HA, the "New" TV Comedy Network
September 23, 2015 1:17 PM Subscribe
Here are some promos from and other information on the long-forgotten HA!: The New TV Comedy Network.
Promos - Logos - More promos - Even more promos (with a bit of Mel Torme!) - And a few more spots. HA would merge with The Comedy Channel in 1991 to produce the nascent Comedy Central (NYT). Fred Seibert writes about positioning HA.
Two more points of interest, regarding HA!:
Clash
HA mostly traded in comedy reruns (it was where I learned to love Ernie Kovacks and Spike Jones!) and had little original programming. But they did have the superlative post-modern game show Clash, hosted by Billy Kimball, of which, sadly, little survives on the internet. They would put two teams in opposition to each other who were "natural enemies," like cat owners and dog owners, and eventually put them in a bonus round where they spun a wheel with five literally impossible hard questions on it and an EASY QUESTION that would be something like "What is your favorite color?"
Promo - EW article
Fred Seibert
Fred Seibert, formerly of Fred/Alan, is responsible for a lot more of the awesome of classic TV channels than you may be aware. He invented I Want My MTV!, he and Alan Goodman presided over the reinvention of floundering kids' network Nickelodeon from blandly ignorable to ratings star. Seibert also worked on establishing classic Nick At Nite, several cartoon pilot programs at Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and currently runs Frederator Studios, makers of Adventure Time and Bee & Puppycat!
Promos - Logos - More promos - Even more promos (with a bit of Mel Torme!) - And a few more spots. HA would merge with The Comedy Channel in 1991 to produce the nascent Comedy Central (NYT). Fred Seibert writes about positioning HA.
Two more points of interest, regarding HA!:
Clash
HA mostly traded in comedy reruns (it was where I learned to love Ernie Kovacks and Spike Jones!) and had little original programming. But they did have the superlative post-modern game show Clash, hosted by Billy Kimball, of which, sadly, little survives on the internet. They would put two teams in opposition to each other who were "natural enemies," like cat owners and dog owners, and eventually put them in a bonus round where they spun a wheel with five literally impossible hard questions on it and an EASY QUESTION that would be something like "What is your favorite color?"
Promo - EW article
Fred Seibert
Fred Seibert, formerly of Fred/Alan, is responsible for a lot more of the awesome of classic TV channels than you may be aware. He invented I Want My MTV!, he and Alan Goodman presided over the reinvention of floundering kids' network Nickelodeon from blandly ignorable to ratings star. Seibert also worked on establishing classic Nick At Nite, several cartoon pilot programs at Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and currently runs Frederator Studios, makers of Adventure Time and Bee & Puppycat!
THAT IS SO AWESOME. I loved Ha! while it was around too!! I want to see that whole VHS tape!
posted by JHarris at 1:48 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 1:48 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I always thought it was funny that of the two comedy networks, it was the one that *wasn't* owned by MTV that was built largely on these short little clips, less than 5 minutes long. I got a lot of exposure to standup in those days, and I always missed it when that format seemed to disappear after the merger--Short Attention Span Theater lasted for a while, but then went away.
posted by Four Ds at 2:09 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Four Ds at 2:09 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
I was 12ish when HA! was a thing, and IT WAS MY FAVORITE. We had just somehow signed up for basic cable and got a shit VCR all at once (both new fancy shit that came with mom re-marrying), and I'd set set that fucker to tape 8 hrs of *whatever* on HA! and come back and pick and choose shows later. It is how I figured out that Kids in the Hall was the best thing ever, and that Dorf on Golf was a thing (because commericals).
I was also weirdly into Afterdrive - the show with Billy Kimball & Dennis Leary. I had 0 idea of what they were actually grousing about most of the time but I felt mega-adult watching it.
posted by Ennis Tennyone at 2:25 PM on September 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
I was also weirdly into Afterdrive - the show with Billy Kimball & Dennis Leary. I had 0 idea of what they were actually grousing about most of the time but I felt mega-adult watching it.
posted by Ennis Tennyone at 2:25 PM on September 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
The really amazing takeaway here is how simple it had become to organize and launch a new cable network. Let's announce the launch date and then start building stuff!
(Also, what was HBO's play with TCN? All of their standup specials and assorted movies but leave the SNL reruns alone?)
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:27 PM on September 23, 2015
(Also, what was HBO's play with TCN? All of their standup specials and assorted movies but leave the SNL reruns alone?)
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:27 PM on September 23, 2015
The "STRENGTHEN OUR KNEES" promo slayed me as a kid but does little for me now.
posted by infinitewindow at 3:40 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 3:40 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
Blandly ignorable, you say!? You can have my Count Duckula when you take it from my cold, dead hands
posted by surazal at 3:43 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by surazal at 3:43 PM on September 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
There's a story the Mystery Science Theater guys used to tell about when they first moved onto Comedy Central from Minneapolis local TV. They were only able to find one bar in Minneapolis that actually had Comedy Central, because everybody else had HA. They got to the bar and asked the bartender to change to Comedy Central so they could watch the premier of MST3K, and he turned it to HA, because it was "the comedy channel."
They were sure Comedy Central be gone inside of a year.
posted by GameDesignerBen at 3:52 PM on September 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
They were sure Comedy Central be gone inside of a year.
posted by GameDesignerBen at 3:52 PM on September 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
OMG, Short Attention Span Theater!
Okay, this is for people out there who are me. You know that comedian from SAST that made you laugh your face off in the early 90s, and you never heard from him again for reasons you'll never understand, and you could never find him on YouTube because you misremembered his name?
His name is Ron Shock, not Rick Shock. He was friends with Bill Hicks. And yes, he was hilarious. Fucking hilarious. Still is. RIP.
posted by panama joe at 4:21 PM on September 23, 2015 [5 favorites]
Okay, this is for people out there who are me. You know that comedian from SAST that made you laugh your face off in the early 90s, and you never heard from him again for reasons you'll never understand, and you could never find him on YouTube because you misremembered his name?
His name is Ron Shock, not Rick Shock. He was friends with Bill Hicks. And yes, he was hilarious. Fucking hilarious. Still is. RIP.
posted by panama joe at 4:21 PM on September 23, 2015 [5 favorites]
I worked for Comedy Channel before the merger with HA!. We thought we were launching the MTV of comedy, with comic counterparts for the then extremely popular MTV Vee-Jays. Now, even MTV is no longer the MTV of MTV, and the Comedy Channel was crushed by the constraints of satellite carriage (the cable giants told us they'd carry either Comedy Channel or HA!, but not both. We had no choice but to shut down for six months and join into one indivisible union). Great people like Rich Hall, Rachel Sweet, and Clutch Cargo lost their jobs. Oh yeah, me too.
posted by Modest House at 4:44 PM on September 23, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 4:44 PM on September 23, 2015 [6 favorites]
SAST host Wali Collins has a website.
posted by HeroZero at 4:49 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by HeroZero at 4:49 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
This FPP inspired me to half-remember another cable comedy network promo from that time -- one that seemed to sincerely petition for world peace. I can't find it, but I just posted an AskMe about it.
posted by HeroZero at 5:05 PM on September 23, 2015
posted by HeroZero at 5:05 PM on September 23, 2015
Walli Collins hosted Stand Up, Stand Up, not SAST. You know who did host SAST for a while? Jon Stewart.
Blandly ignorable, you say!? You can have my Count Duckula when you take it from my cold, dead hands
You have the era wrong. Count Duckula was on Nick at the height of its reign. But before Duckula, before Danger Mouse, before even You Can't Do That On Television, Nickelodeon was Pinwheel and not a whole lot else. Not a lot off people remember it because, well, few watched it. It was Fred Seibert and company who helped make Nickelodeon the talk of the schoolyard with, among other things, the classic orange "Splat" logo.
posted by JHarris at 5:42 PM on September 23, 2015 [6 favorites]
Blandly ignorable, you say!? You can have my Count Duckula when you take it from my cold, dead hands
You have the era wrong. Count Duckula was on Nick at the height of its reign. But before Duckula, before Danger Mouse, before even You Can't Do That On Television, Nickelodeon was Pinwheel and not a whole lot else. Not a lot off people remember it because, well, few watched it. It was Fred Seibert and company who helped make Nickelodeon the talk of the schoolyard with, among other things, the classic orange "Splat" logo.
posted by JHarris at 5:42 PM on September 23, 2015 [6 favorites]
Also,GameDesignerBen, what you're thinking of is The Comedy Channel. Ha and The Comedy Channel merged to become CTV briefly, which was already taken by a Canadian network, so they changed to Comedy Central and hired Penn Jilette as voice of the station.
posted by JHarris at 9:15 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 9:15 PM on September 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is the one that always stuck with me.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:00 PM on September 23, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:00 PM on September 23, 2015 [7 favorites]
I remember being stuck in a hotel room in Minneapolis in January 1991, and the hotel TV only had a few channels, one of which was HA, and all HA showed, all day long, was episode after episode of Love, American Style. It was a bit nightmarish, actually.
posted by JanetLand at 5:22 AM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by JanetLand at 5:22 AM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Nickelodeon was Pinwheel and not a whole lot else.
I remember Pinwheel and Today's Special, mainly because I was in the right age group at the time and my parents had just gotten cable. I credit Nickelodeon with the fact that I ended up an Anglophile.
posted by drezdn at 5:40 AM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
I remember Pinwheel and Today's Special, mainly because I was in the right age group at the time and my parents had just gotten cable. I credit Nickelodeon with the fact that I ended up an Anglophile.
posted by drezdn at 5:40 AM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is the spot that remains in my memory:
The HA! Manifesto, Article 8.
If, at any time during our broadcast day, your foot turns into an umbrella (sound of umbrella opening), we'll replace it.
If you're watching Lucy, and your foot turns into an umbrella (sound again), we'll replace it.
If you're watching That Girl, and your foot turns into an umbrella (sound), we'll replace it.
If both your feet turn into umbrellas (sound twice), we'll replace them both.
Why?
Because we've got a warehouse filled with feet. And they've got to move.
(Sound one last time, accompanied by HA logo.)
posted by JHarris at 7:35 AM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
The HA! Manifesto, Article 8.
If, at any time during our broadcast day, your foot turns into an umbrella (sound of umbrella opening), we'll replace it.
If you're watching Lucy, and your foot turns into an umbrella (sound again), we'll replace it.
If you're watching That Girl, and your foot turns into an umbrella (sound), we'll replace it.
If both your feet turn into umbrellas (sound twice), we'll replace them both.
Why?
Because we've got a warehouse filled with feet. And they've got to move.
(Sound one last time, accompanied by HA logo.)
posted by JHarris at 7:35 AM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Okay, this is for people out there who are me. You know that comedian from SAST that made you laugh your face off in the early 90s, and you never heard from him again for reasons you'll never understand, and you could never find him on YouTube because you misremembered his name?
You mean Joe Bolster? I remembered his name just fine :p
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:36 AM on September 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
You mean Joe Bolster? I remembered his name just fine :p
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:36 AM on September 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Thing is Joe Bolster was part of the show Sports Monster, which was on competitor The Comedy Channel.
SAST also had a recurring segment in one of its years called Monkey Boy Presents, which they badly lip-synched a guy from a black-and-white show (or movie?) introducing other clips. I only remember it because of the voices singing the three-toned intro jingle: "MON... KEY... BOYoyoyoyoy....," kind of like the old NBC jingle.
posted by JHarris at 7:40 AM on September 24, 2015
SAST also had a recurring segment in one of its years called Monkey Boy Presents, which they badly lip-synched a guy from a black-and-white show (or movie?) introducing other clips. I only remember it because of the voices singing the three-toned intro jingle: "MON... KEY... BOYoyoyoyoy....," kind of like the old NBC jingle.
posted by JHarris at 7:40 AM on September 24, 2015
Did SAST survive the meger for a little while? Because my cable provider only offered Comedy Channel and I distinctly remember watching SAST on Comedy Channel/CTV/Comedy Central in the early 90's (I also remember Marc Maron and Laura Kightlinger among the hosts on the station in the early years but The Higgins Boys & Gruber was my favorite bit of programming. Goofball humor punctuated by reruns of Clutch Cargo).
posted by KingEdRa at 12:00 PM on September 24, 2015
posted by KingEdRa at 12:00 PM on September 24, 2015
I think SAST was actually a creature of the merger, a way to preserve the Comedy Channel's mostly-stand-up format for a while longer. And it lasted several years actually, along with the aforementioned Stand Up Stand Up With Wali Collins. It survived long enough to have at least one format revision and two or three hosts, including Jon Stewart for a while.
posted by JHarris at 12:44 PM on September 24, 2015
posted by JHarris at 12:44 PM on September 24, 2015
And the word is that Joel Hodgson is friends with the Higgins Boys.
posted by JHarris at 12:45 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 12:45 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Three memories of Clash:
-The two teams being "Harley Riders versus BMW Drivers"
-A category on the spinning wheel being called "Not even God knows this one"
-The easy question on the wheel being: "What did you have for breakfast this morning?"
posted by LastOfHisKind at 9:16 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
-The two teams being "Harley Riders versus BMW Drivers"
-A category on the spinning wheel being called "Not even God knows this one"
-The easy question on the wheel being: "What did you have for breakfast this morning?"
posted by LastOfHisKind at 9:16 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
jeffamaphone: "This is the one that always stuck with me. "
The days when a network promo would last a full 30 seconds....
posted by Chrysostom at 5:00 PM on September 25, 2015
The days when a network promo would last a full 30 seconds....
posted by Chrysostom at 5:00 PM on September 25, 2015
The only pairup I remember on Clash was Nerds vs. Jocks. One of the nerds had blossomed, and the Jocks wiped the floor with the Nerds. A really crushing defeat.
posted by infinitewindow at 5:31 PM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by infinitewindow at 5:31 PM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
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I was obsessed with HA! as a kid, based solely on the promos they ran on MTV as the fledgling station was gearing up for national syndication. I even started a petition to get it added to the local cable offerings, to no avail. I was really bummed (in that abstract teenage way) when they gave up and merged with the Comedy Channel to become Comedy Central.
Years later - after posting this AskMe - I wrote Fred Seibert a gushing email about the station and he sent me a giant, foamcore-mounted HA! poster from his personal archives.
I put together that YT video after asking around, on some cable TV nostalgia forum or another, whether anyone had any extant footage of the long-defunct station. Some guy digitized a two-hour VHS tape of continuous HA! footage and sent it to me on a DVD.
I'm a dangerous guy with an obsession...
posted by mykescipark at 1:27 PM on September 23, 2015 [25 favorites]