TV
OR NOT TV -
This 1973 effort
by Firesign members Proctor and Bergman is entertaining, if occasionally
uneven. It's a science fiction story, which showcases a day's (or
as they say: "Charged Viewing Cylcle's") worth of programming
on a local cable TV station, set sometime in the near-future (as
seen from 1973 that is). The album shows some of the forward-thinking
that Firesign had demonstrated on previous albums. On TV or not
TV, they predict pay-per-view, the rise of local cable TV stations
and interactive computerized TV show hosts. To some extent, it also
predicts hacking, as a group of kids keep trying to jam the station's
broadcast.
The opening segments are my favorite parts of the album. To start
the album, two kids steal a parent's credit card and use it to pay
for access for a Charged Viewing Cycle of Channel 85. The rest of
the album is the broadcast of Channel 85. After we meet the two
owner/operators of the station, a program is aired. It's my favorite
segment of the album - a take off on PBS- style docu-dramas, it's
a twisted retelling of the Julius Caesar story. "The Declining
Fall of the Roaming Umpire" tells of Flattus and Bruto's meeting
and subsequent discussions of a strange dream. This dream is of
a baseball game, but in it, they intrepret the crowd's call to kill
the umpire a message for them to go and "dump the Ump"
(kill the Umperor.)
>From there, the album is somtimes funny, sometimes only so-so.
There are a few amusing fake advertisements, Public Service ads
and the like - (one of which introduces a radical currency devaluation
- what was 5 is now 2, what was 2 is one, what was one is nothing).
The weakest part of the LP is a talk show with a holographic ever-morphing
hostess. Other than being inventive, its only mildly entertaining
- the "musical guests" on this talk show just aren't very
interesting to me ... they almost seem like filler material. Later,
there is a public service ad that is an homage of sorts to the Isaac
Asimov ROBOT stories, exploring the "Robot's Rules of Order"
in more depth than they had been on the BOZOS LP. Towards the end
of the album, another funny segment of the "Declining Fall
of the Roaming Umpire" is aired, although not quite as good
as the earlier one. It deals with the actual assination of Ceasar.
Throughout the album, the group of young hackers keep breaking in,
activating an automated anti-pirating program. The efforts of the
hackers get more and more successful throught the album, until they
finally mess up the Emergency Self Control of the station. The album
ends with the resolution of this hacker problem. Then the Viewing
Cycle is over, and the credit card scanner starts saying "Insert
here" for you to enter your card and purchase another Cycle.
I think its worth noting that for once, a Firesign related effort
regarding TV did not use channel switching as the catalyst for changing
the storyline. This time it's just one channel and its' own programs
and programming difficulties. For the most part, it's an entertaining
and inventive effort. It has a little bit more depth to it than
David Ossman's HOW TIME FILES album did, but its not as good as
Phil Austin's ROLLER MAIDENS album. (How it compares to the other
P+B efforts I cannot say.... I am still looking for copies of them.)
Andy Thompson |
