Mama Cass, The lead singer of The Mamas and the Papas, reclaims the lost honor of the witch as a symbol of nonconformity with conventional society, with a mesmerizing performance as a witch singing about the power of being different and unique, in spit of everything, in the 1960s cult psychedelic TV show HR Pufnstuf.
Archive | Psychedelic TV RSS feed for this section
The Altered State of Drugachusetts
3 FebA few weeks ago I published a post about HR Pufnstuf the classic psychedelic children TV show of the 1960s.
In the late 1990s the HBO show “MR . Show with Bob and David” featured a short parody of the show called “The Altered Sates of Drugachusetts”, and even you don’t know the original show (Pufnstuf) this is one of the funniest psychedelic parodies I’ve ever scence.
Dolphins ‘chew puffer fish to get high’ !
29 Jan
A film crew have captured young dolphins gently chewing on pufferfish to get themselves high off the potentially deadly neurotoxins it emits. The BBC documentary Spy in the pod caught the youngsters passing the fish around each other before entering a trance like state.
HR Pufnstuf : The Magic Path – Sid and Marty Krofft
25 JanHR Pufnstuf is a highly psycheelic children show which ran on American television in 1969, created by Sid and Marty Krofft.
Over the years the show has had a cult following on account of claims for drug references in the show. According to Wikipedia ‘”Pufnstuf” has been interpreted as a reference to smoking hand-rolled (H.R.) marijuana (puffin’ stuff).
There is something very psychedelic indeed in “Living Island”, that curious piece of land (or headspace) where everything is alive, and in which Jimmy lands. With lots of magic mixed in, and some pretty crazy humor the show is quite fun to watch, even 45 years after it’s original broadcast. It certainly hasn’t lost its charm. Only downside to it, is that once I started watching it a few weeks ago I can’t get the title song out of my head. Bewarned!
Here is the first episode of the series in which “Jimmy and his magic flute Freddy are lured to Living Island and trapped there by Witchiepoo’s trickery when she makes the Magic Path disappear.”
Stand up comedy… On acid!
18 JanVice magazine produces quite a lot of videos on drug themes. One of their remarkable productions is the “on acid!” series, where different people perform different activities while on acid, like performing in an amateur stand up evening, going to interview contestants in the Westminster dog show, or going to watch the monster trucks show. The results are variable, and not always that interesting, but there is a certain charm to the whole thing…
In the episode above, Josh takes drops acid and goes on stage in an open comedy night. The experience proves frightening, disorienting, yet strangely empowering.
This one is the Westminster dog show on acid…
And here is monster trucks on acid
FLCL (Fooly Cooly)
17 NovI couldn’t believe it, when I searched for FLCL on dpv and could not find a single post about it.
If you haven’t done so already, go and watch all of this show – now!
And many thanks to Ido for showing me FLCL years ago. Good times!
Mad Men on speed
2 SepIn an interview about the sixth season of Mad Men, series creator Matthew Weiner talks about the recurring role of drugs in the series. “It’s film, so you can try to create that experience. My challenge is to make sure that it’s not the camera that’s on drugs, it’s the characters that are on drugs. But it is a moment to kind of find out what’s going on inside them. (…) It’s something amazing that you can do with film, to show people how you experience reality, and that it is altered a lot of the time.”
Mad Men already touched on the psychedelic experience quite skillfully in season five. Episode eight of season six tackles the drug laden 1960s from another angle, with the appearance of a Max-Jacobson-like Dr. Feelgood who shoots the entire office with what appears to have been a healthy dose of amphetamines in an effort to boost productivity. Much of the episode revolves around ensuing happenings, and the erratic and frantic behavior of Don Draper and his staff while on an extended amphetamine high which lasts three days. Here you can see an example for a typical amphetamine scene from the episode: a conversation between Don and Ken Kosgrove which portrays the effects of speed quite amusingly and hardly attractively.
DATURA: THE DEVIL’S WEED
21 Aug
Mad Mike is a self taught expert on hallucinogenic plants. As a recovering addict/alcoholic, he feels a responsibility to share his knowledge with parents and teenagers about the effects of Jimson Weed. Datura scare videos abound on the Internet, but rarely satisfy the curiosity of inquisitive kids. This short film is intended to inform people about Datura from first hand knowledge of the plant. Mad Mike is a real person who has studied hallucinogens sometimes to his own detriment. Mikes warnings should be heeded and the authors of this film in no way advocate the ingestion of this dangerous narcotic.
Nickelodeon Sign-Off Sequence 1982
13 May
This was Nickelodeon’s good night sequence in 1982.
Enjoy!
The Daily Psychedelic Video 