History
It was originally produced on videotape as an NBC television special that would have aired in place of SNL during one of its live breaks. Because of some of the racier elements of the show, NBC declared it inappropriate for the network (in the wake of a ratings slump they experienced at the time) and promptly canceled it.
Shortly thereafter, independent studio New Line Cinema acquired the rights to Mondo Video, and converted the videotape master to 35mm film for theatrical release. To pad the program to feature length, filmmaker Walter Williams created a special Mr. Bill Show episode, combining footage from his past Mr. Bill shorts from SNL with new wraparound scenes, to present at the head of the film as a short subject. Also, cowriter Mitchell Glazer stated in the DVD's audio commentary that many scenes were added to pad the film's runtime to the required 90 minutes for theatrical releases.
The film would eventually be seen on television, albeit on pay cable and syndication with several cuts, such as the non sequitur "Dream Sequences". It would also show up on home video in the early 1980s through Mike Nesmith's Pacific Arts label.
In January 2009, it was released on DVD by Shout! Factory. The DVD release mutes the infamous "My Way" segment (see below), and removes Mr. Mike's lead-in to the "Church of the Jack Lord" segment due to the inability of Shout! Factory to get the rights to use the Hawaii 5-O theme song.
Read more about this topic: Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)
“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)