Customer Reviews

Tunnel Vision

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Just prior to the explosion of the "edgy" late-night TV comedy sketch shows in the late 70's ("Saturday Night", "SCTV", "Fridays", etc.), a trio of low-budget films introduced a new style of drug-fueled, anarchic post-Watergate counter-culture satire. Those films were "The Groove Tube", "The Kentucky Fried Movie", and the subject of this review, "Tunnel Vision". All three were loosely thematic sketch collections with a "National Lampoon" approach to socio-political, sexual and media satire. 1975's "Tunnel Vision" is probably the "weakest" of the three, but still worth collecting. "Tunnel Vision" has the most historical interest, with early appearances by Chevy Chase, Lorraine Newman, Franken & Davis, John Candy and Joe Flaherty (many of whom were members of Second City improv). You can also spot Howard Hesseman, Betty Thomas (future director of Howard Stern's "Private Parts"), Ron Silver (in one of the funniest bits) and many more members of then-prominent improv groups like The Committee and The Ace Trucking Company. The Firesign Theatre's Phil Proctor appears as a Ted Turner type who runs the fictional "Tunnelvison" TV channel; the premise is that he is being grilled by a senate subcommitee (in the year 1985!) on the content of his popular but "obscene" programming (hmmm, 30 years later and the post-Janet Jackson F.C.C. STILL hasn't come out of the dark ages-this film was ahead of its time!) This is the setup for the ensuing collection of commercial parodies and TV show satires. DVD notes: The transfer is not the best, but servicable. Firesign Theatre completists will get a kick out of the original radio promo spots (included as extra features) that feature Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman.