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From: kurtzman@uscvax.UUCP (Stephen Kurtzman)
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: Re: TV Trivia Question - Need Answer
Message-ID: <30@uscvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 14:07:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: uscvax.30
Posted: Wed Oct  2 14:07:21 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 03:45:02 EDT
References: <316@cylixd.UUCP> <1551@shark.UUCP>
Reply-To: kurtzman@usc-cse.UUCP (Stephen Kurtzman)
Organization: CS&CE Depts, U.S.C., Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 49
Summary: 

In article <1551@shark.UUCP> davew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams) writes:
>In article <316@cylixd.UUCP> dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) writes:
>>(If you are not in an area where you can watch American TV, just
>>skip this article. Our system allows posting only to the world.
>>Accept my apologies for our dinky system.)
>>
>>There is a question that came to my mind a few months ago that is
>>keeping me awake at nights.
>>
>>"What was the name of this show?"
>>(1) It debuted in the 1969 or 1970 season.
>>(2) It was meant to be a copy of Laugh-in.
>>(3) I believe it was on ABC. It was definitely on some other network
>>	than the one Laugh-in was on.
>>(4) It was so offensive to everyone's intelligence that it was taken
>>	off the air after one episode, and never again appeared
>>	on TV to my knowledge.
>>(5) When ABC aired the first episode, their phone lines were jammed
>>	from outraged callers.
>>(6) It is, to my knowledge, the only TV series to last only 1 episode.
>>(7) One or more of the above clues may be false, due to my faulty memory.
>>
>>I don't recall watching the first episode of this series. Does anyone
>>out there recall what this program was, and did anybody watch it?
>
>
>The name of the program was "Turn On". It featured a bunch of unknowns
>with a weekly guest star. The guest on the first and only show was
>Tim Conway. The format of the show was somewhat similar to Laugh In,
>but revovled around a futuristic "control room" run by people dressed
>somewhat like Buck Rogers. They turned knobs and pulled levers as if
>controlling the performers. The skits would appear on video screens in the
>control room and a camera would zoom in on the images. They also had a
>Word of the Week. I forget what it was, but it was something like
>"luck". Most of the skits revolved about this word. This show was a
>poor imitation of Laugh In and was about the longest half-hour in television.
>Several affiliates refused to air the program after the first week and 
>this is what killed it. The show was produced by some of the same people
>who did LI, but it lacked the writing talent, the fresh talented performers
>or the spontaneity of LI.
>-- 

As I recall there was one skit that was considered so offensive that
I heard some hoopla about it. It concerned the Paris peace talks (remember
Vietnam). Apparently the talks were stalled while they tried to figure
out how people would be seated during the talks. Turn-on suggested a
swastika shaped table. It seems odd to think back and remember how
outraged people were about this. It seemed like over-reaction to a
poor-taste joke.