



The This Ain’t the Summer of Love blog has uncorked a real gem on the Internet—with the help of one of its loyal readers. Four years ago, TATSOL unearthed a 1982 Billboard article describing a CBGB-produced cable access show to “include interviews, comedy skits, and live performances.” A few days ago Stuart Newman, a member of the The Roustabouts, a band that was featured, uploaded a YouTube video of an episode of “TV-CBGB” and passed on the link to TATSOL. Victory! And a coup for a worthy blog.







The episode is peculiar and mildly riveting. It’s 90% performance but not true concert footage. There’s a bizarre opening sequence hosted by “Jo Thompson” (actually Wendy Walker), although it’s unclear why her MC duties necessitated a fictional character—in her bit, she walks through the club introducing us to a half-dozen CBGB employees, including Hilly, who are obliged to hold a freeze-frame pose for quite a long time while she tells us about them using the third person.

Of the somewhat overpopulated “sitcom” portions, the dialogue is predictably muddy and you never really know who anyone is or if they’re “fictional” or “real”—Hilly does his best playing himself. The bits attempt to portray something of the day-to-day experience of working at CBGBs. It’s completely incompetent as sketch entertainment, but nonetheless touching to watch a typical cross-section of unmistakably downtown fashionista wastoids gamely mimic a smash hit sitcom—there’s even a laugh track! The intermittent scenelets that feel a little SCTV outtakes or perhaps one of those short films shown during the Chevy Chase era of SNL—albeit with cable access production values. Furthermore, the birthday party for a pregnant co-worker feels entirely inauthentic; the brief scene in the scuzzy bathroom in which two women indulge in a bit of gossip feels a lot more true to life.

Here’s the lineup of bands: Idiot Savant, The Roustabouts, The Hard, Jo Marshall, Shrapnel, and Sic Fucks. None of the bands are great, but every single one is peppy and utterly enjoyable; unlike the scripted bits; the music performances feel absolutely like what it must have been like to attend CBGBs on a regular basis—a useful reminder of just how rousing and vital the median CBGB act was. (I was way too young to experience any of this, so my notions of the bands’ “authenticity” are the merest guess at the truth.)







The episode is an odd glimpse of a CBGB identity that never took shape, as a cable access mainstay; maybe someday it would have migrated to MTV and become a national TV icon. It never happened, but the sturdy format of bands just playing good rock and roll always works.

The only question now is, what else is out there?? The indefatigable TATSOL inquires: “Were there any additional episodes filmed? And if yes, where is the footage of those episodes? Hope we don’t have to wait four more years to find out…” Amen to that!



Previously on Dangerous Minds:

Young punk icons at CBGB New Year’s Eve party in 1975

CBGB in its pure raw beautiful nasty self

