There was this one night about two decades ago that locked in my eternal memory of Peter E. Parisi. A then-cast member of World Wide Magazine (who, for lack of okayed attribution, was known by many as a Discontented Russian) took me by the studios of Channel 11, way back when it was located in the Central West End. The evening was turning into morning, the clubs were closing, and seeing Pete work the controls of Channel 11’s editing system sounded like great fun.

And it was.

Something on the Channel 11 schedule had run long that night, and it was up to Pete to get the programming back on schedule. That meant condensing a one-hour episode of CHiPs into about 45 minutes, without losing any of the money-making commercials. In those days, an editor could trim the show on the fly through combination of linear editing techniques, done live to tape. Even without the heavy inclusion of marijuana involved in the session, Pete was enjoying the experience of showing off the Channel 11 editing system, especially the robot arms that grabbed commercials from a wall of tapes, dropping them into tape players. As he worked over CHiPs with half-assed care—but extreme precision—Pete was in his element.

Talking, smoking, cackling as he went, Pete was determined to get CHiPs cut down in front of his in-studio audience, and he did so by trimming away all the action sequences, the highway chases that were pretty much the show’s calling card. Every time those California Highway Patrol cycles were about to roar down the highway, Pete started to cut, not stopping till the perps were in handcuffs. It was amazing to watch him work, as he seemed only half-tethered to the task. The rest of his attention was on entertaining his guests, complaining about his pay, and downing shocking amounts of coffee.

It was often during those weird, early-morning sessions that Pete would simultaneously cut together episodes of World Wide Magazine, which ran from 1986 to 2001 on local origination cables, including the flagship Double Helix in St. Louis City. While Pete and his rotating cast and crew weren’t afraid to leave the city limits, the show’s lengthy run featured countless segments detailing life in St. Louis City, with both one-off gags and others that unspooled over years. Fueled by insulin, caffeine and weed, Parisi let his imagination go wild, and developed a cult following that appreciated his show’s cracked genius.

But more on that in moment, as the show’s discussed today for a very specific reason.

For some years now, an avid fan of the show, Jim Varagona, has been posting full episodes and selected clips onto a growing digital library on YouTube. He also started an as-yet-unsuccessful effort to get Pete a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

More specific to this week, World Wide Magazine will be given a public showing: on Wednesday night, “Salute to World Wide Magazine” screens at midtown’s Moolah Bar. The program, running roughly from 7:30-10 p.m., has been curated by Mark Willey, a videographer, musician, and the Moolah’s GM. He says he didn’t grow up with the show, but appreciated the obvious connection to “Weirdo Wednesdays,” one of several theme nights at the Moolah Bar.

Willey’s building two 80-minute segments with an intermission. In the first half, he’ll introduce skits that include several members of the show’s large cast, including Miss Cathy, Watt Davis, Black Jesus, Vince & Marty, and others. The second half will focus more on Pete’s man-on-the-street, on-location segments, including visits to the Elvis is Alive Museum, Club Fetish Nights at the Galaxy and, of course, the VP Fair, with whom Pete jousted regularly. The program contains nods to the past (the Great Flood of ’93) and the present (The Trophy Room, still kicking).

Willey says that there’ll be “happy hour specials. But seating is limited. We usually don’t expect more than 30 [for these programs], but I think this may be a door-buster for us. We can put in additional folding chairs, and it’ll be simulcast in both the bar and the lounge.”

Well aware of the show’s sometimes, let’s call it “thorny” content, Willey admits “there’s certainly a lot of it that’s well outside the boundaries of political correctness. That was true then, and even more so today. Pete Parisi was nothing if not irreverent. I think that extended to literally everyone. He could seem callous in some regards, to issues like racism or sexism. But he extended that to literally everyone. His tongue was always planted firmly in cheek.

“We’re a public space,” Willey says. “Are we going to play some of the more problematic bits? Well, within reason. We’re cognizant of the fact that we’re walking a fine line. What’s important to me that is that World Wide Magazine is a really vital document.”

He believes that Parisi’s camera showed a “St. Louis that’s changed. And a St. Louis that’s still here.”

Some of the recurring bit players that he utilized would never fly today, characters like Hung Wei Lo, for example, who had that even-then-outdated Charlie Chan vibe. And Black Jesus’ role as show provocateur on racial relations would seem a tough sell now, though it's, er, interesting to see/hear his words re: our town today. So much has changed since Pete’s untimely passing: gay marriage’s acceptance, the liberalization of marijuana laws, and continued debates over public speech. And can anyone imagine Pete and his crew (usually one person) covering Ferguson, downtown’s Trump rally, or even the demolition of St. Louis Center’s skybridge? The mind boggles at the coulda/shoulda/wouldas.

Media’s changed as much as anything since his death. And for a contemporary Parisi, the delivery vehicle would surely be YouTube, or live streaming, not the cable access of yore. What a thought: Pete working at the laptop, posting clips at all hours of the night, not constrained to those sometimes stretched one-hour episodes. Content would flow and spread virally, rather than being viewed in two-hour blocks on weekend nights, or binge-viewed on his occasional VHS compilations.

No matter how it was distributed, Pete would’ve been up all night, stretching his body and spirit to the limit, creating work that’d provoke, sometimes uncomfortably, while also giving loving nods to the past. Despite his non-native roots, few ever “got” St. Louis the way Parisi got St. Louis. It’s cool that folks like Mark Willey sense the same spirit, giving new and old eyes alike a chance to see a man’s very particular vision re: a city and its people.

A Salute to World Wide Magazine happens Wednesday, July 27 at the Moolah Theatre & Lounge, 3821 Lindell; the event is free. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.