A Special Tiny Tim
- TV Movie
- 1971
- 49m
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Did you know
- TriviaReleased shortly after his wedding on the Tonight Show, "A Special Tiny Tim" showcases many great performances. From Rock and Roll to Music Hall, Tiny covers a wide and eclectic range of material for his one and only television special.
Featured review
Well, it's...something.
Was this special even broadcast? It was certainly made at a point when TT was a major celebrity, but it's lower-budgeted than a "Hee-Haw" episode, has no guest stars (a minimum requirement for variety specials at the time), and was apparently shot in B&W, a total incongruity for 1970. Plus, I can imagine network executives looking at it and saying "Uh...we'll pass," because it's just so shapeless and odd (not "odd in a good way," as you might hope for from TT). Anyway, the entire first half consists of Tiny Tim on one set singing various vintage crooner songs with his ukelele. Eventually.some other musicians appear in the background (as well as a few farm animals--maybe this really WAS the "Hee-Haw" set), but they are hardly noticed or even heard.
At the halfway point we finally get another set-a rather cool op-art abstraction-on which TT sings "Rock Around the Clock" and "Great Balls of Fire" (not really his metier) while some dancers who don't appear to have been choreographed cavort behind him. Then there's footage of TT ostensibly singing while walking around some city. Then we're back to the original set, somewhat re-dressed, where TT sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" with a few children in tow. They don't seem to know how they're meant to react to him, and he (again) barely notices them anyway-though it's notable that sings his one scary song "The Viper" to them, in which he keeps hissing while making a frightening face. That's about it, not excluding "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" over the final credits.
This bare-bones enterprise is billed as being a "7 Network Production," but I can't figure out if it it was made by a local TV station, or what. What can be said about "A Special Tiny Tim" is that it seems to have been thrown together in a hurry and with little thought to concept or flow. The director (whose other credits on IMBD are extremely minor, just episodes of obscure game shows and such) has professional camera equipment etc. At his disposal, but that's the most you can say for the job he (or anyone) did putting thing together.
At this time Tiny Tim's fame was such that he could have at least drafted name TV stars to do cameos in order to boost the show's marketability, so the total absence of even the most basic such selling points is...bizarre. Who made this, and why? Did they think they could sell it to a major network? Did it get shown anywhere at all? It's a mystery. What's good about the program is that it offers 40-odd minutes of Tiny Tim's unique vocals (seemingly recorded live on the soundstage), so as a sort of deluxe solo concert, it's a valuable artifact. But otherwise it's such a strange and forlorn thing, its lacks crudely underlined by obvious canned "audience" laughter and ditto screaming "teenage fans" inserted onto the soundtrack at arbitrary moments.
At the halfway point we finally get another set-a rather cool op-art abstraction-on which TT sings "Rock Around the Clock" and "Great Balls of Fire" (not really his metier) while some dancers who don't appear to have been choreographed cavort behind him. Then there's footage of TT ostensibly singing while walking around some city. Then we're back to the original set, somewhat re-dressed, where TT sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" with a few children in tow. They don't seem to know how they're meant to react to him, and he (again) barely notices them anyway-though it's notable that sings his one scary song "The Viper" to them, in which he keeps hissing while making a frightening face. That's about it, not excluding "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" over the final credits.
This bare-bones enterprise is billed as being a "7 Network Production," but I can't figure out if it it was made by a local TV station, or what. What can be said about "A Special Tiny Tim" is that it seems to have been thrown together in a hurry and with little thought to concept or flow. The director (whose other credits on IMBD are extremely minor, just episodes of obscure game shows and such) has professional camera equipment etc. At his disposal, but that's the most you can say for the job he (or anyone) did putting thing together.
At this time Tiny Tim's fame was such that he could have at least drafted name TV stars to do cameos in order to boost the show's marketability, so the total absence of even the most basic such selling points is...bizarre. Who made this, and why? Did they think they could sell it to a major network? Did it get shown anywhere at all? It's a mystery. What's good about the program is that it offers 40-odd minutes of Tiny Tim's unique vocals (seemingly recorded live on the soundstage), so as a sort of deluxe solo concert, it's a valuable artifact. But otherwise it's such a strange and forlorn thing, its lacks crudely underlined by obvious canned "audience" laughter and ditto screaming "teenage fans" inserted onto the soundtrack at arbitrary moments.
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- ofumalow
- Jun 12, 2021
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- Runtime49 minutes
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