Remember those short films on cable?

February 13, 2006 1:28 PM

Anyone remember the short films on HBO, Cinemax, etc. in the mid-80's?

This one may be a bit out there, but it seems as though someone usually has an answer. HBO, Cinemax, and the other movie channels used to fill their in-between movie time with short films, and I'm trying to find out if anyone remembers some of the titles. I remember one called "Five Minutes for Fighting" (which was hilarious), and a cartoon flick that had a coke bottle starting evolution. If anyone knows where one could find these shorts, that would be great also!

posted by Todd Lokken to media & arts (14 comments total)

The Coke bottle thing was apparently part of a larger work called Allegro non troppo, which is available on DVD.
posted by Gator at 2:06 PM on February 13, 2006

Gator beat me by 2 minutes, so I will only add that Allegro non Troppo is an excellent film, worth watching in its own right.
posted by AndrewStephens at 2:14 PM on February 13, 2006

I remember some claymation shorts called "The Red and the Blue", staring two lumps of clay that would morph into all sorts of shapes.
posted by bondcliff at 2:15 PM on February 13, 2006

On HBO, at least, the series of bumper films was called "Short Take." I can't for the life of me remember many details, but that may help in your search.
posted by milquetoast at 2:58 PM on February 13, 2006

Oops, left off a plural -- the series was called "Short Takes." I remember one film featured a man-eating VCR, and another featured a dude whose apartment was infested with friendly cockroaches. But again, no titles or sources, so I'll go now.
posted by milquetoast at 3:24 PM on February 13, 2006

I remember "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings" with comedian Steven Wright. He was nominated for an AW if I remember correctly. Still have a copy that I have recently burned to DVD...
posted by thejazzguy at 3:25 PM on February 13, 2006

I remember a movie called "12:01 PM." It was sort of a proto-Groundhog Day. This one dude would wake up every day at 12:01 PM, and then he'd go to bed that night, and he'd wake up again at 12:01 PM again ON THE SAME DAY! However, instead of being all romantic-comedyish like Groundhog Day, it was sort of a horror/suspense/thriller sort of thing. I don't even think it had a happy ending.

Good movie, as I recall. Glad not to be that dude.
posted by Afroblanco at 5:10 PM on February 13, 2006

bondcliff - I think The Red and The Blue shorts were on aired on Nickelodeon, not on HBO.

milquetoast - I think you're remembering Joe's Apartment on MTV.
posted by team lowkey at 5:51 PM on February 13, 2006

HBO shorts is where I saw Bambi Meets Godzilla.
posted by NortonDC at 6:29 PM on February 13, 2006

I think they were called "Short 'n specials" but google returns nothing on that. I remember one called Cockadoodie.

They also played videos, too. That was "Video Jukebox" and I have a few on gently fuzzing videotape.

This reminds of a short movie from HBO, but I'll post my own question and not threadjack.
posted by codswallop at 7:16 PM on February 13, 2006

Derail: the 12:01 PM film starred Kurtwood Smith, who plays the dad on "That '70s Show." It was later remade as a happy-ending thriller/romance thingie with Jonathan Silverman; it was a TV movie.
posted by WCityMike at 7:17 PM on February 13, 2006

We had HBO in the summer of '80 or '81—back when "cable" was just HBO—and they had a home-made-looking-film with stop-motion-animation they'd sometimes run.

The short took place in a video studio or something and was probably a couple minutes long at most. It involved a bunch of video tape or film unrolling itself into a big pile which then moved around the linoleum'ed halls like those Star Trek pizza monsters, chasing and finally "eating" an employee, leaving behind only his glasses (IIRC).
Good lord, I must've watched The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox over a dozen times on HBO that summer.
posted by blueberry at 10:33 PM on February 13, 2006

On Showtime, usually at odd times in the morning prior to... I don't know, 1996 or 1997 (whenever they changed their visual layout) they used to show the "30 Minute Movie," which was usually a short with mediocre production values and a weird exploitative bent. Good fun.
posted by incomple at 10:35 AM on February 14, 2006

Wow...this is much more than I expected (I shouldn't sell the society short!). I'm going to do some searching with the info here and see if I get anywhere. If anyone is interested in anything I find, let me know.
posted by Todd Lokken at 2:57 PM on February 14, 2006