Steampipe Alley

[scratchbomb]

I've plastered this all over Twitter, Facebook, et al. But in case you missed it, I wrote a piece for Splitsider on Steampipe Alley, an aggressively weird late 80s kids show that ran in the NY area, and which Tom has mentioned on air more than a few times. Worth reading even if you never saw it, because even though I watched it as a kid, I can still barely believe it existed. Enjoy!

[buffcoat]

S-bomb,

For a brief period of time, WOR was the national cable superstation that certain parts of North Carolina received (WGN was replaced by and then replaced it).

I remember Steampipe Alley very well, which is why it was so shocking to see Mario Cantone on Sex and the City.  Wait a minute, wasn't that just a reprise?  Spiders Primavera!

I will definitely read your article.

b-coat

[scratchbomb]

Thanks! I had no idea WOR had such reach.

[buffcoat]

Yeah - at the time I had no understanding of New Jersey, New York, gay people, flamboyant people, Raging Bull, or what primavera was.  I just knew he was nuts. 

The lasting import of my exposure to WOR is that the Mets were my second favorite team for a few years, and I once wrote and performed a skit as Morton Downey, Jr.  Guess what?  No one in class knew who or what I was talking about.

The Raging Bullwinkle scene is one of the (although G-rated) least appropriate things for children I can imagine.  The kids faces are slack - they have no idea what's going on.

The other guy's De Niro is actually acceptable.  I wonder what happened to him.

[scratchbomb]

the amazing thing is that, minus curse words (and the addition of "moose"), they perform that scene verbatim, without the slightest indication that it's a joke. It's like they're auditioning, except in front of 10 year olds who (I hope) have never seen Raging Bull. It's insane.