One of TV’s Most Notorious Flops Gets New Life on YouTube

In the history of TV, there are a handful of shows that are considered to be the biggest flops in the entire history of the medium. One title that’s way up on that list is something called Turn-On, a sketch comedy series which premiere on — and was almost immediately canceled by — ABC in the winter of 1969.

And when I say immediately, I mean immediately; as the legend goes, ABC canned Turn-On while the debut episode was still on the air. Negative reaction was so swift to the show’s first airings on the East Coast, supposedly, that airings planned for three hours later at numerous stations on the West Coast were hastily called off. Those that did show the Turn-On pilot received angry viewer complaints.

That left a second Turn-On episode produced but never aired at all. While the episodes have been available at some libraries and museums, they have been extremely hard to find for decades— but now both episodes of Turn-On are going to be posted on YouTube.

You will be able to watch the full episode below:

The YouTube description for the show claims “originally aired in 1969 and cancelled immediately, Turn-On producer George Schlatter has always teased releasing the show and has finally agreed to share the first two completed shows with the world via Clown Jewels featuring a newly recorded introduction.”

The two episodes of Turn-On will be available on YouTube’s Clown Jewels channel. But when will we ever get to see all six episodes of the immediately canceled Ozbourne family variety show Osbournes Reloaded, which aired only one (truncated) episode in 2009, leaving five of its six produced episodes unaired? I’m still waiting...