Turkey Television

"Turkey Television" was a comedy show on Nickelodeon from the mid 1980s. I watched this religiously as a kid, along with "Out of Control" and "You Can't Do That On Television". Each episode was a collection of miscellaneous short comedy segments. There was an exact number of clips they'd use in each episode; I think it was 45. Each clip would start off with subtitles at the bottom, letting you know who did it. Actor/singer Meatloaf did a few promos for them, including one where he impersonated a turkey.

There were some sources they'd pull more frequently than others, but it was a diverse collection none the less. You'd see short wordless cartoon clips (many from Germany), novelty song music videos, samples from British comedy shows like "The Pink Medicine Show", independent short films, the bad advice columnist "Dr. Joyce Brothers", gross-out food comedian "Eddie Slobbo" (these last two of which I've never seen anywhere else), stand-up comedy, and other assorted oddities.

As for the clips, they were sometimes a hit or miss, really. Naturally everything had to be clean for Nickelodeon. But they did find some truly funny stuff. Early stand-up material from Dana Carvey was not uncommon. There were also some skits where he played a sadistic German-accented dentist. Turkey TV even managed to squeeze in some George Carlin, like his "idiots and maniacs" rant on driving.

It's been 20 years since I've seen an episode, but I can still remember a lot of the clips vividly. I don't know if anybody in recent years has built a TV show on this same principle of source variety, but somebody should. As an adult, I now host my own comedy clip show on the radio, and although I've idolized many different comedians over the years, I do have to wonder if some of the inspiration for my show can be traced back to Turkey Television.