I used to love NBC's "The Midnight Special"..they had some really cool bands and singers on the show..

ELO
Peaches and Herb
The Village People
Johnny Winter....to name just a few...

I saw the show with ELO...one of the songs they performed was "Strange Magic"

Didn't it come on on Saturday nights?

Wolfman Jack?

And didn't they feature just one artist sometimes?

A little pre-MTV music.
I think it was a show that wasn't appreciated at the time ("canned" clapping and cheering ?), but would be interesting to see nowadays, just to see what some artists looked like.

I remember it being a big thing amongst me and my friends to stay up and watch The Midnight Special....Usually I could convince the adults to let me stay up 'just this once' to watch it...Yes it was on Saturday nights,but I think it did pre-empt Saturday Night Live a few times...I remember it was done before a live audience.

I remember watching it regularly, but I really thought it was on Friday nights (could be wrong though) anyhow there was a lot of good bands on there from time to time I seem to remember Ted Nugent hosting one night with AC/DC, AEROSMITH..&  others I just can't remember who at the time, good show though. I also remember watching Don Kirshner's Rock Concert around the same time can't recall what network that was on. Anyone remember that one?

I remember watching it regularly, but I really thought it was on Friday nights (could be wrong though) anyhow there was a lot of good bands on there from time to time I seem to remember Ted Nugent hosting one night with AC/DC, AEROSMITH..&  others I just can't remember who at the time, good show though. I also remember watching Don Kirshner's Rock Concert around the same time can't recall what network that was on. Anyone remember that one?
I think there's a website all about "The Midnight Special"..I think it has the day and time it was broadcast..
Some radio stations simulcasted the show's audio in stereo..you'd turn down the TV and listen to the audio on your stereo system...cool.

I also remember watching Don Kirshner's Rock Concert around the same time can't recall what network that was on. Anyone remember that one?

It was syndicated.

Was it better than Tony Orlando and Dawn?

Wasn't Mac Davis the host for this show?

When one is in high school and before you could drive that was the type of stuff you watched on Saturday nights.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0229907/

And unless you caught an artist on shows like that or American Bandstand you'd never know what some groups looked like -- sort of like The Hues Corporation with me.  ::)

Wasn't Mac Davis the host for this show?
No it was Wolfman Jack.

I have a copy of this show from February 1979. The special guests were The Jacksons. (Im an MJ fan). The presenter was Wolfman Jack.

CGOOTR

I have a copy of this show from February 1979. The special guests were The Jacksons. (Im an MJ fan). The presenter was Wolfman Jack.

CGOOTR


I have this episode also. "Shake your body down", "Destiny", "The things I do for you", and "Blame it on the boogie" were some of the songs performed. I'd like to have the show that the Commodores hosted in the late 70"s.

I remember the episode with the Village People, that was really cool that they were on the show!

I just saw an infomercial last night advertising DVD releases of episodes of "The Midnight Special"....I thought that would be really cool to have! 8)

It was on Friday nights at midnight...............you would have had to not be alive in the 70s to not remember it........great show hosted by the Wolfman

It was on Friday nights at midnight...............you would have had to not be alive in the 70s to not remember it........great show hosted by the Wolfman


Yeah I thought it was Friday nights..

There's an episode available on DVD with Andy Kaufman and Slim Whitman.

i can remember having this one cool hippy-chick babysitter that would let us stay up late and watch "Midnight Special" with her.

years later i learned that she ended up "running off" with some biker gang.

I used to love this show!!

That is....whenever I was able to stay up to watch it :)  I would fall asleep lots of times before it came on. Wolfman was great> I loved his voice.

Does anyone have the DVDs of them? I know they were only advertised either online or on TV. You couldn't buy them in the stores :(

I used to love this show!!

That is....whenever I was able to stay up to watch it :)   I would fall asleep lots of times before it came on. Wolfman was great> I loved his voice.

Does anyone have the DVDs of them? I know they were only advertised either online or on TV. You couldn't buy them in the stores :(



No, I don't have any...I would love to have them....but they are expensive. I saw an infomercial of them the other day...and they are like $20 per DVD. ::)

I remember coming home many nights a little out of my skull  :D and being mesmorized. What a great time that was was...

Yeah, I saw that a little while back too. Although I was too young (born in 1976) to remember that show, I do remember a time when all the TV channels when off the air at night and there was literally nothing on. Having a special show like that on while TV is normally off the air seems kinda neat, almost as if it was your own little secret.



Yes, I was born around the time you were....and I also was too young to have been able to see this firsthand....however, my love of everything nostalgic, would be able to greatly appreciate seeing these DVDs of the show. ;)

I have an episode of this show on VHS which featured The Jacksons mainly miming to their music. They also played the Jacksons music video Blame It On The Boogie, so Im guessing it was around late 1978 or early 1979.






hjl

It seemed like a few years ago VH-1 ran a marathon of Midnight Special.  I wish they would do it again.  There are some CLASSIC performances on that show.  I liked how they featured performers from all branches of popular music. 

I think VH-1 or VH-1 Classic should revive this format.  It would be nice to have just a simple live concert series on regular basis once again.

'I think VH-1 or VH-1 Classic should revive this format.  It would be nice to have just a simple live concert series on regular basis once again.'

Here in Australia we have a show called 'Live At The Basement' which features Aussie bands as well as touring bands who do an hour long live show...Its really interesting and damned good at times.



AN

I just saw an infomercial last night advertising DVD releases of episodes of "The Midnight Special"....I thought that would be really cool to have! 8)



I saw that infomercial last night again...and I almost called and ordered it.....man, would I SO love to have those.

I remember watching it regularly, but I really thought it was on Friday nights (could be wrong though) anyhow there was a lot of good bands on there from time to time I seem to remember Ted Nugent hosting one night with AC/DC, AEROSMITH..&  others I just can't remember who at the time, good show though. I also remember watching Don Kirshner's Rock Concert around the same time can't recall what network that was on. Anyone remember that one?


I remember Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and I believe it came on Fridays!! Just remember his strong accent and groups like Genesis, Yes, Styx, ELP,,,,Great Show!!

I loved Midnight Special!

Classic Journey on the show  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ7mEff3_Nk

I was just thinking of this show the other day and how they should release it in a DVD that you can buy in stores, not by an infomercial. I used to think Wolfman had an awesome voice. Isn't it funny, when you were a kid it was so hard to stay awake to that hour to see and today, it's no problem to stay awake to that hour. But I remember, Midnight Special was coming on at 1:00 instead of 12. Weird, huh?

I was just thinking of this show the other day and how they should release it in a DVD that you can buy in stores, not by an infomercial. I used to think Wolfman had an awesome voice. Isn't it funny, when you were a kid it was so hard to stay awake to that hour to see and today, it's no problem to stay awake to that hour. But I remember, Midnight Special was coming on at 1:00 instead of 12. Weird, huh?



I agree...they should release it on DVD in stores...I hate that the only way you can buy them is to order them via the infomercial. :-\\

I agree...they should release it on DVD in stores...I hate that the only way you can buy them is to order them via the infomercial. :-\\


Go to Ioffer.com. You can get them there pretty cheap. I believe they are copies tho'.

Go to Ioffer.com. You can get them there pretty cheap. I believe they are copies tho'.



cool! thanks...I'll have to check it out. :)

I only thing I didn't like about it was some of the musical guests were video taped from previous perfomances and they weren't really on the show.

Don Kirschner's Rock Concert was all taped perfomances. When he introduced them, he wasn't even on a stage.

How many shows said that Elton John & Kiki Dee would be on and then they showed that stupid studio video of them instead  >:(

Howdy

The "Special" was pretty good for the times. I happened to get to see the final show being taped with Ted Nugent as the host. Wolfman Jack had just finished the Jerry Lewis telethon that afternoon and was a bit rough looking. Ted and Olivia Newton-John were the only live acts during the taping as all the rest were on tape and added later. There was only about 60 or 70 people in the studio for the taping so the director would clump us all together for each camera angle. We must have heard Wango Tango 30 times before they were happy with it. My girlfriend and I got friendly with one of the cameramen and he showed us where they hid their beer so by the time the taping was over we were pretty lit. They took 3 hours to tape that show.

Danny

You can get the DVDs in stores now :)

You can get the DVDs in stores now :)


are they expensive?

are they expensive?


If I remember, they were like $9.99 each or something like that

Oh my damn, TonyStewartIsTheMAN! I forgot all about her..

If I remember, they were like $9.99 each or something like that



oh wow...that's really cheap! Aren't they like $19.99 each when you order them via the infomercial?  What I don't like either is when you sign up for it...they continuously send them to you...that sucks.