The Groove Tube

1974 film by Ken Shapiro

The Groove Tube is a 1974 American independent comedy film written and produced by Ken Shapiro and starring Shapiro, Richard Belzer and Chevy Chase. It features the song "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield in its opening scene. The low budget movie satirizes television and the counterculture of the early 1970s. The film was derived from sketches shot on videotape and shown at the Channel One Theater on East 60th St. in New York, a venue that featured R rated video recordings shown on three television sets, which was a novelty to the audiences of the time. Compilations of sketches from these presentations were taken on tour to college venues, and based on audience responses, the best received sketches were restaged on film with most of the original actors reprising their roles. The news desk satire, including the signature line "Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow," was later used by Chase for his signature Weekend Update piece on Saturday Night Live, although in the film he does not appear in that segment. Randa Haines, who later directed Children of a Lesser God, was script supervisor.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 13% based on 8 reviews with an average rating of 3.80/10. Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "It is indeed wild, and often hilarious. But much of it is blandly dull." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and stated, "Television is such a ripe subject for satire that a new comedy film roasts the medium quite well without taking a poke at such natural targets as bigot led situation comedies, educational kiddie shows, station editorials, or the 'happy talk' news format." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times stated, "Silly, sophomoric and scatological 'The Groove Tube' undoubtedly is for much of its 75 minutes. But so gleeful and zany is it in its sheer outrageousness that the result is virtually nonstop hilarity." John M. Dower of The Washington Post said, "There are sequences in 'The Groove Tube' that are absolutely inspired, and, unfortunately, not describable in a family newspaper; there are others that make you wonder how the same perceptions could think them funny or amusing or even conceivable." The film was reissued in 1975, 1976 and 1977, and as of July 1, 1977, had grossed $28,572,438.