The Uncle Floyd Show (1974–1995) User Reviews

Great Show

[Matt M. · 23 May 2000]

You know, to be honest, I can't really remember this show very well, other then it was one of my favorite shows on television when I was young. I so remember Oggie, I was such a big fan my brother made me a clay bust of him.

Whenever the show came on, I would run around the house screaming "it's the uncle Floydy show!" Another plus was that is was on right around the time Doctor Who was. So I was always watching that waiting for my favorite show to come on.

I saw Uncle Floyd recently and I was really suprised about how little I remembered from it. But still, I have enough vague childhood memories relating to it to last a lifetime~

I love this show!

[tforbes-2 · 10/10 · 27 October 2008]

I got to know The Uncle Floyd Show when it aired on WSBK in Boston, which we got on cable back in 1982. This show was and remains a personal favourite!

It was incredibly demented! One skit which got Floyd Vivino in trouble was "The Joe Frankfurter Show," in which he would do a parody of talk show host Joe Franklin. Reportedly, Mr. Franklin got very upset! Still, when I saw it, it was hilarious!

I also remember the music skit, "Abbott Presley," obviously a takeoff on Elvis Costello, and there were other skits. Clearly, it was an irreverent masterpiece!

And you gotta love the laugh track!

Amazing part of my childhood.

[tuna-144-989293 · 10/10 · 18 September 2013]

I began watching Uncle Floyd back when I was 9 yeas old or so.

It was completely irreverent wonderful and fun. Uncle Floyd reach out to his fan base like no other performer of the day. Any fan could create a local fan-club. I was president of fan club 186 which was part of my street address and had no reality on how many clubs there were.

Every week he featured a viewer and I will never forget when I was chosen as viewer of the week and received an award.

When I was 10 years old I got very sick and had brain surgery. Uncle Floyd got a letter from my father asking if he could send me a t shirt. Floyd Vivino did one better. He called me up and told me that Skip Rooney visits the same hospital sometimes but in the closed ward of the loony bin.

Uncle Floyd came to visit me in the hospital and gave me the first copy of his first 45 "Deep in the Heart of Jersey" by Cowboy Charlie and La De Da Da by Oogie on the flip side.

Gosh I love what that man did for me and the show never stopped being fun.

Not a show for little kids.

[saltd · 10/10 · 3 May 2008]

Someone told me about this TV show that very underground that was being shown on a UHF station. My friend told me that there were cool bands to see and that it was really a show for adults because of the many dirty and off the cuff jokes that were made. Needless to say, I saw the show and was hooked on it. Part of the show always seem to have Uncle Floyd singing and playing the piano to some song. I used to love it when Uncle Floyd would sing "Pennies from Heaven" and the cast would throw real pennies at him and he would duck while singing. Some of the skits were really off the wall. I remember the skit "The Dull Family", where the cast would dress up as red necks and debate if they should turn on the TV. Just my two cents here, I think that the fascination that so many people had with this show was the bad production. The show in the beginning of it's run had only one camera and it was not uncommon to have something fall down or apart while the cast was doing a skit. As teenagers we would just start laughing at things like that. The fact that it was a NJ show was important as well. Keep in mind that NJ has always had an identity crisis. In northern NJ, we watch New York stations because New York City is not far away and it's news media has always been criticized for not reporting enough on NJ. So to watch a home grown TV show like Uncle Floyd seem to be a special treat. It was like your own underground TV program that you could watch that promoted and made fun of New Jersey. I miss you Uncle Floyd.

Uncle Floyd -The best of the worst sketch comedy/Parody shows

[morrowynd-1 · 10/10 · 8 July 2008]

This show started on a UHF channel back in the 70's and was so bad it was good. If you like Mystery Science Theater without the movies, or Saturday night live without the fractional effort at professionalism,and the haphazard style of The Soup on E!, you will love Uncle Floyed. It was a parody of children's shows, like Sesmae street and Magic Garden which were still relatively new at the time. Floyd Vivino hosted using colorful characters and puppets. The audience was always supposed to be adults. It took on cult attraction as people waited for Looney Skiproony and BabaBooy. It is a slice of life from a time now gone. It still takes me back to some happy memories. I truly wonder if anyone born in the last 20 years can appreciate it.

The show was a new take on an old idea but it still works

[vitogoomba · 10/10 · 4 November 2006]

You see folks, in 1974; the "Uncle Floyd Show" then consisted of cameraman Marc Nathan and Uncle Floyd Vivino. Floyd used to play to an all kids under ten audiences. Enter Pat Cupo a local actor who did characters giving Floyd a break. In mid season in walks Robert DiCaterino who did many characters as well but his main gig was being Groucho Marks. For three years these cast members did live shows and gave the more growing adult audiences a fun filled show. By 1977 Pat and Rob had left the show and thus the DVD. The cast grew and the chemistry is set. Sit back and relax as you laugh your buttocks off and see why this show was a hit for over thirty years.

Takes me back..

[buggy-73002 · 10/10 · 8 May 2022]

I grew up in Jersey in the 80's and remember watching The Uncle Floyd show with my dad. Loved Oogie. One of my happiest moments from then was when I saw Uncle Floyd at the Monmouth County fair and got his autograph.

Cheap, stoopid and brilliant

[kathleen-hambrecht · 11 September 2004]

The longest running local show in New Jersey history, Uncle Floyd was a hilarious local New Jersey TV show that aired most of the 1970s. It's a spoof of 1950s variety shows and their awful vaudeville humor, with a cast of charming burnout dudes acting as the guests, dressed in costumes they look like they brought from home. The memorable howling "laugh track" is courtesy of whatever rowdy cast members are off camera, and the whole show was filmed in front of a cardboard-brown wall with viewer-drawn pictures tacked to it. Also, crummy, scary puppets such as "Cuppy," a monstrous dadaist creation in a Yankees nightshirt with a cup for a head are frequent guests. The awe-inspiring chutzpah of Floyd Vivino was the driving force of this madness. The Ramones were big fans. Conan O'Brien has said this was one of his favorite shows, and if you like the demented skits on Conan, Uncle Floyd is right up your alley. Floyd Vivino (Uncle Floyd) also plays a mean piano, and in September of 1999, he set the Guinness record for non-stop piano playing at 24 hours and 15 minutes.

What fun

[thomaswatchesfilms · 26 March 2004]

As a teenager growing up in northern NJ in the 70s, The Uncle Floyd Show was THE thing. Always on at parties, or turned to in basements and bedrooms late at night while we were sneaking weed and beers. It was a ridiculous, serial comedy show with a zany cast of characters, led by Uncle Floyd Vivino - a really good pianist ("Where's Wild West City at??" - who remembers his bit part in this commercial except me??)

Anyway, for a while one of my friends attended college in Newark, and it was filmed not far from where he lived. We actually went and saw it taped a few times, a bunch of hammered college kids, drinking and laughing and cat-calling. It was huge.

Recently obtained a DVD compilation of the show from Vivino's website. It's just as goofy as ever - if not more so. It hasn't aged very well, but then, it was completely ridiculous and only appallingly funny back then. It's like watching some absurd, amateur variety show. Perfect, because that's exactly what it was - all inside jokes and home-town references. Being sober 21 years probably helps form my current impression. Twinkle-twinkle Uncle Floyd.

Cool regional show.

A great show to watch.

[DaBears54 · 2 April 2004]

We recorded the Uncle Floyd show back in 82-83. People say you can't remember things when you are 3 years old. But I remember my father recording this show on WGBO channel 66 in Chicago. When I watch the show now, I feel like I am 3 or 4 years old again. It was a funny show with all the crazy skits all played by Floyd Vivino. Here are some of the skits in case you don't remember them. Ken doo man, The Grouch, Ricardo the lover man that couldn't get the right record for his show. Coffee clutch classics. Alfred Hitchcock. The guy that sang I'm walking my dog near the curb. And many more. I loved Oogie. He was so funny. What also was neat was when he recorded the show he left the commercials run on some commercial breaks and it's weird seeing all the old commercials of 82-83 with the chefs knife and advertising an old college BB game I think it was North Carolina and Georgetown. I hope they release Uncle Floyd on DVD someday because that would be the prize of my collection.

A Great Compilation Of The Uncle Floyd Family

[GDMActor · 8 March 2003]

The Uncle Floyd Show was transmitted on a UHF channel from New Jersey. Uncle Floyd and his merry pranksters gave the appearance of being a bunch of friends having a good time. Floyd's talents were in his imitations, his accents, his humor, his ability to laugh along with his silly cast and to make fun of them. This tape compiles some of the funniest bits. This was a very very low budget show that worked as the humor came through. After getting this tape and being in a state of non stop laughing I showed it to my daughter who watched it in the 80's and she remembered it and laughed along. My son who was born in 1985 seeing it for the first time laughed uproriously. Floyd could play that piano. I won a trip to Wild West City and there was Floyd on the piano. My daughter's birthday was announced on the show. The extension of Floyd's hand was Oogie the smartest, most sarcastic puppet who was a riot. Looney Skip Rooney laughing off camera was contagious. The other cast members looked like regular guys and the comraderie was great. This tape translates that. Buy it if you ever saw Uncle Floyd and buy it if you haven't. Anyone who liked Soupy Sales or Mad Magazine will be at home.

Uncle Floyd

[theantichris · 2 December 2006]

Yes yes yes, I grew up on this show from day one. My dad grew up on this show. If only it was still on. It was a shame to here about some of the cast members dying at early ages. If only Floyd could get this show back on the air. you never know. I try to tell people about the show but it's one of those you had to be there things. You have to see it to understand. I was to young to remember the really cool music performances, but I've seen the clips of most of them now. I just learned that David Bowie and John Lennon were huge fans of the show. And that Floyds brother is the guitar player from the Max Weinberg 7 on the Conan O' Brien show. Highly recommended that you find this somehow and watch as much as you can. If you're reading this though, you're probably already a fan.

Uncle Floyd Show

[rbrombacher-1 · 17 October 2005]

Uncle Floyd Show had some of the great punk musicians for the late 70's early 80's including The Dead Boys , Blondie, and the Ramones (more than a few times) His pal Uggie would haunt my dreams for years, bring me back to a time I did not want to stay in. I loved Floyd and hid gang and hoped he would find stardom when he appeared in Good Morning Vietnam. But alas, so did he. I wonder what Floyd is doing today. I occasional see reruns in my twisted mind. but wish it would come out on DVD...Hear that Floyd..do a DVD. It will make you some cash. So bring Uggie and a few of the gang out of retirement from Bloomfield NJ and do a compilation DVD. Look, if Joe Franklin can do one, so can you.

A national syndicated comedy show.

[mugsy-2 · 5 January 1999]

"Uncle" Floyd Vivino began the 1/2 strip show in 1974 as a take-off on 50's children's programs. After adding cast members the format created Vivino and cast creating returning character and sketches. It was also the first show of the time to do rock musical parodies based on real performers (i.e Springsteen, Dylan, T.Waits). Nationally syndicated on NBC o&o network and later on PBS stations.