Copyright MCMLXXI Rachel Lichtman

June 25, 2023 9:06 PM

Programme 4 Community Television has begun its broadcast day!
posted by infinitewindow (18 comments total)

This is a remarkable parody/tribute to '70s TV promos, and while there's clearly a lot here that I haven't gotten through, so far I can't get enough. The sudden appearance of Aimee Mann at 16m or so is a bonus. Really wonderful stuff.
posted by eschatfische at 9:48 PM on June 25, 2023

I didn't realize that the Aimee Mann bit is literally the music video for "I See You". Turns out the director of the video, Rachel Lichtman, is also the person behind Programme 4. (If this is common knowledge and I'm actually behind in figuring this all out, forgive me!)
posted by chrominance at 10:36 PM on June 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is the gateway drug to WEVP, QTV, and the twilit nightmare realms beyond. I love it.
posted by phooky at 10:38 PM on June 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

I think this is by the same person who did Network 77. So good.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:05 PM on June 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

This is just brilliant. I love how she uses the design vocabulary expertly to make statements that would have been inexplicable at the time. (They’d have asked, “why are there always broads behind the camera? Is this the women’s lib network?”)

I should listen to more Aimee Mann.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:20 AM on June 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

I would totally watch a Brady prequel
posted by chavenet at 6:29 AM on June 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

"The hockey improv of High Schticking" during the "The Jack Pulaski Show" ad legit made me do a spit take.
posted by KingEdRa at 6:53 AM on June 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I used to follow Network77 on the bird site, kind of miss it. This video looks like a compilation of earlier stuff with some brand new things. There are lots of cameos in Rachel's work, besides Aimee Mann you'll see Juliana Hatfield in there and Michael Penn did some of the smarmy voiceover work and music.

And I would totally watch McCluskey and Humphreys fight crime on the streets of the Merseyside. Make it happen!
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:22 AM on June 26, 2023

I got about 8 minutes in when I realized it was an hour long, so I'll have to finish it when I have more time, but it was so good.

I would totally watch a Brady prequel
Wished this was a real thing as soon as the title flashed on the screen.
posted by briank at 7:42 AM on June 26, 2023

While you're there, there's more at Easy AM 66.
posted by whuppy at 8:11 AM on June 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

OMG this is amazing. I'm only four minutes in, but it is basically perfect in so many ways.
posted by davidmsc at 9:27 AM on June 26, 2023

This was created either by someone my age, or someone who has spent way too much time in the archives.
The graphics, clothing styles, voiceovers, etc. are perfect.
So much cracked me up- UTI, Foxes 2, Browner rugs ('She'll enjoy the easy installation')
I'd be up for watching 'The Last Man Out of Doo-Wop' or 'Take the 5th: Two Less Bells to Answer' (Naturally a Quinn-Martin production)
Not sure how much of this goes over the head of someone born after MCMLXXI.
posted by MtDewd at 11:48 AM on June 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

As someone in that category: a lot, but you can tell a bunch of stuff is supposed to be a reference to something, and other things it's really hard to know either way (which is probably better honestly). It was pretty neat when I recognized Age of Aquarius and then looked up who did the song and put two and two together, though!
posted by chrominance at 1:05 PM on June 26, 2023

Age of Aquarius I knew as soon as the zodiac stuff showed up. Having them in the cast photos helped, too.
I liked the Billy Joel videos and the background music in The William Joel Show was terrific. (Even if that song wasn't out in 1971. Not even Billy was that much out.)
posted by MtDewd at 2:55 PM on June 26, 2023

Would take a full hour of the Sklar Brothers reading the menu at Ramon’s Venetian Room. Does anybody remember who made/makes fake supermarket circulars and other ephemera with a similar close-but-uncannily-off vibe to “burnished lettuce”?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:42 PM on June 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Apple Cabin Foods! From LiarTownUSA.
posted by JoeZydeco at 4:13 PM on June 26, 2023 [5 favorites]

Sean Tejaratchi's personal twitter is where I found the link.

I grew up in a house with wood paneling watching a lot of PBS back on a 25-inch Zenith console set (with ultrasonic remote control!) back when the WGBH Boston logo was scary. Truly the Wooden Age of Television.
posted by infinitewindow at 4:22 PM on June 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

Well done. Painfully well done...
posted by jim in austin at 8:33 PM on June 26, 2023