The Groove Tube

The Groove Tube (1974)'s "Channel One Evening News" skit and its tagline, 'Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow,' was the direct inspiration for "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live (1975). Chevy Chase, the original Weekend Update anchorman, was featured in this film, although Ken Shapiro played the Channel One anchorman in the movie.

Feature film debut of Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer.

Chevy Chase appears in just a few segments, all of them short sketches. One appearance is just his fingers. Because Chase became a huge star later, he often gets top billing on the film's DVD and home video covers.

"Movies on TV and Videocassette" stated that this film "started out life in an off-Broadway showcase where the sketches were seen on TV screens". Further, according to Wikipedia, "the film was originally produced to be shown at the Channel One Theater on East 60th St. in New York, a venue that featured R-rated video recordings shown on three television sets, which was a novelty to the audiences of the time". Moreover, according to the "Virgin Film Guide", "The Groove Tube was an outgrowth of 'Channel One', a comedy troupe (in an off-Broadway experimental multimedia theater) formed in 1967, by (Ken) Shapiro, Lane Sarasohn, and Chevy Chase. Instead of performing live, they videotaped parodies of TV, and showed them in a ratty theater in Greenwich Village. (Chase left early on, and was replaced by Richard Belzer). After touring a collection of Channel One's best bits to colleges, Shapiro transferred them to film, and assembled this movie."

The DVD sleeve notes declare that this movie was a "prototype for Saturday Night Live (1975)" and a "predecessor to The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)".