Yes! I'm old enough to have watched most of the episodes when they first aired. Originally called "Sunday Night."
Some of the strangest moments I remember:
Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins playing together. (Ken Nordine and Was Not Was also appeared.)
John Zorn performing one of his cutup compositions with the house band: David Sanborn, Marcus Miller (e. bassist - Miles Davis; studio musician), Hiram Bullock (original Late Night with Letterman guitarist) and Omar Hakim (drummer - Sting & Weather Report; studio musician).
Elliott Sharp performing one of his pieces with the house band.
Bootsy Collins playing with Carla Bley. (Allen Toussaint also appeared.)
I was most into the jazz artists, because Zorn, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Bill Frisell, Charlie Haden, the Lounge Lizards and the World Saxophone Quartet never would've gotten to perform on broadcast TV otherwise, but a cool variety of artists from most genres.
Don't remember Pere Ubu being on, but I probably saw them. Remember The Residents and Diamanda Galas, but not as much as I'd like.
Miles Davis performed.
Lou Reed and John Cale performed; that year when Songs for Drella came out was the first time they'd played together since the 70s.
Looking at Wikipedia, I'm chuckling at some of the lineups. Al Green, Sun Ra and The Pixies (this was around the time Doolittle came out so I barely had even heard of them yet). Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pharaoh Sanders and Van Dyke Parks. Elliott Sharp, LL Cool J and Jean Luc Ponty. Was going to mention The Residents and Conway Twitty, but Tha1ChiefRocka beat me to it.
Hal Willner (sketch music producer for Saturday Night Live) was the main person responsible for the eclectic booking. He died from COVID in April, only age 64.
EDIT: Lorne Michaels was the executive producer.
Recorded some of the episodes on VHS. Unfortunately I used EP mode so I could fit more episodes onto a single tape. Crime these were never released on DVD.
Last edited by PurpleHazel on 06/01/2020 09:08; edited 4 times in total
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