Night Flight (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Night Flight | |
|---|---|
 Night Flight Logo |
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| Genre | variety show |
| Camera setup | multi-camera |
| Running time | 4 hours |
| Creator(s) | Stuart S. Shapiro |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Pat Prescott |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | USA Network |
| Original run | June 1981–late 1988 |
| IMDb profile | |
Night Flight was a television program on the USA Network from 1981-1988 which ran for four hours on Friday and Saturday nights then repeated into the wee hours of the morning. USA's Up All Night starring Rhonda Shear (and, later, Gilbert Gottfried) would replace it in 1988. It was later revived through syndication in 1990, with a single season of new episodes before the format was changed to "best of" shows from the USA years with host Tom Juarez. These shows were seen as late as 1996 on local TV stations.
Night Flight was one of the first places to see films and shorts not generally aired on broadcast television or on the pay-per movie channels such as HBO. It was the first place many Americans were able to see music documentaries like Another State of Mind, The Grateful Dead Movie, and Word, Sound and Power. Night Flight was also one of the first American television shows to display the music video as an art form, rather than purely as a promotional tool for the artists. And, with the freedom had by them on early (and late-night) cable television, they would at times show portions of videos that were censored (or in some cases, banned) by MTV and other outlets.
In the original format of the show, there was not a formal host. Voice-over introductions were made by Pat Prescott before segments started. Recurring segments included:
- Take Off - A segment grouping together music videos on particular themes as well as a mix of interviews and snippets from movies, to help round out the segment. Examples from the show are Take Off To Animation, Take Off To Sex, Take Off To Violence, etc. Legendary San Francisco news reporter Dave McQueen did the voice-overs.
- New Wave Theatre - Hosted by Peter Ivers, the show featured punk and New Wave acts, chiefly from the Los Angeles area.
- The Video Artist - A segment covering artists working in the then-new world of video and computer graphics.
- The Comic - Profiles of various comedians, consisting of stand-up bits interspersed with interview segments.
- Video Profile - A segment featuring videos by one particular band or artist.
- Atomic TV
- Love That Bob (Church of the Sub-Genius) - A serialized presentation of the Sub-Genius video Arise!
- Rick Shaw's Takeout Theater
- Dynaman - An English-dubbed parody of six episodes of the super sentai series "Kagaku Sentai: Dynaman"
- J-Men Forever
- Tales of Tomorrow
- Heavy Metal Heroes
- The Some Bizarre Show, featuring the artists of the Some Bizarre label
Bela Lugosi's Monogram films were recurring features. Other segments included condensed parodies of low-quality, out-of-copyright black-and-white-era movies and serials, as well as letters from viewers.
The show would also highlight movies that were regarded as cult hits. Examples include:
- Fantastic Planet, the English title of La Planète Sauvage (literally "The Savage Planet") an animated 1973 science fiction film directed by René Laloux.
- The Kentucky Fried Movie, an American comedy film, released in 1977 and directed by John Landis.
