Al TV
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Al TV is a show created by singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic. The premise of the show is that Yankovic uses his private satellite transmitter to commandeer the airwaves of a music video station in order to show the videos that he wants to watch. The program is primarily composed of Al's music videos of his own work consisting of Al's song parodies and cover polkas. The polka cover song videos merely edit together the videos from the original artists with Al's music and singing synchronized to the video segments. Al occasionally uses this tactic for certain song parodies for which no video was made. [1] He also holds fake interviews with celebrities, comments on the latest music news, takes letters from fans, or shares recipes, all with a humorous twist. A similar show has been broadcast in Canada, under the name Al Music.
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[edit] Al TV episodes
The following is a comprehensive list of his Al TV specials to date, with the album being promoted, original air date, and program length. The first eight specials were broadcast on MTV. The ninth and tenth specials were broadcast on VH1:
- Al TV #1 - In 3-D; April 1, 1984; four hours
- Al TV #2 - In 3-D; September 3, 1984; four hours
- Al TV #3 - Dare to Be Stupid; July 7, 1985; four hours
- Al TV #4 - Polka Party!; February 3, 1987; two hours
- Al TV #5 - Even Worse; April 20, 1988; two hours
- Al TV #6 - Off the Deep End; April 26, 1992; three hours, plus one hour sneak peek
- Al TV #7 - Bad Hair Day; May 23, 1996; two hours
- Al TV #8 - Running with Scissors; December 4, 1999; two hours
- Al TV #9 - Poodle Hat; June 17, 2003; one hour
- Al TV #10 - Straight Outta Lynwood; December 15, 2006; one hour
[edit] Al Music episodes
The following is a comprehensive list of his Al Music specials to date, with the album being promoted, original air date, and length. All specials have been broadcast on MuchMusic:
- Al Music #1 - Off the Deep End; August 14, 1993; two hours
- Al Music #2 - Alapalooza; Possibly December 11,1993, two hours
- Al Music #3 - Bad Hair Day; May 15, 1996; two hours, thirty minutes
Due to disagreements with MuchMusic (they didn't want him to do fake interviews or music video narrations without the artists written consent), Al was not able to produce an Al Music special for Running with Scissors. Yet, a music video compilation called The Weird Al Yankovic Video Collection aired instead. He has not made another Al Music since 1996.
[edit] Fake interviews
One of the highlights of the show is the fake celebrity interviews. Yankovic takes footage from old interviews and edits it such that he appears to be interviewing the celebrity. The questions and answers are often of a silly nature, or they often mock his interviewees. The following is a comprehensive list of his fake interviews to date:
Al TV #1
Al TV #2
Al TV #3
- Madonna (first interview), Paul McCartney (first interview)
Al TV #4
Al TV #5
Al TV #6
- Paula Abdul, Def Leppard, George Harrison, Paul McCartney (first interview), Vince Neil, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty
Al Music #1
- Paula Abdul, Def Leppard, Paul McCartney (first interview), Vince Neil, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty
Al Music #2
- James Brown, George Harrison, Madonna (first interview), Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Sting
Al Music #3
- Mariah Carey, Mick Jagger, Billy Joel, Madonna (second interview), Paul McCartney (second interview), Robert Plant, Keith Richards
Al TV #7
- None
Al TV #8
Al TV #9
Al TV #10
[edit] Trivia
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- A 10 minute version of Weird Al's 1985 mockumentary The Compleat Al aired during Al TV #6. The Compleat Al also showed various clips from the first three AL-TV's.
- There was not an AL-TV special produced for Al's 1993 album "Alapalooza". Yet, an "AL Music" special was produced to promote the album in Canada during December of 1993.
- The original specials were very nearly not aired due to legal issues involving the fake interviews and use of others' music videos. This is why there were no more AL Music specials after 1996 and why AL-TV #7 had no interviews and very few videos by other artists. This may be the cause of the latest special's small number of interviews. It's also been stated that a future release of specials on DVD is very unlikely due to the legal issues.
- The Michael Stipe interview from AL-TV #8 included a bit where Al suggests a collaboration, telling Stipe to come up with lyrics and he'd put it to music. The interview then cut to a clip of Stipe saying, "We all have cell phones, so come on, let's get real." Al heralds these lyrics as brilliant and sings a song to them. This clip is shown in the 2007 Straight Outta Lynwood tour, and at the start of the encore, Al and his band perform the song, prompting the audience members to wave their cell phones in the air.
- AL-TV #6 did an hour sneak peek as to let you know what's to come.
- There was no AL-TV produced to promote UHF - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff. However, MTV did have Al produce a special for a week to promote the movie called "The Big Al Show".
[edit] References
- ^ "Weird Al" Yankovic (February 1999). "Weird Al" Yankovic : The Ask Al Archive. Retrieved on 2007-01-21.
