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Anybody ever been on TV?
- Thread starter Bunk McNulty
- Start date
Hey
Somehow, your post wound up on my phone. I had to sign up to reply and the 1st time I somehow replied to the wrong poster but he replied and set me on track to you...
One thing that always bothered me was everything you find about Ed Hurst dance show, seems to refer to either the steel pier show or aquarama. It was a very long time ago and it was a crazy time, but I'm certain the show was not the summer steel pier show. But I also don't remember anything about Aquarama or an aquarium... I know h we had various shows at various places at different times, but I have never been able to come up with any reference to teen tv dance show with Ed Hurst during the 67/68 time period, that was different than either steel pier or aquarama, so perhaps due to the excitement of going to someplace to tape a show was so overwhelming that I never caught wind if it being Aquarama. However I still to this day think it was some other studio...?
In any event, I clearly recall going there on a Thurs to tape performance, back on Friday to do lip sync and then the show aired on Saturday. We did 2 songs but I think only 1 aired. Found out today that Mr Hurst died in 2020. And also, apparently, there were never any archives made if the show. Oh well. By the way, our band was called the Nightriders. One of the guys in the band, the main singer, later went on to become a somewhat well known comedian. His name was perry Kurtz. I can't stand his brand of "comedy", but thought I'd mention the fact.
We also did a show at pope Paul IV high school in Hadden heights or Haddenfield, NJ. We opened for a guy called Billy Garner (the human percolator) and I believe it was Melanie, whom I recently learned performed at Woodstock. She's still around and I put lots of time and energy into contacting both these folks and I left messages on their sites or with their handlers, but to my great chagrin, no one ever bothered to reply. Really saddened me, as I was there with them on stage over 50 yrs ago.
Anyway, those were the days...
Never have been able to find any mention or reference to that show either. My memory tells me that the place had 4 gyms opened up into 1 large room and that many many peeps showed up as paying concert goers. Our equipment was way too lacking for this gig and my memory tells me that Mr Harner allowed us to plug into his PA system. I can't believe it but I KNOW I sang Satisfaction to that whole crowd. I don't remember any tomatoes or boos so we did it and made it thru. I hate to divulge this but this apparently being a bass forum, I must admit that we were so undeveloped at this point, that our bassist had to use a 6 string electric . We also did a heart association benefit and had go-go dancers in cages.
I swear it all happened... No 'trips' til about a year later, lol.
So when you said you got upstaged by some dancing dolphins, haha, I could really relate. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. By the way, on Ed Hurst, we all wore blue satin shirts. Hope somebody enjoyed hearing of my been on tv experience.
Hey now! Back in 67 or 68, I was in h.s. in Philly (NE high) & was in a band (more of 'trying to be a band', lol). We weren't too good but we were working on it at least. We had a manager who apparently had some connections & among other gigs, he got us on the Ed Hurst show. Seems kike a long past dream now but we were definitely on the show. Over the yrs, every so often, I've tried to connect with Ed Hurst or anyone or any group that might still have any pics or videos or records if any kind to validate we were on the show. All attempts failed. Anyhoo, today was was one if those days that I was searching around in this regard. My Father had 8 millimetered the show off from his black & white port tv in his bedroom and eventually, he gave me the film but it was later lost in a fire.
Somehow, your post wound up on my phone. I had to sign up to reply and the 1st time I somehow replied to the wrong poster but he replied and set me on track to you...
One thing that always bothered me was everything you find about Ed Hurst dance show, seems to refer to either the steel pier show or aquarama. It was a very long time ago and it was a crazy time, but I'm certain the show was not the summer steel pier show. But I also don't remember anything about Aquarama or an aquarium... I know h we had various shows at various places at different times, but I have never been able to come up with any reference to teen tv dance show with Ed Hurst during the 67/68 time period, that was different than either steel pier or aquarama, so perhaps due to the excitement of going to someplace to tape a show was so overwhelming that I never caught wind if it being Aquarama. However I still to this day think it was some other studio...?
In any event, I clearly recall going there on a Thurs to tape performance, back on Friday to do lip sync and then the show aired on Saturday. We did 2 songs but I think only 1 aired. Found out today that Mr Hurst died in 2020. And also, apparently, there were never any archives made if the show. Oh well. By the way, our band was called the Nightriders. One of the guys in the band, the main singer, later went on to become a somewhat well known comedian. His name was perry Kurtz. I can't stand his brand of "comedy", but thought I'd mention the fact.
We also did a show at pope Paul IV high school in Hadden heights or Haddenfield, NJ. We opened for a guy called Billy Garner (the human percolator) and I believe it was Melanie, whom I recently learned performed at Woodstock. She's still around and I put lots of time and energy into contacting both these folks and I left messages on their sites or with their handlers, but to my great chagrin, no one ever bothered to reply. Really saddened me, as I was there with them on stage over 50 yrs ago.
Anyway, those were the days...
Never have been able to find any mention or reference to that show either. My memory tells me that the place had 4 gyms opened up into 1 large room and that many many peeps showed up as paying concert goers. Our equipment was way too lacking for this gig and my memory tells me that Mr Harner allowed us to plug into his PA system. I can't believe it but I KNOW I sang Satisfaction to that whole crowd. I don't remember any tomatoes or boos so we did it and made it thru. I hate to divulge this but this apparently being a bass forum, I must admit that we were so undeveloped at this point, that our bassist had to use a 6 string electric . We also did a heart association benefit and had go-go dancers in cages.
I swear it all happened... No 'trips' til about a year later, lol.
So when you said you got upstaged by some dancing dolphins, haha, I could really relate. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. By the way, on Ed Hurst, we all wore blue satin shirts. Hope somebody enjoyed hearing of my been on tv experience.
I did an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. I’m the beaver playing keys for Sweet Caroline with Mike Myers. It was a Canadian thing. And a total blast.
I think the Ed Hurst show was taped in Channel 29's studio. We went there a week before to record our tune to lip sync to. Taped the show on a weeknight. I remember 29 was a UHF station & my home TV didn't have UHF. so I went to a neighbor's to watch it. It was broadcast late Saturday afternoon if I remember right. It was called "The Ed Hurst Show". It wasn't Summertime at the Pier or Aquarama. It was a separate throwaway show. Think it was just seemed like a fill in show. Cheaply done. Local acts who cut a single would lip sync & Philly/Allentown DJ's would push their dances or whatever. Our segment was called "Teen Talent Spotlight". They probably bulk erased or recorded over the videotapes of all those shows. Videotape pro reels were really expensive in the 1960's.
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Bbbats,
I do believe you have explained this long standing mystery to me. As I say, in all the many searches I've done, over the years, every reference I've ever found always referred to either aquarama or steel pier, in terms of approx 1968 and called simply "the Ed Hurst show" and not with Grady or anyone else. The notion of a "throwaway show" has sorta always been in the back of my mind. I remember one of the group had a station wagon and we had all our equipment stuffed into it and it doesn't seem like we drove all that far to get to the studio. I don't specifically recall anything about it being ch 29 studio but I'll bet your correct. Now there's some memories, lol, compared to the tech of today! I remember the tv tuner starting at ch 2 and going to 13 I think and all there was, was 3 channels (vhf), seems like it was 3, 6, and 9 maybe? Man, that's a long time ago. Abc, NBC, and cbs. Seems like at 1st, when the 3 uhf channels became ab available, you had to hook up a uhf converter box with it's own tuner and then, later on, tvs came with the uhf tuner built in and on a separate dial, that went from what, 14 to 83 or something like that. I remember 17 (I think), 29 and I can't recall the 3rd one... maybe 49?? or 42? I think there might have been some duplicates in there coming in via harmonics. I definitely remember going to studio on a Thurs to tape, Fri to lip sync (that was a trip)...and then watching the show on Sat. I thought it was all in a row, the same week, but hey, that's like 55 yrs ago so who knows? I'll bet the studio was somewhere around city line Ave where some of the big ones were? Maybe not. I'm so bummed for having lost the 8mm tape I had of our performance. It was made with a Technicolor 8mm or super 8 camera and we also had the Technicolor projector. The system employed the use of a funny shaped cartridge that you popped into the projector like an 8 track. Yrs later my Father gave me the camera and projector. They had red woven cases. Inside the camera case, were a bunch of stamps that enabled the user to send in to get a fresh film cartridge back with the development of the one you sent in. He also later gave me a whole bunch of developed cartridges, but unfortunately all was lost yrs later in a fire. We recorded 2 songs at the Ed Hurst studio. I remember to this day, one was "Sunny" and the other was "Gloria". They only broadcast 1 of them, I think, Sunny. But the Gloria one was better because in the middle of the song, the lead singer went into a spasmotic freakout and wound up on the floor with the mic still in his hand (part of the act of course, but this was 67 or 68) and I, the rythym guitar player walked over to him and helped him back to his feet, whereupon he looked into the camera and said "thanks, I needed that!" at which point we broke back into the song. I don't remember if that made it on tv or not but it was a pretty cool thing. Too bad there were no videotaped left but I understand about how they had to reuse the expensive tape. We must have been pretty proud to have been on tv. Wait a minute, I just had a flash that the 3rd uhf ch was 68. I'm probably wrong but that's what just popped up in my head. Memories man...that's what life is made of..
But imagine, we shared the stage with 2 major recording artists, ie, jerseys own Billy Harner and Melanie, at Paul VI high school in Haddonfield and a large crowd but I've never been able to find a single mention of such an event anywhere. Recently I tried to contact Melanie at her website to ask if she remembers the gig, but she didn't even reply to my email. Nor did Billy Harner, who had a barber shop in Jersey.
Well thanks to talkbass for giving me a place to tell my little story. I hope it was interesting. Thanks for your input about ch 29. I grew up in NE Philly. You?
Norristown PA. The Satisfied Minds were my 1st band. They were handled by some guy from near Allentown named Bill Grieb. Used to play up there a bit. lot of teen clubs in those days. That Ed Hurst show had a big Allentown Pa connection. One of the co hosts was an Allentown AM DJ named Gene Shay(not to be confused with the Philly folk DJ with the same name.) I was 14. The other guys were 17-18 & high school seniors think it was 1967. Played in other bands. My most well known band was The Flamin' Caucasians. They were the houseband for WMMR's Morning Zoo with John DeBella's live broadcasts. We worked a lot. Backed up a lot of famous artists on the show & opened for a lot more.25-30 gigs a month. The heyday was 80's/early 90's. Their still together. I still occasionally play with them. They started about 1983. I was with them for 29 years. I'm retired but still do 2 to 4 a month. Your Ed Hurst show sounds better then ours. During the lip sync segment they played the wrong song. a version of Mickey's Monkey that we hardly knew. It was supposed to be an original. They wouldn't let us re do it. That show was done as quickly & cheaply as possible. Your timeframe sounds right. I've forgotten it. Aquarama was better. We lip synced to a 45 we made that never got released. Remember recording it in Lancaster PA in a place that did double duty as an underground abortion clinic for teens pre Roe vs.Wade. Ahh..Yeah! The music biz!
Ahh, MMR.... I was addicted to wmmr. 104.7 on the fm if I remember correctly. I left philly in 69 I think it was. Had to come back in 72. for a yr or 2, to take care of some trouble I had got myself into. Because of that, I recall seeing deep purple at the tower theatre doing stuff from the highway star album. Also say Genesis also at tower I think. Can't remember if it was with Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins. Heck, might not have even been the tower theatre, but it was for purple. By the way I should disclose that my band, the night riders had no business being on tv or doing a that gig with Billy Harner and Melanie, not the heart association benefit I remember us playing at. The way I remember it, is we were just 1 of a zillion garage bands that were untrained and nothing more than in the practice stage, like so many groups of kids who, by virtue if the veritable explosion of musical creativity in those 60s days, put together whatever they had for equipment and started emulating all the great real bands out there at the time. To this day, I still can't believe that we did those gigs and got on Ed Hurst show. We just weren't ready fir that.. I don't even know how we got the manager we had who apparently had some connections, or how he thought we were ready for anything more than practice. It's all like a dream but it happened. Maybe we were slightly better than I recall but I don't think so.
Anyway, speaking of wmmr, up until they made their big change from a classical station or whatever they were, I used to listen to 2 stations.. WIBG better known as wibbage, listening to Jerry Blavit, the geator with the heater and Hy Lit. Blavit was so cool to listen to with his fast talkin to his "yon teenagers". I used to have a cheap am transistor radio and it was on under my pillow at night. I think thats how I became a "non morning person". Anyway, my parents had this huge, 6-8 foot long, custom made stereo. It had a Scott, tubed am/fm radio and a turnable and big spkrs on ea end with crossovers built in. Mom didn't like me messin w/it, but I used to check out the dial for the various stations and maybe once in a while I could sneak on an album, as I had begun to collect in 64 or 65 when I got the meet the Beatles album and later some ultimate spinach, the velvet underground album and eventually, some vanilla fudge. I'm not positive of exactly how this came about, maybe my mother had it tuned to the fm freq for whatever was wmmr, but what I clearly recall is one day, all if a sudden, out of the clear blue, I'm thinking maybe 68?, the current programming stopped and some guy came on and announced WMMR, THE MARCONI EXPERIMENT! And what followed, to my delight, was programming of whole rock albums, usually underground rock. It was next to impossible to get me away from wmmr after that for years. Then I also recall some competing station, wysp or something like that. But that MARCONI EXPERIMENT show us what really grabbed me musically. I can't remember who did that show but if I heard the name I'm sure I'd remember. I actually remember going a couple times to the original ELECTRIC FACTORY on arch st. It's all a blur now, but I believe I saw Janis Joplin there for about $3. Possibly saw the Who there as well. That had to be around 68 or 69 I think. I think my 1st ever live concert was in Philly, at Fairmount Park, outside and it was David Bromberg. I could go on forever...lol
Anyway, speaking of wmmr, up until they made their big change from a classical station or whatever they were, I used to listen to 2 stations.. WIBG better known as wibbage, listening to Jerry Blavit, the geator with the heater and Hy Lit. Blavit was so cool to listen to with his fast talkin to his "yon teenagers". I used to have a cheap am transistor radio and it was on under my pillow at night. I think thats how I became a "non morning person". Anyway, my parents had this huge, 6-8 foot long, custom made stereo. It had a Scott, tubed am/fm radio and a turnable and big spkrs on ea end with crossovers built in. Mom didn't like me messin w/it, but I used to check out the dial for the various stations and maybe once in a while I could sneak on an album, as I had begun to collect in 64 or 65 when I got the meet the Beatles album and later some ultimate spinach, the velvet underground album and eventually, some vanilla fudge. I'm not positive of exactly how this came about, maybe my mother had it tuned to the fm freq for whatever was wmmr, but what I clearly recall is one day, all if a sudden, out of the clear blue, I'm thinking maybe 68?, the current programming stopped and some guy came on and announced WMMR, THE MARCONI EXPERIMENT! And what followed, to my delight, was programming of whole rock albums, usually underground rock. It was next to impossible to get me away from wmmr after that for years. Then I also recall some competing station, wysp or something like that. But that MARCONI EXPERIMENT show us what really grabbed me musically. I can't remember who did that show but if I heard the name I'm sure I'd remember. I actually remember going a couple times to the original ELECTRIC FACTORY on arch st. It's all a blur now, but I believe I saw Janis Joplin there for about $3. Possibly saw the Who there as well. That had to be around 68 or 69 I think. I think my 1st ever live concert was in Philly, at Fairmount Park, outside and it was David Bromberg. I could go on forever...lol
I think the camera panned by me on the Bozo show when I was around 7.
And every Xmas I get a credit (sometimes with picture) on the MSNBC shows I edit for.
And every Xmas I get a credit (sometimes with picture) on the MSNBC shows I edit for.
I don't know if this counts, but I was in a movie w/Barbra Streisand & Kris Kristofferson and it has played on tv. In fact I saw it on tv a week or 2 ago. My former wife and I were in the concert crowd but I couldn't find us, but we're there!
So Anyway, the zydeco band I was in played a couple of segments on local TV to promote Mardi Gras. Both times, I taped pictures of my grandkids to my guitar strap, and the camera zoomed in on it.
Cave Puppy
"Humph Bo, he's wond!" - John Lennon
Yes. My band was in an episode of Bar Rescue (or one of those “rescue” shows) and another band I was in was in a St. Patrick’s Day episode of The “X” Show. We worked for four hours and each got $400. Easiest money I ever made.
I did lots of cable access TV appearances in Austin back in the 90's. A bunch of those are up on YouTube, especially the ones we did for Dave Prewitt's CapZeyeZ show. Those were great - sometimes they did whole shows in the studio and sometimes they'd bring a multi-camera crew out to a club for a live performance. The studio gigs were always interesting because the cable access studio was on East 11th St. back when that was the 'hood - nothing like loading out at 1 am on a Saturday night while the hookers are eyeing up your gear and you don't know whose around the corner. Those areas have long since been extensively gentrified. Still have a few VHS tapes from those laying around.
Just reminded me of something... my band Force Fed did a show with deadhorse at the Back Room (RIP!) in '94, and for some reason I'd see that show on the cable access channel at least once a week for a long time afterwards. I figured someone left the tape sitting out on a counter and they'd just put it in whenever they didn't have any other content. I had a friend from high school visiting, we were watching TV and I switched to the cable access channel. He sees a band playing, and as a joke asks if that's my band on TV. I look at it and say, "Yep - that's me right there." He was really impressed (even though it wasn't that big of a deal).
-Y
Just reminded me of something... my band Force Fed did a show with deadhorse at the Back Room (RIP!) in '94, and for some reason I'd see that show on the cable access channel at least once a week for a long time afterwards. I figured someone left the tape sitting out on a counter and they'd just put it in whenever they didn't have any other content. I had a friend from high school visiting, we were watching TV and I switched to the cable access channel. He sees a band playing, and as a joke asks if that's my band on TV. I look at it and say, "Yep - that's me right there." He was really impressed (even though it wasn't that big of a deal).
-Y
Yes. It was 1976 I believe and my ex and myself came from Philly to visit Phoenix for a few months. It was advertised that a concert was to be held with Santana and other bands at Sun Devil stadium, aka Tempe stadium. Part of the concert was to be Babs and Kristofferson doing a scene at "a concert", where a drunken Kristofferson has brought Streisand to perform as well as himself. He winds up losing his temper and riding his Harley around the stage, terrorizing everybody and then actually drives the bike off the stage and into the crowd. The 1st part was happening right there on stage but obviously the 2nd part was done in studio. Kristofferson was not only drunk as part of the script but was actually for real and I remember him having to do a take after another after another of him trying to sing that song, I can still hear it, I think it was called "don't stop me now" or something along those lines. The gates opened at about 6am and my ex and I had one if those leather bottles full of margarita mix and we were probably somewhat blitzed before the concert even started. I don't even remember Santana or any if the other bands,. It I do indeed remember Barbra, with her new curly hair style coming out and trying to act hip and singing, as well as Kris. I remember the ticket were roughly $3 and we had to sign some kind of filming disclaimer or maybe the disclaimer was just printed on the ticket so that if you bought it, the disclaimer was part of the deal. I've seen the movie and there are some shots of the crowd but I wasn't able to spot us.
10 years or so ago Janesville did what was either the morning or midday show on WGN. I think it was a song at one or two points during the show and then did the credits. I'm only occasionally on screen, but it was a neat experience. Briefly met Tom Skilling too and he was very nice.
I don't think it did all that much for the band's exposure or gigs, but it's a nice nugget to be able to drop, especially with folks in the Chicagoland area and it's no bad thing to be able to say you've played on TV.
I don't think it did all that much for the band's exposure or gigs, but it's a nice nugget to be able to drop, especially with folks in the Chicagoland area and it's no bad thing to be able to say you've played on TV.
Not music related. Early 90's. Working at a Ford dealership. In the evening one of the independent stations would show "Married with Children". The dealership had spots during commercials. We, the salespeople would get on TV for a mini-interview about the specials we had going on. I remember one of the guys got flustered and cursed (He said, when asked what was on sale, "poopie, dude I forgot")...no more live spots after that.
I was in the crowd in the background of a news report when i was a kid. Bright red sweater, thanks Mum.
Also i once applied to be a drummer in a Bollywood film. Didn’t get picked, probably best for everyone.
My old singer/guitarist was an actor in his early adulthood, he was in a couple of pretty big film and tv productions (in the UK anyway).
Also i once applied to be a drummer in a Bollywood film. Didn’t get picked, probably best for everyone.
My old singer/guitarist was an actor in his early adulthood, he was in a couple of pretty big film and tv productions (in the UK anyway).
