User reviews

You know what they say about the 70's..if you can remember them you weren't there. One of the few things I do remember about the 70's was the very first hippie and hip social satire as seen from a totally 'underground'or counter-culture perspective..The Groove Tube. If the humor seems faded or witless now to some viewers it can only be because a lot has happened in the last 30 years and the comedy isn't 'fresh' anymore..but hey! When this movie came out it was a first..and some of these skits were being done for the very first time...at a time when Nixon was in office, the Vietnam war was raging, the sexual revolution was in full swing..and J.Edgar Hoover was still in charge of the FBI. This is a film made before Watergate broke and as such it was one of the first to take a big swipe at the establishment..to make fun of it and the hippies at the same time. And frankly, some skits are still dead funny. If you liked Cheech and Chong's "Up In Smoke"..you will LOVE this film.

If you want to know what the 70's were really like..check out the Groove Tube.. if you liked the Oscar winning "Network" from about the same year and thought it was right on the mark in its savage look at TV, you will dig the Groove Tube..which picks up on the theme but plays from the angle of the viewers...the young viewers who were turning off the TV in favor of other entertainments.... We had been raised on Ozzie & Harriet "Leave It to Beaver", Father Knows Best, My Three Sons..Happy Days...so imagine our glee when those of us who were experimenting with the new life-styles got to see a send up of the box as seen from our perspective! The commercials by the Uranus corporation alone are priceless.."Good things come from Uranus"....and the sudden break from straight film into Fritz the Cat-style animation when the hippies eat the weed is still one of the best segues in and out of sanity i have ever seen on film.

If you liked the Kentucky Fried Movie, you will LOVE this film. And if you ever wondered why your weird uncle Harold still gets a wicked gleam in his eye when thinking back to his college days..this would be the perfect film to watch.

Take it for what it is..a memento of the times...and a sassy little film that will help all of us who did forget the 70's to remember them anew.

A series of shorts spoofing dumb TV shows, Groove Tube hits and misses a lot. Overall, I do really like this movie. Unfortunately, a couple of the segments are totally boring. A few really great clips make up for this. A predecessor to such classics like Kentucky Fried Movie.

Back in college "midnight movies" at the local theater primarily showed "Barbarella," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," or "The Groove Tube." "The Groove Tube" was the best of that era's skit movies that included "Dynamite Chicken," "The Boob Tube," and even lesser known attempts at showcasing underground comedy troupes like Second City and The Groundlings. The original version was rated X and featured full frontal male and female nudity. I understand that later versions were edited for an R-rating but perhaps with time the film is back together. At the time it seemed raunchy, dirty, gross, underground, and subversive, but with twenty years of Saturday Night Live, Howard Stern, and films ranging from "Porky's" to "Something About Mary," it's more like 'Saturday Night Live, the Movie' (some skits are funny, most are not, nothing we haven't seen elsewhere.) The funniest and most original skit has to do with a children's show that features a man's private parts dressed up to resemble a puppet. I remember real children's show hosts standing on their head and putting a doll's outfit around their upside down mouth. I always thought that was sick. At the time I couldn't believe that "The Groove Tube" got an actor to do a routine with his exposed penis (this was 1975 after all) and it was pretty shocking...and hilarious. It is no longer shocking, but it is still pretty funny. I hope that they didn't edit that out of the recent showings of the movie. I also always wondered who's penis it was. I think it would have been more provocative if they would have had a female host ala Sheri Lewis or Fran of "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie" talk to the penis but like I said it was only 1975.

This movie predates SNL by a year. Does being first make you the best? No, obviously not. However, give credit where credit is due. Groove Tube was radical, obnoxious, annoying and hilarious in the 70s. If you're under 30, don't waste your time with this one. ***

The Groove Tube is a sketch comedy film produced,directed, starring, and written by long time TV writer and former child actor Ken Shapiro. The film is clearly a labor of love and to its credit has some entertaining skits. My personal favorite is excellent finale which is just the kind of scene/skit you don't see much anymore. The main problem is a lot of this is hit or miss, and the miss tends to drag while the hit tends to be in short shots. The cameos brought to the table are pretty funny for nostalgia reasons. People I knew growing up with different shows and films like Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer join in on the skits and when they are on screen they usually bring along a laugh. The main flaws is that it was written in a way that was guaranteed to not be timeless, its age shows and its just too choppy to be looked at in a serious light for having a cult status. Id personally just stick to Kentucky Fried Movie or History of the World: Part 2 if you are looking for films with this essence, but fans of Chevy, or Belzer, or even just kids of the 60's and 70's might find some fun to be had with it.

Remember when Robert Morse danced down the middle of a Manhattan street in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING weaving between the other pedestrians? There is a sequence in this movie that mimics that and it's about the most hysterical thing in the film. Another sequence that is pretty good and inventive is the WATERGATE hearings done to a jazzy accompanying score. The rest of the film is spotty at best: some parts you may find funny while others you may find fall flat like a pancake. It's one of those types of movies you really have to be in the mood to see. It's offensive, obnoxious, weird, strange, bizarre and totally off the wall. Maybe the screenwriter was stoned when he wrote the movie and maybe even when he directed it. Cameo appearances are made by Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer (both are fairly funny in their individual bits). I howled at Belzer's Puerto Rican accent! A spoof of everything TV, Laugh-In style but not as funny; would make a great double feature with the uncut version of FLESH GORDON.

Straight to the point: "The Groove Tube" is one of the most unfunny, unclever and downright horrible films ever made. This "comedy" is so void of anything remotely resembling a trace of wit that it's almost incomprehensible that it was even made. I said almost because there are fans of everything after all.

This film isn't even "good" bad or "enjoyable" bad. To put this movie on the same level of entertainment as "Plan 9" or "Robot Monster" would be a crime to those films. Films like that you can actually watch and get a kick out of. But this film is SO bad, SO poorly made, acted and scripted and SO incredible stale, that there just isn't even a trace of "camp" or "schlock" to be found.

Even though this was made before Saturday Night Live premiered, comparisons were probably inevitable. I'm not a big fan of SNL, but this film is worse than the worst SNL skit you can find. And man, that's BAD. Just to keep the men viewers from leaving, Shapiro throws in a pair of breasts every so often, but poorly-filmed breasts from 1974 aren't going to excite anyone these days. Truthfully this film is so poorly made and is such a sleep-inducing excursion, I doubt if they excited anyone in 1974 either.

A man named Ken Shapiro made this film. I swear to God, any ten-year old with a video camera could have made something funnier and more clever. It's just downright unreal - this is truly an unbelievable film. The "jokes" and "gags" are so infantile that even little boys who like to sneak dad's porno mags out at night won't laugh.

I will give this film one thing - the very last sequence, the "dancing man" sequence, where a guy (Shapiro) on the streets of NYC dances to a tune, is easily the best thing in this horrible film. Not that the "dancing man" sequence is that great either - it definitely has its moments of not being clever as Shapiro desperately tries to fill in the time for the entire song - but it actually was somewhat watchable. The part of this sequence where the cop starts dancing with the man is the one sole trace of cleverness in the entire film. No wonder Shapiro put this sequence last - again, while not so great itself, it easily beats anything else in this "film."

Otherwise, this film is such a complete piece of crap, it's unfathomable as to how an actual human being can be so downright cleverless. The name of this film should have been "Ken Shapiro's Craparama." It's amazing that this was made, but many truly talented filmmakers can't get in. However, I will say that I bet the geniuses at NYU would love this movie. Total garbage.

"The Groove Tube" was one of only two Ken Shapiro movies, the other one being the equally zany "Modern Problems". This one is just a full-scale parody of TV. Aside from Shapiro - who apparently didn't do anything after "Modern Problems" - the movie also stars Chevy Chase and Henry Winkler's cousin Richard Belzer. The three cast members (plus some other people in smaller roles) appear in various skits. One of the funniest ones features Chase in a Geritol-spoofing commercial, in which he's describing the medicine as his wife strips, and it ends with her humping him. There's also a pornographic news program, an irritating cooking show, and the epic tale of some drug dealers.

Anyway, the whole thing's just a real hoot. In my opinion, the three best TV-spoofing movies are this one, plus "Tunnelvision" and "Kentucky Fried Movie" (although I might also include "The Truman Show"). Really funny.

I wonder what ever did become of Ken Shapiro.

A collection of comedy sketches that perfectly capture a moment in time in the 70s counterculture movement (and that precedes "Saturday Night Live" by a year), with very sexually explicit and sometimes raunchy humour and one of the first roles (even if it's a supporting one) of Chevy Chase. As is the norm with these kind of films, not all the segments are equally funny.

Oh dear. While Chevy Chase and the gang at SNL set new highs with the sketch show format this fails miserably at every level. Fortunately Chevy is barely in this at all and can't be blamed for this utter tripe. It seriously is very, very bad. While meant to be a political comment on USA at the time of it's release (1974) it still remains neither funny or acutely observed. The sketches are all way too long and any satirical impact they may have had is lost as they're all drawn out to the point of complete boredom. This is credited as Chevy's movie debut and I'm pleased to say that everything he did after this bettered it. Avoid even if curious.

How can a movie that features the singing of Curtis Mayfield be bad? It can't! The Groove Tube is a series of scatological black-out sketches that makes fun of anything from 2001 to the olympics. The highs, (Koko the clown, the easy lube recipe) outnumber the lows (an all too long "The Dealers"), but even the lows are funny. Best of all is Ken Shapiro's manic dance down a busy Manhattan sidewalk.(That is Shapiro, not Nat King Cole singing Just You, Just Me). Definitely dated now, but at the time The Groove Tube was irreverent, bold, shameless and hysterically funny. Ken Shapiro made this minor cult hit, then 7 years later made the Christmas day opening bomb, Modern Problems (though I enjoyed it} and since then, unfortunately, nothing.(He could possibly be playing drums in a jazz group) The Groove Tube remains to me an unending burst of positive energy, a movie that 26 years after my initial viewing, still brings me real joy!

Saw this movie the first time while drunk at a motel in Canada. While flipping through channels came across the Easy Lube part. My friend kept flipping but I told him to go back. Something about the name easy lube just didn't sound right. Watched the rest of the movie it was pretty damn funny. Jotted down a couple of names from the credits and got home to look it up. Turned out to be Chevy Chase's first movie. I didn't remember him in it. Didn't remember much about it, so I rented it and gave it a second veiw. It's pretty funny and quite graphic. It's just like Kentucky Fried Movie except not as funny. Love the fingers, easy lube, and I'm da f**kin' president parts. Dealers skit is pretty cool too. I give it a 6.5 or 7 out of ten

If you liked "Kentucky Fried Movie" (predecessor to the Zucker's "Airplane") you need to see the original 'skit' movie. The 'Groove Tube' is the GREAT GRANDADDY of the skit movies'. Nothing but one comedy skit after another. Many are very funny, some are a little dated. But hey, if you don't like one, the next is sure to get you. I saw the thing when it first came out, and 25 years later, when we are working in the kitchen, I STILL tell my wife to "Take the cherry pits... and put them in the olives... and garnish with a small American Flag!" Crazy.

I read all the reviews here AFTER watching this piece of cinematic garbage and it took me at least 2 pages to find out that somebody else didn't think that this appallingly unfunny montage WASN'T the acme of humour in the 70s or indeed in any other era! If this isn't the least funny set of sketch *comedy* I've ever seen it'll do till it comes along. Half of the skits had already been done (and infinitely better) by acts such as Monty Python and Woody Allen... If I was to say that a nice piece of animation that lasts about 90 seconds is the highlight of this film it would still not get close to summing up just how mindless and drivel-ridden this waste of 75 minutes is. Seminal comedy? Only in the world where seminal really DOES mean semen. Scatological humour? Only in a world where scat IS actually feces. Precursor jokes? Only if by that we mean that this is a handbook of how NOT to do comedy. Tits and bums and the odd beaver. Nice...if you are a pubescent boy with at least one hand free and haven't found out that Playboy exists. Give it a break because it was the early 70s? No way. There had been sketch comedy going back at least ten years prior. The only way I could even forgive this film even being made is if it was at gunpoint. Retro? Hardly. Sketches about clowns subtly perverting children may be cutting edge in some circles (and it could actually have been funny) but it just comes off as really quite sad. What kept me going throughout the entire 75 minutes? Sheer belief that they may have saved a genuinely funny skit for the end. I gave the film a 1 because there was no lower score...and I can only recommend it to insomniacs or coma patients...or perhaps people suffering from lockjaw...their jaws would finally drop open in disbelief.

Rented it last night. The opening(2001) ran WAAAAAAAAAY too long. The hitchiker scene served no purpose. Some skits were just retarded. I knew beforehand, Chevy Chase was on for less than 2 minutes. No problem. Here are the best parts:

KOKO, URANUS, BABS COMMERCIAL, Curtis Mayfield song

Total: 7 minutes of good material out of a 75 minute movie

Everything else was either unfunny or stupid as hell.

Let me give you some advice: If you want a crude movie spoofing TV and movies, rent "Kentucky Fried Movie". If you want a less crude movie spoofing TV and movies, rent "AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON" or "UHF"

Otherwise, don't bother renting this movie. You'll save 2-3 dollars.

IMHO: Ken Shapiro's best movie is STILL "Modern Problems"

"The Groove Tube" was initially shown on video, in the first "video theaters" here in Boston. In one room, there were TV monitors on high stands, with old movie theater seats, in small groups facing the monitors. There were old refrigerators stocked with Pepsi, and baskets of York Peppermint Patties. In a second, smaller room, there were no seats, just large pillows. That was the 'smoking' room, i.e., people got high in there. That act only added to the hilarity of the video.

I was a 'frequent viewer'; the scenes I liked most and remember to this day are: Koko The Clown, The Kramp Family Kitchen (Kramp Easy-Lube Shortening), Safety Sam/ VD PSA, the Chevy Chase hitchhiker w/ nude runs through the woods, the Finger Ballet on what was eventually revealed to be the nude body of a woman. The last item was very reminiscent of the late, incredible Ernie Kovacs. Now, I've lost a lot of readers that are under 48 ("who is Ernie Kovacs??") but trust me, it's funny stuff.

One reason I was a 'frequent viewer' was that I, and my friends, would bring other "Groove Tube" virgins to see it. We would sit and slyly watch the faces of the 'virgins' as the "Safety Sam" PSA would play. As the camera slowly zooms in on "Sam", we would wait for that "OH!" of recognition on the 'virgin's' face. Each time was more hilarious than the last. And then that 'virgin' would then bring a friend to see the show, repeating what we had done. To get this joke, you must watch the video.

Yes, some of it is dated, but most plays, film, television, and now videos are. Just look at any video made in the 1980's.

I did see "The Groove Tube" in a theater as a film, a grainy transfer from the original video. It had been cut, and was missing some of the original high-point scenes.

The first "Saturday Night Live" show, featuring Chevy Chase, elicited instant remarks of, "that's the guy from "The Groove Tube" ", so it was a precursor for Chevy.

I can't look at a can of shortening without hearing the voice-over, "coat your hands with a generous amount of Kramp Easy-Lube shortening..." and thinking of the "Kramp Holiday Loaf" recipe. Always gets me laughing in the Baking Needs aisle in the grocery store.

The early 70's were parlous times; "The Groove Tube" was fresh, new, and really 'got' the humor of the times. It offered a 'hip generation', humor that wasn't available in any other format/medium. MJH

This movie has a great beginning and a great ending. Unfortunately, most of what comes in between is not great. Take the beginning. You have a young man chasing a young woman, both getting naked along the way. Of course, I could appreciate only the young woman. While she's bouncing all over the place, you have the great Curtis Mayfield song, "Move on up" to listen to. This was cool! After this scene, you get into all the satirical stuff which is supposed to be funny, but isn't. The worst segment has director Ken Shapiro and Richard Belzer as a couple of "Dealers." The ending has Shapiro running through some NYC streets, singing "Just you, just me." I loved the way he got everyone on the street involved. This was almost as cool as the opening scene, except it didn't have that nice girl taking her clothes off. Overall, this movie could have been much better. Much of this is raunchy, but raunchy is not the same as funny. So, why did I give 7 stars? Some good songs, and that nice girl who took all her clothes off!

This is obviously America's answer to England's Monty Python, but Oh... My... God... !

This is the most unfunny piece of crap that I have seen in a long time.

Monty Python was subtle and obtuse. This is just abrasive and desperate.

There are one or two semi amusing shots (like when they crank out the sandwiches during the fiscal discussion) but mostly it just reeked of desperation.

Most gags went on for wayyyyyyy too long only to deliver boring, mediocre punchlines, and more often than not with no discernible punchline whatsoever.

It honestly was a chore to watch this.

I was born in 1982. Most of my childhood memories are in the extreme late 80's and 90's. I watched the Groove Tube for the first time in 2001, when I was 19.

And I found it hilarious.

So for anybody who thinks that something "dated" can't be quite funny 30 years later....think again! It's funny even if you have no idea what the 70's were like, and the thought of bell-bottom pants make you cringe. Who can argue with a Bozo the Clown type who reads adult literature? There is plenty to laugh at. The scrotal puppet show at the end is the best.

A purportedly funny collection of skits spoofing television shows, commercials and anything involved on TV. This was the frontrunner of "Kentucky Fried Movie" and the Saturday Night Live TV show with one crucial difference--those two are funny. This isn't. I didn't laugh or even smile once during the entire movie. The jokes simply weren't funny--not even a little. I got what they were parodying but it didn't help. They also said you have to be a baby boomer or such to "get" it. Well I was born in 1962 so I definitely fall in that group...but I still hate it. The only good thing about it is it's short--only 73 minutes. A real must-miss here.