View source for TVTV (video collective)

{{short description|American guerilla video collective}}
'''TVTV''' (short for '''Top Value Television''') was a [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]]-based video collective that produced [[documentary]] video works using [[guerrilla art]] techniques.
==History==
The group was founded in 1972 by [[Allen Rucker]], [[Michael Shamberg]], [[Tom Weinberg]], [[Hudson Marquez]], and [[Megan Williams (filmmaker)|Megan Williams]].<ref>[http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/tvtv.html First Run Features: TVTV: Video Revolutionaries]</ref><ref>[https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/18/digitization-project-reveals-unseen-guerrilla-footage-that-revolutionized-tv Digitization project reveals unseen ‘guerrilla’ footage that revolutionized TV-Berkeleyside]</ref><ref>[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tvtv-video-revolutionaries-1153893 'TVTV: Video Revolutionaries' Review|Hollywood Reporter]</ref> 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]] [[Portapak]] video equipment,<ref name="Berkeleyside">{{cite web |title=Digitization project reveals unseen 'guerrilla' footage that revolutionized TV |url=https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/18/digitization-project-reveals-unseen-guerrilla-footage-that-revolutionized-tv |website=Berkeleyside |date=18 July 2018}}</ref><ref name="ArtforumDNCRNC" /> later embracing the ¾" video format.
In 1975 the group left San Francisco for Los Angeles, where it took up a contract with [[PBS]] to shoot ''Supervisions'', a series of short tapes on television history.<ref name="TransmissionBook">{{cite book |last1=d'Agostino |first1=Peter |last2=Tafler |first2=David |page=139| title=Transmission |year=1995 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-0-8039-4269-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9285DQAAQBAJ&dq=1975+tvtv+los+angeles&pg=PA159 |language=en}}</ref>
The group disbanded in 1979. Their last production was ''TVTV: Diary of the Video Guerillas''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyle |first1=Deirdre |title=Subject to Change : Guerrilla Television Revisited: Guerrilla Television Revisited |date=25 February 1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-536459-0 |page=183 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfC9KVCw2iQC&dq=tvtv+1979&pg=PA183 |language=en}}</ref>
==Members==
Over the years, more than thirty "guerrilla video" makers were participants in TVTV productions. They included members of the [[Ant Farm (group)|Ant Farm]] ([[Chip Lord]], [[Doug Michels]], [[Hudson Marquez]], and Curtis Schreier) and the [[Videofreex]] ([[Skip Blumberg]], Nancy Cain, Chuck Kennedy, and [[Parry Teasdale]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=Top Value Television papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c87m0fns/ |website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref>
Other participants in TVTV included designer Elan Soltes, producer [[David Axelrod (musician)|David Axelrod]], actor-comedian [[Bill Murray]]<ref>[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/557256473/tvtv-the-video-revolutionaries-documentary TVTV : The Video Revolutionaries - DOCUMENTARY by Paul Goldsmith-Kickstarter]</ref> and his brother [[Brian Doyle-Murray]], cinematographer Paul Goldsmith, actor and director [[Harold Ramis]],<ref>[https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/paul-goldsmiths-tvtv-video-revolutionaries-documentary.html Paul Goldsmith's 'TVTV: Video Revolutionaries' Documentary-Vulture]</ref> producer Wendy Appel (aka Wendy Apple), and lawyer [[Michael Couzens]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Falk |first=Tyler |date=2023-05-23 |title=Community broadcasting 'champion' Michael Couzens dies |url=https://current.org/2023/05/michael-couzens-champion-of-community-broadcasting-dies-at-76/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Current |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 1976-1977, experimental filmmaker [[Wheeler Winston Dixon]] 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.
[[Bill Murray]] went on to become a film and TV star; [[Michael Shamberg]] a film producer, most notably with his company [[Jersey Films]], in collaboration with [[Stacey Sher]] and [[Danny DeVito]]; [[Allen Rucker]] a writer and author; [[Wheeler Winston Dixon]] an author and university professor; [[Harold Ramis]] a film director, writer and actor; [[Skip Blumberg]] a videographer and producer; [[Tom Weinberg]] a producer based in his hometown, Chicago; and Elan Soltes a video graphic designer in Hollywood.
The [[Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive]] 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Preserving Guerrilla Television |url=https://guerrillatv.bampfa.berkeley.edu/ |access-date=23 December 2022}}</ref> Collections of TVTV productions and footage can also be found at [[Media Burn Independent Video Archive]],<ref>{{cite web |title=TVTV |url=https://mediaburn.org/collections/tvtv-2/ |website=Media Burn |access-date=23 December 2022}}</ref> [[Electronic Arts Intermix]],<ref>{{cite web |title=TVTV |url=https://www.eai.org/artists/tvtv/titles |website=Electronic Arts Intermix |access-date=23 December 2022}}</ref> [[Visual Studies Workshop]]<ref>{{cite web |title=TVTV |url=https://www.vsw.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CLIR-Metadata.pdf|website=Visual Studies Workshop |access-date=2023-05-13}}</ref> and [[Experimental Television Center]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Dierdre Boyle - Video Rewind |url=https://archive.org/details/ETC2574|website=archive.org |year=1998 |access-date=2023-05-13}}</ref>
The 2018 film ''TVTV: Video Revolutionaries'' by director Paul Goldsmith explored the group's history.<ref name="HollyReporter">{{cite web |last1=Scheck |first1=Frank |title='TVTV: Video Revolutionaries': Film Review {{!}} Hollywood Reporter |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tvtv-video-revolutionaries-1153893 |website=www.hollywoodreporter.com|date=19 October 2018 }}</ref>
==Productions==
* ''The World's Largest TV Studio'' (1972), covering the [[1972 Democratic National Convention]]<ref name="ArtforumDNCRNC">{{cite web |last1=O’Neill-Butler |first1=Lauren |title=Lauren O'Neill-Butler on Top Value Television and the 1972 presidential conventions |url=https://www.artforum.com/film/lauren-o-neill-butler-on-top-value-television-and-the-1972-presidential-conventions-83791 |website=www.artforum.com|date=24 August 2020 }}</ref><ref name="HyperallergenicDNCRNC">{{cite web |last1=Schindel |first1=Dan |title=The Radical Collective of 20-Somethings Who Filmed the DNC and RNC of 1972 |url=https://hyperallergic.com/584119/bampfa-tvtv-online-archive/ |website=Hyperallergic |date=25 August 2020}}</ref>
* ''[[Four More Years]]'' (1972), covering the [[1972 Republican National Convention]]<ref name="ArtforumDNCRNC" /><ref name="HyperallergenicDNCRNC" />
* ''[[Lord of the Universe (documentary)|Lord of the Universe]]'' (1974), an award-winning documentary on the activities of the [[Prem Rawat|Guru Maharaj Ji]] and his followers<ref name="titleVideo History Project: Resources - People Text">{{cite web |url=https://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/vhp/set-motion-new-york-state-council-arts-celebrates-30-years-independents-television|title=The New York State Council on the Arts Celebrates 30 Years of Independents|year=1994 |accessdate=2023-05-13 |format= }}</ref>
* ''Adland'' (1974), an examination of American commercial culture <ref>[https://vimeo.com/124260090 ADLAND (TVTV, 1974) on Vimeo]</ref><ref>[https://guerrillatv.bampfa.berkeley.edu/paper-archives/2020-07-15_prime-time-survey.html The Prime Time Survey · PRESERVING GUERRILLA TELEVISION - BAMPFA]</ref>
* ''Gerald Ford's America'' (1975)<ref name="FordNYTReview">{{cite web |last1=O'Connor |first1=John J. |title=TV: View of 'Gerald Ford's America' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/10/archives/tv-view-of-gerald-fords-america-monte-cristo.html |website=The New York Times |date=10 January 1975}}</ref>
* ''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]]
* ''TVTV: [[Super Bowl]]'' (1976) concept by Rich Rosen
* ''TVTV Looks at the [[Academy Award|Oscars]]'' (1976) concept by Rich Rosen
* ''Supervision'' (1976), a multipart [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] series about the birth of television and its cultural impact
* ''The [[Bob Dylan]] Hard Rain Special'' (1976), another NBC co-production
* ''The TVTV Show'' (1976), TVTV's final television special, co-produced with [[NBC]] television, directed by [[Alan Myerson]]
==See also==
*''[[Saturday Night Live]]''
*[[History of television]]
*[[New Journalism]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* ''[https://vdb.org/artists/tvtv TVTV]'' at [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank]
* ''[https://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/top-value-television-tvtv History of TVTV]''
* ''[https://mediaburn.org/video/worlds-largest-tv-studio/ World's Largest TV Studio]''
* ''[https://mediaburn.org/video/four-more-years-5/ Four More Years]''
* ''[https://mediaburn.org/video/adland-2/ Adland]''
* ''[https://mediaburn.org/video/lord-of-the-universe-2/ Lord of the Universe]''
* ''[http://mediaburn.org/video/tvtv-goes-to-the-superbowl-4/ TVTV Goes to the Super Bowl]''
* [https://vimeo.com/271567136 Trailer for the documentary ''TVTV: Video Revolutionaries'']
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9150206/ ''TVTV: VR'' on IMDB]
* [http://firstrunfeatures.com/tvtvdvd.html Official TVTV: VR'' site]
[[Category:Citizen media]]
[[Category:American documentary filmmakers]]
[[Category:Television production companies of the United States]]
[[Category:1972 establishments in California]]
[[Category:1979 disestablishments in California]]
[[Category:Companies based in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Film collectives]]