A Tribute to The Late Great Uncle Floyd, TV Cult Hero Featured Performances By Ramones, Misfits, Paul Simon, Jon Bon Jovi

The death of Florio “Floyd” Vivino, better known as Uncle Floyd, on Jan. 22 at the age of 74 marked the final chapter of one of the more unusual careers in show business at a time when the platforms for live broadcast music and comedy were still nascent. The Uncle Floyd Show was a cult classic TV show that ran 24 years, from 1974 to 1998 on New Jesey cable, broadcast and UHF channels. The low-budget variety show featured such major artists as The Ramones, Misfits, Paul Simon, Blue Oyster Cult,  Cyndi Lauper, The Smithereens, Jon Bon Jovi, Squeeze, NRBQ, R. Stevie Moore, Joe Jackson and The New York Dolls’ David Johansen most often lip-syncing to their recorded tracks.

Vivino, a Patterson, a New Jersey native, was also the older brother to Jimmy and Jerry Vivino, musicians and former members of The Max Weinberg 7 featured on “The Conan O’Brien’s Show.” His passing sparked numerous reminiscences from the rock & roll community, including from Jon Bon Jovi, who credited Floyd with his first-ever TV booking, as well as the Smithereens and Dramarama, two New Jersey bands who also made their television debuts on the show.

Back in ‘70s and ‘80s, the show became a must-see with fans reportedly including John Lennon, who hipped both David Bowie and Iggy Pop to the program, with Bowie later immortalizing the host on his song “Slip Away,” from his 2002 album Heathen, referencing his puppets Oogie and Bones. “Twinkle twinkle, Uncle Floyd,” croons Bowie. “We were dumb, but you were fun, boy/How I wonder where you are.” The show also turned out to be a major influence on Howard Stern’s radio-as-clubhouse as well as Paul Reuben’s Pee-Wee Herman kids show character.

Among the acts who performed on the Uncle Floyd Show beyond The Ramones, who appeared more than 20 times, were Jan and Dean, Gary U.S. Bonds, Bob Geldof, The Monkees’ Peter Tork, Shrapnel, Marshall Crenshaw, Bananarama, the Smothers Brothers, Rachel Sweet, Eddie Money and Tiny Tim, many of them also participating in the show’s wacky sketches. The David Bowie story was also recounted by Floyd in Chris Wilcha’s 2023 documentary Flipside, about a New Jersey record store where the director once worked as a teenager.

Jesse Malin of D Generation and the former venue Coney Island Babe in the East Village was one of the artists who took to Facebook to sing Vivino’s praises, “Floyd and his pals on his TV program every night at 6 o’clock brought so much joy it shaped who I am to this day.”

A musicologist and talented piano player, who favored loud plaid suits, a bow-tie and a checked fedora, Floyd’s comedic influences included Soupy Sales, Ernie Kovacs, Buster Keaton and Lou Costello, while his musical tastes tended towards Jimmy Durante, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima and Fats Waller.

The Uncle Floyd Show, a low-budget kiddie’s show parody featuring his piano-playing, puppets, comedy bits, off-camera laughter from the crew and plenty of vaudeville shtick. The show started airing daily on a UHF channel in Newark, New Jersey and was carried on Cablevision in the tristate area before becoming nationally syndicated in 1982 to 17 markets, including WNBC in New York. It began as a late night program running at 1:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, but soon changed to a once a week after Saturday Night Live.

That’s when Joel Gallen, former MTV production chief and current producer of the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, now on Disney+, came aboard The Uncle Floyd Show for one of his first jobs out of the ICM mailroom in 1982, a gig he secured after meeting Rob Light while booking acts as a student at the University of Rhode Island.

Gallen learned about producing a TV show on the fly, while also booking musical acts, all for the paltry sum of $18,000 a year, with a budget of about $10,000 per one-hour episode when it reached syndication, where it ran weekly.

Joel recalled booking Blue Öyster Cult on the Floyd show with manager Sandy Pearlman after telling him that the band’s forerunner Stalk-Forrest Group (soon to become Soft White Underbelly) once played his bar mitzvah in Rockville Centre, Long Island. He also took a limousine to pick up Paul Simon for his appearance because he was afraid the singer-songwriter wouldn’t find his way to the remote Newark studio where it was shot. Simon, one of the few who didn’t lip-sync, played a live acoustic-version of “Slip Slidin’ Away,” then took part in a spoof of the TV show, The Millionaire, dubbed The Billionaire.

“So many artists wanted to do the show,” recalled Gallen. “They always had fun when they came on. It was a promotion stop for many touring acts back then when they hit the New York area. I met my current boss at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Joel Peresman, because he was Marshall Crenshaw’s agent at the time.”

At the height of his notoriety, Floyd had a fan club with nearly 13,000 members and even released The Uncle Floyd Show album on Mercury Records in 1983 – where he was signed by PolyGram exec Jerry Jaffe — featuring parody songs like “T for Turnpike” and “Deep in the Heart of Jersey.” Vivino also had bit parts in movies like Good Morning Vietnam, where he was reportedly a major influence on Robin Williams’ character, Paul Simon’s One Trick Pony, though his role as a nightclub manager landed on the cutting room floor, and in Insane Clown Posse’s 2000 movie Big Money Hustlas. He also appeared on several TV series, including Law & Order and Cosby.

Floyd continued playing piano at several dive bars in New Jersey until his death, including a stint at his own restaurant, operated out of a Holiday Inn in Wayne, New Jersey. Floyd hosted several radio shows featuring his vast record collection, including Italian music and garage sale finds, as well as frequent appearances on former Sopranos star Vincent “Big Pussy” Pastore’s The Wiseguys Show on SiriusXM’s Raw Dog channel. In 1999, he set a Guinness World Record by playing piano continuously for 24 hours and 15 minutes, and in 2009 and 2017, ran as a write-in candidate for Governor of New Jersey, where he was one of the state’s favorite iconic sons alongside Bruce Springsteen and Tony Soprano.

“I had no idea of the Uncle Floyd Show’s impact,” marveled Gallen. “Until I saw all these people posting about him after his death.”