zbillster

A very lovely tribute to an icon in (dare I say it?) mid-century graphic design. I could certainly do without Paula Scher spitting out her venom in her segments. (OK, we get it ... photos of nude women = objectification = absolute evil ... can we move on now?) Wonderful period photos of the faces of famous illustrators I admired in Communications Arts and periodicals. Very nostalgic look at pre-digital graphic design. Fun fact: The only time my mother caught me with my brother's collection of Playboy magazines was while I was reading one of the articles. But then the tables were turned ... I caught her looking too.

This is one of those 1985 PBS Great Performances shows which are unobtainium on commercially available medium ... a fate with many public television broadcasts. I picked this up over the airwaves from the local PBS station in Dallas, Texas, on my first $200 off-brand mono VCR via a pair of Radio Shack rabbit ears recorded at SLP ... so not the best capture. But I still enjoy watching this version over all others, especially the awful 2002 Miramax version. British TV fans may recognize the actress playing Gwendolyn as musician Nick Drake's brother and one of the purple-wigged Moonbase controllers from the 1970 series UFO. Quite a different period performance here. There is an awful transfer of this performance currently on YouTube broken into two parts. I'll continue to watch my own VHS copy till it finally self-destructs. I've read on the British Film Institute that this performance was recorded live in 1982.

I first saw this cultural time capsule while working as a movie usher when it first came out in 1981 ... and a few dozen times since then on fuzzy, edited TV broadcasts and VHS. Was finally excited to see it again in high resolution widescreen on Amazon Prime last night ... check it out while it's up! I just love the song and performance of "Dangerous Strangers" by Deborah Van Valkenburgh.