The T.A.M.I. Show

Movies to Watch Right Now (at home)

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Edie Falco in OUTSIDE IN

Honor the late indie director Lynne Shelton by watching a great Edie Falco performance in Shelton’s Outside In. I also have remembrances of Fred Willard, who, as much as anyone, invented the deadpan mockumentary, and actor Michel Piccoli, a stalwart of French cinema.

Coming up this weekend – a 2020 indie gem about inter-generational friendships – one of those rare heartwarming movie recommendations from the Movie Gourmet.

ON VIDEO

Outside In is a superb indie drama by director Lynne Shelton, who died this week. It’s a story of self-discovery with an astonishing performance by Edie Falco.  Outside In can be streamed on Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

The T.A.M.I. Show is the first concert film as we understand the genre today and features eight future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. It’s very easy to find the full one hour, 52 minute, version for free on YouTube, along with clips of each of the acts.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

SPACESHIP EARTH

ON TV

Harold Russell, Dana Andrews and Frederic Mrch in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

Turner Classic Movies is running their usual war movie marathon on Memorial Day Weekend. But my choice, on Monday, May 25, is a movie that evokes our experience today. The Best Years of Our Lives is about people yearning to Get On With It after their lives were consumed by an upheaval they all shared. In their case it was WW II. In our case, it’s COVID-19.

One of the greatest movies of all time, The Best Years of Our Lives, is an exceptionally well-crafted, contemporary snapshot of post WW II American society adapting to the challenges of peacetime. It justifiably won seven Oscars. And it’s still a great and moving film.

When Frederic March, immediately back from overseas, sneaks back into his apartment where Myrna Loy is washing the dishes, I dare you not to shed tears at her reaction.

REMEMBRANCES

Fred Willard (left) in BEST IN SHOW

Fred Willard, as much as anyone, invented the deadpan mockumentary, starting with his talk show sidekick, Jerry Hubbard character in 1977’s Fernwood 2 Night with Martin Mull. Willard’s zenith was in This Is Spinal Tap and the Christopher Guest ensemble mockumentaries that followed: Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, For Your Consideration, A Mighty Wind and Mascots. He finished up by playing yet another uncontrollable character, Phil Dunphy’s dad on Modern Family.

Here are some tidbits from Willard’s unashamedly unprepared dog show commentator Buck Laughlin in Best in Show:

  • If you put them in a race, who would come in first? You know if you had a little jockey on them, going like this [imitates jockeys hitting the side of the horse]. 
  • And to think that in some countries these dogs are eaten.
  • I went to one of those obedience places once… it was all going well until they spilled hot candle wax on my private parts.
  • [sees the trophy]  I’ve taken a sponge bath in smaller bowls than that.

Lynne Shelton in SWORD OF TRUST

Director Lynne Shelton was the best of the mumblecore directors with Your Sister’s Sister, Touchy Feely, Laggies, Outside In and Sword of Trust. Between her uncompromisingly authentic and goofy indies, she was sought out to direct mainstream TV like Mad Men and GLOW. She got in front of her own camera in Sword of Trust and delivered one of last year’s best performances.

Michel Piccoli in LA BELLE NOISEUSE

When I think of actor Michel Piccoli, I think of his simmering performance in La Belle Noiseuse; Jacques Rivette’s masterpiece has a run time of three hours and 58 minutes, and it’s gripping throughout because of the tension between Piccoli and Emmanuele Beart. He also appeared in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos, Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt and Luis Bunuel’s Belle du Jour, Diary of a Chambermaid and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. At age 85, he was very funny as a reluctant pope paralyzed by panic attacks in We Have a Pope.

THE T.A.M.I. SHOW: rock giants as they emerged

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James Brown and His Famous Flames in THE T.A.M.I. SHOW

The T.A.M.I. Show is probably the first concert film as we think of the genre today. An amazing confluence of talent gives us an unfiltered 1964 time capsule of British Invasion, Surf, Motown, Pop and early Soul (but there’s no Folk) music.

Here are the performers:

  • The Rolling Stones
  • James Brown
  • The Beach Boys
  • Chuck Berry
  • The Supremes
  • Marvin Gaye
  • Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
  • Lesley Gore
  • The Blossoms (backing Gaye)
  • Gerry and the Pacemakers
  • Jan and Dean
  • The Barbarians
  • Billy D. Kramer and the Dakotas

Eight The T.A.M.I. Show performers are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Berry, the Stones, the Beach Boys, James Brown and the Famous Flames, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and The Blossoms singer Darlene Love, who was inducted as a solo act. Future actress Teri Garr and choreographer/pop artist Toni Basil were two of the Go Go Girls. Members of the famed Wrecking Crew session musicians constituted the house band, including guitarist Glen Campbell, pianist Leon Russell and drummer Hal Blaine, along with the jazz great, bassist Jimmy Bond. The house band is rarely glimpsed, but you can see them to the right during The Supremes’ set and at the finale.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones in THE T.A.M.I. SHOW

The T.A.M.I. Show was filmed in two performances at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Tickets were free for LA teenagers. (Future film director John Landis and future teen heartthrob David Cassidy went as seventh grade classmates.) The event was emceed by by Jan and Dean. T.A.M.I. stands for either Teen Age Music International or Teenage Music Awards International (although there were no awards).

James Brown absolutely killed. His was a performance for the ages, and the crowd went nuts. To their everlasting regret, the Rolling Stones had to follow him to close the show.

In this performance, the Stones were hippy Brits singing Blues music (that, oddly, White American teens were only now discovering though these White guys from the UK). It’s most notable for Mick Jagger’s groundbreaking definition of a Front Man. As I write this in 2020, I just heard a Stones song on the radio that I didn’t recognize and learned that it was released this year – 56 years after the T.A.M.I. Show.

The Beach Boys in THE T.A.M.I. SHOW

The Beach Boys came on immediately after a Jan and Dean song, which does not favor Jan and Dean today in comparison. Brian Wilson’s genius and the band’s fun energy were many rungs above what Jan and Dean had to offer as musicians. It’s poignant to watch the the young, 1964 Beach Boys today, knowing that everything about them hung precariously on Brian Wilson’s traumatized mental health.

Billy J. Kramer fronting the Dakotas in THE T.A.M.I. SHOW

There are two very odd “What are those guys doing here?” sets. One is the slick-haired Brit popster Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, an act managed by Brian Epstein and produced by George Martin at the same time as the Beatles; Kramer got to perform FOUR songs!

The second is one of the first shaggy haired American rock bands, The Barbarians. They perform Hey Little Bird, which preceded their one novelty hit Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?

The Barbarians, for some reason, performing in THE T.A.M.I. SHOW

When I watch these 1964 performances, I can’t help but think about what these artists still had ahead of them. James Brown had just recorded I Got You (I Feel Good), but it wouldn’t be widely released until 1965. The Stones still hadn’t created EARLY Stones songs like Satisfaction, Paint It Black, Sympathy for the Devil and You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Marvin Gaye hadn’t yet sung I Heard It Through the Grapevine or What’s Goin’ On. Ahead for the Supremes were Love Child and a flock of other number one hits. And this was before The Beach Boys did California Girls and Good Vibrations, not to mention the Pet Sounds album.

The T.A.M.I. Show is on the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. It probably would have been more influential, except that hardly anybody saw it for years. It’s somewhat of a Lost Film, having fallen off the radar after its 1964 release. I recall seeing it on late night TV sometime in the late 1970s or early 80s. It was resurrected in VHS bootleg form in the 80s (but without the Beach Boys set).

It’s still not available to rent a stream, but The T.A.M.I. Show is available on Netflix DVD. It’s very easy to find the full one hour 52 minute version for free on YouTube, along with clips of each of the acts.