This week, Night Flight puts the focus on the visionaries behind some of the most experimental and interesting music videos of the 80s. This unique ‘Take Off’ takes music video directors as it’s subject, focusing specifically on the work of Creme & Godley and Zbigniew Rybczyński, including candid and creative interviews with the directors. Lol Creme and Kevin Godley (originally of the band 10cc) discuss the videos they created for Visage, The Police, Herbie Hancock (the excellent robotics video for "Rock-it"), the uncensored Night Flight favorite “Girls on Film” for Duran Duran and gorgeous video for their own song "Cry." For Part 2 of this special, Night Flight takes off to the work of Academy Award winning Polish director Zbigniew Rybczyński, featuring videos the surreal, groundbreaking music video classics for Art Of Noise, Chuck Mangione, Grandmaster Flash, and mysterious Columbia Records supergroup Iam Siam .

Episode #2 of Midnight Rider, a late-night DirecTV series that brought Night Flight creator Stuart S. Shapiro back to producing an irreverent mix of music, comedy, and cult programming.

Episode 278. An episode of Radio 1990 from 1984 featuring George Clinton, Tony Carey, Tracey Ullman, and more.

Today Night Flight focuses on New York's downtown and the music that it spawned, including videos from Blondie and Sonic Youth, as well as a special on the downtown Club Kids.

Welcome back to Night Flight! Tonight’ we give you over 3 hours of original “As Aired” programming. That’s right, our "As Aired" selections from 1983-4 return with all of the classic Night Flight segments including Video Profiles, Interviews, Film Galleries, Cartoon Classics, and more. This episode features profiles on Rolling Stones, The Psychedelic Furs, surreal 80s video art and a strange New Wave love story called White Lies from director Marion Cajori starring a young Willem Dafoe with stellar music by Peter Gordon. We’re all but certain this doesn’t exist anywhere else, so dig in and enjoy!

This review of the early 80s Aussie rock scene on video features the likes of Jo Jo Zep, Men At Work, Divinyls, Midnight Oil, Inxs and New Zealand's Tim Finn (of Split Enz fame) and more. Night Flight's innovative "Take Off" series dispensed with playlists, bland VJ set-ups and the usual tired video countdown format and instead cleverly programmed music videos and performance clips by theme. The series regularly featured hits from Eighties pop icons juxtaposed against obscurities from not-ready-for-MTV cult favorites. Original Air Date: 11-11-83

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.”

"Elvira and I are a perfect couple, so we may get married. At a RED WEDDING!" - Peter Ivers This episode of Night Flight favorite NWT features musical acts Bad Religion, Red Wedding, Monitor, Party Boys, Brainiacs and Ghost Host Elvira.

Night Flight's celebrating Independence Day (in 1988 and today!) with a Red, White and Blue Take Off Special to Freedom. We'll take a musical look at the many faces of Freedom, at home and abroad with Billy Bragg, Robbie Robertson, Hulk Hogan, and Aztec Two Step.

"All my life growing up as a kid, I either wanted to be in a Rock band or a baseball player," Johnny Ramone tells us from the dugout of tonight’s special episode on the Ramones. If Rock is a religion, then the Ramones are the high priests of Punk, and in this treasure from the archive, Night Flight provides an in-depth profile of the band with video excerpts from the Ramones' cover of the Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today," plus excerpts from "Psycho Therapy," "Something To Believe In," "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Merry Christmas" and "I Believe in Miracles," all intercut with interview excerpts with Joey, Johnny, Joey's Mom, members of Anthrax and much more from "Lifestyles of the Ramones," (1990), directed by George Seminara. This 1991 syndicated episodes also features Pat Benatar, "Love that Bob!" - Church of the SubGenius, and more!

This two-hour 1990 broadcast features Julee Cruise’s performance for David Lynch's “Industrial Symphony No. 1,” a Night Flight original Twin Peaks parody called "Twin Geeks" and an interview with music video director Tim Pope, whose work includes videos from Talk Talk, Siouxsie and the Banshees, David Bowie and much more.

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!

Night Flight's 1989 Video Profile of "The Man and The Band" Bon Jovi, who made "Metal-lite safe for teenage consumption" according to Pat Prescott, arrives tonight on Night Flight Plus. The late-era Night Flight special episode covers all the essential Jovi Cuts, including the original videos from the New Jersey native for "Runaway," "In And Out Of Love," and more.

Sports! Tonight, we're kicking off with a 1988 “Take Off” to Sports Rock and Roll that is pure Original Night Flight. Almost every popular sport, from Basketball to Boxing get’s it’s ‘80s anthem in this 50 minute classic segment. You could say that Wrestling is over-represented in this episode, but that really all depends on how much you love or hate ‘80s wrestling. Here at Night Flight, based on our selection of specifically that genre, you could say we love it. A lot. With slam dunks like Dazz Band’s “Let It All Blow,” Pro Wrestling’s supremely weird “Land of 1000 Dances,” Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball,” Manfred Mann's Earth Band’s “Runner” and of course, the timely Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle," we really can't recommend this enough.

A dance-off at a school.

This Night Flight "Short Cut" features an exclusive interview with Miles Davis, who shares his unique musical outlook and more. “I go with my feelings… that’s in my system, my soul, in my body—my body’s full of rhythm.” Davis reflects on his affinity for the Yamaha DX7, the tactile experience of painting, the importance of his visual style, and the “street sound” of the era. The episode then features jazz pianist Chick Corea, who describes his creative philosophy in a short interview segment before Night Flight showcases his collaboration with vibraphonist Gary Burton in “Finale.”

Robert Smith stopped by the Radio 1990 studios to tell interviewer Lisa Robinson about what motivated him to start The Cure, being in a “gloomy band” and why 99% of music is boring. An early Morrissey detractor, Smith is quick to tell Robinson that “The Smiths are an unfortunate comparison…”

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

Night Flight's take off special feels uniquely 80s in its exposure of videos from Madonna, The Talking Heads and more relating to the culture of wealth and excess that defined the time.

Welcome to Night Flight "Goes to the Movies," where we'll go behind the scenes with Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride and other films from '87. The This is Spinal Tap director takes us the set of his large-scale fantasy adventure film or as Reiner calls it: a slightly "bent fairly tale.” Featuring interview clips with Reiner, Wallace Shawn, and Carole Kane. This episode's side B features a Flash Tracks section that includes Mick Jones's Big Audio Dynamite, dance reggae act Amazulu (above), and Thrashing Doves.

A series of short images, often related to televisions.

"Tonight we bring you your favorites!" "Over the last couple months you've written in to tell us what you want to see most," Pat Prescott says, explaining the viewer-requested curation behind this classic episode of Night Flight. Unsurprisingly, it turns out Night Flight viewers had great taste. Among the top requested artists are Kate Bush, Prince, Culture Club, The Thompson Twins, and Duran Duran. Check out this exceptional episode of that turns the attention back on the fans and viewers, who in 1986 were the ones making the Night Flight dream a reality. 

Night Flight’s classic “Video Essays” were a completely unique programming concept for the era. Lead by Night Flight’s writer Stuart Samuels (an instructor at the Cannes Film Festival), editors crafted hypnotizing video collages sourced from public domain archive footage and lost video artifacts - all linked by a common theme. Tonight’s original episode is the Video Essay “Machine Medley,” an adventurous mix of industrial sights and sounds featuring SPK’s “Machine Age Voodoo,” Swinging Piston’s “I Love The Sound Of Machines “ and more.

This 1987 relic of pride and passion for America features videos from Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Brown, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band and more.

“They’re the flashiest bands in Rock ’n’ Roll” Pat Prescott says at the start of tonight’s new ‘Take Off’ arrival from the archives, “Musicians who express themselves as much through packaging as playing.” What follows is a high chroma, technicolor video mix featuring Fishbone’s “Modern Industry,” We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It!, Kid Creole and The Coconuta, and more.

Episode 269. An original episode of Radio 1990 from 1984 featuring The Go-Go's, Yes and Van Halen.

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…

Good evening high-flying fans, and welcome to Night Flight. Tonight, we share another edition of our distinguished Video Profile series with Van Halen. Wherever you stand on Sammy Hagar v. Diamond Dave, you’ll love tonight’s special episode, with videos and concert footage from both. The group's winning combination of charismatic frontmen, Eddie’s phenomenal guitar playing and insanely epic live shows made them an essential act of the era. Dig in.

Night Flight highlights one of the most important music icons of the 20th century with this 1987 feature on which includes "Ashes to Ashes," "Let's Dance", "Day-in Day-out" and more.

Kicking off with a rock and soul temptress Tina Turner, host Pat Prescott presents an eclectic selection of female trailblazers and provocateurs including Wendy O. Williams, Patty Smyth's Scandal, Sheena Easton, Sheila E. and more tonight. "Take Off" to Women In Rock explores the pop-rock voices that left us with some of the best music of the 1980s in their wake. Strut!

"All through the rich history of Rock N Roll, artists have claimed the material of others..." says Night Flight syndication host Tom Juarez at the start of tonight's Take Off to Cover Songs. The hour long episode salutes the great musical tradition in what turned out to be the golden decade of covers, featuring Fine Young Cannibals covering Elvis, Cyndi Lauper's best Marvin Gaye impression, and The Pretenders' Jimi Hendrix reinvention. Chrissie Hynde sits down at the Night Flight studio to talk us through how she created the tune, while additional cuts from Boomerang, Club Nouveau and more follow.

This Night Flight original episode from our 1983 season is rife with deep cuts and nostalgic video gems from a lost era. The highlight is of course, Nameneko Punk Rock Kittens which features cats in punk outfits on cat-sized diorama sets (known as Perlorian cats in the US) created by photographer and artist Satoru Tsuda. These feline punkers join the ranks of other zoological video oddities like Dog Police and Fish Heads that were seared into the dazed minds of teenagers up way past their bedtime in the '80s.

Night Flight's take off to Rock and Cult films. This is A special preview of some of the films Night Flight showed in 1985 including Rude Boy (starring the Clash), Breaking Glass, Smithereens, Debbie Harry in Union City, Warhol's Frankenstein and more...