Remembering "Beyond Vaudeville"

Long before YouTube and the Internet allowed everyone to become a "content creator", the only place where you could find oddballs and fringe characters producing weird and uncommercial stuff was on public access TV.

In NYC, on Manhattan Public Access, there was a show that merged the amateur and fringe with the more mainstream -- called Beyond Vaudeville, it ran from 1986 to 1996, and was hosted by an Andy Kaufmanesque guy named Frank Hope. It was a talk/variety show where a number of randomly assorted guests would talk while Frank and his hyper sidekick David would say or do outrageous things that got amazingly cringey reactions from their guests.

Although Beyond Vaudeville was on for ten years, it only aired 75 time. The show did not have a regular schedule, it would just pop-up every so often, and its guests were beyond eclectic -- they included the dwarf from Twin Peaks, Barry Williams from The Brady Bunch, NYC talk show host Joe Franklin, WNBC news anchor Sue Simmons, actor Fred Williard, Grandpa Al Lewis, Tom Arnold, Oscar-winners Shirley Jones and Kim Hunter, Tiny Tim, as well as strange comedians, dancers, jugglers, and others. 

Others who appeared on the show were Mr NYC favorite Alison Steele and as well as Mr NYC interviewee Michael Musto.

I've posted a few episodes below -- watch them and take a peak at this memorably weird show at a time when NYC was still memorably weird.