Customer Reviews

Tunnel Vision

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

A step below Groove Tube, Tunnelvision is still pretty funny. The best parts are of course Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman in Ramon & Sonja, a hilarious sketch, the game show, John Candy's spot in Get Head, as well as many of the many commercial parodies. Only a few problems exist.
1: no inside booklet
2: too jumpy, there are 12 chapter selections and, like... thirty chapters
3: no cast bio's (other cool features, but, no bio's!)
Still it's worth a few laughs and the money, should be intended for those who have seen the Groove Tube & want more.
Great cast though: Chevy Chase (Caddyshack), John Candy (Great Outdoors), Laraine Newman, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Betty Thomas, Howard Hessman, Neal Irael (Bachelor Party).

Tunnel Vision is the name of a fictional TV Network similar to S.C.T.V. The premise is that in the not too distant future (1985) Tunnel Vision will have knocked out the other three big networks and left the entire population a mass of vegetating slackers. I'm not sure if Howard Hesseman is all that believable as a Senator, but it's fun to see him in action. This upstart network is on trial and we are led to the courtroom where the "evidence" is put on display. One of the first items that date the video right away is when they run through a brief visual history of the US presidents. The list pauses briefly on Lincoln and Kennedy and makes its way up to Ford before it shows us the subsequent "future" ones.
Now of course the political commentary is not as sharp as the best of Saturday Night Live, there is nowhere near the polish, but it does have its charm. I was reminded of the similar vintage Woody Allen movies like "Take the Money and Run" with the voice-overs and exteriors.
Essentially it looks as though this tape was packaged to cash in on Chevy Chase's and John Candy's faces but they have very little to do on screen. Chase's bit is less than a minute and Candy's is not even a speaking role.
And the low spots are in the skits. There is one Hispanic Bunker-like skit that has Laraine Newman using the F-word and is generally just unfunny mostly due to the quantity of racial slurs which neither seem to comment on or inform any particular world view.

However, the commentary on the Middle East is fun and probably gives a present-day viewer more to laugh about. What the contemporary audience might have seen as grim extrapolations on current 1970's affairs (but not likely), can now be openly praised for its insight (even though their predictions are still clearly farcical).
But the true value of this video is not for its biting social commentary or wit or insight (most half-hour Simpsons episodes have more of these qualities), it is in the nostalgia or even the historical value. We get to see what was important to a group of young writers and commentators in the mid 70's (the boomers were older now and took their protests out of the streets and into the airwaves). In its day it might have been pretty edgy stuff, and much of it would not have cleared the censors for SNL (then or now). These were young people who were just beginning to practice the skills that would lead to the true ironic detachment that we have today. Their goal no doubt was to entertain and inform, but there is the additional energy that is present when someone is doing something they believe might have a real impact. This is what is now missing in the new SNL crew and what is starting to go missing even in the Simpsons.
If you think you are going to see Chevy Chase and John Candy in some kind lost classic that has an eternal entertainment value, your hopes are set too high and you should look for "The Best of SNL" or some early Simpsons instead. But, if you want to get a good look at the unpolished beginnings of the modern history of popular social commentary, this is a fine video, but nothing more.

"Tunnelvision" is a movie that pokes a lot of "R" rated fun at serious television programming. Perhaps the definitive film of it's kind. Even more so than it's predeccesor "The Groove Tube". And yes, it features some comedy stars that you would easily recognize today such as Howard Hessman, Laraine Newman and Richard Belzer to name a few. This movie is still one of my favorites from the '70's. Standout bits include a sit-com about a very disfunctional family called "Ramone and Sonia", featuring the above mentioned Miss Newman, and a "commercial" about an attractive woman who wants to look more butch. A nice little "throw-away" touch is the cool looking "eyemouth" station logo. Tunnelvision is an aquired taste, and repeated viewings may be nessesary to really appreciate this very obscure and even harder to find film. But give it a chance. It's only 70 minutes long. Watch and enjoy, you'll thank me for it.

Following "Groove Tube" and before "Kentucky Fried Movie" came this gem of a spoof of Television in the future, well at future of 1985 anyway. The story involves a Televsion network president at a hearing in front of the Senate for putting on "obscene" programming (WKRP's Howard Hesseman is great as a senator). You are then taken thru a typical day at Tunnelvision from the sign on (a presidential montage with David Eisenhower and a black female president named Washington) to sign off (the news featuring the selling of New York to a Japanese businessman). In between are alot of hilarious spoofs of TV shows and commericals. There's "Mary Tucker Talent" (gues who this is?) and "Ramon and Sonia" (with Laraine Newman) about a gypsy family where family values means sonething else. You can catch a glimpse of John Candy in "Get Head" and Betty Thomas (from "Hill Street Blues") in a game show. Chevy Chase gets a minute of screen time too. I am sure I am forgetting some names because it has been a while since I have seen it, but the fact that I can remember this much shows you how much of this movie stays with you.

I have always laughed hard at this movie because it is funny and in incredibly bad taste (but not as bad as the "Groove Tube"). Some of it seems rather dated now when you look at what we can get on cable, but for its day, it certainly took a few risks. There is even a bit of social commentary about inept people trying to catch an assasin.

You can watch "The Groove Tube" or "Kentucky Fried Movie" or "Amazon Women on the Moon". But defintely watch Tunnelvision. There is a difference! (See the movie to find out what that means)

Tunnelvision mocks -- or perhaps it just reflects -- tasteless mid-Seventies TV programming. A disclaimer suggests that the film parodies the era's rampant on-screen sexism and assorted prejudices, but the script lacks the timing and understatement needed to accomplish this successfully.

Mid-Seventies television was schlocky. The writers and comedians behind Tunnelvision -- fresh from Second City Television (SCTV) or not yet honed through SNL -- knew TV was tasteless. But regrettably, their early effort at parody is often more cynicism than wit. Are we really expected to laugh when a "Spy TV" victim kills himself, giggle when a male news anchor tries to shack up with compliant "weather girl," or roar with delight when a nearly naked Betty Thomas must pass gas to win a game show?

The political vision behind Tunnelvision is sharper: The film takes jabs at Exxon, air pollution, the 1970s phone monopoly, political mudslinging, and a sporty new national anthem punctuated by nuclear missiles. Some of these parodies of Seventies current events are worth seeing, and the DVD format lets the viewer skip the stuff in between.

Ultimately, Tunnelvision's theme -- TV on trial -- is a well-crafted excuse to string together 70 minutes of SCTV skits and SNL-style fake commercials. Tunnelvision offers us a worthwhile glimpse at countless great comedians' humble beginnings, and it reminds us of an era that was coarser, more troubled, more cynical, and less hip than the fantasy depicted in "That 70s Show" or SNL's "Best of" retrospectives.

DVD buyers please note: While it lets you skip to the good skits, the DVD format also exposes Tunnelvision's low-budget video and audio production quality.

OK so it's sick and dated.

The most interesting thing about the movie IMHO is that the news anchor is none other than Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson.

He was also the voice of ABC (Carol Burnett Show announcer and "The LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Boat") and later AFV.

Every once in a while Carol Burnett would introduce him in her audience as if everyone knew who he was. He was extremely close friends with Tim Conway.

He tried to make it as an actor but could never remember more than a few lines, so they made him a news anchor and he used a teleprompter during filming.

He was the father of Paul Thomas Anderson, who is now a famous movie director.

A step below Groove Tube, Tunnelvision is still pretty funny. The best parts are of course Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman in Ramon & Sonja, a hilarious sketch, the game show, John Candy's spot in Get Head, as well as many of the many commercial parodies. Only a few problems exist.
1: no inside booklet
2: too jumpy, there are 12 chapter selections and, like... thirty chapters
3: no cast bio's (other cool features, but, no bio's!)
Still it's worth a few laughs and the money, should be intended for those who have seen the Groove Tube & want more.
Great cast though: Chevy Chase (Caddyshack), John Candy (Great Outdoors), Laraine Newman, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Betty Thomas, Howard Hessman, Neal Irael (Bachelor Party).

I'm a big fan of "Amazon Women on the Moon" and "Groove Tube" , wanted more of the same, but I found this somewhere between pointless & obvious , did not find it funny, like SNL (Still No Laughs) not funny. At least Leno & Letterman occasionaly say something humourous. I'm cutting pasting this comment for similar old video.

This movie was one of the first to satirize the television medium which has often been called a vast wasteland. It came out during the early '70's before we even had cable and broadcast was highly regulated by the Federal Communications Commission as to type of material, language, and even type of ads allowable.

This satire shows what could happen if there were no rules and the broadcaster could just show anything they wanted. It was actually quite shocking for the time period but also very funny. Check out the young Howard Hessman as the commissioner!

It has ads for items such as good books in pill form, "Eat a good book today," a very un-PC Spanish 101 morning show, "55 Chebby, la repo." One ad is for air fresheners in several metropolitan fragrances that shows billowing smokestacks from steel mills.

It also has take offs on shows like "That Girl" where they can't keep their hands off each other and end up groping on the couch as well as a show about gypsies that reminded me of "All in the Family.

All in all, it attempted to make fun of every aspect of television as well as the growing urban population, unemployment, and pollution problems.

This movie was followed by other satires such as Groove Tube and Kentucky Fried Movie but it was the first and I think the best of this genre. Its worth a look just to see how outrageous humor could be in the '70's. One note, I believe the movie was shot on video and edited television style then released on 35 MM film. As such, it was a pioneer work in the "Made for TV style movie" but released theatrically.

I first saw this at the long gone Prince Drive-In Theater in Tucson AZ. I currently have a copy on DVD and drag it out once in a while when I need an irreverent chuckle.

When I recieved the tape it looked OK. Genuine package, real pre-recorded cassett shell. When I played the tape , I discoverd it was a copy. A very poor quality Illegal COPY. Bad, very bad. Someone had taken the tape apart and replaced the genuine pre-recorded tape in side with the copied tape.