Steve M.
12-27-2003, 11:37 PM
On December 26, 1967, the Beatles's psychedelic television movie Magical Mystery Tour was broadcast on BBC1. In terms of drawing an audience, it was a success; fifteen million of our British cousins tuned in to watch. Artistically, well. . . .
The British televison critics, who did not get an advance screening and had to watch with everyone else, hated it - verdicts included "blatant rubbish," "chaotic," "appalling," and " a colossal conceit." The rest of the Brits who tuned in didn't like it much either. Plans to air it in America - I think CBS was planning to show it - were cancelled on the basis of the British reaction. Magical Mystery Tour was regarded as a failure for its lack of plot and its crude camera effects. There was just one problem; it was made as a color film. BBC1 was in black and white at the time. (It was aired in color in Britain on January 5, 1968.)
In the seventies and eighties, Magical Mystery Tour appeared in the U.S. at late-night movie theaters and on basic cable and local UHF televison, becoming a cult item here; because Americans had low expectations for it, it actually held up better here than in the U.K., and some folks like Steven Spielberg even liked it. Most Americans agree it was lackluster but by no means bad enough to warrant the abuse it got back in 1967 when everyone in the mother country was expecting a cross between A Hard Day's Night and The Sound of Music or whatever.
I thought it was ridiculous, but nowhere nearly as bad as, say, the 1978 Sgt. Pepper movie. Anyone else have any thoughts?
The British televison critics, who did not get an advance screening and had to watch with everyone else, hated it - verdicts included "blatant rubbish," "chaotic," "appalling," and " a colossal conceit." The rest of the Brits who tuned in didn't like it much either. Plans to air it in America - I think CBS was planning to show it - were cancelled on the basis of the British reaction. Magical Mystery Tour was regarded as a failure for its lack of plot and its crude camera effects. There was just one problem; it was made as a color film. BBC1 was in black and white at the time. (It was aired in color in Britain on January 5, 1968.)
In the seventies and eighties, Magical Mystery Tour appeared in the U.S. at late-night movie theaters and on basic cable and local UHF televison, becoming a cult item here; because Americans had low expectations for it, it actually held up better here than in the U.K., and some folks like Steven Spielberg even liked it. Most Americans agree it was lackluster but by no means bad enough to warrant the abuse it got back in 1967 when everyone in the mother country was expecting a cross between A Hard Day's Night and The Sound of Music or whatever.
I thought it was ridiculous, but nowhere nearly as bad as, say, the 1978 Sgt. Pepper movie. Anyone else have any thoughts?