PBS tonight: 'Magical Mystery Tour'

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Just heard on the PBS station in Southern California -- KOCE, PBS So Cal -- that at 9 p.m. Pacific time, there will be a documentary on the making of "The Magical Mystery Tour," followed at 10 p.m. PST by the actual film.
FYI.

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Very interesting, I remember not that long ago when Beatles fans were frantic to even view the film... Viewing it again last night, it seemed more cohesive than I remember, and even poignant in parts..

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Dec 15, 2012 10:03:50 GMT -5 @robertaxel said:

Very interesting, I remember not that long ago when Beatles fans were frantic to even view the film... Viewing it again last night, it seemed more cohesive than I remember, and even poignant in parts..

Yes, Robert, there were poignant parts, such as when John Lennon is on the bus and talking to and being sweet with that little girl. In the documentary that accompanied the film on our PBS station, Paul said that was a side of John he had never seen before.
Briefly, my brother was a big fan of The Beatles, so I was aware in 1967 (when I was 10) that there was a TV special, and we anticipated it being shown in the U.S.
The documentary talked about how it came together. I made a reference to this in the other thread about the DVD release that Paul has said something to the effect of "it was all our imaginations, which were quite vivid at the time," a sly wink about drugs/hallucinogens. The documentary showed footage of people's memories of watching it and the reaction at the time. It seemed as though those who were my age -- 10, 11 -- and caught up in Beatlemania -- enjoyed seeing it, perhaps, but not only for, seeing The Beatles. Whereas their parents turned off the TV, calling it "rubbish."
The documentary also makes mention of Brian Epstein having died right before they started work on "Magical Mystery Tour" and, reading between the lines, while they mourned Epstein's death, they felt this new sense of freedom. Perhaps it was hubris, but I think that in 1967, The Beatles could just about done anything -- sat with their hands folded on their laps and lip-sank to "Love Me Do" and people would have watched.
One of the clues for me that it was not supposed to be anything, mean anything is when John is the waiter in the restaurant serving endless amounts of pasta to Ringo's "aunt" and he calls someone "Pirandello," the absurdist theater playwright who wrote "Six Characters in Search of an Author."
It was an experimental time. People were playing with form. Martin Scorsese even says in the documentary that the opening part where The Fab Four sing "Magical Mystery Tour" is something that has influenced and inspired his films. Honestly, I couldn't say that I see "MMT" in Scorsese's work but he is the filmmaker, not I.
It was pretty daring, in a way, that The Beatles would just throw something out there as "helter-skelter" as "MMT" but as George Harrison says in an archival interview, paraphrasing here, the media built up The Beatles, and then they want to tear you down. It's an age-old thing. Some artist or artists have a meteoric rise and after they have achieved stratospheric success, the chattering classes try to find a way to know them down a peg or four.
It was probably wise of Paul and Ringo to have waited so long for this deluxe release of "MMT." After 45 years, people are nostalgic for "the good old days," and time softens things a bit.