Primetime/Japan (1988)

(1988) Starring Harry Anderson of TV's "Night Court", this was a special produced by the Houso-Bunka Foundation, Inc. of Japan and originally released by WTTW Chicago public television. This video was captured from a (very) low-fi mono 6 hour-speed VHS recording made that same year, and sadly suffers from tracking issues. Unfortunately, I've never managed to find a better copy of this, so I'm posting it here to help preserve it.

This was a fun special which was made to basically give the English-speaking world a taste of the wonderful and hilarious world of 1980's Japanese television. It features subtitled clips from talk shows, TV movies, game shows, commercials, and even anime. I originally recorded this while still in high school because I was an anime fan back in the pre-Internet beforetime, when any media mentions of anime were either nonexistent or kind of embarrassing. This special was one of the first times we got to see anime and other Japanese shows mentioned without someone bringing up that damn Rapeman manga.

To my knowledge, this program has never been released on video.