Sunday, December 23, 2018

Public Access Xmas Spectacular!


Need something to watch for Xmas, but you're tired of the same ol' shows? The try these! Screw tradition!!!

I loved watching Public Access television as a kid. Some of my favorite shows are from the 1990's MNN channels in Manhattan.

"Wild Record Collection" was a cute show hosted by a plush polar bear named Snuffles. Snuffles would be showing off his extensive record collection with his plush friends, chatting, or just dancing to the music. This show was on MNN for what seemed like forever, and a few years ago I found out that the creator still makes "Wild Record Collection" content every once in a while via his social media outlets


This one, Animaltrash, wasn't known to me until recently. A little edgelord for my tastes, but still pretty funny. 

While trying to make a culturally inclusive Holiday special for their public access television station, the animaltrash gang manage to inadvertently create the most offensive program of all time.

Now this is more my scene. Sincere efforts towards trying to make an engaging show for all audiences. "Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends" was a long-running show on MNN produced by the late Richard Concepcion. The "Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends" show ran for over 30 years on MNN and other networks! I knew Richard for a brief period and I was sad to learn of his passing last year. I'm afraid his show will one day fall under the description of "lost media" so I've been doing my best to archive whatever he had on his original website and YouTube.

This first video I downloaded and uploaded to my YouTube page. Richard was also a mascot costume performer, and he would often go to events in costume to entertain guests. This episode of "Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends" starts with him walking around tourist areas in a Care Bears costume. There are so many puppets on screen, Rapid tries his best to keep it together. 



This second video (which is from a year prior to the one above) is a lot more mellow. It's just Rapid himself enjoying the holiday season. This one might be a personal favorite episode for me. You can really see the care that was taken to make this episode special. 



In this video, from the official Rapid T. Rabbit YouTube page, has the Rapid walking around manhattan in the late 1990's. This one makes me particularly nostalgic. 



Although not Xmassy, I should also mention there was a special episode of "Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends" where Snuffles from "Wild Record Collection" appeared. 


I only found out about this particular special today. No idea if it was part of a series or what, but "North Pole Nutrias" is very beautifully odd. The creators of it, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, still seem to be active. "North Pole Nutrias" doesn't appear on their official YouTube account, but a fan was nice enough to upload it for the rest of us to see. 


Now this one is really intense, so only watch if you are, or, if you want to be psychologically damaged. The Asylum for Shut-Ins, hosted by The Doctor, offered Video Psychotherapy for a very important time in my life. In many ways, The Doctor is still the only doctor I trust because I at least know his true intentions.... 



To bring us back to a more normal state of mind, of sorts, here's the incomparable Mister Lobo and Miss Mittens hosting their "Cinema Insomnia Holiday Special"! Although currently on OSI74, at one point "Cinema Insomnia" at one point was on public access. 



And what sort of fan would I be if I forgot to mention David Liebe Hart's iconic show, "The Junior Christian Teaching Lesson Program" that ran for nearly 20 years! Most of the series I believe is either lost or locked away by the station that owns the partial rights to it, but luckily many of David's fans have uploaded what they recorded personally onto YouTube. 



And don't forget the Christmas album on Bandcamp!



Have a Merry Xmas everyone!

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