I'm not sure exactly how I found out about THE HYPNOTIC EYE but from this discription I was intrigued:
Best Cable Access Show, The Dallas Observer, September 25-October 1, 1997: "The Hypnotic Eye is an addictive, giddy mixture of cult movie clips, trailers, toy commercials, weird music videos, and puppet high jinks. This brilliantly edited show (yes, we know it's on cable access, but we mean that just the same) is hosted by a giant eyeball and features such madness as William Shatner's cry-for-help rendition of Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Rocket Man." Producer-editor-director Joe Riley doesn't merely wink at the audience-his reverence and sincere appreciation for pop culture shines through. This is one of the best hours on television, public access or otherwise."
That sounded a heck of alot like our wacky clip show. With some more searching I tracked down copies of Shows 5 and 6 from a video trade list. I was not disappointed. THE HYPNOTIC EYE is hosted by an Eye with unkempt hair:
A life sized Eye puppet with the voice of producer Joe Riley greets us at the beginning of Episode 5 and banters with his co-host puppet M.C. Tiny Bob. The host segments are very low key and feel unscripted. Which makes it all the more charming in a bizarro kind of way. We're then shown clips of old commercials, the trailer for THE STREET FIGHTER and the trailer and making of footage from Gamera 2: Advent of Legion. Pretty cool considering that this show aired in 1997. There's a video montage of a store in Houston called Giant Robot set to a score of The Ramones' I Don't Want To Grow Up. Yeah, it' alot like an AnimeHELL show, but without the Mental Health bits...
I'm not sure what happened to Joe Riley and THE HYPNOTIC EYE but I'm sure gonna try to track him down and see what he's up to these days and I'm certainly gonna look for more episodes of this show. And I'm even thinking about making my own lifesized Eye puppet for future HELLshows...
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