TV Party: Downtown New York Scenes Live on Your TV Screen

Abstract

For those that felt like the world situation was getting increasingly hopeless, throwing a party seemed the appropriate response. It was so appropriate, in fact, that it turned into a four-year-long binge that a lot of people attended: punk rockers, hip hoppers, new wavers, performance artists, fashion designers and drag queens. -Steven Hager, Art After Midnight: The East Village Scene 1986(1) Well now you see what you wanna be Just have your party on TV -Blondie, "Rapture," 1981Leave it to the outrageous and legendary George Clinton of P-Funk to deliver the most lyrically fitting description of Glenn O'Brien's TV Party as a special guest on the live public access show. When host Glenn O'Brien asks why he chose to appear on a "moronic show like this" as opposed to "big network shows," Clinton quips, "this is my idea of TV, guerrilla TV. You know . . . anarchy Howdy Doody." 1 Clinton is seated next to various personalities representing the music and nightclub scenes of Downtown New York, including Debbie Harry, platinum knockout singer for the new wave sensation, Blondie; Tina Lhotsky, party queen of the punkdisco, the Mudd Club; and August Darnell, zoot-suited frontman of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Throughout the twenty minute roundtable-style interview, the group also answers live calls from cable viewers and winds up defending rap, declaring the Grateful Dead "passé," and discussing reggae, ska, side-projects, and upcoming performance dates or the lack thereof. To wrap the show, the chat session mutates into a dance party where the studio audience rushes in to groove to the electronic musings of the TV Party Orchestra. With Clinton's clever reference to the children's variety show Howdy Doody , TV Party reimagines the collective popular C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.