Tag Archives: television

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The Bootleg Files: Broadway Open House

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BOOTLEG FILES 888: “Broadway Open House” (1950-51 television series that pioneered the concept of late-night television).

LAST SEEN: Two extant episodes are online.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A combination of music rights issues and a low survival rate of kinescoped episodes.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Probably not.

The other day, I was scanning through social media and I came upon a posting from a news organization with a headline that read something like “Jimmy Kimmel Rips Trump’s Economic Proposals” – and under the headline was a picture of the obnoxious late-night host squinting and scowling while he was reading his agitprop from a TelePrompter. My reaction to this was negative – really, who wants to end their day watching a painfully unfunny late-night host bloviating for the zillionth time about his hatred of Donald Trump? Then, another thought hit me. We all know where late-night television is today, with its emetic hosts spewing far-left political commentary before engaging in vapid faux-interviews with the current line-up of dreary talent. But I wanted to know where late-night television began and what yesteryear’s audiences enjoyed at the end of their days. The answer: it began in 1950 with a show called “Broadway Open House,” and the story of its rise and fall is nothing short of astonishing.
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Tiny Toon Adventures (1990)

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Tiny Toon Adventures (1990)

Back in the eighties and nineties, many companies sought out to “youthify” their most popular properties and, presumably for the same reason, Warner Bros. gave their Looney Tunes brand a fresh new series… which made no sense considering one of the best shows on the ABC Saturday Morning Line Up for years was The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show. That said, rather than featuring just younger versions of the Looney Tunes the creators of Tiny Toon Adventures opted instead to present us with a line up of brand new, hip, “extreme” versions of the original characters.

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Attack of the Doc! (2023)

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After the short lived resurgence of G4 TV in 2021, old school fans of the channel were brought back to the more magical days where the channel influenced pop culture. I was once upon a time a big fan of not only G4 TV, but of “Attack of the Show!” From 2007 to 2011, I would watch every single episode of “Attack of the Show!” and would even make a big occasion of their epic Comic Con coverage. While many fans of the channel and series know full well what happened to G4 and why it fell, “Attack of the Doc!” is a niche documentary with a tale that deserves to be told.

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Streaming Sundays: ‘Interview With The Vampire’ Is One Of The Best Retellings Of A Classic Tale

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AMC+ released their new television adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, and it is a worthy addition to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles canon.

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The Bootleg Files: The First Martin and Lewis Reunion

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BOOTLEG FILES 772: “The First Martin and Lewis Reunion” (1958 segment from Eddie Fisher’s television show).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Uncertain if this was ever part of a documentary.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No one bothered to clear the rights.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: We’ll discuss this below.

One of the most dramatic moments on 1970s television occurred during the 1976 broadcast of Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day weekend telethon on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Frank Sinatra was on stage with Lewis making a donation to the fundraiser and then he announced that he had a friend offstage that he wanted to have join him. The friend was Dean Martin and viewers were watching what they thought was the first reunion between the former comedy team partners in 20 years.
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The Bootleg Files: To Tell the Truth

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BOOTLEG FILES 713: “To Tell the Truth” (long-running television game show).

LAST SEEN: Plenty of old episodes are on YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: A few of the older episodes are on DVD from a highly dubious label.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Never properly repackaged for home entertainment channels.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at all.

Liars are the most fascinating people. After all, they can give you a spiel that could be utterly convincing and compelling, but it is only later when you realize their smoke-and-mirror act played you for a fool. And it takes a certain brand of talent to sell a falsehood in a manner that it is happily embraced as a fact and its seller is welcomed as an all-around good sort.
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The PC Thug: Rest In Peace, Chiller TV

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2017 will go down as a truly banner year for the horror community. We had great highs and massive lows. It was also the year of Stephen King where we celebrated genuinely brilliant adaptations like “It,” but bowed our heads in shame at the TV adaptations of “The Mist.” Good god that was terrible. I digress. We lost a ton of horror greats, and a good portion of horror hit makers spent a lot of time trying to convince the public that their films were not horror.

And who can forget the infamous “Post-Horror” crap? One of the bigger news headlines in the horror world that sent 2017 out with a bang has been the news that effective January 1st 2018, Chiller TV is shutting down.

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