The Groove Tube

A series of shorts spoofing dumb TV shows, Groove Tube hits and misses a lot. Overall, I do really like this movie. Unfortunately, a couple of the segments are totally boring. A few really great clips make up for this. A predecessor to such classics like Kentucky Fried Movie.

If you liked "Kentucky Fried Movie" (predecessor to the Zucker's "Airplane") you need to see the original 'skit' movie. The 'Groove Tube' is the GREAT GRANDADDY of the skit movies'. Nothing but one comedy skit after another. Many are very funny, some are a little dated. But hey, if you don't like one, the next is sure to get you. I saw the thing when it first came out, and 25 years later, when we are working in the kitchen, I STILL tell my wife to "Take the cherry pits... and put them in the olives... and garnish with a small American Flag!" Crazy.

When you view this movie you should keep in mind that it was written and filmed in the early 1970s. Pretty dated but real damn funny for it's time.

For those of you that are in your early twenties, it should give some of you an idea of what your parents thought was funny and in your face back then.

Most people didn't have cable TV and those that did didn't have 100 stations to choose from and it was 7 years before Mtv was invented. Most of us were relegated to watching 3 channels if you watched TV at all.

This is also why anyone over 40 will tell you the first 5 years of SNL are better than all of the others combined.

The best segments are the Cooking Show, Brown 25 and KOKO the Clown.

In any case you may find humor in some of the segments or not. It is still worth watching from a nostalgic or historical perspective.

Back in college "midnight movies" at the local theater primarily showed "Barbarella," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," or "The Groove Tube." "The Groove Tube" was the best of that era's skit movies that included "Dynamite Chicken," "The Boob Tube," and even lesser known attempts at showcasing underground comedy troupes like Second City and The Groundlings. The original version was rated X and featured full frontal male and female nudity. I understand that later versions were edited for an R-rating but perhaps with time the film is back together. At the time it seemed raunchy, dirty, gross, underground, and subversive, but with twenty years of Saturday Night Live, Howard Stern, and films ranging from "Porky's" to "Something About Mary," it's more like 'Saturday Night Live, the Movie' (some skits are funny, most are not, nothing we haven't seen elsewhere.) The funniest and most original skit has to do with a children's show that features a man's private parts dressed up to resemble a puppet. I remember real children's show hosts standing on their head and putting a doll's outfit around their upside down mouth. I always thought that was sick. At the time I couldn't believe that "The Groove Tube" got an actor to do a routine with his exposed penis (this was 1975 after all) and it was pretty shocking...and hilarious. It is no longer shocking, but it is still pretty funny. I hope that they didn't edit that out of the recent showings of the movie. I also always wondered who's penis it was. I think it would have been more provocative if they would have had a female host ala Sheri Lewis or Fran of "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie" talk to the penis but like I said it was only 1975.

"The Groove Tube" was initially shown on video, in the first "video theaters" here in Boston. In one room, there were TV monitors on high stands, with old movie theater seats, in small groups facing the monitors. There were old refrigerators stocked with Pepsi, and baskets of York Peppermint Patties. In a second, smaller room, there were no seats, just large pillows. That was the 'smoking' room, i.e., people got high in there. That act only added to the hilarity of the video.

I was a 'frequent viewer'; the scenes I liked most and remember to this day are: Koko The Clown, The Kramp Family Kitchen (Kramp Easy-Lube Shortening), Safety Sam/ VD PSA, the Chevy Chase hitchhiker w/ nude runs through the woods, the Finger Ballet on what was eventually revealed to be the nude body of a woman. The last item was very reminiscent of the late, incredible Ernie Kovacs. Now, I've lost a lot of readers that are under 48 ("who is Ernie Kovacs??") but trust me, it's funny stuff.

One reason I was a 'frequent viewer' was that I, and my friends, would bring other "Groove Tube" virgins to see it. We would sit and slyly watch the faces of the 'virgins' as the "Safety Sam" PSA would play. As the camera slowly zooms in on "Sam", we would wait for that "OH!" of recognition on the 'virgin's' face. Each time was more hilarious than the last. And then that 'virgin' would then bring a friend to see the show, repeating what we had done. To get this joke, you must watch the video.

Yes, some of it is dated, but most plays, film, television, and now videos are. Just look at any video made in the 1980's.

I did see "The Groove Tube" in a theater as a film, a grainy transfer from the original video. It had been cut, and was missing some of the original high-point scenes.

The first "Saturday Night Live" show, featuring Chevy Chase, elicited instant remarks of, "that's the guy from "The Groove Tube" ", so it was a precursor for Chevy.

I can't look at a can of shortening without hearing the voice-over, "coat your hands with a generous amount of Kramp Easy-Lube shortening..." and thinking of the "Kramp Holiday Loaf" recipe. Always gets me laughing in the Baking Needs aisle in the grocery store.

The early 70's were parlous times; "The Groove Tube" was fresh, new, and really 'got' the humor of the times. It offered a 'hip generation', humor that wasn't available in any other format/medium. MJH