In Take Off To Self Destruction (1986), Night Flight focuses on some of the darker elements that defined the 1980s, looking at music that dealt with topics like drug abuse and crime. Featured songs like “Stop The Madness” and “Just Say No” convey a conflicted range of emotion when watched today. The videos are definitely humorous in their categorically ‘80s presentation but they also require a somber reflection of the ineffective and corrosive drug policies promoted by the Reagans. Along with artist interviews and PSA style interstitials (including a brilliant one from Frank Zappa), this episode features videos from Armband, Jazzy Jeff, Fine Young Cannibals and more. A closing video of David Bowie’s “Ashes To Ashes” for this segment proves that Night Flight was willing to take on uncomfortable topics like drug abuse and suicide with an elegance you couldn’t find anywhere else on TV at the time. That’s a fact.

This Night Flight segment from one of our early seasons ('81-83 era) features a 1955 episode of "Showtime at the Apollo," featuring an ensemble of African American performers live from the the landmark Apollo Theater in Harlem. The show is hosted by "Mayor of Harlem" Willie Bryant and features incredible performances from Bill Bailey, Ruth Brown ("Have a Good Time"), Cab Calloway and his Orchestra ("Minnie the Moocher"), Lionel Hampton ("Cobb's Idea"), Leonard Reed, "Big" Joe Turner ("Oke-She-Moka-She-Pop") and Sarah Vaughan ("Perfidio").

This Night Flight Original episode features a segment from the "Take Off" series on Politics and Progressive Rap. We also included extra special bonus feature on 'Movie Villains.'

Tonight we find out what gives a six string its zing! We look at the origin of some of the most soul-stirring, far out guitar sounds with a special "Take Off" to Guitar Heroes. We salute the creme-de-la-creme of guitar playing with a look at virtuosos like Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and the Firm, Stanley Jordan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King and more on this special trip to Valhalla of Guitar Gods. Tune Up, and Take Off. Then, stay tuned for European import videos from Peter Schilling, Nena, Nina Hagen, the Scorpions, George Kranz, Taco, Telephone, Chagren d'Amor, Yello and Krokus!

Welcome to tonight’s new original arrival: a 1988 special profile of The Traveling Wilbury’s. The a British–American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, gets the complete Night Flight treatment with a look at the groups signature songs and individual output from the 80s.

Something is missing from Gordon's life. Despite his colorful friendships and accomplishments Gordon has decided there's only one way out. Except... maybe not that way? Not that way, or that way, or that way either. In the end, maybe the way out is to give in. Created by Jessie Contour.

Night Flight is proud to present the 10 winners of our first Night Flight Music Video Film Festival, selected by Night Flight founder Stuart S. Shapiro. We are thrilled to see that music video creativity of independent directors and artists from unsigned acts is so vibrant and prolific. Congrats to director Tony Grayson, whose video "Wicked Wild" by The Metalliques was the Grand Prize winner chosen by the audience at Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn on December 13th, 2023.

Welcome to Night Flight goes to the movies, a. Tonight we look at the growing emergence of black leading men in a variety of film genres including Carl Weather's "Action Jackson" and Spike Lee's "School Daze" including interviews. This episode also previews "The Return of Ruben Blades," now come full circle and streaming on Night Flight Plus.

Watch the director discuss "tired" comparisons to Hitchcock, the importance of beauty in horror, and the potential pitfalls of directing music videos all while seeing pivotal scenes from Carrie, Phantom Of The Paradise, Body Double and more...

Night Flight goes down under for an early Australian cultural invasion circa 1983. We looks at the land of Oz for deep cuts from Olivia Newton John, Brisbane natives the Bee Gee's, INXS, Jo Jo Zep, Mental As Anything and of course, how could we miss General Hospital's Rick Springfield. Bonus: check out the short section on Australian Film!

Your perfect Oscar weekend companion has arrived... 35 years late. Tonight's Night Flight Original Episode is a preview for the 1985's Award's show! Ray Parker Jr. tells us about writing the Ghostbuster's theme, master filmmaker David Lean discusses Passage to India, up for Best Picture (lost to Amadeus) and much more.

Welcome to the Meat Loaf edition of Night Flight (1993), where we bring you a smorgasbord of videos with the star of Operatic Rock. Featuring “Getting Away With Murder,” “Surf’s Up,” and the duet that propelled 1978’s Bat Out Of Hell straight into the stratosphere, the pointed ballad “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.” Bonus: Syndication host Tom Juarez reads Night Flight fan mail on air in this episode!

Comedienne Renee Taylor's parody of the Fellini films of the 1960s.

Van Halen video music highlights bookended by entertaining bites from incorrigible singer David Lee Roth's interview with Lisa Robinson. An excellent survey of the band in pure Radio 1990 style.

For three magical days in 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was a "Rock 'n' Roll City" half a million strong. Get ready for one of the headiest retro-television experiences of your life as Night Flight flashes back to Woodstock, with live documentation, concert footage and music from the iconic festival's key sets. 

Episode 270. An original episode of Radio 1990 from 1984 featuring Cyndi Lauper, Blondie and Modern English.

Welcome to part 2 of Visions of Platinum! We look at the top selling artists of today (1985!). You'll see videos from best selling artists Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, ACDC, and Kiss. We also speak to the producers behind some classic records Nile Rodgers producer of David Bowie and Duran Duran, Phil Ramone, the main producer of Billy Joel and Julian Lennon, and Madonna's producer Jellybean Benitez.

What begins as backstage banter and a photoshoot turns into a fun interview packed with Scorpions lore in this new Night Flight Short Cut. The band goes celebrating Rudolph's birthday to a candid recollection of playing Roger Waters’ The Wall concert in a newly unified Berlin, originally shot for Stuart S. Shapiro’s MetalHead Magazine.

Featuring interviews with members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, this 2013 story delves into the tumultuous history of Aerosmith and their well-publicized rock and roll lifestyles.

Tonight we present another edition of Politics in Music Video with John Lennon, Nena, U2, Men at Work and the Fixx. As we dig through the massive vault of Night Flight tapes, we see more and more that politics were a recurring theme for our 1980s writers. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise if you read Night Flight creator Stuart S. Shapiro’s recent book "Identifi Yourself" where he reminisces about his time as “one of the go-to concert organizers from D.C. to Boston for the anti-war movement.” Night Flight was born from the inextricable connection between art and politics.

Tonight’s Video Profile looks at Minneapolis writers, performers, and legendary super producers: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Bassist Terry Lewis met Keyboard player Jimmy Harris when they were handpicked by Prince for one of Minneapolis's great spinoff bands: The Time. "C...O...O...L"! Night Flight takes us through a tour of classics the pair wrote and produced from Janet Jackson, Human League, Herb Albert, Force MD's "Tender Love," (Above) and Robert Palmer's cover of the duo's Cherrelle classic "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On."

A politically charged mini-ep of Night Flight, featuring polemics from artists such as Billy Bragg and X as well as spoken word from William S. Burroughs.

This original episode features some of the most obscure artists to have ever graced cable television. Acts like The Insex, masked provocateurs a la the Residents or "Wheelchair," a "Wild Thing" parody of the lowest order. In keeping with this month's theme, the episode also features a special look at LA Goth rockers Kommunity FK (pictured above).

Everyone's invited to this massive survey of 80s music and fashion. Jump right in to relive the iconic movements represented over the decade.

New from the vaults: Night Flight's Fourth Anniversary show, featuring a Special Top Ten video countdown from NF’s panel of music experts. Focusing more on the artistry of the filmmaking than the song’s themselves, Night Flight honors videos from The Cars, Art of Noise, Jean-Luc Ponty, Herbie Hancock and more. Little bit of trivia: Night Flight was the first television program to add the names of the Director’s to the music video Chyron.

The director of Tribulation 99 and Sonic Outlaws returns with his grandest work to date! Spectres of the Spectrum plunders Baldwin's treasure trove of early television shows, industrial and educational films, Hollywood movies, advertisements and cartoons, combining these with live-action footage, no-budget special effects, and relentless narration to generate a wholly original paranoid science-fiction epic. BooBoo, a young telepath, and her father, Yogi, are revolutionaries pitted against the "New Electromagnetic Order." Their story, set in the year 2007 in a blighted Nevada outpost, is interwoven with a history of the development of electromagnetic technologies, from X-rays to atom bombs, from television to the Internet.

Night Flight’s 1987 episode of New Sounds is teeming with deep cuts and lost treasures. Mondo Boffo with Scorpio (!), Prince proteges Wendy and Lisa's excellent tune "Waterfall," Squeeze's Dali-esque video painting and more.

"Stay tuned for the latest music... on Night Flight's New Sounds!" Tonight, we head back to June 1988, Floodland-era Sisters of Mercy, Kid n' Play premiere the "Kickstep" Do This My Way, Electronic Body Music from Boston's Manufacture, and quiet storm grooves from Soul artist Terence Trent D'arby's single "Sign Your Name."

The segment is guided by a candid Radio 1990 interview with Robert Smith about the inspiration for the "Close To Me" video, fame and more. In true Night Flight fashion, the British band's "ever-evolving visual image" is explored through director Tim Pope's videos throughout the piece.

Episode 267. An episode of Radio 1990 from 1984 featuring Missing Persons, Bruce Springsteen and more.

“Female impersonator Divine portrays women from the sleazy to the sublime,” Pat Prescott says at the start of Night Flight’s “Take Off to Drag.” The episode is another timeless Night Flight classic that also features Joey Arias, David Bowie and more. It begins with scenes from 80s Canadian Drag star Craig Russell in clips from the film Too Outrageous! (1987), also featuring impersonations of Mae West and Barbara Streisand.

Another episode of Night Flight's Friday Evening Comedy Cuts, with an added bonus of summer blockbuster previews of the Science Fiction variety. Watch Pat Prescott discuss the hot films of the time including Aliens, Maximum Overdrive and more...

Salvador Dali, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground and other denizens of Andy Warhol’s netherworld make an appearance in this long-lost footage from the Factory for Nico's "Frozen Warnings." Featuring the gorgeous, droning arrangements of John Cale's pipe organ, and the otherworldly voice of Warhol’s muse, this The Marble Index deep cut is a perfect backdrop to some of the best looking footage of The Factory you can find.  “Somewhere along the line, punk and disco got all mixed up in the pulsating metal machine music of Industrial sounds.” Hell yeah, Pat Prescott. Sign us up. For Night Flight’s industrial dance mega-mix, our editors creatively synced footage of ‘60s Go-Go Dancers with crackin’ edits from Meatbeat Manifesto, Renegade Soundwave, KLF and 9 Inch Nails [sic].

During Night Flight’s second season, interviewer Al Banderio sat down with the “Queen of Sass” Millie Jackson for a ribald interview that is emblematic of Night Flight's unique approach to music television. Jackson discusses her disdain for FCC, the qualities she looks for in a man (“nice feet, and a nice round ass,”), her love of Country and much more while promoting the release of her Hard Times album. This episode's B-Side is the video for Albany band Blotto's "Metal Head," a Night Flight and Dr. Demento favorite!

Geneva Jacuzzi is well known for her uncompromisingly obtuse synth-driven pop and one-of-a-kind performance art that is comprised of one time only spectacles and installations. Her works have been presented in famous art institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA, The Broad Museum, Vooruit, Kampnagel, and numerous other venues across the globe. Her videos and live performances depict the shattering of self into a variety of personas, all played by Jacuzzi. Introducing Geneva Jacuzzi's Lamaze Video Special. From Geneva Jacuzzi herself: "Ever see a video materialize into human flesh? Its not a pretty picture. It takes time and money and 12 epic music music videos simultaneously broadcasting life into the first non-dimensional humanoid born in "video-vitro" Set in a Bozzio Bizaro Video Laboratory, Geneva Jacuzzi (a chronic procrastinator/still in video form) was late to the flesh party. Trapped inside a TV screen, she does her best to host the video special while her newly materialized body struggles to come to life. Watch the drama unfold around 12 surreal and colorful music videos from the album "Lamaze"." It's Frankenstien meets Cronenberg meets MTV in the Future Past. And the music is really cool too. Enjoy.

Night Flight transports you to the wacky world of celebrity rap singles, featuring bars from such hip hop luminaries as Mel Brooks, Rodney Dangerfield, the Chicago Bears and Mr. T. Don’t miss Night Flight's wild ride through this uniquely '80s genre phenomenon!

Songs from luminaries such as Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh invite us into the world of reggae in this short Night Flight special, exploring the genre's political origins, various subgenres, and biggest voices.

In tonight’s original episode of Night Flight (Air Date 4/19/85) we Take Off to Rock Documentaries. Hop on board for a journey through some of the most famous Rock Films in history starting with the 1964 T.A.M.I. Show up through the Talking Head's Jonathan Demme-directed classic "Stop Making Sense." In between we'll cover Rock Docs like Neil Young's Rust Never Sleeps (Distributed by Night Flight creator Stuart Shapiro), Bob Dylan's "Don't Look Back," and much more.

A 1932 Rudy Vallee short is remixed for Night Flight audiences.

1988's "Take Off" to Hardcore (and more!)  You gotta hand it to the original Night Flight writers. Every weekend for over seven years, the team put together 8 hours of cutting-edge television—mixing a complex blend of avant-garde, undiscovered and obscure visual/audio art. The amount of work this took on a weekly basis back in the 1980s is staggering.   Tonight’s episode is a one-two punch of amazing Night Flight curation. Take Off to Hardcore begins fittingly with Bad Brains and Bl'ast!’s “Surf and Destroy,” before taking a detour off the Hardcore Highway into Euro-Industrial tracks from Alien Sex Fiend and Nitzer Ebb, only to end with an awesome Peter Murphy clip and solo track. It’s disorienting for sure, but one hell of a watch!

Tonight we "Take Off" to Violence in Music Videos in this 1984 original episode of Night Flight; perfect for triggering your local PMRC chapter. “The following program contains controversial material…” Pat Prescott warns before contrasting the "psychological violence" of the Ramones against the "comic book violence" of Iggy Pop in this '80s time capsule that also features music videos from Golden Earring, and a piercing scream from the infernal beyond courtesy of Alcatrazz.

We were saddened to hear about Leslie West of Mountain passing away in late December of 2020. His Night Flight interview is an underrated gem of the library. A down to earth and spirited guest, West talks about his success in frank terms while musing about eating bagels behind the stage at Woodstock, watching Cream play on acid and more.