Remember back in the day when the Saturday late night line-up was great? You could sit up all night and watch TV that had lots of great music and comedy. This is what used to come on in my area back in the day all on the same channel:

10:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.: Dance Fever
11:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.: Soul Train
12:00 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.: Saturday Night Live
1:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m. : Sha Na Na
2:00 a.m. - 2:30 a.m. : Madame
2:30 a.m. - 3:00 a.m. : Benny Hill

Then, after a few years, the only ones that remained were "Soul Train" and "Saturday Night Live", but "Night Tracks" was on the air by then and I would switch the channel after these two shows went off.

What do you guys remember about your Saturday late night line up?
[Edited 3/28/05 22:12pm]

I remember our local weathermen hosted a video show after SNL in the early 809's to try, in vain, to compete with MTV. But for a kid in junior high without cable, it was required watching.

We had cable back then but MTV and BET were pay channels. That's what made "Night Tracks" on WTBS so great.

New Yorkers know about a guy called Ralph McDaniel’s who hosted a show called video music box. that was the only way you were gonna see LL or Run Dmc on free TV (plus they showed a lot of P and MJ). His show came on every day after school, but reaired at night on Saturdays.

vainandy said:

Where I lived, the line up used to be like this

11:30pm-1:00a.m. : SNL

1:00a.m.-2:00a.m. : Showtime At The Apollo

2:00a.m.-3:00a.m. : Soul Train

3:00a.m.-4:00a.m. : Uptown Comedy Club

Man, this brings back so many memories. I remember Night Tracks on TBS, Night Flight and Radio 1990 (the weekday afternoon video show) on USA Network, Friday Night Videos on NBC, Solid Gold, Dance Party USA (which had a young teen dancer named Kelly Ripa). I thought that Night Tracks was comparable if not superior to MTV in the music selection they had on at that time. I remember when TBS tried their own music video channel at the time, but it was pulled off the air after only a few months. I guess it was way ahead of its time.

One of my other favorite shows was the original Video Soul on BET with Donnie Simpson and Video Vibrations. This was when they played really good R&B and hip-hop and not the stuff they have on now. They played a lot of hit songs that MTV would not play, even though many of the songs were in the Billboard top ten. These days, I have to watch Classic Soul on VH1 Classic in order to see them again.

Also, one of the local stations in Chicago which started in the mid 1980's used to play a lot of music videos in order to fill airtime. This was well before it became a UPN affiliate and just before they could afford relatively high-budget syndicated shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation. I remember one time when they sponsored a Madonna look-alike contest, and for two hours straight without commericals, they played the screen tests of all the Madonna wannabes. It was wild.

I definately remember the days when the local television stations in my area would do creative things to fill air time. Sadly, those days are gone. Now, if they have dead time, they will put on those damn infomercials.

vainandy said:

Madame? Like this thing....that was a late night show? Holy crap!

Yeah, she had her own show. The blonde chick with the big boobs from "BJ and the Bear" was on there and played her neice.

That old puppet used to love to have sex. She could talk some shit too. She was hilarious.

Any L.A. people remember these?I'm not sure of the time slots of these shows but this is what I remember:

Solid Gold
Night Flight
Goodnight L.A.-I'd stay up late for this just to watch the full version of Prince's "Automatic" video.
Benny Hill
Elvira-Mistress of the Dark
New Wave Theatre
Puttin' on The Hitz-I remember this blonde haired kid came on this show & lyp synched a perfect rendition of "Kiss"

Yea "Hot Trax" was the shit. Remember Carlos? Dude would always have a guest that would help him introduce the tracks. I remember Whitney Houston and Run-DMC to name a couple.

What about Odyssey. It was an overnight video show that would come on around 2am. I don't think it lasted more than a year or two. Odyssey makes me think of Rockwell and Paul Hardcastle lol They would run those cats videos every night.
[Edited 3/29/05 13:24pm]

PhilG said:

Elivira, the show? I think I remember her introducing movies on TV and her movie, which I saw years later, was funny as hell! Just don't have campy shit like that anymore, sadly...

VinnyM27 said:

I always thought Elvira kinda had it goin' on . . .

namepeace said:

She did...I'm realized that she was a woman cause anyone that campy is usually a man in drag!