Doors TV Appearances: 1969 & 1970

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The Doors TV shows 1969.

1969 was a disaster for The Doors as far as TV appearances went.
Already considered too much trouble by TV companies the events in Miami pretty much ended any chance of The Doors appearing on any kind of mainstream TV in the US.
Radio stations joined in and refused to play Doors singles which meant the singles from The Soft Parade were hamstrung before they even started.
Considering Touch Me was a hit in 1969 and the album reached #6 in the Billboard chart it showed The Doors still had a substantial audience even without radio/TV.

January 25th, 1969: Beat Club. Radio Bremen/WDR West Germany
Their first TV slot came in the New Year when West German TV remembered them from the previous years German concert.

West German monthly TV show Beat-Club included a few minutes of The Doors gig at the Kongreßhalle Frankfurt on September 14th.
How much was filmed is not known but some scraps from Five To One & Light My Fire made it into the broadcast.

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April 28th, 1969. PBS Critique WNET Studios, Studio 55, New York NY



The PBS Critique series brought The Doors into their studio to record the musical section to an hour long special titled
"A Profile of Jim Morrison and The Doors - On And Off Stage".

Jim Morrison had publicly railed against his group being '& The Doors' most famously making an announcer go back and introduce the band properly.
But by this time The Doors took anything that they were offered. Unfortunately this was it for 1969 as nobody would touch them on mainstream TV.
The band were allowed to choose the set they played, obviously within the constraints of a TV studio featuring retakes and such as can be seen from the photos/screenshots.

Morrison's pal Frank Lisciando was present and responsible for many of the photos that exist, placing quite a few in his magnificent book An Hour For Magic.
AHFM started the idea that the band played Light My Fire on Critique ### see next page
“The Hall Owners Association had a little newsletter that they passed around to each other all around the country. It said, ‘Don’t hire the dirty Doors.’ Convicted until proven innocent.
John Densmore

Hosted by Richard Goldstein of Village Voice fame it was to feature songs from their new LP The Soft Parade including the only known complete recorded version of the title track.
Unfettered by censors it also featured the non album track Build Me A Woman/Sunday Trucker which certainly would never have received interest from TV/Radio.
A Q&A was included that was recorded the next day 29th April and in May a panel was filmed discussing The Doors that would complete the special that was to be broadcast in June 1969.
The episode was shown in various cities and states at varying dates over a 6 month period hence the difference in the dates of the newspaper cuttings.
New York in June 1969 and Los Angeles (for a second time) January 1970.
The atmosphere seemed quite laidback and Jim is seen smoking cigars both during the interview segment and even whist performing.


“Jim was feeling the pressures of Miami when we did this show. He hadn’t even gone to trial yet, and all the charges were pending. If he were to be convicted on the four charges filed against him, he would be spending up to three and a half years in Raiford State Penitentiary in Dade County, Florida. Jim was scared.”
Ray Manzarek

“That was another tough show to do ‘cos there was no audience and it was a cold studio and nobody to play off.”
Robby Krieger


“Jim was very subdued on the PBS show because of the trial and he was sobered by all that but personally I think he was still one foot in the wine vat”
John Densmore



19-6-1969
The Record, New Jersey


10-7-1969
The Hartford Courant

THE PERFORMANCE






"The version of “Build Me A Woman” here blows all others out of the water. I wonder if Jim kept Robby supplied
with fresh broken bottle or if Robby carried that bottle neck in a case of its own. That glass is dangerous!"
Richard Goldstein





DOORS Q & A
It's amusing during the Q&A as Goldstein (who is gay) was completely star-struck with Jim and barely notices the others who jump in to answer questions posed to Jim.
He looks quite ridiculous even for 1970 wearing what seems to be Bela Lugosi's vampire cloak and whoever styled his hair should have been sacked.
For once Robby did not have the worst hair in the room.
Ray gets a mention of Jim's poetry in there as well holding up Jim's self published version of The New Creatures.
There's a lot of talk about how their audience came for the 'religious' experiences which frankly has gone too far 50 odd years on.
It's an interesting interview especially when Jim makes his legendary (and correct) future of music prediction.








Ad dated 21st December 1969 in Cashbox Magazine for the Tell All The People single directly linked with the Critique programme to be broadcast in Los Angeles January 1970.


26-10-1969
The Modesto Bee.
Modesto CA notes the programme will be shown in Sacramento CA in November.


STUDIO DISCUSSION

The panel discussion consists of Goldstein, pop/rock journalists Patricia Keneally & Alfred G. Aronowitz and DJ William 'Rosko' Mercer of WNEW-FM.
Al Aronowitz makes the bold prediction that The Doors are just a fad and will be forgotten in a year.
In his defence the band was being ravaged by Miami and were shunned by TV & Radio, critics were divided on Soft Parade and a section of their fanbase was not pleased with the new LP thinking it was too poppy and not The Doors sound.
So it was not beyond the bounds of possibility The Doors were in their death throes. Thankfully he was wrong and he is now considered an idiot for putting forward such a proposition.



“It’s so funny now listening to that panel discussion. There’s this one guy is so sure that we’re just going to be a flash in the pan and that no one will ever hear about us after another year. He was convinced that we would never influence anyone.”
Robby Krieger

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Did The Doors play Light My Fire on the 1969 PBS Special?


It was believed that the band played Light My Fire during this recording session.
Evidence for that came in Frank Lisciandro's excellent book An Hour For Magic as he devotes a whole section of photos from LMF culminating in the infamous drum slash Morrison inflicts on JD's bass drum Doors logo at the end of the song, with a violent sweeping movement of one of his spare drumsticks.
He later claimed he was mistaken.
BUT Jim attacking John's drumkit is not on any of the PBS video and John's Doors logo seems totally intact throughout the show.



The band did steer clear of 'hits' on the recording so it would be a surprise if they did play that.
But again Frank's excellent montage in An Hour For Magic seem to contradict what we have been told regarding the PBS session.
John who is seen at the start wearing a white jacket but had taken it off later in the session.
But during the interview he was wearing a black polo neck jumper & jacket. It was likely cold in the studio.
After this the band played The Soft Parade he was back with just a shirt.
The photos of the Jim attack show John just wearing that shirt.

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The Doors TV shows 1970.

1st August 1970: Now Explosion WPIX-NY New York
The 1967 CBC programme from Toronto is shown for the first time in the US as part of a special summer series called Now Explosion.

November 1970: GTK (Get To Know) ABC TV Australia. Doors Workshop Los Angeles CA.

PBS Critique was it as far as the 4 man Doors was concerned.
Once the darlings of the media they were considered a joke by many networks and Jim was no longer the teen idol he had once been after getting fat and growing a beard.
They had one last hurrah courtesy of Australian TV's magazine show GTK or Get To Know.
Their ABC crew was in Los Angeles during November 1970 to film various bands and celebrities and they happened by The Doors Workshop during the LAW sessions.



The crew filmed a run through of Crawling King Snake and interviewed Jim Morrison.
Parts of CKS were used in the programme back home but it is not believed the interview was part of it.
It's a shame a Doors song such as The Changeling or Love Her Madly had not been filmed instead of a blues cover.
The complete CKS appeared in time for the bands 40th anniversary releases.




Not once in 1970 or 1971 did US TV court The Doors to appear in a showcase performance and they were reduced to news items generally about Miami or how they were banned from such and such a concert.
The cost of not changing a word on Ed Sullivan, the New Haven incident and Miami laid bare in that between 1968 & 1971 the band appeared twice on US network TV shows.
The Morrison Doors bowed out with a blues cover that nobody in their home country would see for 4 decades.
As the Aussie's might say 'bloody shame'.