''Alive from Off Center'', renamed ''Alive TV'' in 1992, was an American arts anthology television series aired by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

between 1985 and 1996.Film.com
/ref> Each week, the series featured experimental short films by a mixture of up-and-coming and established directors. Notable episodes included "As Seen on TV," starring comic actor

Bill Irwin William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a n ...

as an auditioning dancer who becomes trapped in a television, wandering among daytime dramas, MTV, and PBS's own ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' and the atmospheric puppet melodrama "

Street of Crocodiles ''Street of Crocodiles'' is a 21-minute-long stop-motion animation short subject directed and produced by the Brothers Quay and released in 1986. "The Street of Crocodiles" was originally a short story written by Bruno Schulz, from a story ...

," adapted by the

Brothers Quay Stephen and Timothy Quay ( ; born June 17, 1947) are American identical twin brothers and stop-motion animators who are better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They were also the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding ...

from the

Bruno Schulz Bruno Schulz (12 July 1892 – 19 November 1942) was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher. He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. In 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academy ...

story. Other installments included "Dances in Exile" directed by Howard Silver, a recorded dance piece with text by

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...

and choreography by Ruby Shang and another directed by

Jonathan Demme Robert Jonathan Demme ( ; February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American filmmaker. Beginning his career under B-movie producer Roger Corman, Demme made his directorial debut with the 1974 women-in-prison film ''Caged Heat'', before ...

. Arguably the series' best-known episode was ''

What You Mean We? ''What You Mean We?'' is a 1986 American made-for-television musical short film starring the performance artist Laurie Anderson, who also wrote and directed the piece. Overview Originally produced as a segment of the PBS arts series ''Alive fro ...

'' a short film written by, directed by, and starring

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

, which aired in 1986. Anderson later came back to host the 1987 season of the series, assisted by the Clone (who was eventually renamed Fenway Bergamot with a slightly different body shape), a masculine version of Anderson created by digitally altering her image and obscuring her voice that had been introduced in ''What You Mean We?'' Most episodes of the 1987 season opened with a brief skit by Anderson and the clone by way of introducing that week's piece. Actress

Ann Magnuson Ann Magnuson (born January 4, 1956) is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer. She was described by ''The New York Times'' in 1990 as "An endearing theatrical chameleon who has as many characters at her fingertips as Lil ...

subsequently co-hosted the 1988 season, after which the series had no regular hosts.

References

External links

*
''Alive from Off Center''
at GBH OpenVault

all ''Alive from Off Center''] at the

American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digitall ...

all''Alive TV''] at the

PBS original programming 1985 American television series debuts 1996 American television series endings Performance art {{PBS-stub