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Please note this screening is hosted by Vidiots at the Eagle Theatre.
From Vidiots: This is a free event. Please note that admission for this screening is first-come-first-served, and your RSVP does not guarantee entry. As we are hoping to accommodate as many people as possible, all free screenings are overbooked to account for no-shows. We recommend an early to on-time arrival, we may not be able to accommodate late entries. Doors will open at 6 p.m., screening at 7 p.m.
Created and executive produced by Mark Frost and David Lynch, the surrealist sitcom On the Air (1992) is perhaps best described as a brilliantly eccentric cousin to its slightly older relative, the beloved landmark series Twin Peaks (1990–91, 2017). Seemingly born from a hidden comedic alcove of Peaks’ “Red Room,” the genre-melting On the Air is much more of a joyfully Ernie Kovacs-inspired fever dream than a traditional network situation comedy. Set in 1957, On the Air explores backstage dysfunction at the fictional Lester Guy Show, a variety program that inevitably goes off the rails as soon as it beams out live to television land. Imbued with a host of indelible Lynchian touches, from the conjoined Hurry Up twins to Blinky Watts, a soundman who sees “25.62% times” more than the average person, the unorthodox series plays as an absurdist love letter to the golden age of television, with a hint of barbed satire aimed at contemporary network TV. The result is an artful, alternate universe blend of Dada and slapstick never before (or since) presented on television. Bounced without fanfare from the airwaves by ABC after only three of its seven produced episodes aired, the entire series later enjoyed broadcast abroad, with the only official home video availability remaining a Japanese laserdisc.
Join the UCLA Film & Television Archive and Vidiots for an encore tribute to maestro David Lynch as we present all seven episodes of the underseen, cult-classic television series On the Air — from the superb pilot co-written by David Lynch and Mark Frost and directed by Lynch to the indescribable series finale co-written by Lynch.
On the Air
U.S., 1992
Complete series: episodes 1–7!
DCP, color, approx. 165 min. ABC. Production: Lynch-Frost Productions. Creators/Executive Producers: Mark Frost, David Lynch. With: Ian Buchanan, Nancye Ferguson, Marla Rubinoff, Miguel Ferrer, David L. Lander. Special thanks to Graham Marshall.
