1.
Alex Winter's Idiot Box
This was a short-lived MTV show feature Alex Winter from Bill & Ted/the Lost Boys. It was a ridiculous and strange sketch comedy show, a precursor (I would say) to the State or Mr. Show. It featured such reoccuring characters as Lockjaw, a PI with tetnus, and Eddie the Flying Gimp. There was also a troubled family who would appear and the drunken dad would punch the mom and/or the kids. Every so often, God would drop an anvil on the characters and people would yell "ANVIL OF GOD!" I don't remember much else about this show, but I LOVED it as a child and am very excited that I found a bootleg of it today.
2.
PHASE IV
PHASE fucking IV. This is, as I recall, a post apocalyptic movie about super intelligent ants that are trying to take over the world... Now, they aren't giant ants, they are normal sized ants with a hyper-intelligent hive mind. I watched this movie on sunday horror matinee when I was probably 7-8, and spent years trying to remember the name of it. Once I did, I was amazed that it was directed by SAUL BASS. Yes, the same Saul Bass that did amazing posters for such films as the Man With The Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder, as well as credit sequences for many Hitchcock films such as Psycho and Vertigo, not to mention Casino. Well, this is the only film the man ever directed... I remember it as a very strange seventies sci-fi/horror romp, with intelligent ants building super-computers out of sand and destroying the last outpost of humanity... it will be interesting to see how it holds up.
3.
Hotel Room
This is a one-off David Lynch series in three parts that features Crispin Glover and other indie stalwarts in a group of stories that all take place in one hotel in one night. From what I can tell, the stories are more play-like than film-like, but I have always been very interested in watching this. This show has been extensively sampled by bands such as Isis ("The whole horizon is on fire... fire as far as the eye can see."), so you may already be tangentally familar with this.
4.
War of the Worlds : the Series
I loved this show SO MUCH as a kid... The premise of this show is that the famous broadcast really happened, and so did the events of the 50s movie... but it has all been covered up/blamed on mass hysteria. The aliens "corpses" were stored in toxic waste drums for so long that the contents were forgotten, and when they are placed in a facility next to radioactive material, they are revived... but must stay near radioactivity to keep the germs that beat them at bay. A small government office, with the help of a crackpot scientist who is the only person who believes that the War of the Worlds broadcast was really true, fight the aliens... The second season of this show changed radically, with a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk feel and totally different aliens.
Does anyone else remember this stuff? What other obscure TV or movies are YOU looking for?
