another find during my vacay in new york last weekend was a bootleg DVD copy of the 1976 ABC "paul lynde halloween special"...i'm a huge fan of kitschy '70s TV variety specials ("star wars holiday special", anyone?), so finding this was a treat. guest stars are the usual suspects: florence henderson, tim conway (who looks trapped in hell throughout), donny & marie, the chick who played pinky tuscadero on "happy days", billy barty, witchie poo, and margaret hamilton in full wicked witch regalia.

the shocker is that KISS also appears on the show and does not one, not two...but THREE songs! a quick google on this show turned up the factoid that this special is in popular circulation with KISS fans...("dude, you've got the PAUL LYNDE tape??? HARDCORE!!!" )

the whole special is jawdroppingly bad and the quality of the 1,000th generation transfer is hideous, but still and all it's a treat and a treasure if ya love camp. and i was happy to see that the friendly bootleggers even tacked on an E! special on paul lynde and the episode of "biography" about him (in which they talked to a friend of mine from college who's been talking about writing a book about paul lynde - ).

does anyone remember seeing this horrendous tricky treat back in the day?

Anxiety said:

Anx you know as a massive Kiss fan as soon as I saw the name of your thread I just HAD to open it

haven't seen it, but it sounds great. i did see the Star Wars special back when it originally aired. I remember a whole buncha Wookies!!!

the performance of "beth" is really cool, actually.

i'm jealous...KISS and Paul on the same stage at the same time.

Sure beats the PeeWee X-Mas special I'm sure. Or Battle of the Network stars.

superspaceboy said:

hey, now - the pee wee christmas special kicked ass. it had grace jones popping out of a crate and singing "little drummer boy", and it also involved little richard and the del rubio triplets. plus there was a scene where he ignored oprah.

Anxiety said:

pee wee ignored Oprah? or Little Richard did? I've heard that people have been put to death for that.

madartista said:

no, pee wee taught little richard how to ice skate - pee wee ignored oprah. she wouldn't stop gabbing on his video-phone so he propped up a pee-wee doll and snuck out of his phone booth.

Anxiety said:

Back in the Box you go!

Anxiety said:

didn't check back a few times and she was STILL talking?

UGH...we need Pee Wee on DVD!

i'd rather have grace jones in a crate anyday than my andy warhol doll. it would be a hard choice, but still.

Anxiety said:

don't have to tell me twice

Natisse said:

so you have the special too, then?

the ironic thing is, when i found this on DVD, i was all excited to get it because i'm a fan of paul lynde.

bootleg! lol.

starkitty said:

paul lynde bootleg!

Anxiety said:

It's kinda considered a "Holy grail" among Kiss fans to get a hold of...alas no I haven't seen it

OMG iv'e seen it... when it was on yes.... LOL jeez u brought a memory back

I just downloaded the KISS clips yesterday. Nice!

Now I've got to see it!