You know the film. It’s a film you have never heard of. The cast might be composed of actors you know and love or complete unknowns. A documentary that sounds interesting about a topic you might like. You stumble across it on streaming and wonder if it will be worth two hours of your time. This series will be devoted to reviewing films like these, the strange items that pop up when you are looking for a flick on the streaming service of your choice. This is “We Found It On Streaming”
During our celebration of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary, we will be devoting this feature to films found on streaming with some ties to the sketch program. This installment covers a film with strong SNL ties, one that actually had a theatrical run but is all but forgotten today—Tunnel Vision.
FILM: Tunnel Vision
Release Date: March 1976
Run Time: 70 Minutes.
Streaming Service(s): Tubi
Rating: Rated R
During my research into Chevy Chase’s departure from , I saw ads in newspapers of the time for this film listing Chevy Chase as starring in it. I can’t say that I have an encyclopedic knowledge of Mr. Chase’s career, but I never heard of this film at all. When I investigated further, and I saw the cast it had, and my interest was piqued.
Tunnel Vision is a 1976 film that revolves around a TV network in 1985. The owners of the Tunnel Vision network are undergoing a Senate investigation over the network’s output, an uncensored array of sitcoms, dramas and game shows that has the country completely captivated. The Senate reviews a selection of the channel’s offerings to see if the network should be allowed to stay on the air.
That plot is just the framework for writer/director Neal Israel, his co-director Bradley R. Swirnoff and co-writer Michael Mislove to hang a series of parodies of TV shows, films and commercials on, much like 1974’s The Groove Tube.
When you have a series of parodies such as these, you typically get a mixed bag. Not all the ideas can be winners. However, none of the segments are winners here. The parodies in this film range from completely unfunny to downright offensive.
You know you are in trouble when the parodies start with three men showing their bare asses to the audience. It is a fake ad for a school to become a proctologist. And that’s the entire joke there. Just the bare asses waiting for a proctology exam.
Here’s another example of the level of the humor. There is a game show parody called “Remember When.” Two contestants dressed up in embarrassing outfits must tell truths about their lives or else they get an electric shock. The contestants are played by SCTV‘s Joe Flaherty, who wears a red dress, and Hill Street Blues‘ Betty Thomas wearing only panties and a pair of pasties over her nipples. If your kink is to see either of those actors wearing those costumes, then you might be one of the rare people to find some value in this film.
Anyway, since they go through great lengths to introduce the electric shock punishment, you’d think that come into play with the sketch. After all, Chekov’s Electric Shock Machine says that if an Electric Shock Machine is introduced in the first act, it must be used by the third act. You’d assume the joke would be the contestants lying about their lives, getting shocked, then revealing the truth. Nope. The gag in this parody is that he is a serial rapist, and she beats her kids. Hilarious!
This film calls to mind the parodic fare of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Epic Movie, Date Movie). Like them. Israel and company think that since they are doing parodies, they don’t have to, you know, be funny. They don’t have to write coherent scenes or obey the rules of comedy. They just have to plop the parody up there by and the laughs will take care of itself. Israel just adds vulgar and racial humor to the mix because he is being edgy.
I know it was a different time, and I will never be accused of being the staunchest defender of the LGTBQ+ community, but even I can’t see any way a joke about hunt gays for sport is funny, even back then. And the “Ramon and Sonja” sketch, which is stock full of offensive racial and ethnic stereotypes being offensive is absolutely deadly in how unfunny it is. Israel and company don’t chase universal truths here. They just present the stereotypes as something to laugh at.
The one thing that was funny is how cheap the film is. The budget was just about whatever the raised at a bake sale at the local community center. Sets are used numerous times for different locations. A scene about a professional basketball player who is also commentating the game plays out in a high school gymnasium with stock footage from the Forum stitched in. A concert that is supposed to take place in Madison Square Garden looks like it takes place in a local VFW, with, once again, stock footage of real concertgoers edited in. I know a number of DIY filmmakers who can work on the cheap and make it look good. Israel doesn’t even try.
The sad part about it is this film is that there is a load of talent in it. Yes, Chevy Chase is in the film, as he was promoted as being such in all the newspaper ads of the time and the box art for the home video releases. But he is in only one segment and has maybe two minutes of screen time. I pity a Chevy Chase fan who paid their $1.50 back in 1976 to see this film in a theater only to by disappointed.
However, Chase isn’t the only SNL alum in the film. Al Franken and Tom Davis appear in a fake ad, and Laraine Newman (mistakenly billed as Larraine) plays Sonja in that horrible sketch I mentioned above. And Flaherty is joined by fellow SCTVer John Candy, who has a lineless role playing the partner of police detective that was only a head.
But it doesn’t stop there. The cast is filled with quality actors like Ron Silver (making his film debut), a pre-Johnny Fever Howard Hesseman and, for Saturday Morning cartoon fans, Danny Dark, the voice of the Super Friends Superman, as a news anchor. There are also a bunch of other recognizable faces in the cast.
Seeing this assemblage of talent might make you., like me, want to watch the film to see what it’s all about. Don’t. At 70 minutes, an incredibly short run time for a movie, Tunnel Vision was still a chore to get through. Your time would be better spent watching paint dry or hitting yourself in the head with a hammer repeatedly. View the film at your own peril, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Have you found a film on streaming that you’d like us to look at? Leave it in the comments and it might appear in a future installment of this feature.
