Thurman Lives

November 25, 2012 9:13 PM

Back in March I posted about the forgotten Nickelodeon show Turkey Television. Recently a full episode of the show (later era) has shown up on YouTube: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3.
If that's too much video tryptophan (even at its best, Turkey Television was amazingly uneven), here's a few clips (WARNING: CONTAINS UNCLE HOGRAM, also some of Uncle Floyd's bizarre Day In The Life Of A Food) from YouTube user 2reelers.

Highlights:

• an episode of "The Uncle Hogram Program"
• a clip from Mr. Hulot's Holiday
• a dog being swung around acrobatically on stage
• short cartoon clips from Mordillo
• Mr. Fuddle (played by Tony Kahn -- wait, the one from WGBH Morning Stories?)
• a few seconds of claymotion called "Eggville" (whose origins appear to be obscure)
• a few clips of British comedians Don (Mclean) & Pete (Glaze) (here's a full short featuring the two -- and here's retrospective from Danny Baker on BBC1 -- throwing in the SECRET ORIGINS of Homer Simpson's "annoyed grunt" sound while we're there)
• the same Thurman T. Turkey cartoon repeated twice
• and a few seconds of chimp butt.

With clips containing the late, lamented Les Lye (Ross from You Can't Do That On Television, here as "Gramps").

posted by JHarris (19 comments total)

I think I should note, this is a show basically invented by Nick execs to fill time. I make no claims that it's great (although sometimes it achieves a kind of greatness), just that it shouldn't be forgotten.
posted by JHarris at 9:20 PM on November 25, 2012

Wowzers, I totally forgot about this, until I read "Turkey Television" and the theme song went off in my head. I watched this whenever I could as a kid.

Great memory, great find!
posted by lkc at 9:27 PM on November 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

This show was like Night Flight for kids. I loved it. Thanks for posting this!
posted by not_on_display at 9:45 PM on November 25, 2012

Since we're wandering back into 1980s Nickelodeon, I'll share the video I spent 20+ years hoping someone would load to Youtube, in which I both got to lead Salt Lake City, Utah as the Mayor and deliver the tag line "Kids' Day, on Nickelodeon" as a result to winning the non-grand-prize* in Nick's 1986 "Kids' Day" promotion.

*Grand Prize was a trip to Toronto to meet Moose and get slimed at a taping of YCDTOTV. I truly, truly missed out on that win. Also, the newscaster at the beginning got to interview Jason and Justine Bateman on the local news. That was pretty cool, too. I just got front page on both local newspapers and the tagline on the commercial, which makes you PRETTY POPULAR as a dorky seventh grader in math classes full of ninth graders, I promise you. Oh, and I met Danger Mouse. There was that, too.
posted by GamblingBlues at 10:16 PM on November 25, 2012 [10 favorites]

Nitpicking here, but turkey has about the same level of tryptophan as most other meats. Which isn't much.
posted by onya at 10:31 PM on November 25, 2012

Not TV Turkey, and video Tryptophan. They can make even the stoutest brain pass out.
posted by JHarris at 10:56 PM on November 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

I think I should note, this is a show basically invented by Nick execs to fill time.

That's crazy, for some reason all these years I thought it was some random Canadian show that they rebroadcast...so was it actually produced by Nick? Was it cobbled together from foreign sources and assembled in a new way, like Robotech or something?
posted by trackofalljades at 11:15 PM on November 25, 2012

Well to think of it, it's actually an assumption of mine. I have no real information on the show's origins, but one of the show's creators is Geraldine Laybourne, then an exec at Nick. The other is Roger Price, who produced You Can't Do That On Television. (Christine McGlade and Les Lye also came to the show from YCDTOT.)
posted by JHarris at 11:28 PM on November 25, 2012

Oh, and I met Danger Mouse. There was that, too.

Ok, that's awesome. Man, Nickelodeon was too much fun back then. YKDTOTV, Turkey Television, Danger Mouse, and then Nick at Nite.
posted by azpenguin at 11:55 PM on November 25, 2012

Here's a supplemental clip: the video to Commander Cody's "Two Triple Cheese Side Order Of Fries", a Turkey Television staple.
posted by JHarris at 12:20 AM on November 26, 2012 [4 favorites]

Ah! The guy who plays Uncle Hogram is Tom Riis Farrell. He's been on Broadway and Law & Order!
posted by JHarris at 2:17 AM on November 26, 2012

They also sometimes aired standup clips. One that was in frequent rotation was Dana Carvey's "Choppin' Broccoli" bit. They had another Carvey bit where he related a story of his brother Brad hooking up the leg of a dead frog to a battery to make it twitch.
posted by JHarris at 4:05 AM on November 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Commander Cody video unearthed the source of about 15 different half-remembered bits of video that have been stuck in my brain for a good 20 years. Thanks!
posted by neilbert at 4:53 AM on November 26, 2012

GARY GNU AND IVAN TELALY.

omg my childhood
posted by elizardbits at 5:46 AM on November 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

IVAN TELALY.

Hero of Soviet Union [checks medal] forty-third class!

Damn, that is bringing back memories. I also had mentally stashed away Vance Vain's "Good, my life is good" catchphrase. This and "Out of Control" ruled my TV-viewing life for a while.
posted by Spatch at 7:05 AM on November 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Turrr-kee, Turkey TV, Turrr-kee, Turkey TV...
posted by orrnyereg at 3:56 PM on November 26, 2012

IVAN TELALY!!!!

My God, I've been searching for this for ages! All I could remember was that bit where he checked his medal. I was starting to think I'd made it up.
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 4:28 PM on November 26, 2012

Turrr-kee, Turkey TV, Turrr-kee, Turkey TV...

I much prefer the original theme song, most of which can be heard here. It's got a lot more Jim Thurman in it.
posted by JHarris at 5:11 PM on November 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm glad other people remember TT! Wasn't there also a segment where they did sort of a Mystery Science Theater thing with either Night of the Living Dead or Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
posted by beatmenace at 6:26 AM on November 27, 2012