The Uncle Floyd Show

We recorded the Uncle Floyd show back in 82-83. People say you can't remember things when you are 3 years old. But I remember my father recording this show on WGBO channel 66 in Chicago. When I watch the show now, I feel like I am 3 or 4 years old again. It was a funny show with all the crazy skits all played by Floyd Vivino. Here are some of the skits in case you don't remember them. Ken doo man, The Grouch, Ricardo the lover man that couldn't get the right record for his show. Coffee clutch classics. Alfred Hitchcock. The guy that sang I'm walking my dog near the curb. And many more. I loved Oogie. He was so funny. What also was neat was when he recorded the show he left the commercials run on some commercial breaks and it's weird seeing all the old commercials of 82-83 with the chefs knife and advertising an old college BB game I think it was North Carolina and Georgetown. I hope they release Uncle Floyd on DVD someday because that would be the prize of my collection.

Someone told me about this TV show that very underground that was being shown on a UHF station. My friend told me that there were cool bands to see and that it was really a show for adults because of the many dirty and off the cuff jokes that were made. Needless to say, I saw the show and was hooked on it. Part of the show always seem to have Uncle Floyd singing and playing the piano to some song. I used to love it when Uncle Floyd would sing "Pennies from Heaven" and the cast would throw real pennies at him and he would duck while singing. Some of the skits were really off the wall. I remember the skit "The Dull Family", where the cast would dress up as red necks and debate if they should turn on the TV. Just my two cents here, I think that the fascination that so many people had with this show was the bad production. The show in the beginning of it's run had only one camera and it was not uncommon to have something fall down or apart while the cast was doing a skit. As teenagers we would just start laughing at things like that. The fact that it was a NJ show was important as well. Keep in mind that NJ has always had an identity crisis. In northern NJ, we watch New York stations because New York City is not far away and it's news media has always been criticized for not reporting enough on NJ. So to watch a home grown TV show like Uncle Floyd seem to be a special treat. It was like your own underground TV program that you could watch that promoted and made fun of New Jersey. I miss you Uncle Floyd.

The longest running local show in New Jersey history, Uncle Floyd was a hilarious local New Jersey TV show that aired most of the 1970s. It's a spoof of 1950s variety shows and their awful vaudeville humor, with a cast of charming burnout dudes acting as the guests, dressed in costumes they look like they brought from home. The memorable howling "laugh track" is courtesy of whatever rowdy cast members are off camera, and the whole show was filmed in front of a cardboard-brown wall with viewer-drawn pictures tacked to it. Also, crummy, scary puppets such as "Cuppy," a monstrous dadaist creation in a Yankees nightshirt with a cup for a head are frequent guests. The awe-inspiring chutzpah of Floyd Vivino was the driving force of this madness. The Ramones were big fans. Conan O'Brien has said this was one of his favorite shows, and if you like the demented skits on Conan, Uncle Floyd is right up your alley. Floyd Vivino (Uncle Floyd) also plays a mean piano, and in September of 1999, he set the Guinness record for non-stop piano playing at 24 hours and 15 minutes.

As a teenager growing up in northern NJ in the 70s, The Uncle Floyd Show was THE thing. Always on at parties, or turned to in basements and bedrooms late at night while we were sneaking weed and beers. It was a ridiculous, serial comedy show with a zany cast of characters, led by Uncle Floyd Vivino - a really good pianist ("Where's Wild West City at??" - who remembers his bit part in this commercial except me??)

Anyway, for a while one of my friends attended college in Newark, and it was filmed not far from where he lived. We actually went and saw it taped a few times, a bunch of hammered college kids, drinking and laughing and cat-calling. It was huge.

Recently obtained a DVD compilation of the show from Vivino's website. It's just as goofy as ever - if not more so. It hasn't aged very well, but then, it was completely ridiculous and only appallingly funny back then. It's like watching some absurd, amateur variety show. Perfect, because that's exactly what it was - all inside jokes and home-town references. Being sober 21 years probably helps form my current impression. Twinkle-twinkle Uncle Floyd.

Cool regional show.

This show started on a UHF channel back in the 70's and was so bad it was good. If you like Mystery Science Theater without the movies, or Saturday night live without the fractional effort at professionalism,and the haphazard style of The Soup on E!, you will love Uncle Floyed. It was a parody of children's shows, like Sesmae street and Magic Garden which were still relatively new at the time. Floyd Vivino hosted using colorful characters and puppets. The audience was always supposed to be adults. It took on cult attraction as people waited for Looney Skiproony and BabaBooy. It is a slice of life from a time now gone. It still takes me back to some happy memories. I truly wonder if anyone born in the last 20 years can appreciate it.