#Elephant Parts popclips full
#Elephant Parts popclips series

Nickelodeon's parent company, Warner Cable, wanted to buy outright the PopClips copyright to be expanded into an all-music video channel, but after Nesmith declined the offer, Warner Cable started work on what would become MTV. The first episode was a stand-alone television special which aired on March 7, 1985.

#Elephant Parts popclips series

It was a 30-minute comedy-variety series created by Michael Nesmith as a continuation of his Grammy Award-winning video production Elephant Parts, and earlier series PopClips.

Although Nesmith's solo career is punned or highlighted, he doesn't make any reference or mention of The Monkees.Įlephant Parts won the first Grammy in the Music Video category, and was later followed by two TV series: PopClips for Nickelodeon (released in 1980), and Television Parts for NBC in 1985. Michael Nesmith in Television Parts is a summer TV series run by NBC in 1985. Throughout Elephant Parts, Nesmith makes fun of his own works, with segments including a parody of his song ' Joanne' called ' Rodan', and comic promos for his albums Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma and Live at the Palais. The musical videos include Magic, Cruisin', Light, Tonight, and Rio. There are various comedy sketches between musical numbers: The most notable sketches are 'Elvis Drugs', 'Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority', 'The Tragically Hip' (which was the inspiration for the name of the Canadian band and was featured as a pretaped sketch on a season six episode of Saturday Night Live ), 'Large Detroit Car Company', 'Mariachi Translations', recurring comic blackouts that ended with the catchphrase 'Just to prove a point!', and several series of bits with a lounge singer and a pirate, as well as a game show called 'Name That Drug'.

#Elephant Parts popclips full

Elephant Parts is one hour long and features five full length music videos, including the popular songs 'Rio', and 'Cruisin'', which featured wrestler Steve Strong and Monterey -based comic 'Chicago' Steve Barkley. Nesmith produced the video through his company Pacific Arts, using money he inherited from his mother, the inventor of Liquid Paper. To take just one example from Elephant Parts, the song Cruisin aka. 'Elephant Parts is a collection of comedy and music videos made in 1981 by Michael Nesmith, former member of the Monkees. Nesmith developed PopClips, which was hosted by a pre-fame Howie Mandel and was a.

Which featured Paul Leim and Joe Chemay, 2 performers he performed with in the 1980's and included on his 2013 tour. They all come away describing different pieces, the trunk, the tail, a leg, the stomach, yet cannot give an accurate description of what the pieces are as a whole. Nesmith chose the name 'Elephant Parts' for the metaphor used to describe a series of blind men trying to figure out what an Elephant looks like.