On this day 25 years ago (June 3, 1983)...
Andy P. Jung
unFunny http://www.tbs.com/ ).
Happy (would have been) 25th Birthday Night Tracks! I can't believe that it
has been a quarter of a century since your debut!
Here's the TV Guide scan from June 3, 1983.
http://www.jungworld.com/night-tracks/jpg/TV_Guide_scans/
I just wish that MTV and its related networks didn't have such a monopoly on
music videos and ruined today's mainstream music. I have to admit that I
don't even know half of today music on American Top 40 charts because I am
so stuck in the 1980s.
Hey TBS, please consider bringing back (at least) the classic Night Tracks
shows since there are no basic cable channels airing '80s music videos?
It'll be a virtual guarantee to become a ratings hit since TBS is in many
more households than VH1 Classic. What does Time Warner have to lose
("loose" for all you misspellers out there)?
Check out my Night Tracks fan tribute web site!
Listen to The Bangles and Dino give Birthday wishes to Night Tracks.
http://www.jungworld.com/night-tracks/
I'm also reminiscing the technological marvels in the past 25 years. Here's
just a brief history.
Shortly after Night Tracks' premiere the home video game industry would soon
crash.
We purchased our first VCR in May 1985 just in time for Night Tracks' second
birthday. Shortly after that, the debut of the original 8 bit Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES) revived the home video game industry and Night
Tracks even had a NES contest giveaway in February 1989.
Night Tracks had reached its peak and continued through the end of the
1980s.
http://www.jungworld.com/night-tracks/ntrdd.htm
Unfortunately, Night Tracks "jumped the shark" in August of 1989 when they
started airing movies under the Night Flicks banner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8w-6wlkJjo
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GxpH-D68WA
In the Spring of 1991 about 1/3 of the show became Alternative. This was
also when we bought our first IBM compatible PC (Intel 80386sx-16Mhz) in
March 1991 and first signed on to Prodigy Classic and CompuServe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_%28ISP%29
Night Tracks was cancelled after its last episode aired on Saturday, May 23
or May 30, 1992 (I stopped watching Night Tracks on a weekly basis after it
became all Alternative in August 1991 so I don't know the exact final
weekend for Night Tracks).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Tracks
Now I can only relive what I have saved in my Night Tracks video collection.
Analog videotapes will not last forever so I'm in the process of
transferring them to DVD so I can continue reliving Night Tracks for the
next half dozen or so (give or take a few) decades.
http://www.jungworld.com/night-tracks/ntvideo.htm
Nobody else (let alone TBS) seem to want to revive the show even if only
rerunning the classic shows. I seem to have to do all the work and sometimes
the record companies (who've once supported Night Tracks during its nine
year run) don't seem to remember and/or understand my endeavor (to remind
people that Night Tracks did exist) by pulling a DMCA notice on my YouTube
accounts even though NONE of the videos are post 1992 because Night Tracks
was cancelled in 1992. The big 4 record companies should really just
concentrate on enforcing the DMCA on today's crappy music instead of the old
classics from the 1980s to the early 1990s that today's eMpTV and VH1 refuse
to air.
For now, you can view many of the videos that originally aired on Night
Tracks including all the different Chyron fonts used in its nine year run.
If you were born before 1978 and your parents would let you stay up late at
night, you may even remember the original Night Tracks theme music from 1983
to 1985. Click on the "Videos" and/or "Playlists" tabs for all the Night
Tracks music videos uploaded to this point (with more to come) so you can
relive that wonderful '80s era.
http://www.youtube.com/NightTracks
and
http://www.youtube.com/NightTracksRevival
and
http://www.youtube.com/NightTracksClassic
Please fasten your seat belts and enjoy your trip down memory lane!
--
Andy P. Jung
Metairie, Louisiana U.S.A.
(on the Western side of the now infamous 17th Street Canal)
http://www.JungWorld.com/
To reply via e-mail, please visit my web site.
electrochrome
all
reality TV now. Such is the decline & fall of music video...
Uncle Dave
I'm too old to care much about music videos, but I do recall having a
tape with six hours of videos on it. My wife and I had just moved
into a rented house, and we painted the entire interior. I set up the
tv and VCR and turned the volume up. It was like having a stereo
going, where we didn't have to change the record. We'd just start the
tape over again.
I also had what I called a "marking tape" for JUne exams. I had
concerts of Dire Straits, Bon Jovi and a special of the Guess Who.
Once again, six hours of music to mark exams by.
-- Uncle Dave