Wednesday, July 1, 2009

show: magnifico at midnight

So apparently there was a plan to release the complete run of this show, the sequel to Mr. Magnifico's Afternoon Distraction (which regularly ran on TODF), but the website appears to have vanished. I know I saw a couple episodes of this, but apparently there's a bunch more that never surfaced. Here's the promo blurb they wrote:

Mister Magnifico was considered by many the Orson Welles of childrens programming, most famous now for his highly syndicated Mister Magnifico's Afternoon Distraction, a mid-60s Tropicália precursor to Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Indeed, much of his work from his early radio shows to his somewhat occult Christmas specials, but legend has held that toward the end of his life, after years of misadventure, financial ruin and morphine addiction, Magnifico attempted one last program in 1977, intended to finally break into serious adult programming with Magnifico At Midnight. Reduced to public access, surrounded by hand-drawn sets and relics of his once glorious youth, Magnifico spoke at slurred length about how his puppets were actually golem, his connections to the CIA, lurid tales of his earlier affairs with unnamed Surrealist artists and doomed starlets, and always, endless lists of enemies who had conspired to destroy his empire. Between these rants would be an endless series of short films, cartoons and sketches never aired on Afternoon Distraction as well as how-to series on his current interests -- necromancy, psychic warfare and his own recordings of raunchy narcotic disco. Not simply a minor embarrassment, this series was a kind of unfolding of his entire career, demonstrating how once-innocent dramas were actually convoluted treatises on his personal system of Paracelsusian magic, and as such the shows were taped but never aired. Magnifico, unable to understand why no one ever saw his greatest work, finally disappeared into the jungle on New Year's Day 1978, never to be seen again. After years of searching, negotiations and occasionally life-threatening travails it is our great honor, and with the utmost respect, that we now present the entire unaired run of Magnifico At Midnight, despite the legal threats of his many illegitimate children, the executors of his estate, the Church of the Black Hen and the State Department. When possible, we have included background material, particularly interviews with surviving members of the Magnifico Theater Of Wonders as well as historical scholars and contemporary artists influenced by the entire scope of his work. We would like to state emphatically that this show is *not* intended for children, nor intended for those who are easily offended or squeamish. Prepare yourselves for the final journey into the most desolate outposts of the human soul! With puppets! Coming soon!

No comments:

Post a Comment