Alphabet Soup

A bottle of nerve manna, a disappearing golf ball and some rocks . . . it all adds up to the Hardly Boys' toughest case yet. The Hardly Boys have returned to Rangeley Lake for another relaxing summer at the Hardly Inn. Fishing, boating, tennis and their friend Chip Mason await them, but the boys soon find themselves enmeshed in a perplexing mystery that puts to the test their sleuthing skills and secret dog powers. What are the Nurse and the Caretaker up to?! And what happened to Gladiola Mason? She invited hem to lunch and now she's disappeared!

An avant-garde omnibus that features works by off-the-wall artists in many different disciplines.

A late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, and features performances by a musical guest.

Willam Wegman brings together his famous family of weimaraners to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas in a witty and delightful festival of decorating, crafts, cooking, gift wrapping, fruitcake, and more. Watch as Batty, Crooky, Chundo and Fay celebrate the season as only they can.

A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.

The New Wave is the seminal compendium of independent video work in the early 1970s. Written and narrated by Brian O'Doherty, this overview of the emerging video field includes examples of guerrilla television and "street" documentaries, early explorations with image-processing and synthesis, and performance video. This historical anthology includes excerpts of tapes by the following video pioneers: Stephen Beck and Warner Jepson, Peter Campus, Douglas Davis, Ed Emshwiller, Bill Etra, Frank Gillette, Don Hallock, Joan Jonas, Richard Serra, Paul Kos, Nam June Paik, Otto Piene, Willard Rosenquist, Dan Sandin, James Seawright, Steina Vasulka, TVTV, Stan Vanderbeek and William Wegman.

Animated short

William Wegman's lewd stroking of his dog apes television's crass marketing strategies.

A series of short, single-take anecdotes that introduce his idiosyncratic approach to video and humor, these technically raw-edged vignettes use understated means to create conceptual sight gags and absurdist one-liners. Wegman's deadpan spoken delivery of his monologues, and his ingenious use of everyday objects, subvert the viewer's expectations and transform the ordinary into the surreal.

Mother Goose tries to teach her son, Simon Goose, how to rhyme using some of her famous nursery rhymes.

In this short parody, Wegman plays an earnest drawing professor — a character that recalls television's Mr. Rogers — who demonstrates to Mark Magill's eager student how all drawing is based on "natural shapes" and how one can "learn by doing." Employing the stylistic conventions of a low-budget television "how-to" show, Wegman and Magill parody the notion of artistic instruction.

Artists Michael Smith and William Wegman — both of whom use conceptual humor as an art-making strategy — collaborated on this satirical commentary on photography, the process of image-making, and the interchange of "high" art and "low" culture. The tape is structured as an instructional guide that advances the "slice of life" method, imparting not only technique, but attitude and approach to the subject of photography. Wegman plays the world-weary artiste, a professional photographer who takes the innocent and earnest Mike under his tutelage. The business of art, the "reality" of the photographic image, and its pervasive role in contemporary culture are among the issues that receive irreverent treatment in this comedic collaboration.

From 1970-1977 William Wegman created some of the most innovative and important works in the history of video. These early pioneering tapes were created using minimal technology and a few studio props, including Wegman’s canine companion, Man Ray. Consisting of 130 works, some no longer than a television commercial, blurred the boundaries between high and low art as well as art and commerce, and have become a major chapter in the histories of contemporary art and film. This exhaustive compilation has been assembled by the artist with restored material and it contains all nine original reels as well as two later reels. Classics such as Pocketbook Man, Milk/Floor, Stomach Song, Cape On, Stick and Tooth, Spelling Lesson, Dog Duet, Man Ray, Do You Want to? Are included.