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Elephant Parts popclips9/11/2023 ![]() ![]() “Disney was able to do things, impossible feats with animation that we’ve only just been able to do with a camera,” he says. He has borrowed most liberally from the last, he answers. Tartikoff said he is confident that Nesmith’s brand of surreal, whimsical humor will eventually find a place in network television. He conceded the program, hard to categorize and, hence, to publicize effectively, was a victim of poor ratings. But a disappointed Tartikoff announced last week that this Friday’s show, the fourth of the lot, would be the last to air in its time slot. Those seven additional half-hours of “Michael Nesmith in Television Parts” were inserted in NBC’s lineup this summer. Tartikoff ordered a pilot and, even as the comedy-variety format was foundering on television, ordered seven more. (It earned Nesmith the first video Grammy Award ever presented). ![]() In 1982, Tartikoff saw “Elephant Parts,” Nesmith’s cultish compilation for cable using unrelated bits and pieces – “Rio,” its followup “Cruisin’ ” and comedy clips from “Saturday Night Live” and “Fridays” – and flipped. Nesmith has a fan in another wunderkind genius-of-sorts, current NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff. “Timerider” and “Repo Man,” (David Letterman claims it is the only movie he’s ever rented) – since 1968 when The Monkees clambered off NBC. He has made records, formed his own production company and turned out two cult films – The former singer-guitarist “Wool Hat” with The Monkees is now 42. There, a half-dozen of their top 10 television shows were already using these videos, and calling them by the generic name “popclips.”īut Nesmith, who calls the video potential “easily as important as the printing press,” has, for years been in the forefront of the few pioneering avante-gardists who conceptualize cinema and then do something about it. In 1976, not very long after the composer-musician-performer brought his first rock video, “Rio,” to the attention of European promoters who stood up and cheered their astonishment, he ended up in Australia. “Architect” is about as far as he’ll go in describing his role at the genesis of the American pop phenomenon “video guru” and “MTV inventor” and “godfather” are what he is called by others. Michael Nesmith doesn’t label himself the father of MTV, maybe because in the international sense, he isn’t. ![]()
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