Night Flight (TV Series) - Format and Contents

Format and Contents

Night Flight was one of the first places to see films and shorts not generally aired on broadcast television or on the pay-per movie channels such as HBO. It was the first place many Americans were able to see music documentaries like Another State of Mind, The Grateful Dead Movie, Word, Sound and Power, and Yessongs. Night Flight was also one of the first American television shows to display the music video as an art form, rather than purely as a promotional tool for the artists. And, with the freedom had by them on early (and late-night) cable television, they would at times show portions of videos that were censored (or in some cases, banned) by MTV and other outlets.

In the original format of the show, there was no formal host. Voice-over introductions were made by Pat Prescott before segments started. Recurring segments included:

• Take Off - A segment grouping together music videos on particular themes as well as a mix of interviews and snippets from movies, to help round out the segment. Examples from the show are Take Off To Animation, Take Off To Sex, Take Off To Violence, etc. San Francisco news reporter Dave McQueen did the voice-overs.
• New Wave Theatre - Hosted by Peter Ivers, the show featured punk and New Wave acts, chiefly from the Los Angeles area.
• The Video Artist - A segment covering artists working in the then-new world of video and computer graphics.
• The Comic - Profiles of various comedians, consisting of stand-up bits interspersed with interview segments.
• Video Profile - A segment featuring videos by one particular band or artist. works included Suspicious Circumstances, by Jim Blashfield, and works by the Brothers Quay.
• Atomic TV - A segment featuring various Cold War-era footage
• Love That Bob (Church of the Sub-Genius) - A serialized presentation of the Sub-Genius video Arise!
• Rick Shaw's Takeout Theater
• Dynaman - An English-dubbed parody of six episodes of the Super Sentai series Kagaku Sentai Dynaman
• J-Men Forever
• Space Patrol - An early 1950s U.S. sci-fi television series
• Tales of Tomorrow
• Heavy Metal Heroes
• The Some Bizzare Show, featuring the artists of the Some Bizzare label
• Snub TV

Bela Lugosi's Monogram films were recurring features. Other segments included condensed parodies of low-quality, out-of-copyright black-and-white-era movies and serials, as well as letters from viewers.

The show would also highlight movies that were regarded as cult hits. Examples include:

• Fantastic Planet, the English title of La Planète Sauvage (literally "The Savage Planet") an animated 1973 science fiction film directed by René Laloux.
• The Kentucky Fried Movie, an American comedy film, released in 1977 and directed by John Landis.
• Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, the story of a proto-riot grrrl band, directed by Lou Adler.
• Music of the Spheres, a low-budget psychological science fiction mystery, directed by Philip Jackson and starring Peter Brickmanis and Anne Dansereau.
• Rude Boy, a punk rock drama featuring The Clash.
• Breaking Glass, a musical drama starring Hazel O'Connor and directed by Brian Gibson.
• Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, two horror satires directed by Paul Morrissey and initially presented by Andy Warhol.