TV Party - DVDs for the Historic '70s New York Cable Access Series with Glenn O'Brien, Chris Stein & Debbie Harry

In 1978, Glenn O'Brien was the host of TV Party, a cable-access show in New York City. The program was popular in the Big Apple, even getting mentioned on-air by David Letterman! The series, co-hosted by Chris Stein, lasted until 1982. Recurring guests included Stein's girlfriend and "Blondie" co-founder Debbie Harry (who even directed at least one episode), Fred Schneider (The B-52's), photographer Kate Simon and hip-hop pioneer Fab Five Freddie (who's mentioned in lyrics of the Blondie song "Rapture").

The show was aired live, complete with cuss words, technical goofs, and even some "reefer toking" going on. It's certainly not for everybody...but it's certainly a piece of television history! There was even a documentary made about the show a few years ago, and there are a handful of DVD releases already available with material from the show. Now Brink Film and distributor MVD Entertainment Group are releasing two new titles on December 9th. Here are the details, followed by cover art:

TV Party - The Sublimely Intolerable Show

The first 10% of this show sums up what we don't get on TV anymore: technical difficulties. TV Party was live and improvised, and this meant casual disaster. This early episode gets off to an artistically agonizing start--the sound person is late, overdosing on drugs or both. Or it was the broken down equipment. Once the sound kicks in the show gets lively. Compton Maddux, a droll singer songwriter, is backed up by Debbie Harry and Glenn; the unique futurist soprano Klaus Nomi does one of his post-modern arias; Adny Shernoff, of the Dictators, plays the Beach Boys' "Be True to Your School" backed up by pom pom girls Tish and Snooky, the Manic Panic designers. Downtown legend director Eric Mitchell announces the opening of the now famous New Cinema theater and shows a clip from his film "Kidnapped" with Arto Lindsay, Duncan Smith and Anya Phillips. Brit director David Silver and photographer Kate Simon do the "white people talk about reggae" segment. Blondie's Chris Stein and Debbie Harry and the Patti Smith Group's Richard Sohl drop in to smoke a reefer and take calls from all the crazies in cable land. Chris explains all this isn't chaos, it's art.

Bonus Materials:

• Nile Rodgers Call In
• 'Lil Rico' Amos Poe
• Intellectual Talk Luigi Ciccolini
• Glenn on Mardigras

1 DVD; 55 minutes; $19.95 SRP; Amazon pre-order

TV Party - The Color Show

TV Party's final season was broadcast live in color on Channel J, a public access "commercial station." TV Party tried to pay the extra expense of going to color by selling ads to downtown clubs and underground record companies. "Everything here is for sale," Glenn announces. Desperation is in the air. Glenn is missing a tooth and needs a haircut. The party is spunky but the cast is depleted and possibly drugged. The TV Party theme, music by Walter Steding and rap by Glenn O'Brien opens the show. The show features the TV Party Orchestra, with Lenny Ferrari and guitarist Karen Geniece joined by Charles Rocket on heavy metal accordion, played through a stack of Marshall amps and an array of guitar pedals. Rocket had just been fired from Saturday Night Live for saying "fuck" live on air, and his performance of "Wild Thing" is a triumph of post-modern drollness. He actually gets screaming feedback out of his squeezebox. Jeffrey Lee Pierce of Gun Club shows up with a broken guitar, but borrows one and does a soulful Robert Johnson country blues. The half Japanese New York band Eel Dogs plays. Lothar Manteuffel, one of Germany's top new wavers, ends the show jamming with Rocket on one of the latter's compositions "Why Can't I Get Laid." Who knows what he's singing in German.

Bonus Materials:

• Steve Mass
• Blondie Home Video
• Walter On Rent
• Queensites Graffiti
• Fred Schneider

1 DVD; 59 minutes; $19.95 SRP; Amazon pre-order