Endless Summer TV Show

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Sorry if there is a thread for this already but its a hard one to search for. Anyway I never knew this show existed until a friend mentioned watching it during his childhood recently. Really very little information online about it but this clip was quite nice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAiqMVTUEb8

Anyone seen this dvd - http://www.beachboys.com/raritiesV.html - scroll down half way or more - The Beach Boys Endless Summer: Best Of The Beach Boys - Arcade Video Labs Presentation 7172 [DVD-R]

Looks like some interesting stuff no doubt combined with some real low points (Richard Marx?)

[southbay]

Yes, the guests were terrible. All of the concert footage was shot during Memorial Day weekend 1989 at the pacific amphitheater in Costa Mesa, ca. This was the second show of that summer's beach boys/Chicago tour. Other footage was shot later that week at universal studios in Los Angeles. The series ran during the summer of 1989 in the us on syndicated stations. The campfire scenes are a must see

[Nicko1234]

The whole thing used to be on youtube but here is a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAiqMVTUEb8

Brian looked like death.

[Rocker]

The whole thing used to be on youtube but here is a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAiqMVTUEb8

That's the video My Brother Woody posted 

I believe the 80s live recordings on "Songs from here & back" come from the Endless Summer shows iirc.

Here are some more videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4juxP3yhzk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIYFmG7HbBc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llWZuybCi3k

[Ian]

I wrote an article on tv appearances for esq where I quote bruce as saying the show was terrible but the campfire segment was great and reminded him of the old days. Brian sang and participated alot

[southbay]

I wrote an article on tv appearances for esq where I quote bruce as saying the show was terrible but the campfire segment was great and reminded him of the old days. Brian sang and participated alot

This sounds about right. Also enjoyed the clip of the boys listening to a new band and them asking what their secret was to staying together so long. Without missing a beat, Brian says, "just don't hang out together."

[guitarfool2002]

Did they call it "Club Kokomo"? Really?

I don't know why it bothers me, honestly, but it does. Sammy Hagar went overboard with his whole "Cabo Wabo" deal, he branded it, sold booze and everything else under that name, and that's fine I guess because it's Sammy Hagar, that's his deal. But at some point, the word "Kokomo" associated with the Beach Boys should be set adrift on a bamboo raft, left to drift aimlessly with only a volleyball named "Wilson" to keep it company. And Kokomo the hit single should be the legacy to be played on oldies radio.  


PS...awkward Brian outburst alert: During the Barbara Ann guitar solo, one of the kids starts movin and groovin dancing to the song, and veers a little close to that campfire, to which Brian yells "hey hey hey Careful! Care...ful!!!", and it makes things a bit awkward.

The "Care-FUL" pronunciation reminded me of drunken Murry in the studio yelling "Down-HILL!". Once a Wilson, always a Wilson, I suppose...

[Ian]

Yes that moment is a little awkward but it shows brian being alert, take charge and present in the moment

[MBE]

Funny but 1989 was such a nothing era that the show has been forgotten by most. Campfire thing is very cool though.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Yeah, you never knew what Brian was gonna say during those "campfire chats". In addition to scaring the hell out of the kid for venturing too close to the fire, there was the segment when Brian got on Mike's case - actually I'm not sure how to describe it; I'll just say he pointed it out - for covering "Be My Baby" on Looking Back With Love. I was stunned that Brian was even aware of it.

As up-and-down/hit-and-miss as that TV series was, there was a lot of optimism while watching it if you were a diehard. I mean, the guys were on a bit of a roll. From "Getcha Back" to "California Dreamin" to "Wipe Out" to "Kokomo" to Brian's solo album/career/publicity - they were more than just hanging around. There was the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction, the 25th Anniversary TV Special, the American Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, and Live Aid and Farm Aid appearances. And now a TV series (on FOX I believe). If you look at them, just physically, they weren't even 50 years old yet and were aging pretty well. You really thought something good was gonna happen. At least I did. That post-Kokomo period will go down as one of the truly missed opportunities.

[Ian]

Yeah but the tv show and wipe out and kokomo are all mediocre. The problem with that period is that the beach boys were solely trying to be commercial and not trying to be artistic at all.  They didn't trust brian to produce and didn't want to deal with landy but Id take a beach boys versions of melt away over a thousand kokomo s

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

The whole thing used to be on youtube but here is a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAiqMVTUEb8

That's the video My Brother Woody posted  

I believe the 80s live recordings on "Songs from here & back" come from the Endless Summer shows iirc.

Here are some more videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4juxP3yhzk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIYFmG7HbBc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llWZuybCi3k

Thanks for those. Brian looks demented in the Wouldn't it be nice performance, presume it was Landys idea to push him out front..and Bruce! shorts and white socks with shirt tucked in 

[guitarfool2002]

Funny thing is I *very vaguely* remember watching bits and pieces of this show when it was on the air that summer, but until seeing these clips in this thread I had all but forgotten about it! I was still in a Beatles-heavy phase that summer, along with blues and whatever WYSP spun in Philly, but I seem to remember watching this at least a few times, yet I can't remember anything about it!

On paper, "Club Kokomo" aside,  the concept of the show itself was great (a Beach Boys-hosted variety show, more or less), but maybe because it was syndicated and the scheduling on local stations may have been erratic, it never created much of a buzz outside the fan base?

And is it just me or does it seem in retrospect something of a miracle, especially at this time, to see Brian involved at all in this show? Or to see Brian there, say, without Landy hovering around trying to mooch some camera time? Or did Landy show up on any episodes?

[Nicko1234]

Thanks for those. Brian looks demented in the Wouldn't it be nice performance, presume it was Landys idea to push him out front..and Bruce! shorts and white socks with shirt tucked in 

Mike's trousers are something to behold as well. 

[MBE]

If it had been done in 1969 with good groups of the period, and Brian involved, it would have been terrific. By 1989 too much had changed.

[Sheriff John Stone]

Funny thing is I *very vaguely* remember watching bits and pieces of this show when it was on the air that summer, but until seeing these clips in this thread I had all but forgotten about it! I was still in a Beatles-heavy phase that summer, along with blues and whatever WYSP spun in Philly, but I seem to remember watching this at least a few times, yet I can't remember anything about it!

On paper, "Club Kokomo" aside,  the concept of the show itself was great (a Beach Boys-hosted variety show, more or less), but maybe because it was syndicated and the scheduling on local stations may have been erratic, it never created much of a buzz outside the fan base?

And is it just me or does it seem in retrospect something of a miracle, especially at this time, to see Brian involved at all in this show? Or to see Brian there, say, without Landy hovering around trying to mooch some camera time? Or did Landy show up on any episodes?

Oh, man, I counted the days until it was on. Of course I videotaped each show. I had pretty much memorized each note until next week's show came on. You never knew which segments that Brian was going to appear in, except for the campfire singalongs. Actually, I thought he looked pretty good at the time, he was always impeccably attired, but, unfortunately, that "Landy-induced" look had already penetrated his eyes. You couldn't escape it...

As usual for a Beach Boys project, I think the show was tailored more for the general music audience and the diehards were occasionally thrown a bone such as the Brian solo segments featuring "Love and Mercy" and "In My Car". In some ways the campfire segments were probably more pleasing to us than the casual fan who probably preferred the concert "hits" segments. No, I don't think the show created much of a buzz outside the fan base.

For me, there was no internet or message boards in 1989, but I still knew a lot about the Landy situation. But, yes, I was slightly surprised to see the amount of participation from Brian on the TV show, only because he was just coming off of his solo album and I knew he wasn't on "Kokomo". I do recall seeing Landy in a segment I believe talking about "In My Car". However, Brian - and Landy - always walked that fine line where Brian was never NOT A BEACH BOY. Brian just kept popping up...

[GhostyTMRS]

Speaking as another die-hard who watched the show back in the day, I had just started college but I wasn't about to give up my Saturday (or was it Friday?) nights when this was on our local Fox affiliate.
At the time I was already part of a local Beach Boys enthusiast community. We knew the unfulfilled promise of SMiLE, the majesty of Pet Sounds, the wilderness years, etc but I don't recall anyone having a negative reaction to hokey things like "Club Kokomo". Part of the thrill of being a Beach Boys fan in those years was that the group was (and is) capable of producing something sublime and something awful almost simultaneously. In a way, that's what made them so fascinating. Here they were attempting to host some kind of happy-go-lucky variety show and yet that specter of weirdness hung over the whole proceedings. Nothing will ever make me forget the sight of Brian in leather pants stalking the stage like an angry Herman Munster and barking something as lightweight as "In My Car" as if the very fabric of the universe would be ripped apart if he didn't finish the song. But for every one of those performances there was a ridiculously beautiful "God Only Knows"....

Sadly, by the time I realized I should be taping this show there were only three more episodes left, but I still have them on VHS.

[southbay]

I was in college then and was a huge bb fan. In fact I was at the actual concert that was filmed for the concert scenes for the show. You have to keep in mind that at that time Kokomo was just a few months old, still current, so they weren't really driving whole thing into the ground, yet. To echo sjs, there was lot of excitement during that time. You had the huge hit that was Kokomo, Brian' s album which the critics swooned over and the group had just signed an deal with Capitol records . All the press and fans at that time were chirping about " if they can combine the commercial success of kokomo with the critical success of Brian's album" on the Capitol album... It was similar to the buildup for twgmtr, but coming off of a huge hit. Alas , we got still cruisin, which sucked.  In short, we got in 2012 what we were hoping for in 1989

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

That WIBN performance is from 3 years earlier.

[southbay]

That WIBN performance is from 3 years earlier.

No, the date on the you tube site is incorrect. It is one of the "club Kokomo" segments f rom the endless summer series in 1989

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Really? Brian has less wrinkles and his hair is a different color...kind of threw me off a bit!

[southbay]

Oh yeah, positive. Plus in 86 he was wearing his hair long in a pet sounds kind of way. You can see this on the r&r to the rescue video video being discussed , but even more on the boys' solid gold performances that year

[Lonely Summer]

I remember watching this every weekend on a local channel. The guests were disappointing because even if you liked them, all their performances were lip-synched, while the BB's at least did genuine live performances. I loved "In My Car" on the show, and was so disappointed in the released version when it came out a couple months later. I knew about the controversy with Landy, but watching a slimmed down, handsome Brian, I really thought the Doc had done more good than bad. Now I know differently. Interesting, too, how Brian was brought back into the fold after missing out on "Kokomo".

[MBE]

Really? Brian has less wrinkles and his hair is a different color...kind of threw me off a bit!

Yeah only 1989 stuff in this.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Yeah, you never knew what Brian was gonna say during those "campfire chats". In addition to scaring the hell out of the kid for venturing too close to the fire, there was the segment when Brian got on Mike's case - actually I'm not sure how to describe it; I'll just say he pointed it out - for covering "Be My Baby" on Looking Back With Love. I was stunned that Brian was even aware of it.

Hello ? He's on it (bvs and keyboards), and produced the basic track. This has been established for, oh, over 20 years.