Glenn O’Brien’s TV
Party – Time & Make-Up Show (8/19/79)/Halloween Show (10/30/78)/Crusades Show (2/17/81)
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: C Episode: C
After looking at the premiere episode of the cable access
show TV Party with Glenn O’Brien a little while ago, we now have three
typical shows to look at and to be honest, the show became more disconnected as
it went along. His idea of doing shows
with themes seems more like people high or drunk trying to be coherent and this
may be amusing to many, this critic thought the show could do better
considering the intelligence and sometimes-guests.
If you enjoy the silliness, than the content will not
matter, but some shows are simply better than others and the Halloween Show is the best here. It also
brings one to the realization that the shows are only as good as the idea they
start out with, because once they get started, it is slowly downhill from
there. For some, the fun is watching the decline, but it is a little bit of a
letdown after what the Premiere Show
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) set up.
In these cases, it is purely hit or miss and up to you whether you want
to go through that. Some of it is worth
a look, at least.
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on an old reel-to-reel black
and white machine the cable station was lucky to barely be able to afford. This is a muddy 240 lines of NTSC analog
definition at best and is lucky it even looks this good. It even looks a tad older than 1978, but more
video like this keeps surfacing on DVD.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is poorer than the premiere show, maybe
because it was transferred a bit lower or the shows are just so old, but it is
lower and be careful when playing them back too loudly. Each disc has extras at about five clips a
piece, though some are on the sparse side.
The Time & Make-Up Show offers an extra talk piece with George Clinton, Halloween Show has clips by Klaus Nomi
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) performing Samson & Delilah and Blondie singing The Tide Is High and the Crusades
Show includes something about a “killer rabbit” of some sort. The Blondie clip is actually in color and is
a much more Reggae-like and paired-down version of the hit. It also looks like Debbie Harry has lyrics in
her had because it is a then-so-new piece.
- Nicholas Sheffo
