Jump to content

Night Flight (TV series): Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m v2.0 - Repaired 1 link to disambiguation page - (You can help) - George Clinton / WP:WCW project (Reference before punctuation - Link equal to linktext - Spelling and typography)
Line 56: Line 56:


==Music videos aired on Night Flight==
==Music videos aired on Night Flight==
*''[https://archive.org/details/Randy_Andy_People_Livin_In_The_U.S.A. The People (Livin' in the U.S.A.)]''-Randy Andy <ref>[http://nightflight.com/randy-andys-the-people-livin-in-the-usa-running-out-of-luck/ Randy Andy’s “The People (Livin’ In The USA)”: “Running Out Of Luck”-Night Flight]</ref>
*''[https://archive.org/details/Randy_Andy_People_Livin_In_The_U.S.A. The People (Livin' in the U.S.A.)]''-Randy Andy <ref>[http://nightflight.com/randy-andys-the-people-livin-in-the-usa-running-out-of-luck/ Randy Andy's “The People (Livin’ In The USA)”: “Running Out Of Luck”-Night Flight]</ref>
*''New Frontier''-[[Donald Fagen]] <ref>[http://nightflight.com/donald-fagens-new-frontier-a-couple-finds-love-in-an-underground-nuclear-fallout-shelter/ Donald Fagen’s “New Frontier”: A romantic weekend in the family’s backyard fallout shelter-Night Flight]</ref>
*''New Frontier''-[[Donald Fagen]] <ref>[http://nightflight.com/donald-fagens-new-frontier-a-couple-finds-love-in-an-underground-nuclear-fallout-shelter/ Donald Fagen's “New Frontier”: A romantic weekend in the family's backyard fallout shelter-Night Flight]</ref>
*''Pleasure of Love''-[[Tom Tom Club]] <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation/5697863169702d0800cd4702 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''Pleasure of Love''-[[Tom Tom Club]] <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation/5697863169702d0800cd4702 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''Pressure Sway''-Machinations <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation/5697863169702d0800cd4702 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''Pressure Sway''-Machinations <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation/5697863169702d0800cd4702 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''Adventures in Success''-Will Powers <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation/5697863169702d0800cd4702 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''Adventures in Success''-Will Powers <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation/5697863169702d0800cd4702 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''[[Atomic Dog]]''-[[George Clinton]] <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation-3/571ab59b39abc907f1006282 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation 3-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''[[Atomic Dog]]''-[[George Clinton (musician)|George Clinton]] <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation-3/571ab59b39abc907f1006282 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation 3-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''[[She-Bop]]''-[[Cyndi Lauper]] <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation-3/571ab59b39abc907f1006282 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation 3-Night Flight Plus]</ref>
*''[[She-Bop]]''-[[Cyndi Lauper]] <ref>[https://www.nightflightplus.com/videos/night-flight-take-off-to-animation-3/571ab59b39abc907f1006282 Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation 3-Night Flight Plus]</ref>


Line 71: Line 71:
Samuels said ''Night Flight'' was the first show to place director's names on the videos, interview the bands, create band profiles, air uncensored videos, and to air longform 12" remix videos. He said they were also the first music video show to employ political themes, such as [[apartheid]]. The intent, he said, was not to be "...heavy-handed, but do 'here's-something-that's-in-the-news' shows".
Samuels said ''Night Flight'' was the first show to place director's names on the videos, interview the bands, create band profiles, air uncensored videos, and to air longform 12" remix videos. He said they were also the first music video show to employ political themes, such as [[apartheid]]. The intent, he said, was not to be "...heavy-handed, but do 'here's-something-that's-in-the-news' shows".


The eventual backlash against the repetition of rock videos inspired ''Night Flight'' to program even more public domain [[animation]] (especially those from the [[Fleischer Brothers]], [[Ub Iwerks]], etc.) <ref>[https://archive.org/details/Night_Flight_NBC_WOC_1991-05]
The eventual backlash against the repetition of rock videos inspired ''Night Flight'' to program even more public domain [[animation]] (especially those from the [[Fleischer Brothers]], [[Ub Iwerks]], etc.),<ref>[https://archive.org/details/Night_Flight_NBC_WOC_1991-05]
Night Flight NBC WOC 1991 05-Internet Archive</ref> <ref>[https://archive.org/details/Night_Flight_60s_Episode_NBC_WOC_1991-10] Night Flight 60s Episode NBC WOC 1991 10-Internet Archive</ref>, cult and camp films in the mid to late-1980s into the early 1990s. The show was thus instrumental in the distribution of cult, midnight movie and campy films.<ref>Harrington, Beth. "Reference". Boston Rock issue #77; September 1986. Michael Dreese, pub. Billie Best, ed.</ref>
Night Flight NBC WOC 1991 05-Internet Archive</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/Night_Flight_60s_Episode_NBC_WOC_1991-10] Night Flight 60s Episode NBC WOC 1991 10-Internet Archive</ref> cult and camp films in the mid to late-1980s into the early 1990s. The show was thus instrumental in the distribution of cult, midnight movie and campy films.<ref>Harrington, Beth. "Reference". Boston Rock issue #77; September 1986. Michael Dreese, pub. Billie Best, ed.</ref>


==List of selected films shown on ''Night Flight''==
==List of selected films shown on ''Night Flight''==
Line 102: Line 102:
*''[[The Red House (film)|The Red House]]''
*''[[The Red House (film)|The Red House]]''
*''[[Reefer Madness]]''
*''[[Reefer Madness]]''
*''[[Rock & Rule|Rock & Rule]]'' (clips only)
*''[[Rock & Rule]]'' (clips only)
*''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' (clips only)
*''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' (clips only)
*''[[Rude Boy (film)|Rude Boy]]''
*''[[Rude Boy (film)|Rude Boy]]''
Line 113: Line 113:
*''[[The Terror of Tiny Town]]''
*''[[The Terror of Tiny Town]]''
*''[[Urgh! A Music War]]'' (clips only)
*''[[Urgh! A Music War]]'' (clips only)
<ref>[https://letterboxd.com/cinemonster/list/films-and-shorts-aired-on-usas-night-flight/ Films and Shorts Aired on USA’s Night Flight-Letterboxd]</ref>
<ref>[https://letterboxd.com/cinemonster/list/films-and-shorts-aired-on-usas-night-flight/ Films and Shorts Aired on USA's Night Flight-Letterboxd]</ref>
{{div col end}}
{{div col end}}


Revision as of 04:30, 9 January 2019

Night Flight
Night Flight title screen from 1988
Created byStuart S. Shapiro
Written byStuart Samuels
Directed byStuart S. Shapiro
Narrated byPat Prescott
Country of originUnited States
Production
Executive producerJeff Franklin
ProducersStuart S. Shapiro
Cynthia Friedland
Eric Trigg (Co-Producer)
Camera setupmulti-camera
Running time4 hours
Original release
NetworkUSA Network
(1981–1988)
Syndication
(1990–1996)
IFC (2018)
ReleaseFirst Run
June 5, 1981 (1981-06-05)–
December 30, 1988 (1988-12-30)
Second Run
1990 (1990)–1996 (1996)
2018 Series
February 14, 2018 (2018-02-14)–
present (present)

Night Flight is an online visual-arts magazine and variety television show that originated on cable TV network USA Network. It originally aired from 1981 to 1988 before moving to syndication in the early 1990s. The show relaunched online on nightflight.com in 2015 with original episodes that can be streamed on the subscription channel Night Flight Plus. In April 2018, it returned to cable television as a short form (15 minute) program airing late Friday nights/early Saturday mornings on the network IFC. It includes a mix of mainstream and alternative music videos, artist interviews, B movies, documentaries, short films, stand-up comedy and animation.

History

Jeff Franklin (head of American Talent International) and Stuart S. Shapiro (head of International Harmony) approached USA Network about developing Night Flight in February 1981.

A new series that defied conventional formats and easy categorization was an acceptable risk to USA, and it aired the first episode of Night Flight on June 5, 1981. The timing was a deliberate move to exploit the Hollywood writers' strike, which had halted production on NBC's highly popular program Saturday Night Live.[1]

Episodes originally lasted four hours each, and aired in the late-night programming block after 11:00 PM Eastern Time on Friday and Saturday nights. The final original broadcast of Night Flight aired December 30, 1988; it was replaced with the programs Camp Midnite and USA Up All Night starring Gilbert Gottfried, starting the following week.

In 1990, Night Flight was revived in syndication. New episodes were produced for three seasons until 1992,[2] when the program reverted to selected reruns of episodes from the USA Network years hosted by Tom Juarez. These “best of” shows were aired as late as 1996.

In 2015, the series found a new life on NightFlight.com.[3][4] In addition to the original series, it features new short and feature films, as well as curated YouTube and Vimeo clips. A subscription service called Night Flight Plus launched in March 2016 which allows viewers to pay a monthly or annual fee for access to full segments of the show. [5] [6]

In 2018, a new Night Flight program began airing on IFC as a 15-minute series. It mixes highlights from the original series with surreal footage taken from films, television and the Internet.[7]

Format

Night Flight was one of the first sources in American television to see full-length and short films not generally aired on network television, or even pay-cable TV channels such as HBO. It was the first place that many Americans were able to see music documentaries such as Another State of Mind, The Grateful Dead Movie, Word, Sound and Power and Yessongs. Night Flight was also one of the first American television shows to present the music video as a serious visual art form rather than a mere promotional tool for musicians. Late-night broadcasts also afforded cable television the freedom to air portions of videos that MTV and other outlets had either censored or banned.

There was no on-camera host in the original series. Pat Prescott introduced segments with a voiceover just before they began. Recurring segments included:

  • Take Off - A segment that grouped together music videos based on a single unifying theme, and added a mix of interviews and snippets from movies to help round out the segment. Examples from the show are Take Off To Animation, Take Off To Sex, Take Off To Violence, etc. San Francisco-based production company VideoWest produced the segment from 1981 to 1983, with news reporter Dave McQueen doing the voice-overs. From 1983 on, Night Flight's producers (ATI Video) were in charge of producing the segment with Prescott narrating.
  • New Wave Theatre - Hosted by Peter Ivers, the show featured punk and New Wave acts, chiefly from the Los Angeles area.
  • The Video Artist - A segment covering artists working in the then-new world of video and computer graphics. [8]
  • The Comic - Profiles of various comedians, consisting of stand-up bits interspersed with interview segments. This segment was also known as Night Flight's Comedy Cuts toward the end of the show's run.
  • Video Profile - A segment featuring videos by one particular band or artist. works included Suspicious Circumstances, by Jim Blashfield, "Metal Dogs of India" and "Machine Song" by Chel White, and works by the Brothers Quay.
  • Atomic TV - A segment featuring various Cold War-era footage
  • Love That Bob (Church of the Sub-Genius) - A serialized presentation of the Sub-Genius video Arise!
  • Rick Shaw's Takeout Theater with Frankie Pace[9]
  • Dynaman - An English-dubbed parody of six episodes of the Super Sentai series Kagaku Sentai Dynaman
  • Space Patrol - An early 1950s U.S. sci-fi television series
  • Tales of Tomorrow
  • Heavy Metal Heroes
  • The Some Bizzare Show, featuring the artists of the Some Bizzare label
  • Snub TV altenative music program, first two seasons produced in the UK.

Bela Lugosi's Monogram films were recurring features. Other segments included condensed parodies of low-quality, out-of-copyright black-and-white-era movies and serials, as well as letters from viewers.

Music videos aired on Night Flight

Show Development

Night Flight's Director of Programming, Stuart Samuels, was a former professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania who also taught seminars at the annual Cannes Film Festival. He also authored a book on cult films, Midnight Movies.

In an interview in issue #77 of Boston Rock, Samuels said the concept of airing films centered around a single theme was intended to have the effect that "the videos were saying something to each other and were letting the audience make conclusions from them." Samuels also said the show was never trying to compete with MTV; he felt the content of Night Flight was "...a little more selective... intelligent and... stimulating."

Samuels said Night Flight was the first show to place director's names on the videos, interview the bands, create band profiles, air uncensored videos, and to air longform 12" remix videos. He said they were also the first music video show to employ political themes, such as apartheid. The intent, he said, was not to be "...heavy-handed, but do 'here's-something-that's-in-the-news' shows".

The eventual backlash against the repetition of rock videos inspired Night Flight to program even more public domain animation (especially those from the Fleischer Brothers, Ub Iwerks, etc.),[17][18] cult and camp films in the mid to late-1980s into the early 1990s. The show was thus instrumental in the distribution of cult, midnight movie and campy films.[19]

List of selected films shown on Night Flight

[25]

Reception

TV Guide called Night Flight the "Best Pop Music Magazine show on cable".[26] USA Today would later echo that sentiment, declaring it "the most creative use of music and video on television today".[27]

References

  1. ^ Denisoff, pp. 129—30
  2. ^ Night Flight-Episodes-IMDB
  3. ^ Nightflight.com
  4. ^ Nightflight.com
  5. ^ Ongley, Hannah. "the weirdest late-night tv show of the 80s is now streaming online | read | i-D". i-D. Vice Networks.
  6. ^ "Announcing Night Flight Plus: A premium subscription channel offering uncut Night Flight episodes and hundreds of feature films". Night Flight. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  7. ^ IFC
  8. ^ 1982 Steph Beck Night Flight Tv Show-Internet Archive
  9. ^ Thomas, Bryan (January 30, 2018). "Stand-up comedian & "lovable madman" Frankie Pace appeared on Night Flight's "Comedy Cuts"". Night Flight.
  10. ^ Randy Andy's “The People (Livin’ In The USA)”: “Running Out Of Luck”-Night Flight
  11. ^ Donald Fagen's “New Frontier”: A romantic weekend in the family's backyard fallout shelter-Night Flight
  12. ^ Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus
  13. ^ Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus
  14. ^ Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation-Night Flight Plus
  15. ^ Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation 3-Night Flight Plus
  16. ^ Night Flight - "Take Off" to Animation 3-Night Flight Plus
  17. ^ [1] Night Flight NBC WOC 1991 05-Internet Archive
  18. ^ [2] Night Flight 60s Episode NBC WOC 1991 10-Internet Archive
  19. ^ Harrington, Beth. "Reference". Boston Rock issue #77; September 1986. Michael Dreese, pub. Billie Best, ed.
  20. ^ Night Flight-Cult-O-Rama-Night Flight Plus
  21. ^ Night Flight-Fantastic Animation Festival-Night Flight Plus
  22. ^ Night Flight-Cult-O-Rama-Night Flight Plus
  23. ^ Night Flight-Cult-O-Rama-Night Flight Plus
  24. ^ Night Flight-Cult-O-Rama-Night Flight Plus
  25. ^ Films and Shorts Aired on USA's Night Flight-Letterboxd
  26. ^ TV Guide, July 9, 1981, quoted in Denisoff, p. 132
  27. ^ USA Today, December 2, 1982, quoted in Denisoff, pp. 132—33

Notes

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Night_Flight_(TV_series)&oldid=877516651"