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From: haveajam
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  • George Schlatter gave an interview a couple years back, going much more in depth about the circumstances behind the cancellation. watch?v=Gbz3irCcMEo

    I hope he releases the series in its entirety. Sounds like at the very least it would make for an interesting television time capsule.

  • Cancelled half way through the first episode because it was too offensive. If the people of 1969 saw what was on tv today... well, they would probably faint.

  • @SomeFluffer64 They'd faint with boredom in the UK. It's all programmes about buying houses in the country and selling antiques. I'm exaggerating but fellow Brits will get me...

  • IT REMINDS ME OF

    - Ernest tv show

    "HEY VERN I"M ON TV -" Annoying as hell.

  • It has a vague similarity to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in.

    Remember back in 1969, things were so clean and proper, no swearing or nudity. By today's standards this Turn-On show would be considered quite tame.

  • LOL! This show was cancelled DURING it's first episode. One station pulled it after 15 minutes and replaced it with organ music. How awesome is that!

  • Thumbs up if Yahoo's Who Knew brought you here.

  • you know this show is horrible when it got cancelled during a commericial break

  • u know whats funny snl,mad tv and other shows of today r wroster then this shit! i wished they whouodnt of caccnled this show cuz it whould fit in tv today!

  • @TheXLTE If it's any consolation, MADtv's been canned since 2009 (though it has come back in the form of MAD, the Cartoon Network sketch show that's more in tune with the magazine). And I like SNL, I don't care what anyone else says. Turn-On's humor is basically what SNL would do six years later.

  • I object!! This offends me, jk. How was this episode offensive? Stupid executives

  • Does anybody else find it funny that a show called "Turn-On" aired in 1969?

  • I find it funny that people keep saying the KKK scene was in poor taste and are complaining or saying its the reason it was cancelled.

    Family Guy AND South Park have both shown KKK stuff and such. No one cares about that though because they are cartoons or because they are "meant to be risque or alarming". I just find that funny.

  • Canceled DURING its first episode?!?Hol-eeeee sh*t.....

  • Producer George Schlatter has all the produced episodes (including the one that aired) "in storage", but I doubt if he'll ever release them on DVD.

  • Its just stupid and even if was good they probably would have kept it ont he air. I mean all in the family is mor ethne they show ont he sir nowadays when it comes to racism but it was good. This show was just dumb and made for people who were high at the time. Actualy laugh-in was based ont his but was toned down and that was a good show

  • oh man, this honestly wouldve been the best show ever, like this would be like a pre-tim and eric, these buddies were kick ass

  • Well, I remember this show and was one of the few to watch it, mainly because it claimed to be competion for Laugh-In and I wanted to see if it was. It wasn't risque, a few "damns" thrown in but most remembered was that it was extremely unfunny in both jokes and sight gags. I thought "This was supposed to outdo Rowan and Martin?" Even if it aired a second week, I wouldn't have watched it. Believe me, it earned its reputation as unwatchable. A test pattern was funnier.

  • I absolutely LOVE the motorcycle in the beginning. Anybody know what brand/model it is? (I think (not sure) I can almost/barely make out "Yamaha" partly covered by the lady's thigh) I love that style of bikes. The Suzuki TU250 is a new bike, but has a retro look that is kinda similar to the bike in this video.

  • Reminds me of some adult swim stuff.

  • @Pignoah i am 12 years old and what is this?

  • @Pignoah

    Space Ghost: Coast 2 Coast? Aqua Teen Hunger Force? Sea Lab 2021? Look em up.

  • omg it looks horrible

  • I can see why it was canceled. It had pictures of Nixon and Agnew. I think this was around the same time as the "Watergate Scandal" that led to impeachment of Nixon , who resigned instead of impeachment.

  • @jivesublime This predated Watergate but Nixon and Agnew were very unpopular in perpetuating the Vietnam War and also for being conservative when the media was extremely liberal. It was fashionable to make fun of them, as it has been for every president.

  • @hotrode96: That's one scene that I didn't see the point of, and I thought it was in extremely poor taste. I'm sorry that you were offended by it; that certainly wasn't my intention when I posted this.

  • @haveajam Perhaps the fact that it was incidental and pointless WAS the point! I remember watching variety shows like The Dean Martin Show where the KKK were humourous targets! I guess the primary reason why they were permitted on THAT show was because black comedians like Stu Gillan and Nipsy Russell wore these costumes as part of the joke. It wouldn't have worked if a white comedian did it, I guess.

  • @haveajam Quite apologizing for somthing you didnt make & man up!

  • @ManOfWealthnTaste Learn to spell, please.

  • @hotrode96 you offended your self... you know people that are actually like that hate you ... so why let the appearence of people makign fun of them ( or even them them selves) offend you ... seriously if i were to call you a nigger would you be offended or would you think hmmm thats some nameless faceless jackass on the internet talking out his asshole... and then not waste the time or energy being offended by such a dumb cunt? you let your self be offended instead of just only caring what you

  • @hotrode96 you think of yourself... all that matters in the world is do you do good things for other people? do you think you do your best? and do you think you are a good person? if you answer yes to all these questions then why the fuck do you care if some toothless dumb fuck sweet tea drinking cousin fucking inbred redneck klan tard thinks of you? and why would ever be offended by comedians making fun of those same dumb cunt redneck?

  • @kenmabie , Because we all know everybody from the South is in the Klan, and everybody from NYC is a neurotic rude loudmouth.(And I'd love to know what sweet tea has to do with racism.)

  • @lakeviewviking seeing as i live in richmond va ... yea id say the sweet tea to kkk redneck ratio is pretty high

  • I bet those that shut down this show didn't like Monty Python either. ;)

  • @loriannaprays Are you honestly comparing Monty Python to a show that had a group of white people randomly sitting around in KKK attire?

  • @bigfloridapimp yea cause i remember that famous black member of the monty python comedy group ... what was his name? ...

  • Funny how they talk about quick edits making people sick, wouldn't that mean our MTV watching generation would love it

  • Dying to see the first episode... =/

  • I'm so curious to know see this. According to wikipedia, a CBS official said this; "It was so fast with the cuts and chops that some of our people actually got physically disturbed by it."

    Now I'm really curious. They should put the first episode (and the unaired ones) on DVD.

  • And yet Tim and Eric is a hit...what's this world coming to?

  • @ZyxthePest Ay-Men to that!

  • Wherw do I find the first episode

  • @WaitWhatWasThat1 I'm having a hard time finding any trace of it (or the first and only episode of "You're In the Picture")

  • @TheElectricDreamer93 Actually you can see both at The Paley Center For Media in both New York City and here in Beverly Hills.

  • @disneyfan81 Oh sweet.

  • I saw it when it aired.  Meh.

  • @QuincyUUMC haha old!

  • I am a big fan of Avant Garde and Dadaism; but this was 40 seconds of why it is a legendary flop.

  • Seeing these clips from the never-aired second episode, I got the same "ugh" feeling I got watching episode #1 at the Paley Center in New York. The same feeble humor, the same oppressive blank backgrounds, the same dingy "filmed" look. Terrible, terrible.

  • Yeah, have Schlatter placed the entire two eps on Youtube, and ask ourselves "is this the worst thing ever on TV...or was an under-rated piece of TV produced art?". Out of curiousity for us in the year 2011 to witness something withheld from us for 42 years. I mean, comedy has long since changed to become more open in subjects that gotten the Smothers Bros. cancelled and Laugh-in at trouble. I see the KKK sitting in a couch by the white background would be edgier today than it was even in 1969.+

  • @demikede1 Nah, it would have been edgier in 1969. Remember that LBJ sent in the FBI to break up Klan rings after they firebombed churches with children inside. The 60s were awash in blood, and the lamest part is that most people remember the 60s for the music and Hippies rather than riots, martial law, and politically-motivated murders that remain unsolved.

  • I've seen both the first and second TURN-ON episodes at the Paley Center in NYC. While LAUGH-IN had electonic edits and loud music, but the jokes were largely G-rated, and THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR had a traditional format but they performed controversial material, TURN-ON was disorienting both in form and content, like somebody spinning you around in circles for 30 minutes straight and THEN screaming "F--- you!" at the top of their lungs.

  • It almost looks like an "Airplane!" meets "Monty Python's Flying Circus" kinda theme they were aiming for.

    Americans wouldn't be ready for this kind of rapid-fire comedy until 1977, when Kentucky Fried Movie came out.

  • That scene of the old lady on the motorcycle screams "fail". Even by late 1960s standards, the "little old lady from Pasadena" image of a hot-rodding granny was played out. Not to mention the fact that she was talking about going fast, but she had the kickstand down on the 'cycle.

  • I saw the first episode about a year ago and it was not shocking, it was just boring, maybe like being in a psychotic person's head - lots of non sequiturs and stuff coming at you from different directions. I remember wondering if it was almost over, but I wanted to see the whole thing. I don't really remember many of the skits that they had as it didn't capture my attention. I'd like to see it again just to see what I didn't absorb the first time.

  • Chuck McCann is the guy on the rocking horse with the whip.

  • The guy whipping the rocking horse actually made me giggle hysterically.

  • February 1969. At dinner my brother says there is a new show premiering that night called Turn-On. Done by the same people who created Laugh-In (which we all loved at the time). Supposed to be hosted by a computer, & said to be TWICE AS CRAZY as Laugh-In. So we tune in at 8:30. On KOMO there appeared a slide "Programming Change". Announcer says the station management had viewed the show in advance & decided it violated their broadcast standards. Reran their public affairs show instead

  • @Freenbean I'm sure Turn-On never aired at all in Alaska after learning about its abrupt cancellation (before satellites, network programs here were broadcast weeks after the Lower 48).

  • One sketch showed a vending machine where there were a few things you could buy and one was "the pill." and a lady put in money and pressed "the pill" and it didn't come out, so she banged the machine really hard. another thing was a tic tac toe board with the word "sex" on it and the faces of all the comedians on the show kind of moving around on the board

  • I saw Turn-On. I was 9 at the time. Seemed similar to Laugh-In but more "out there". Tim Conway was the guest star.. i actually saw it twice, 'cause even I lived in Mass. and they didn't show it in N.H. untl the next sunday afternoon and i watched it on the NH station too. .

  • I have a suspicion that, in 1969, they were justified in taking it off the air. Not only was it too risque at that time, but the clips I've seen are tacky, and I've heard several people say it wasn't even funny. Of course, it would still be interesting to watch and compare it to today's much lower standards.

  • I'd like to see the first episode (as well as the unaired episodes) just cause it's such a piece of infamous television history. I hope they do release it on dvd.

  • I remember seeing the one and only episode that was broadcast! I was a kid at the time and the only thing I remember was a repeated scene of a woman lying on a couch and a man saying "this is the body politic!". Amazing how that scene has stayed with me all these years.

  • @barkochba132 I laughed out loud when I read this, even though I'd never even heard of the show until now. For some reason, that scene is quite funny in my imagination! I'd probably be disappointed by the real thing, though.

  • I wanna see it If any one knows where to find it send me a link plaese

  • I didn't know the Kardashians did Turn-On! :D

  • For all those people that want to see it, trust me, no you don't. You might think the reason it was cancelled was because it was too risque or dirty, which is was for the time but not so a decade later, your average episode of Two and a Half Men or Married With Children is 100 times more risque and at least those shows are funny. Turn-On didn't have any funny jokes. It was pretty boring and a waste of time.

  • @Gnillob802: Well, to each their own, I guess...I still want to see this show! I'm not necessarily looking for this show to be risque, or even funny. What makes this clip interesting to me are things like the set designs, costumes, the bizarre electronic music, and the fact that it's such a product of it's time.

    George Schlatter has expressed interest (in a recent interview-link on right) in airing (releasing?) Turn-On, so maybe someday we'll get to make up our own minds about it...

  • @haveajam The first and SECOND episodes of Turn-On are available for viewing at the Paley Center in NYC. I've seen them both.

  • @Gnillob802 kind of like tim and erics awesome show great job?

  • @Gnillob802 I've seen some of the sketches written up, and they had me smiling more than I have for days. I think that it must've been an attempt to transfer British style sketch comedy (like Monty Python's Flying Circus) to the US, however American humour is quite different. Also the fast paced nature was probably ahead of its time. I haven't seen "Turn-On", but I'm pretty sure that it WAS pulled because it was considered a bit naughty.

  • @filmnet What's funny to one person is not funny to another however this show lacked any timing. Most of it was the performers thinking they were hip because they said "sex" or "birth control" on TV. What the written script doesn't show is how these words were often written across the screen and held there for long periods of time. Its fair to say its on par with The Monkees movie HEAD with the Monkees music replaced by terrible non-stop synthesizer and bare stage sets.

  • That show looks awesome! Probably way too ahead of its time.

  • This is from the debut of the news program "Day One". I remember seeing this clip at the time, and it gave this 12 year old the willies! I've since become a fan of "Laugh-In", and I'd love to see one of the episodes of this show at some point, even though I have heard it is genuinely awful.

  • I'm looking for the episode that aired and having not luck. Anyone have it?

  • Why is it that the best stuff gets cut out before the masses hear about it ?

  • If anyone finds the episode anywhere- send me a link!

  • ME TOO !!!!

  • Well, as far as i know, IF you really want to see it, you can either visit the pavel( ?) musium of broadcasting in frisco or in new york. As far as I know, these are the ONLY places one can see them, since they to the best of my knowlege post nothing on the net.

  • I'd love to see the infamous first episode of this show.

  • @NyeTunes

    Even if it's too hot for YouTube, I'd love to see it too. This, for me, is just a warmup.

  • @NyeTunes

    I second that emotion! I'd love to see it too! Not too many shows have been cancelled after only ONE episode...though Jackie Gleason's infamous "You're in the Picture" comes to mind!

  • I think I really wanna see this.

  • Yea id be keen to see this video as well! Sounds like it could be quite funny

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