JAPANESE SPECIAL COLLECTORS EDITION / Coded in Region 2 NTSC (ASIA) / 16 Page Booklet, translated in Japanese.

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In 1978, two revolutionary trends emerged in New York City, public access cable TV and punk rock. Public access was about do-it-yourself television. Punk was about do-it-yourself music (and do-it-yourself art and cinema.) These two phenomena were made for each other and they came together spectacularly in Glenn O'Brien's TV Party. Billed as "The TV show that's a cocktail party but which could be a political party," this public access hour brought an hour of the wildest of the wild to live television every week.

Glenn O'Brien's BEAT, a column in Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine, was to cool downtown Manhattan what Ed Sullivan's and Walter Winchell's columns had been decades before, the barometer of what was happening. O'Brien decided to emulate Sullivan (and Johnny Carson and Hugh Hefner) and create a variety show that would spotlight the coolest of the cool. O'Brien recruited his pal Chris Stein, the guitarist of Blondie, as his co-host, fellow Factory kid Walter Steding as leader of The TV Party Orchestra, and underground film director Amos Poe as director and the rest, as you'll see, was history. Every week a who's who of bohemia congregated to "have your party on TV," as Debbie Harry would sing. Debbie was a regular, along with such luminaries as Jean Michel Basquiat, Robert Fripp, David Byrne, banned SNL-er Charles Rocket, John Lurie, Richard Sohl of the Patti Smith Group, artist David Walter McDermott, Fred Schneider of the B-52s, Nile Rodgers of Chic, Tim Wright of DNA, sax genius Robert Aaron and Fab Five Freddie.

TV Party was more than a new wave Tonight Show. It was modeled on Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark, a TV show in the format of a party. Every week hipsters tuned in to follow the antics of the TV Party gang and such guests as Iggy Pop, David Bowie, P-Funk's George Clinton, The Clash's Mick Jones, artist Chris Burden, James Chance, Kid Creole, Klaus Nomi, actor Robbie Coltrane, writer/actress Cookie Mueller, fashion guru Steven Meisel and catch performances from acts like Tuxedo Moon, the Brides of Funkenstein, Alex Chilton, Tuxedo Moon, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Tav Falco, DNA and the Funky Four Plus One More.

After two decades as a cult rumor, the TV Party archives have been digitally resurrected and made available by Brink Films. Leading off the TV Party bandwagon is TV Party, the movie, which made its world premier at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.

The TV Party documentary was produced by Kai Eric and Danny Vinik ("Spun") and directed by Vinik. It mixes interviews with O'Brien, Harry, Stein, Steding, Poe, Brathwaite and company with hilarious footage from the show's four year run (1978-1982.) BrinkDVD is releasing a DVD series of the best episodes from this historically hilarious collision of TV, rock and roll and pop art. 4 episodes are available now!