TVTV (short for Top Value Television) was a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

-based video collective that produced documentary video works using

guerrilla art Guerrilla art is a street art movement that first emerged in the UK, but has since spread across the world and is now established in most countries that already had developed graffiti scenes. In fact, it owes so much to the early graffiti movem ...

techniques.

History

The group was founded in 1972 by

Allen Rucker Allen Rucker (born September 26, 1945) is an American writer and author. Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, and raised in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, he earned a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis (1967), an M.A. in American Culture from the Un ...

Michael Shamberg Michael Shamberg (born 1945?) is an American film producer and former Time–Life correspondent. Life and career His credits include ''Erin Brockovich'', ''A Fish Called Wanda'', '' Garden State'', ''Gattaca'', ''Pulp Fiction'' and '' The Big ...

Tom Weinberg Tom Weinberg is a Chicago native filmmaker, independent documentary producer, and television producer. From an early age, he held an interest in television and media. He founded the independent video archive Media Burn in 2003, and currently si ...

, Hudson Marquez, and Megan Williams. Shamberg was the author of the 1971 "do-it-yourself" video production manual '' Guerrilla Television'' TVTV pioneered the use of independent video based on the new and then-revolutionary media, ½"

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Portapak A Portapak is a battery-powered, self-contained video tape analog recording system. Introduced to the market in 1967, it could be carried and operated by one person. Earlier television cameras were large and heavy, required a specialized vehicle ...

video equipment, later embracing the ¾" video format. In 1975 the group left San Francisco for Los Angeles, where it took up a contract with

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 ...

to shoot ''Supervisions'', a series of short tapes on television history. The group disbanded in 1979. Their last production was ''TVTV: Diary of the Video Guerillas''.

Members

Over the years, more than thirty "guerrilla video" makers were participants in TVTV productions. They included members of the

Ant Farm A formicarium or ant farm is a vivarium which is designed primarily for the study of ant colonies and how ants behave. Those who study ant behavior are known as myrmecologists. History The formicarium was invented by Charles Janet, a French ...

(

Chip Lord Chip Lord is an American media artist and Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Cruz and residing in San Francisco. He is best known for his work with the alternative architecture and media collective known as Ant Farm, which he co-founded with Doug Michels ...

, Doug Michels, Hudson Marquez, and Curtis Schreier) and the

Videofreex The Videofreex were a pioneering video collective who used the Sony Portapak for countercultural video projects from 1969 to 1978. They were founded in 1969 by David Cort, Mary Curtis Ratcliff and Parry Teasdale, after Cort and Teasdale met each ot ...

(

Skip Blumberg Skip Blumberg (born October 10, 1947) is one of the original camcorder-for-broadcast TV producers, and among the first wave of video artists in the 1970s. His early work reflects the era's emphasis on guerrilla tactics and medium-specific graphics ...

, Nancy Cain, Chuck Kennedy, and

Parry Teasdale Parry Teasdale is an American video artist and a founding member of the early video collective Videofreex. He was also involved with Lanesville TV, one of the first unlicensed TV stations, throughout the 1970s. Role in founding Videofreex Teasd ...

). Other participants in TVTV included designer Elan Soltes, producer David Axelrod, actor-comedian

Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his deadpan delivery. He rose to fame on ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' (1973–1974) before becoming a national presence on ''Saturday Nigh ...

and his brother

Brian Doyle-Murray Brian Murray (born October 31, 1945), known professionally by his stage name as Brian Doyle-Murray, is an American actor, voice-actor and screenwriter. He has appeared with his younger brother, actor/comedian Bill Murray, in several movies, i ...

, cinematographer Paul Goldsmith, actor and director

Harold Ramis Harold Allen Ramis (; November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) and '' Ghostbusters II'' (1989), and as Russel ...

and producer Wendy Appel (aka Wendy Apple). In 1976-1977, experimental filmmaker

Wheeler Winston Dixon Wheeler Winston Dixon (born March 12, 1950) is an American filmmaker and scholar. He is an expert on film history, theory and criticism.Bill Goodykoontz, December 23, 2012, USA TodayDefining Tarantino Accessed Aug. 25, 2013, Quote = "...long, invo ...

briefly joined the collective, editing most of the ''Supervision'' series, as well as portions of the ''Hard Rain Special'' and the entirety of ''The TVTV Show''.

Legacy

The move to Los Angeles brought many in the group more into the orbit of conventional filmmaking.

went on to become a film and TV star;

a film producer, most notably with his company

Jersey Films Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him a Gold ...

, in collaboration with

Stacey Sher Stacey Sher (born November 30, 1962) is an American film producer. Early life Sher was born to a Jewish family in New York City and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She graduated and got her bachelor's degree from University of Southern Cal ...

and

Danny DeVito Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him a Gold ...

;

a writer and author;

an author and university professor;

a film director, writer and actor;

a videographer and producer;

a producer based in his hometown, Chicago; and Elan Soltes a video graphic designer in Hollywood. The

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

has digitized hundreds of hours of raw footage shot for ''The World's Largest TV Studio'', ''Four More Years'', and ''Gerald Ford's America'', along with extensive paper archives. Collections of TVTV productions and footage can also be found at

Media Burn Independent Video Archive The Media Burn Independent Video Archive preserves the work of early independent videotape and television production. Media Burn holds the largest collection of Louis 'Studs' Terkel video in the world and their 1992 presidential election collect ...

and

Electronic Arts Intermix Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is a nonprofit arts organization that is a resource for video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first develope ...

. The 2018 film ''TVTV: Video Revolutionaries'' by director Paul Goldsmith explored the group's history.

Productions

* ''The World's Largest TV Studio'' (1972), covering the

1972 Democratic National Convention The 1972 Democratic National Convention was the presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party for the 1972 presidential election. It was held at Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, also the host city of the Rep ...

* '' Four More Years'' (1972), covering the

1972 Republican National Convention The 1972 Republican National Convention was held from August 21 to August 23, 1972 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida. It nominated President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew for reelection. The convent ...

* ''

Lord of the Universe ''Lord of the Universe'' is a 1974 American documentary film about Prem Rawat (at the time known as Guru Maharaj Ji) at an event in November 1973 at the Houston Astrodome called "Millennium '73". ''Lord of the Universe'' was first broadcast on ...

'' (1974), an award-winning documentary on the activities of the Guru Maharaj Ji and his followers * ''Adland'' (1974), an examination of American commercial culture * ''Gerald Ford's America'' (1975) * ''The Good Times are Killing Me'' (1975) a portrait of Cajun culture. Focusing on the Cajuns' strong cultural identity as well as the life of Cajun Musician

Nathan Abshire Nathan Abshire (June 27, 1913 – May 13, 1981) was an American Cajun accordion player. His time in the U.S. Army inspired Abshire to write the crooner song "Service Blues", which the newspaper Daily World reported as "one of his most memorable ...

* ''TVTV:

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

'' (1976) concept by Rich Rosen * ''TVTV Looks at the

Oscars The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

'' (1976) concept by Rich Rosen The Best of TVTV (#1 the oscars) on Vimeo
/ref> * ''Supervision'' (1976), a multipart

series about the birth of television and its cultural impact * ''The

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Hard Rain Special'' (1976), another NBC co-production * ''The TVTV Show'' (1976), TVTV's final television special, co-produced with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

television, directed by

Alan Myerson Alan Myerson (born July 1, 1940) is an Americans, American film and television director. Career Myerson began working in theatre in New York City, then directing The Second City in Chicago. He founded the improvisational comedy troupe The Committe ...

References

{{Reflist

History

Members

Legacy

Productions

See also

References

External links