I Can't Stop Watching These Old Clips of Bernie Sanders' Cable-Access Show

[brooklynite]

Mother Jones:

After he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981, Bernie Sanders took his message straight to the people via a cable access show called Bernie Speaks. It was a low-budget production. The credits were written in marker by hand; the intro music was a recording of "We Shall Overcome"; there was no script. Now, the station has posted dozens of episodes of Sanders' show, along with poorly lit footage of various mayoral functions and campaign events. The collection captures Sanders at his most unfiltered—and, at times, eccentric. Here's a sampling.

Bernie Goes to the Dump - Featuring a big pile of wood chips, a flock of sea gulls, a really strong sweater, and some cows. This episode is what it sounds like.

Bernie Plays Tennis - This video has no narration. It's just an hour of people playing sports around Burlington, with ambient crowd noise and grunting in the background. At around the 37:50 mark, the cameraman pans away from a soccer game to show the mayor holding court behind him. Why? Why not.

...snip...

Bernie Ruins His Son's Winter Vacation - Normally Bernie held his own microphone. But in December 1987 he was in luck—his oldest son, Levi, was home from college. So Levi held his microphone. For 40 minutes. In addition to looking tired, Levi also looks really cold.

nb - there are videos in the article, but they're not linkable.

[HerbChestnut]

1. Okay, some of those are actually pretty awesome.