is a holiday woefully short on family hour specials (Beyond the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown special does one even leap to mind?). This is another TV time-waster that would've been lost to history were it not for KISS and the rights being shockingly easy to obtain what with it sucking so much.
It's rare that a hastily prepared television special achieves a level of excellence. This doesn't even approach the level of watchable.
If anyone is interested in coming over this Halloween weekend and getting wicked drunk, munching on fun-size Snickers and popping in this DVD just say the word in Comments. It'll be an instant party.
Huzzah.
The heady peak of the "malaise era" in America. The beginnings of the Carter administration, the first commercial flight of the Concorde (not to be confused with the Flight of the Conchords), and gas crisis just around the bend.
Oh sure, it wasn't all bad. Apple Computer was formed that year by a couple of post-hippies/pre-slackers who are now brazillionaires. And Patty Hearst was convicted of that bank robbery she committed when she was kidnapped/brainwashed by the SLA. So that was pretty cool. But for the most part, America was fashionably, artistically and comedically bereft.
Case in point: The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
It's not hard to imagine this turd darkening TV sets when a mere month earlier Don Knotts and Loretta Swit joined the Captain and Tennille for their televised special/series which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy, to give you an idea how low the bar was for entertainment back then.
This show has been an underground sensation and a much-traded low-quality videotape for years thanks to two important factors. Primarily being that it was the network television debut of KISS, and secondarily that KISS fans will inexplicably devour any and all things even remotely KISS related with a ravenous passion that defies all logic.
Not wanting to be outdone by the high-wattage star power that Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille could offer, Paul Lynde not only rocked out with KISS, but he enlisted the talents of Margaret Hamilton (as in THE Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz), Billie Hayes (Witchiepoo from H.R. Puffenstuf), Tim Conway, Pinkie Tuscadero, Florence Henderson, the Osmonds and Betty Effing White. With that 1.21 jiggawatts of fame electricity why did this show suck so royally? Was it because the comedy vignettes were loosely tied together with a paper-thin narrative about how Paul is a man about town who helps some mismatched witches improve their public image in exchange for three wishes with the same goal of him winning the heart of Happy Days' Pinkie Tuscadero? Personally I think it's because the script was obviously written by someone who was either minimally functional retarded or hates comedy so much they wanted to hurt it with a TV script.
Packed front to back with stilted musical numbers, flat gags and lame jokes delivered with a relentlessly mugging Lynde who was outside his element and seemed visually pained by the material.
Take a look at some samples of the musical pain:
Disco Lady
Kids:
As you can see, this was poop. Halloween is a holiday woefully short on family hour specials (Beyond the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown special does one even leap to mind?). This is another TV time-waster that would've been lost to history were it not for KISS and the rights being shockingly easy to obtain what with it sucking so much.
It's rare that a hastily prepared television special achieves a level of excellence. This doesn't even approach the level of watchable.
If anyone is interested in coming over this Halloween weekend and getting wicked drunk, munching on fun-size Snickers and popping in this DVD just say the word in Comments. It'll be an instant party.
Huzzah.
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