TV Party 18 years old

The TV show that's a party!

From 1978 to 1982, Glenn O'Brien hosted a New York city public access cable TV show called TV Party. Co-hosted by Chris Stein, from Blondie, and directed by filmmaker Amos Poe, the hour long show took television where it had never gone before: to the edge of civility and "sub-realism" as Glenn would put it. Walter Steding and his TV Party "Orchestra" provided a musical accompaniment to the madness at hand, and many artists and musicians, from The Clash, Nile Rodgers, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Bryne and Arto Lindsey were regular guests. It was the cocktail party that could be a political party. With 80 hours of disintegrating 3/4 inch videotape as a starting point, we tracked down the trend setting participants still living today and found out what they remember of the period and how the show influenced their lives. This, combined with clips from the orginal show, became the documentary "TV Party.

Credits

TV Party Cast

Name Character
David Bowie He was 58, 69 years old when he died as Himself
Debbie Harry She was 60, now 78 years old as Herself
John Lurie He was 52, now 71 years old as Himself
Amos Poe He was 54, now 73 years old as Himself
Clem Burke He was 49, now 68 years old as Himself
Andy Warhol He was 76, 58 years old when he died as Himself (archive footage)
Cookie Mueller She was 56, 40 years old when she died as Herself
Jean-Michel Basquiat He was 44, 27 years old when he died as Himself (archive footage)
Fab 5 Freddy as Himself
David Byrne He was 53, now 71 years old as Himself
Michael Holman as Himself
Robert Fripp He was 59, now 77 years old as Himself
George Clinton He was 64, now 82 years old as Himself

TV Party Crew

Name Department
Danny Vinik as Director. Directing
Danny Vinik as Writer. Writing
TV Party poster
TV Party (18 years)

The TV show that's a party!

  • Release day: Wednesday, August 03, 2005
  • Runtime: 91 minutes