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INDUSTRIAL TELEVISION #74
Created by Edmund Varuolo and Brian PowellFor years I’ve heard the stories about New York City cable access television. The Profanity. The violence. The sex. All right there on late night public access TV. Over time, I’ve built those stories up to point where they seem more like legends or myths. I mean seriously, how can the FCC let these things go on government mandated public television when they won’t let the same content air on broadcast television? Don’t the same laws apply?
After viewing INDUSTRIAL TELEVISION I’ve realized the answer to that question is a resounding “NO.” Either that or somebody’s palms are getting greased…
All the sex and violence that I had heard about is all there on the screen brought to you by two guys calling themselves “droogies”, named after characters from Stanley Kibrick’s masterpiece A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Like their cinematic counterparts, these droogies want to rain a bit of the old ultra-violence down upon the moral majority.
There’s a very loose feel to INDUSTRIAL TELEVISION. The show is cobbled together from mostly public domain stock footage of old movies and commercials with some Asian horror nasties that I’m sure violates international copyright laws. There’s none of the full porn that I’ve heard so much about, but there’s still a damn sight ton of nakedness none the less. The violence ranges from the cartoon like to grizzly with an autopsy clip where some poor schmuck gets the top of his head sawed off.
What the hell has the FCC been going these past few years? I guess they have their heads are buried so far up Howard Stern’s ass that they are blind to anything else. That’s our government, full of double standards.
The first half of the hour-long program is pure avant-garde television. Images jump back and forth with seemingly random interruptions from our two hosts in almost fetish-like moments of verbal abuse. Viewers are assaulted with everything from classic movie theater popcorn promos to newsreel footage of famous Vietnamese executions. The theme of violence is offset with themes of female degradation as the viewer is subjected to bondage shots, the world’s largest set of cosmetically enhanced breasts, and makeup commercials telling young girls that if they want a night life then they need to cover up their freckles. In the end, the creators have put together a deconstruction of pop culture entertainment centering on the oppression of women in the media.
The show takes a complete 180 spin during the second half-hour. Instead of the visual assault as before, viewers are given the 30-minutes version of a 1950’s teen gang film. Maybe the IT guys found some fun in chopping up the movie. Maybe I could have found some fun in it if they have cut another 25 minutes. I’ve had more fun watching fungus grow.
It would be nice to learn what the filmmakers were trying to do by including that gang film. It really throws off the rhythm. I would much rather watch 30 minutes of what television is supposed be, thought provoking, then watch what it already is, mind-numbing.
If you get the chance to see INDUSTRIAL TELEVISION, give it a shot. It’s one of the only venues for experimental television you’ll ever come across. But it you find yourself watching episode #74, you only need to spend time on the first half.