Tunnel Vision

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: Tunnel Vision (1976), writer-director Neal Israel’s sketch-comedy spoof of network TV trailers, game shows, and product endorsements, is not funny. Like, ever. Even for those of us who grew up in the three-channel culture, the jokes are dated, inappropriate, and just plain lame—blink-and-you-miss-them cameos from Chevy Chase, John Candy, and Laraine Newman notwithstanding. But Israel clearly had an eye for where comedy was heading. His film was among the first to tap into the caustic, satirical current that would later crest with The Groove Tube, The Kentucky Fried Movie, and Saturday Night Live.

Set in a near-future 1985 where the Tunnel Vision network has achieved ratings dominance despite featuring nothing but crude, shocking, and straight-up ridiculous programming, the CEO is brought before a government hearing to defend the station’s lowbrow content. This serves as a bookend for non-stop fake news broadcasts, infomercials, new show promos, and comedic asides cut together in whiplash fashion.

Shot in 1974, the demise of the free-love generation and the fallout from Nixon’s presidency loom large. Not exactly topical humor. It’s kind of like watching a decades-old SNL Weekend Update sketch, with gags so obscure you need to Google everything to appreciate them. But Tunnel Vision is an equal-opportunity offender. Racism and misogyny split time with fart jokes and Candid Camera parodies. That Israel’s film fails to shock after 50 years isn’t necessarily his fault. That it can’t generate a giggle now and then is.

So why even bother? Because what Israel does get right is the absurdity of network television programming at the time. As the former head of trailers at one of the Big Three, his humor comes from a cruel reality. CBS, NBC, and ABC produced some of the most embarrassing shows ever broadcast between 1970 and 1978. And why not? They were essentially a monopoly! Tunnel Vision rather expertly predicts the rise of cable television while mocking the current state of “entertainment,” with spot-on graphics and fake jingles better than the real thing. For that reason alone, Israel—who’d hit it big with Bachelor Party and Police Academy a decade later—should get some credit for taking his former employers to task.

Part of MVD’s Rewind Collection, the new Blu-ray comes from a 4K HD transfer with a choice of aspect ratios and a good amount of extras (a 45-minute interview with Israel, commentary with historian Mark Edward Heuck, two photo galleries, radio spots, trailers, a continuity script, and a collectible mini-poster), plus a retro VHS slipcover.