When Tunnel Vision first came out, a local music retailer and I believe a local radio station went in with the theater showing the film to produce and give out iron on t-shirt transfers of the image from the one sheet of a television set (with arms, legs and a face) sitting on a toilet with the tag line “Laugh or get off the pot”. I believe I got my copy at the Saint Albans Mall at National Record Mart. I never ironed it on to anything, and it may still be floating around in my collection somewhere, but the image was burned into my mind. I was too young to see the actual movie and there is no way I would have gotten most of the jokes, but a TV on a toilet, that was funny stuff and a little bit edgy too.
It was years before I actually got to see Tunnel Vision. I think it was one of those films I ended up ordering on VHS from Mr. Robinson’s Comics and Cards. I watched it and thought it was pretty funny. Several more years went by and I bought a DVD copy off eBay. It was a double feature DVD along with The Boob Tube. I popped Tunnel Vision in to watch and was horrified at the absolute crappy condition of the transfer. There were bad splices and several scenes were missing. I found out that Cult DVD (also known as Eclectic DVD) had released it as well. I got a copy of that edition and it was a major improvement. The only fault I could find with it, other than lack of bonus features, was the odd removal of the sound of a fart in one sketch. Even stranger is the fact that the fart can be heard in the trailer which is included on the disc.
As I have mentioned several times, I loved the 70s sketch movies like this and Groove Tube and Kentucky Fried Movie. Tunnel Vision was one of my favorites because it had a wrap around storyline set in the future of 1985 concerning a Congressional hearing into the programming of the upstart Tunnel Vision television network. The network pretty much ignored the FCC and broadcast what the public wanted to see. There was nudity, racism, foul language and all the things the public publicly decries while privately they eat it up. Some of the humor is dated, but some of it could almost pass for real now. A fake television show called Remember When asks contestants to reveal embarrassing secrets about themselves while wearing idiotic costumes and performing humiliating stunts. All three of these elements have been used several times in recent reality series and game shows.
Tunnel Vision is also famous for the many cameos of then unknown comics like Chevy Chase, Joe Flaherty, John Candy, and Senator Al Franken just to name a few.
Tunnel Vision isn’t as funny as the first time I watched it, but it is still fun. I give it 2 3/4 stars, but if I had never seen it before, it could have easily been 3 stars. Unfortunately if you haven’t seen Tunnel Vision and decide you want to buy a copy, be prepared to pay. It is apparently out of print, and copies on eBay are going for around $80 to $100 on DVD. Even the crappy double feature edition.
365 Days of DVDs 