Martha Quinn and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick host Basement Tapes (1986)

Описание: Martha Quinn and Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen host episode 35 of "Basement Tapes," which aired on a network that recently broadcast something called the Video Music Awards... which is weird, because they haven't actually broadcast anything video music-related since 2004. Airing on January 12, 1986, this was the last semi-finals show of Season 5, and in fact the last semi-finals show altogether, as the program was retooled from a 2-round contest to a 1-round contest after this. It was also the last to feature a celebrity guest co-host -- Martha had them for all 12 semi-finals during Seasons 4 and 5 -- as the network stopped spending money on the program. This episode was previously uploaded by the official Cheap Trick channel in a heavily-edited form. It was later blocked, and has never been unblocked, nor have they ever reuploaded it. I restored 20 minutes of deleted footage, but please note that 20 minutes are still missing. Fortunately, most of that are the commercials and the major label clips that aired while the phone lines were open. Far more damaging is that I don't have one of the videos that competed and there were all kinds of idiotic cuts in the last 20 minutes, rendering the whole contest incomprehensible, and I don't have that footage either. Through the magic of my terrible Photoshop skills, you can at least know how the contest ended.

Segment 1 - Martha and Rick introduce The Silent Types - "I Can Live with That." No mention of the fact that the directors also did Joy Rose - "In and Out of Love Affairs," the winner for the month of September, 1984, making one of Rick's comments inane. Then it's Between the Sheets - "Live Like That," the second-ever Basement Tape from London, England, as Rick tells us. Not mentioned is that Richard Hall - "Be What You Are" was the first-ever 2 months earlier.

Segment 2 - The prior semi-finals winners -- or "winners" in Bootcamp's case -- are recapped. Soma Holiday - "Art Dimension" and Beat-Man - "Moto-Psycho" -- note showrunner Brian Diamond's consistently-excellent spelling -- are the 2 videos shown. The guy who doodled Soma Holiday's ugly clip on the Vectrex video game system called the song "Human Vectors" for some reason. Because the band apparently weren't involved with its production or submission, the song was called that on the air -- even though that's not what the song is called. (Talk about arrogance.) I do not have the Beat-Man clip, thus it remains omitted. Too bad. It had a sweet Ducati.

Segment 3 - Rick shows us the celebrity contingent of the judging panel, tasked with whittling down the 12 videos the network gave them to the 6 that make it to air. Most notable is Todd Rundgren, who was Martha's celebrity guest co-host on the January, 1985 episode. Then it's off to Rick's basement for some surprise guests, the rest of Cheap Trick, Robin Zander, Jon Brant and Bun E. Carlos for an impromptu jam session. The 2 competitors in the please-vote-for-this segment of the show are The El Caminos - "Do the El Camino" and The Wind - "Good News, Bad News." The El Caminos, who put this song to record in a different recording under their other bandname, The Surf Piranhas, stars somebody you might recognize: Eva LaRue. Back then you probably only recognized her if you watched "Star Search." She won 2 preliminary rounds -- and still missed semi-finals.

Segment 4 - The phone lines are open and Martha and Rick give us the phone numbers, along with a recap of the 6 videos in the running.

Segment 5 - After Cheap Trick's "Tonight It's You" (also known as the one single they put out between 1982 and 1988 that didn't bomb miserably), we would have seen the first of the Current Standings. Unfortunately, they were removed from the tape and I am not able to restore them with what I have. The phone numbers and recaps are replayed.

Segment 6 - More Current Standings. Heart's "What About Love" was the next major-label clip to fill time. Rick shows off his guitars. Another look at the phone numbers.

Segment 7 - In the live portion of the show that the Cheap Trick channel completely removed 4 reasons unknown (har har), an announcement of the phone lines closing is made. Bun E. has disappeared. (He must have a fear of live TV.) Rick then announces the winner that the home audience selected. Da da da da. It's The Silent Types. Congrats. They're off to finals next month. Their video rolls again for their victory lap. The Final Standings would have been seen here. The Wind finished 2nd by a hair. (If you watched that network in '86, you probably would have assumed they won, since they got rotation anyway... and seemingly more than The Silent Types got.) Martha tells us they're going to start off a new season after finals. Spoiler alert: they didn't. "Basement Tapes" went on a long hiatus afterwards. Roll end credits.

Thanks for the memories, everybody. If you have a complete tape of this broadcast with the missing pieces, remember, sharing is caring.