''TV or Not TV'' is the debut album by the comedy duo

Proctor and Bergman Proctor and Bergman was a comedy duo consisting of Philip Proctor and Peter Bergman. The two started performing in 1973 while taking a break from the four-man comedy act The Firesign Theatre, with the comedy album "TV or Not TV", on which they ba ...

. It was originally released in 1973 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. Unlike most

Firesign Theatre The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program ''Radio Free Oz'' on station KPFK FM. They continued app ...

albums, it included songs ("Communist Love Song" sung by Proctor at the end of side A and "Nasi Goring" sung by Bergman in the middle of side B) as well as a TV-related plotline comparable to ''

Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers'' is the Firesign Theatre's third comedy album, released by Columbia Records in July 1970. In 1983, ''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide'' called it "the greatest comedy album ever made". It was nomi ...

.''

Track listing

The play is subtitled "A Video

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

in Two Acts". Fred Flamm (Proctor) and Clark Cable (Bergman) host a

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

Channel 85.Before the advent of cable television,

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

television channels only went up to 83.

Side one — act one

#"Insert Here" (1:26) – Two children steal Dad's credit card and turn on Channel 85 for a "charged viewing cycle". #"Channel 85 Sign-On" (1:15) – Clark Cable (Bergman) starts the viewing cycle #"Escaping From The Declining Fall Of The Roaming Umpire" (5:06) – in a parody of the

assassination of Julius Caesar Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March (15 March) of 44 BC during a meeting of the Senate at the Curia of Pompey of the Theatre of Pompey in Rome where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 ti ...

, Flattus (Proctor) and Bruto (Bergman) plot to assassinate the "Umperor Calyuga" (Proctor), inspired by Flattus'

prophetic dream Oneiromancy (from the , and ) is a form of divination based upon dreams, and also uses dreams to predict the future. Oneirogen plants may also be used to produce or enhance dream-like states of consciousness. Occasionally, the dreamer feels as if ...

of a night baseball game #"Police Lineup" (1:04) – Proctor as a cop who introduces a singing cop (Bergman) #"Salute My Boots" (1:58) –

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

Bosco Hearn (Bergman) explains

currency devaluation In macroeconomics and modern monetary policy, a devaluation is an official lowering of the value of a country's currency within a fixed exchange-rate system, in which a monetary authority formally sets a lower exchange rate of the national curren ...

#"The Channel 85 Story" (1:03) - Cable and Fred Flamm (Proctor) fund-raise; the viewer can order merchandise from his console #"Cirque Internationale" (3:31) – ringmaster (Bergman) introduces several zany acts, including clowns Hans and Uni who engage in an ever-escalating war which results in destruction of the Big Top #"

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Love Song" (4:00) – sung by Proctor, an American in love with a Russian girl

Side two — act two

#"Channel 85 Reply" (1:39) #"Tobor Radar Robot" (1:26) – a robot (Bergman) is tormented by teenage hoodlums; he ends up repelling their attack by shorting out and catching fire, despite "not being programmed for defense" #"The Pills Brothers On Drugs" (0:56) – an ironic, supposedly anti-drug

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

(PSA) #"The

Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

Information Show" (3:51) – a female

holographic Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other Holography#Applications, applic ...

"simulette" (Proctor) who hosts a talk show, assuming various identities (Bergman voices the host when Proctor plays the guest); interviews an inarticulate author of an ecologically-themed book (Proctor) #"Bring Us Together" (0:24) – a

PSA PSA, PsA, Psa, or psa may refer to: Biology and medicine * Posterior spinal artery * Primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins * Prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme used as a blood tracer for pros ...

#"Nasi Goring" (2:50) – a singing gorilla (Bergman), one of Ms. Information's guests; the name parodies an Indonesian fried rice dish. #"Our Lady Of The Torch" (0:28) – (Proctor); another PSA parodies the inscription on the Statue of Liberty #"Emergency Alert" (1:35) – teenagers who have been attempting to hack into Channel 85 are finally wiped by the automatic system #"Emerging Fall Of The Roaming Umpire" (4:19) – the conspirators carry out their plan to "dump the Ump" (Proctor) #"Give Up This Day" (1:30) – the Rear Reverend Sport Trendleberg (Proctor) gives a benediction #"Channel 85 Sign-Off" (1:08) – close of the viewing cycle #"Insert Here" (0:53) – the system automatically solicits another viewing cycle

Critical reception

Critically this album received the best notices out of all of

The Firesign Theatre The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American surreal humour, surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program ''Radio Free Oz'' on station KPFK FM broad ...

's side projects. ''

The New Rolling Stone Record Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'' gives the album 4 out of 5 stars and says that

"melds

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

characteristic

Joycean A text is deemed Joycean when it is reminiscent of the writings of James Joyce, particularly '' Ulysses'' or ''Finnegans Wake''. Joycean fiction exhibits a high degree of verbal play, usually within the framework of stream of consciousness. Works ...

wit with some hilarious

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

routines" (404), while ''The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide'' says that Proctor and Bergman "seem like

Wayne and Shuster Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian double act, comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. They were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s, first as a live act, then on radio, then as part of ''The Army Show'' ...

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

" (272). While ''The Goldmine Guide'' only gives this particular album 2 stars, this is still a higher notice than any other album by one of The Firesign Theatre's side projects .

Issues and reissues

This album was originally released simultaneously on LP, 8 Track, and Cassette: *LP — KC-32199 *Cassette — CT-32199 *8 track — CA-32199 It has been re-released on CD at least once: *2001 - Laugh.com LGH1152

References

*"FIREZINE: Linques!." ''Firesign Theatre FAQ''. 20 January 2006 . *"Proctor & Bergman — TV or not TV — AUDIO ONLY." ''Laugh.com''. Laugh.com. 10 February 2006 . *Smith, Ronald L. ''The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide''. Iola: Krause, 1996. 272. *Swenson, John. "Proctor and Bergman." ''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide''. Ed. Dave Marsh and John Swenson. New York: Random House, 1983. 404. *Smith, Ronald L. ''The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide''. Iola: Krause, 1996. 272. *Swenson, John. "Proctor and Bergman." ''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide''. Ed. Dave Marsh and John Swenson. New York: Random House, 1983. 404. *Proctor and Bergman. ''TV or not TV''. Columbia Records, 1973.

External links

Proctor & Bergman - TV or not TV
nbsp;– Laugh.com (10 February 2006)
Firesign Theatre
nbsp;– Official website (19 January 2006)
FIREZINE: Linques!
nbsp;– ''Firesign Theatre FAQ'' (20 January 2006) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tv Or Not Tv 1973 albums Columbia Records albums Proctor and Bergman albums 1970s comedy albums