Twinkle, Twinkle Uncle Floyd
Remembering the local TV legend and his music legacy
I once asked comedian, local TV legend and Paterson, New Jersey, native Floyd Vivino who was his favorite character he played on his own show — as it turns out, it was the one that everyone thought they knew, Uncle Floyd himself.
When Vivino died last Friday at age 74, tributes poured in about his show, which shifted around from various local New Jersey stations for about two dozen years, starting in 1974, and even briefly got national syndication. Growing up in New Jersey, like many other impressionable youths, I stumbled across Floyd along the TV dial as his show’s nutty antics became an important part of my childhood.
The Uncle Floyd Show was known for its wacky, low-budget atmosphere that included hand puppets and constantly shifting sets while the cast occasionally braved poorly heated studios as Floyd appeared in loud plaid outfits with porkpie hats in tribute to the old vaudeville performers that he loved. The style was what Vivino framed as Commedia dell’arte, an Italian performance style with recurring characters and off-the-cuff dialog. You’d see over-the-top performances from him as Eddie Slobbo (making disgusting food concoctions), Julia Step-Child (who ruined recipes, parodying the famous TV cook), Mr. Grouch (who was always grumpy of course) Joe Frankfurter (his Joe Franklin parody, which brought on a lawsuit), Ubie Smallips (who struggled to speak because of his tiny mouth), plus crazy sketches like Intellectual Digress (parodying William F. Buckley, with scientific demos gone wrong). These were done with frequent heckling from the off-screen cast members and always with Floyd sharing his love of New Jersey and his Italian heritage.
But another vital part of all of the shows was the music, a lot of it coming from Vivino himself but also hundreds of musical guests that he had over the years. Though he couldn’t read music, Vivino could pick up any tune after a few listens and was an exceptional piano player, whose tastes ran from pop, jazz, country, Tin Pan Alley, Broadway tunes and doo-wop, roughly covering much from the 1920s roughly up to the 1960s. Being an nostalgia buff, he preferred the old school upright piano, even having the guts (strings, hammers) hanging out. The start of his show would always include him doing a song and mugging for the camera while the rest of the cast would usually hilariously try to distract or annoy him, which never stopped him from getting to the end of a tune regardless. These piano features would also become centerpieces of his numerous live performances around the tri-state area, too.
That’s not even mentioning the decades-long NY/NJ radio shows that he would do at WFDU, WVIP and WVOX, spinning his favorite old tunes. Not surprisingly, Vivino came from quite a musical family— his uncle Frankie Viv was a songwriter (including Louis Prima’s “Pizza and Beer”) and his brothers Jerry (on sax) and Jimmy (on guitar) would play with him live and on his show many times, as well as both of them being part of Conan O’Brien’s TV show bands. Floyd even had a small but impressive career as an actor, having a few TV and movie roles, including an appearance in the recent Flipside documentary, which I wrote about here. As of late, Floyd was doing an online screening of his old shows at the StageIt site from 2020 right up until the time of his debilitating stroke in 2023, with his old sidekick Scott Gordon taking over the duties since then.
VIDEO: Floyd on piano
Along with his regular piano gymnastics, there were the numerous music-theme skits that you’d see again and again on his show, featuring Floyd himself. Mr. Spooky and Brother Billy Bobby Booper (his televangelist parody) were always heard with keyboards while other characters like Cowboy Charlie, hipster pianist Al Von Gardt and Don Ho Hum (his Don Ho take-off) would do several songs during their bits. Plus, there were skits like the Polish-flavored Polka Show (featuring Floyd on accordion), the Ink Eradicators (an Ink Spots parody) and Senza Parole (pantomimes done to old-timey records) that were regular features too. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Floyd would compose brief intro theme songs for many of the recurring sketches.
VIDEO: Cowboy Charlie on The Uncle Floyd Show
VIDEO: The Polka Show
Even the rest of the cast was overloaded with musical talent. Craig “Mugsy” Calame would do his own singer/songwriter performances as take-off’s — i.e. Wilie Half-Nelson, Bruce Springbean, Neil Yuck, Tom Waste — as well as drumming for polka sketches and much more. Magician Scott Gordon played bass for Cowboy Charlie, drums for Al Von Gardt and many of Floyd’s piano pieces, plus guitar for the Ink Eradicators, among other things.
Richard “Netto” Cornetto would also play guitar and bass for various music-based sketches including a number of Mugsy’s parodies. Also, Charlie Stoddard would play keys for Booper and do the bass narration for the Ink Eradicators. While not musically inclined, Dave Burd would show up to dance with the Ink Eradicators, attempt to play trumpet with the polka band and appeared many times as Marty Baxter, a happy/dippie folkie trying to hawk his many albums and Mr. Face, featuring the dressed-up bottom half of his face upside down, lip synching Cab Calloway songs.
VIDEO: “The Wrestling Song”
And then there were the hundreds of music acts that appeared on the show, some going on to huge fame while many others were local faves who came and went quickly. In the early/mid ‘80s, Bon Jovi and Cyndi Lauper appeared just as their careers were soon about to take off while the already well-established Paul Simon also showed up to perform, too. The Ramones (who name check Floyd on “It’s Not My Place”) and David Johansen were also frequent guests and big boosters of the show.
For such a small, no-frills cable show, the list of other musical guests that performed is pretty jaw-dropping, including (but not limited to) the Blasters, Squeeze, Blue Öyster Cult, Jan and Dean, Peter Tork and Davy Jones of the Monkees, The Roches, Flo and Eddie, NRBQ, Eddie Money, Oingo Boingo, the Boomtown Rats, the Misfits, the Smithereens, Chubby Checker, Dave Edmunds, Phoebe Snow, the Troggs, Marshall Crenshaw, Bananarama and Dramarama (who would later have a cameo clip of Floyd in one of their videos). Since the cast had to tape several shows a day, they rarely had time to set up all the equipment and amps, with most of the acts miming (sometimes hilariously badly) for their performances, despite the fact that he was mostly unaware of most then-modern rock music. Floyd did also love to bring in acts that were more attuned to his love to old-time music including novelty singer Benny Bell, banjo maestro Doc Prentiss and falsetto singer Tiny Tim, who knew the early 1900’s music as well as Floyd himself.
For the bands that Floyd had on, the TV station management required release forms from the groups so the show had to fork over a fee for each act, which became a standard $1, the minimum amount they had to pay them. Importantly, Floyd championed many smaller local bands who never made it big and maybe only made one or two recordings — regardless, he was always upbeat to have them on the show and happy to push their latest records or upcoming club shows. Dave Burd booked many of the bands above for the show and wrote about those adventures recently for my zine, Perfect Sound Forever.
Floyd also had one important musical booster who never appeared on the show. David Bowie was a huge Floyd fan and was tipped off about him by none other than John Lennon, also claiming that Iggy Pop would watch the show with him too. Floyd himself wasn’t familiar with the Thin White Duke at first, with the cast having to remind him that Bowie was a star. At one point, they did ask him to appear as a guest but Bowie was touring at the time and so they couldn’t make it happen. In 2002 however, Bowie would make his most public gesture about his love for Floyd with “Slip Away” from his Heathen album.
AUDIO: David Bowie “Slip Away”
Maybe it wasn’t surprising then that in the past week, Facebook tributes came in for Floyd from Bon Jovi, Jesse Malin, Linda Ramone, the official David Bowie page as well as many fans.
Back in 2018, I met Floyd at an in-store signing for his old buddy and fellow record collector and novelty-lover Dr. Demento. I chatted with Floyd briefly about Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, where I grew up and where he did his cable show from at one time. He still fondly remembered a lot of the stores there and it was so gratifying to speak to a fellow long-time music nut and media star who knew my tiny little town that I left behind.
I’d like to think that a good way to honor and remember Floyd would be to name a concert space which could double as a comedy club after him, to keep the music and merriment going. Just make sure there’s a nice old-school piano there. And of course, it should be in Jersey.
VIDEO: The Uncle Floyd Show: Oogie’s Baby Pictures
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