What happened to you, music television?

You used to be cool. No, not that music television. I'm talking about network music television.

In 1966, as a sequel to the T.A.M.I. show, Phil Spector and "friends" organized The Big T.N.T. Show. As the tagline puts it: "This was the night when the all-time greats of rock 'n roll, traditional blues, country western and folk rock came together for the biggest bash in the history of show business!"

Among the performers: the Byrds, Ray Charles, Joan Baez and the Ronettes. Pretty eclectic. Sometimes, the eclecticism didn't work out so well (click here to watch and listen to Joan Baez performing You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin' accompanied by Phil Spector on piano, if you dare). But, then again, not everything is going to work out when you take some programming risks. What's awesome is when they do work out. Here's Ike and Tina pretty much stealing the show (yes, I've been on an Ike and Tina kick lately):



Fast forward four years for 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, the Monkees' television special immediately after a grueling overseas tour and immediately before Peter Tork left the band due to exhaustion. It's pretty much the television version of Head. The guest musicians ran the gamut, including Fats Domino, Clara Ward, Buddy Miles, Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll.

Pretty awesome at times, and pretty freak-out style too. Here's a good encapsulation of the show (Michael Nesmith rules, by the way). Listen to the band:



(Hippie-extra was a pretty steady gig in Hollywood for a while, I bet.)

Would network executives allow such free reign for a show like this today? No way. Then again, the network executives likely weren't pleased with the outcomes when they did allow such free reign.

There's always cable and Youtube, I guess.