Happy New Year from TFTP: Television from the Past!

Posted to YouTube by user 'The Museum of Classic Chicago Television'
Length - 1:50

Television from the Past wishes you a very Happy New Year, as we begin the year 2018!

For your classic TV enjoyment in kicking off the New Year, here's a short flow clip from ON-TV, a subscription television service that lasted for several years in the late-1970s and early-1980s. There were a number of such over-the-air pay-TV services in this era, after HBO and Showtime had launched and cable TV in general was growing quickly, but before these other, more familiar services had really entrenched themselves in American homes.

The clip above--from New Year's Day 1982--begins with the last few seconds of the end credits of the concert film "No One Gets Out of Here Alive" with The Doors. This is followed by a "Happy New Year" network ID for ON-TV and the opening bumper for an "ON-TV Subscription Television Special". The special, the first minute or so of which follows, is the legendary "Elephant Parts" by Monkees member Michael Nesmith. This hour-long program was a pioneering work of music video, cited as one of the influences on MTV when it premiered the previous year and winner of the first-ever Grammy for music video.