The Groove Tube (1974)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Ken Shapiro

Writers:

Lane Sarasohn (writer)
Ken Shapiro (writer)

Release Date:

5 June 1975 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

What turns the apes on? What makes a cop dance in the street? What has the night tonic done for her? Who chases her through the woods? What can Butz Beer do for you? Why are they eating grass?

Plot:

A collection of skits that make fun of 1970s television, featuring early appearances by Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer.

Plot Keywords:

Television | Commercial | Sex | Parody | Homosexual

Cast

Ken Shapiro	...	Ko-ko / Boss / 'Near You' Singer / Robert Elgin / Mahetma Yenta / Lionel Elgin / Dancing Man ('Just You - Just Me')
Richard Belzer	...	Rodriguez / Leo Batfish / The President / The Hooker
Chevy Chase	...	The Fingers / Geritan / Four Leaf Clover
Buzzy Linhart	...	The Hitchhiker
Richmond Baier	...	The Girl
Berkeley Harris	...	The Rich Guy
Jennifer Welles	...	The Geritan Girl
Roy Wallace	...	The Gorillas
Kirtus Allen	...	Gorilla
Laura Glicken	...	The Gorillas
Hal Fore	...	Gorilla
Jennifer Zens	...	The Gorillas
Leo Petrie	...	Gorilla
Lane Sarasohn	...	The Dancing Policeman / The Assassin
Paul Norman	...	Mouth Appeal / Sex Olympics

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) (uncut) | Finland:K-18 | Netherlands:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | USA:R | USA:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Syn-Frank Enterprises

Trivia:

The Groove Tube (1974) was an outgrowth of the Channel One Video Theater, an off-Broadway experimental multimedia theatre formed Ken Shapiro and Lane Sarasohn in 1967. One of Channel One's writers and performers was a young Chevy Chase.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: Microphone visible in "Dealers" bathroom scene.

Quotes:

Hooker: Lionel? That sounds like a train, I'm gonna do a "non-stop" on you choo-choo.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Passions of Carol (1975)

Soundtrack:

Move On Up

The Groove Tube is 'groovy'..

You know what they say about the 70's..if you can remember them you weren't there. One of the few things I do remember about the 70's was the very first hippie and hip social satire as seen from a totally 'underground'or counter-culture perspective..The Groove Tube. If the humor seems faded or witless now to some viewers it can only be because a lot has happened in the last 30 years and the comedy isn't 'fresh' anymore..but hey! When this movie came out it was a first..and some of these skits were being done for the very first time...at a time when Nixon was in office, the Vietnam war was raging, the sexual revolution was in full swing..and J.Edgar Hoover was still in charge of the FBI. This is a film made before Watergate broke and as such it was one of the first to take a big swipe at the establishment..to make fun of it and the hippies at the same time. And frankly, some skits are still dead funny. If you liked Cheech and Chong's "Up In Smoke"..you will LOVE this film.

If you want to know what the 70's were really like..check out the Groove Tube.. if you liked the Oscar winning "Network" from about the same year and thought it was right on the mark in its savage look at TV, you will dig the Groove Tube..which picks up on the theme but plays from the angle of the viewers...the young viewers who were turning off the TV in favor of other entertainments.... We had been raised on Ozzie & Harriet "Leave It to Beaver", Father Knows Best, My Three Sons..Happy Days...so imagine our glee when those of us who were experimenting with the new life-styles got to see a send up of the box as seen from our perspective! The commercials by the Uranus corporation alone are priceless.."Good things come from Uranus"....and the sudden break from straight film into Fritz the Cat-style animation when the hippies eat the weed is still one of the best segues in and out of sanity i have ever seen on film.

If you liked the Kentucky Fried Movie, you will LOVE this film. And if you ever wondered why your weird uncle Harold still gets a wicked gleam in his eye when thinking back to his college days..this would be the perfect film to watch.

Take it for what it is..a memento of the times...and a sassy little film that will help all of us who did forget the 70's to remember them anew.