“Theatre’s what I really wanted to do,” Grace Jones tells Night Flight host Al Bandiero in this early interview with the art pop provocateur from 1983. Jones covers her rise to fame, turning down roles in “Blade Runner” and “Flashdance” and LIVE TIGERS in her LIVE show. Incredibly candid, unfiltered Jones. Watch this episode in our growing collection of Video Profiles!

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.

A dance-off at a school.

One of the most memorable episodes of Night Flight canon and the purest example of the original series' commitment to avant-garde music and experimental video. Stream the official Video Profile of musical groundbreaker trio, Art Of Noise: The low profile, high tech wiz’s of British music. A production trio with whose unique sonic approach defined the advent of sampling and whose background sounds enhanced the megahits of Yes, Pet Shop Boys and Kate Bush. Featuring an incredible lost interview with Art of Noise founders J. J. Jeczalik and Anne Dudley and a suite of the groups iconic music videos including those by Zbigniew Rybczyński, Anton Corbijn and more. (Yes, we’ve got both versions of “Close (To The Edit)”).

This installment Heavy Metal Heroes features mind-melting video classics from the likes of April Wine, Alcatrazz, Girlschool & W.A.S.P. Videos of the finest vintage from David Bowie, The Clash, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie & The Police are served chilled direct from Night Flight vaults.

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.

In "Take Off To Crime," get ready for greed, gunshots and gangsters with David Bowie, Tony Powers, Madhouse and more... Unlock this week's video vault with Toni Basil, Paul Simon and other groundbreaking music video moments from the 80s.

Kicking off with 1984’s “Ooh Ooh” song, Night Flight takes you on a complete tour of the artist’s numerous smash hits. Ten years before this episode aired, Benatar was “working as a bank teller and supplementing her income while singing in motel lounges,” host Pat Prescott tells us.

We begin this 3 hour As-Aired episode with an excellent selection of videos from Eurythmics, Jermaine Jackson, Prince, and Prince produced The Time. Night Flight's Rising Stars covers songs from classic acts Psychedelic Furs, Slade, and Night Flight's Discovery Segment features Milk 'N' Cookies' Ian North and Eva Everything. Hour 2 brings an incredible selection of new film and video art featuring experimental animation and video from Chel White (who we interviewed on the Night Flight blog in 2015). There's so many hidden gems in these full episodes, we don't want to give it away. Yes, the dog police are in town and Yes, a lizard goes surfing. We leave the rest up to you to DISCOVER!

“What do you do when a guy puts Mayonnaise on your shoulder?... Do the Watusi!" — Howie Mandel circa 1986.  And so goes 3 minutes of towering cringe (even by '80s standards) in tonight’s "Take Off" episode to Comedy in Music Videos from 1988 that also features the legendary Max Headroom, Father Guido Sarducci, Bette Midler, Will Smith and more!

We lost a close member of the Night Flight family on January 8th, 2022. Michael Lang and NF creator Stuart Shapiro were twin counter-culture spirits. Best friends since 1970, Michael and Stuart were at the center of the key revolutions that shaped the musical landscape in second half of the century: Michael, in the advent and supremacy of the music festival and Stuart, of course, at the inception of film, video and music television. Eventually the two would connect on projects like Woodstock.com and one of the first ever live streams broadcast over the internet for Woodstock ’99. To celebrate his life, we are sharing a fascinating unreleased interview with Michael conducted by Night Flight’s original writer, Stuart Samuels, in 2019. Lang gives a rich historical perspective on the festival and the time period, covering the lineup’s original conception and all the dark and light of the '60s that made the event such a defining moment. Thanks for being here to celebrate his life with us.

"Viewer discretion is advised" Pat Prescott tells us at the start of tonight's 1988 Take Off episode to Controversial Videos. "Sex, Drugs, Religion, Politics..." what more can you want from Night Flight's curated collection of controversial music videos. Everyone knows that while other fledgling music networks from the era avoided controversy, Night Flight actively courted it. Just ask creator Stuart Shapiro about what happened the first time we aired The Clash's "Rude Boy" completely uncut :). This episode brings you music from Billy Idol, Motley Crue, Slovenian avant-gardists Laibach, Sheena Easton's fantastic "Sugar Walls", the always classy George Michael and maybe one of the best sequencing decisions ever: a transition from the "Ballad of Jim and Tammy Bakker" to a Raucous Dead Kennedy's performance with Jello Biafra compelling the audience to "Shoot Up With God." Then, stayed tuned for two films from the Glasshouse Production Team, Tom Stern & Alex Winter: "Aisles of Doom" and "Squeal of Death." CLASSIC NIGHT FLIGHT.

This 1986 episode of New Sounds brings you a survey of Great Britain’s music geographies of the 1980s. The lineup includes Two Minds Crack, who rose from the industrial ashes of South Wales in 1981 to create some of Britain’s freshest techno-pop, video-vèrite innovators Cabaret Voltaire, Gene Loves Jezebel, Joe Strummer’s Sid and Nancy track “Love Kills,” and The Housemartins' “Happy Hour.”

Examining and monitoring LA's new music renaissance with host Peter Ivers. "Welcome to New Wave Theatre. Monitoring the new music scene is a discovery into the minds and artistic souls of its artists... one of the last roads to freedom left is through the world of art and entertainment." Featuring Fear, Powertrip, Carnival of Souls, Red Wedding and more…

Chel White's "minimalist vision of the post-industrial human condition, depicted in xerox cutout animation."

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 sexy Short Cut compiles music videos and interviews featuring the most transgressive figures in the business, including Prince, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Queen.

From Boston to LA, New York to DC, a musical explosion is taking place in Rock and Roll. Traditionally, success for bands came from touring, but today, the video explosion has given local bands national exposure sparking a renaissance in music and reinforcing the original roots of Rock 'n roll. Featuring 'Til Tuesday, Run DMC, REM and more...

An eccentric, introverted man (Bob Bert of Sonic Youth) goes on an adventure in his bathtub. As he explores a warped and lopsided world, he chooses to ignore his surroundings in favor of his favorite comic book. Others around him react to his presence with lust, jealousy, desperation and violence while he remains blissfully naive. Winner of the 2020 LA Punk Film Festival's "Best Animated Film" award.

Tonight's Night Flight original comes in the form of a 1987 Short Film Showcase and Classic Video Medley. Kicking off with directors Michael Nankin and David Wechter's short film "Gravity" (the pair created another Night Flight Plus exclusive Junior High School) and eventually arriving at an alien abduction psychedelic fever dream called "Skin Deep From Outer Space," Night Flight once again delivers the ultimate rarities. Stay tuned for Side B of this episode which is a Video Classic segment featuring videos by the Buggles, Devo, Falco, the Pretenders, Talking Heads and much, much more!

Episode 266. An episode of Radio 1990 from 1984 featuring Billy Joel, the president of CBS Records and a Summer movie preview.

"One of the sturdiest trends in rock videos," Pat Prescott says, "is the use of 'high art' to elevate down and dirty Rock 'n' Roll." Tonight's original episode of Night Flight from the archives is a "Take off" to Art in Music Videos! The episode highlights art and music collaborations like New Order and William Wegman (and the dog supermodel Fay Ray), Grace Jones's cadre of counter-culture luminaries in "I'm Not Perfect," Warhol's video for The Car's "Hello Again," and Roberto Longo's for The Golden Palominos (feat. Michael Stipe).

Welcome to a very special Night Flight Video Profile! In 1966, a seventeen year old sweet-voiced blonde schoolgirl became British rock's first authentic pop princess, only to lose that aristocratic status when she was caught with The Rolling Stones in a sensational drug bust. Nearly 20 years later, Faithfull sits down in the Night Flight studios for a candid conversation with Lisa Robinson about her comeback. Songs like "Broken English," "Sweetheart," "Truth, Bitter Truth," set the mood for a candid conversation with Robinson about the trials and tribulations of Faithfull's storied career.

Tonight, we "Take Off" to the Motown Sound, the most successful independent record label in the world. Former boxer and auto mobile assembly line worker, Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown in 1959 and created the sound of young America with Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Little Stevie Wonder (pictured above), and Diana Ross and the Supremes. Gordy ran Motown like an assembly plant, churning out hits all through the 1960s, eventually making Motown the largest black-owned corporation in America. Unlike most music television programming, Night Flight went beyond genre when curating and tonight’s episode is one of our crown jewels!

Delivered straight from the Night Flight archive, tonight we embark on an hour long special which kicks off with Night Flight's "Take Off to Irish Rock," which features videos by U2, Sinead O’Connor, That Petrol Motion and the Pogues, who we recently featured in an excellent documentary. Then, about 25-minutes in, we arrive at our video profile of the work of songwriter, actor, playwright and authentic American troubadour Tom Waits, which features key Waits deep cut videos and a candid back seat interview with the man himself, where he describes the “showbiz” family that raised him and his vision of God, (“God's a short guy… he started in the mailroom and worked his way up, invested well”).

Join us as Night Flight "Takes Off" to the Sounds of South, from the Bayou and beyond. A mix of country music, blues and old time religion: the sounds that define the south are echoed in many of Rock’s key pioneers. Tonight, Night Flight takes this geographic prompt to explore a broad range of ‘80s acts that carried the torch and established a sound inspired by southern roots, including: Jason and the Scorchers, Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special and more. 

Welcome to Night Flight's 1986 exclusive video profile of Black Sabbath. "They were the most successful and controversial metal band of the mid ‘70s. Hated by critics, adored by their fans, Black Sabbath mixed a taste for the occult with bone crushing volume,” Pat Prescott proclaims. This special episode features Night Flight’s iconic interviews with both Ozzy and Tony Iommi, and covers over a decade of the band's output and individual members' solo careers. Absolute essential viewing for Night Flight and Sabbath fans alike!

A special on legendary rock band Bauhaus, dubbed the "originators of Goth Rock," featuring interviews with members, videos from later spin-off band Love and Rockets, as well as the solo career of frontman Peter Murphy.

Night Flight’s full episode from September 1984 starts off with a Lou Reed’s wild dancing in his video for “I Love You Suzanne,” and doesn’t stop until way past your bedtime. Night Flight’s Video Picks give you selections from Art of Noise, Billy Idol, Sheila E. and Elvis Costello. Cut away to some classic commercials, and we’re back with AC/DC, Hendrix and Judas Priest on Heavy Metal Heroes. Finally stick around for a full episode of Radio 1990 featuring Billy Squier, as he releases his video for "Rock Me Tonite", the clip that may or may not have torpedoed his career.

"More than music, more than television: it's FM-TV!" Tonight, let us take you on an incredible journey through 1980s entertainment ephemera. FM-TV was Night Flight creator Stuart Shapiro's short-lived prime time cable companion series aimed at a slightly different demographic. Part two features a lost Doors documentary, interview with members of Journey, rare Cat Stevens performance and clips from Rock & Rule.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, because this is what you've been asking for. Featuring Nina Hagen's "New York New York," Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al," a full version of Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms," clips from Genesis and of course, Prince. You can't ask for a better snapshot of the musical times than this special edition of Night Flight viewers choice.

“I don't need the Daytime, all I want is Nighttime.” Take off to the creation of Heaven 17’s music video for “Let Me Go” in this Night Flight special that goes on set (a closed-off train station in the middle of the night) and behind the scenes with the band. This early Night Flight Video Profile (1983) shows off an impressive suite of big budget music videos from ex-Human League synth rockers including “Penthouse and Pavement” and the German Expressionism-themed video for “Temptation.”

Directed by Peter Litvin. Discover Hollywood's dark side.