Michael Nesmith followed his Grammy-winning 1981 video release ELEPHANT PARTS with a short-lived NBC series called TELEVISION PARTS, lasting only a few weeks in 1985. Nesmith gathered most of this material in a pair of compilations, TELEVISION PARTS HOME COMPANION and DOCTOR DUCK'S SUPER SECRET ALL-PURPOSE SAUCE, neither of which has as yet received DVD release. TPHC runs only 40 minutes or so, and the comedy sketches can't compare with the material on ELEPHANT PARTS. "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" comes close, while the best features Nes playing recorder on a street corner, inadvertently forming a band that instantly earns a record deal, provided he be the one who gets dumped! There are only four songs, but they're of the same high standard as those from its predecessor. Bill Martin composed "Eldorado to the Moon" and the hilarious "Chow Mein and Bowling," while Nes himself wrote "I'll Remember You" and "Total Control" (which plays over the closing credits). Especially noteworthy about "I'll Remember You" is his teenage co-star, his pretty as a picture real-life daughter Jessica Buffler Nesmith (born 1970), in the role of his on screen offspring. Their charming rapport matches the subject matter in the song itself, a paean to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and personal remembrance of Nesmith's old friend, former Beatle John Lennon, whose band of course inspired the series THE MONKEES. This author has not seen the 90 minute DOCTOR DUCK, so cannot comment on the second compilation, which seems to have gathered most of the guest star appearances, including Martin Mull, Garry Shandling, Whoopi Goldberg, Dick Cavett, Jay Leno, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jim Stafford.
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