84 replies to this topic

[Mibbitmaker]

Anybody remember USA Night Flight from the 1980s? It was on in the overnight on the USA network from 1981-88, and syndicated, best-of style, from its conclusion through 1995.

It was an inspired hodgepodge of clips, music videos, cartoons, movies and comedy, with an emphasis on the weird. They mixed familiar videos with more oddball stuff that wasn't seen elsewhere. The movies were kitschy, Z-grade sci-fi/horror and martial arts films. There was an hour at a time dedicated to a theme, with various things, often from public domain tapes (like the classic cartoons), fitting the theme. It went 3 hours long, then repeated them again to fill the overnight.

It's the type of show that can't be done today, sadly, due to rights issues and such. The kind of issues that killed off Mystery Science Theater 3000 and ruined the music parts of WKRP.

Neat thing to remember, though, eh?

[doctorwu]

They used to do something similar on TBS called Night Tracks, though it was exclusively videos. A pretty good mix of stuff you couldn't see anywhere else, especially if you didn't have cable. When it debutted, it was all-night, but after a few years, they cut it down to something like four hours.

I also remember this overnight news show on NBC in the 80s. It had Lloyd Dobbins and Linda Ellerbee as anchors and they'd put a droll spin on the day's events.

Edited by doctorwu, Jun 16, 2005 @ 11:33 PM.

[Shelwood]

Was Night Flight the one that used to have an annual contest where you could win a trip to some reggae festival in Jamaice (SunSplash?)? There was one reggae band they would heavily feature, and I remember staying up the extra 3 hours to catch the rerun just for them.

[davidmello]

I remember "Night Flight" on USA Network. It also had an early attempt to bring Japanese Sentai (Dynaman) to the States by dubbing silly dialogue (kind of like Power Rangers today, except we use American actors to give the silly dialogue), and even a sketch that may remind people of Mystery Science Theater 3000. If only someone saved that stuff in time capsules.

Edited by davidmello, Jun 16, 2005 @ 11:36 PM.

[Darn]

USA's Up All Night hosted by Gilbert Gottfried was the BEST. He intro-ed the worst movies in the world, lots of pseudo-porn with girls in bikinis and bad dialogue and just horribleness but I remember staying up and enjoying myself. I don't quite know why now.

[SVNBob]

That would be Rhonda Shear. I just Googled her, and found out that she now owns the rights to her tenure on Up All Night, and is now selling DVDs of the bumps on her website.

[kellygirl]

If only someone saved that stuff in time capsules.

You mean like those crazy things called videotapes? Sorry, had to tease. Night Flight was such an integral part of my high school years and I cherish the few tapes I managed to save. Actually, there's a Night Flight Yahoo fan group where one of the guys is converting all his old tapes to dvd. Though I have to say, not everything holds up. I remember seeing the movie Breaking Glass on NF but when I ended up buying a copy on ebay and watching... it was just embarrassingly dated.

[PrincessLuceval]

In the Dayton area there was a show on Saturday night that featured music videos (I believe it was the top 10 countdown from MTV) and then "Mad Movies With the L.A. Connection." These were old movies that had been re-dialogued with silliness. I still have some of those on tape. It was great for someone who didn't have cable.

[panpan23]

Night Flight actually got a mention in today's Washington Post -- a profile of Penelope Spheeris

[xii]

Any Wisconsinites remember Lenny's Inferno? Good times.

I wish late night TV was still like this.

Edited by xii, Jun 17, 2005 @ 9:22 AM.

[JuliJBG]

USA's Up All Night was also hosted by Rhonda someone. Not at the same time as Gilbert Gottfried.

Wasn't Elvira an occasional host, too?

ETA: Leave it me to have a post about Gilbert Godfried and Elvira push me into Loyal Viewer status... Oy.

Edited by JuliJBG, Jun 17, 2005 @ 9:31 AM.

[rml24601]

I do recall Elvira hosting USA's Up All Night- and how she'd say "USA *UP* all night!" with the emphasis being on the up.

[ajra]

Any Clevelanders remember Houlihan and Big Chuck on Friday nights?

[Penny Bee]

I remember "Night Flight" on USA Network. It also had an early attempt to bring Japanese Sentai (Dynaman) to the States by dubbing silly dialogue (kind of like Power Rangers today, except we use American actors to give the silly dialogue), and even a sketch that may remind people of Mystery Science Theater 3000. If only someone saved that stuff in time capsules.

I actually had a friend who taped all the Dynaman episodes, and I have a copy of the tape! God, they're hilarious. I was in college at the time, and we watched them all while chemically altered a bit...my nickname is still DynaPink to some of my old friends. Of course, the VHS tape is now 10 years old, and will probably disintigrate soon, but for now, it's still viewable. I should probably get it copied to DVD. Thanks for reminding me about this!

[Putli Bai]

I'm probably about to prove I'm the oldest person in the room -- but did anyone else grow up with Wolfman Jack and the Midnight Special?

[doctorwu]

I remember Midnight Special, but I don't think I watched it on a regular basis. I was a kid at the time and hadn't quite gained any interest in seeing live groups perform. Wasn't it on around the same time that Don Kirshner's Rock Concert was airing? I remember a few episodes of that, but for some reason, Black Oak Arkansas is associated with any memories I have of the show.

[IOU_Payne]

Go Jim Dandy! Go Jim Dandy! (I hated Black Oak Arkansas, because their songs would get stuck in my head like rebars.)

I used to love Rock Concert and Midnight Special. Especially because they had non-mainstream groups on, and in the pre-VCR/Interweb era, this might have been my only chance to see certain bands.

[NJMark]

I do recall Elvira hosting USA's Up All Night- and how she'd say "USA *UP* all night!" with the emphasis being on the up.

That was Rhonda Shear.

I also remember this overnight news show on NBC in the 80s. It had Lloyd Dobbins and Linda Ellerbee as anchors and they'd put a droll spin on the day's events.

NBC News Overnight. Bill Schechner later replaced Lloyd Dobyns. Shows like this began when CNN started selling its new CNN2 (now Headline News) to local stations - the broadcast networks wanted their own brand out there. CBS had the 4-hour Nightwatch with Lark McCarthy (meowwww). ABC had Nightline, but nothing into "the wee hours."

Linda Ellerbee was a guest on one of the last Dennis Miller shows on CNBC. She said after Overnight was cancelled, Dick Ebersol asked her to do the SNL news!

[foultemptress]

Ah....USA Up All Night...Rhonda, Gilbert...good times. Best place to see an edited-up Troma film like The Toxic Avenger. I loved staying up until all hours watching that schtick.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

My. God. I remember watching USA Up All Night too. Bad movies involving bad plots, bad dialogue and bad acting. Loved it. Wasn't that before Gilbert Gottfried became annoying, or am I misremembering?

[selkie]

Back before David Letterman moved to CBS, they used to have Crime Time after Prime Time. All kinds of fun crime dramas- Forever Knight, reruns of The Prisoner, Adderly...

I'm just not a talk show person, and it was nice to have other options on broadcast tv.

[NikkiH]

Back before David Letterman moved to CBS, they used to have Crime Time after Prime Time. All kinds of fun crime dramas- Forever Knight, reruns of The Prisoner, Adderly...

I'm just not a talk show person, and it was nice to have other options on broadcast tv.

I used to watch this too. I loved The Exile, Night Heat( a Canadian cop show), and The Untouchables(Tom Amandes from Everwood as Elliot Ness, William Forsythe as Al Capone, and David James Elliott before starring in JAG. I still have some of these on tape. I was so mad when The Untouchables got cancelled!! I was only about 10 when this was on and I used to stay up until about 3am.

[garnet207]

I also remember this overnight news show on NBC in the 80s. It had Lloyd Dobbins and Linda Ellerbee as anchors and they'd put a droll spin on the day's events.

NBC News Overnight. Bill Schechner later replaced Lloyd Dobyns. Shows like this began when CNN started selling its new CNN2 (now Headline News) to local stations - the broadcast networks wanted their own brand out there. CBS had the 4-hour Nightwatch with Lark McCarthy (meowwww). ABC had Nightline, but nothing into "the wee hours."

Linda Ellerbee was a guest on one of the last Dennis Miller shows on CNBC. She said after Overnight was cancelled, Dick Ebersol asked her to do the SNL news!

This was my favorite overnight news show ever. One of my favorite things about staying up late on a non-school night was watching this.

[Vermicious Knid]

Night Flight was the shizznit. I remember seeing this very odd French animated scifi movie called Fantastic Planet. So much cool stuff.

Monstervision hosted by Joe Bob Briggs was fun too. 3 counts of Hatchet Fu! 'Course, then TBS killed it.

[EileenH]

My dad introduced me to Night Flight. (Yes, I have a strange father) I *loved* all the late night weirdness on it.

Does MTV's "IRS's The Cutting Edge" and "London Calling" count? They were on Sunday nights and I would be late for High School every Monday because I would stay up too late to watch these. I got introduced to some great non-mainstream music on those shows.