The Kenny Everett Video Show

Thanks to Network the full run of this is now out on DVD (Mostly intact - some of the music is missing due to licensing issues).

and my childhood returns to life! Ev was and always will be one of my legends - Let's hope the BBC years follow.

BUY IT!

As i flicked thriough the many channels on freeview, i came across this on uk tv gold. Ive heard of kenny everett but never seen his work, and was a bit wary. This , now rather old, series is a very bizarre and quirky thing. The comedy is very insane but i like it. The music is a nice relief. Hot gossip are intresting,. I wasnt alive in 78 but it makes me feel somewhat nostalgic?

Lots of bizarre effects are used throughout. I will now check out his later work! To the previous post of 2002, yes he did make it to the internet! A thing called youtube arrived!

Kenny Everett had been on television for six years by the time the "Video Cassette" went into production. Although still preferring to work on radio, the public demand for new Everett shows was high, so he came up with the "Video Cassette".

Essentially 30 minutes of his own brand of quickfire humour, blended with his characters, silly voices, special effects and bare faced cheek to the establishment (Prince Charles, Thames TV, and many others were the butts of his jokes), the show was self indulgent to the extreme, but his excellence as a performer and entertainer made the 30 minutes such fun viewing that you would never notice time ticking by.

Celebrity guests (all were friends of Kenny) abounded (Kate Bush, Rod Stewart, Terry Wogan, Cliff Richard, et al) and all were quite happy to parody themselves before the camera. Ken had a way of making them see the lighter side of themselves.

Only six shows were made, and Kenny quit Thames TV afterwards (allegedly because he was upset that Thames had scheduled the show up against the then-all powerful "Top of the Pops" on BBC1, almost guaranteeing it a low audience share)to go under contract to the BBC - to make "The Kenny Everett Television Show".

Although only six were made, they total 180 minutes of some of the most original and fresh comedy ever seen on British TV.

Will this post make it to the internet by 2035?!

The Kenny Everett Video Show, lays down the blueprints for the zany comics later and more influential Television show, but in its own right is as funny, innovative and as welcome as anything Cuddly Ken had ever created on the airwaves or the tube. Although Everett had flirted with the medium before, most notably on TV Sketch Series like The Kenny Everett Explosion, Making Whoopee and Ev, it was only by 1978, that the technological advances of Television had found its way up to his unique level. This may sound a little too strong, but in all honesty, Everett was to Radio what the Beatles were to British music. Suddenly in 1978 it was easy for Everett to transfer the wonderous miracles he was capable of making from sound to vision. And armed with top comedy writers Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron he was able to express himself as a Grade A Comedian with a series of hilarious sketches acting as fillers to the Music acts wich ranged from the likes of Freddie Mercury, Rod Stewart, Kate Bush and Elvis Costello to David Essex and Bill Wyman. The almost campy dance act Hot Gossip provided an erotically charged yet eye candy backdrop, because as this was early days in Ev's comedy cavalcade, the shows format was really just that of a DJ's music half hour with funny links in between acts. The impact of the series was so strong from the public, and the viewing figures so great that Everett was blasted in to Superstardom, and the outcome of wich was the later and better Television Series.

The Video Show is packed with wonderfully innovative visuals wich may look crude or cheap by todays standards were truly groundbreaking in the late 1970's early 1980's. All the laughter comes from the crews behind the cameras as studio audiences were not being used for an Everett show as yet. The best and funniest characters were the giant handed gospel minister Brother Lee Love, the greaser biker Sid Snot, who Freddie Mercury jump on in one sketch and the animated space looney Captain Kremmen, who was a cartoon character voiced by Everett who also voiced the Captains Busty sidekick Carla. The Kremmen adventures added to the pop culture look of the show and were animated by Cosgrove Hall Animation production who later released the Animated Captain Kremmen The Movie wich starred Everett.

The Video Show is pure fun and shouldn't be overlooked. Although, it does seem as though Kenny was saving the best for The Kenny Everett Television Show, which i have also reviewed. No honestly ,i have. Seriously. Youve Gotta believe me. Go and have a look for yourself. I'll wait here while your gone.

I here you brothers.

Having recently rewatched these shows for probably the first time since 1978 they brought back so many fantastic memories, and also shows how far ahead of its time in the usage of "special effects" it was, especially for 1978 when we didn't even have video players. The basis for just about every whacky style radio or television presenter who's come since, Kenny was unique and will never be repeated. Watch it and despair for the state of "comedy" and music today.