KTEH - The Lain Premiere

So, I was asked to look into it and I didn't think there was anything, but... surprise! There was. Donation segments from the U.S. television premiere of Serial Experiments Lain. The third segment is cut off early because of a recording accident.
There's a surprising amount of gold packed in here though, from Tom Fanella lamenting that it couldn't be aired subbed to him throwing shade at the unnamed cable channel that wouldn't pick it up. RIP Tom, PBS and television in general could use more dedicated people of taste like you.

[@ringkunmori]

Dude looking like the Einstein of Anime

[@sour_789]

Thomas Edward Fanella, what a legend. How he would be amazed by the sheer ubiquity of anime in modern culture, and here he is being an early pioneer and advocate for the medium. We owe so much to people like him... may he rest in peace.

[@bluebaron6858]

He's gone?

[@hydreg]

@@bluebaron6858 He died in 2007.

[@lightyagami3492]

@@hydreg RIP 🙏

[@onthespoke2]

Inside you there are two wolves: one is an old man holding a VHS tape, the other is a naked 14-year-old

[@CrappyMusic-cb6bl]

THERE IS? I GOTTA GET EM OUT

[@shokkushock]

The visual of a naked lain with this guy talking about how they tried so hard to obtain it is kind of funny

[@TotallyRadicalShow]

It is so bizarre to see anime be talked about in this way on US television. Truly a unique time capsule. Thank you for preserving it.

[@SakuraStardust]

I love this so much. Tom was a real one.

[@Sara-never1]

Ayyyyyyy sup

[@earthwormjim91]

I find him so inspiring what a legend a true OG in every sense I so badly wish he could see what he helped create with how mainstream anime has become

[@internationalchannel4life270]

Serial Experiments Lain was such a fit to air in KTEH San Jose since San Jose is often called "The Heart Of Silicon Valley".

[@Rachel-Pham]

Im from San Jose can confirm

[@doomsic3942]

Facts again from San Jose

[@tobykassulke2385]

Finished watching Lain yesterday. He's not wrong about it being one of the best and unusual. Idk much about american TV but this is really funny, seeing this older guy talking about anime and asking for donations.

[@romevang]

The TV station he was on was publicly funded via donations (PBS stations as they’re known in the US), so shows like these at that time probably weren’t cheap to air on television. Given this is probably the mid to late 1990s, Anime was no where near as popular as it is today. I suspect this was a gamble on the channels part, spear headed by the host.

[@emmastarr5242]

Like...this guy was so genuinely passionate about importing and playing anime on his block, back when Pokemon was like the only anime normal people knew about ;_; I'd love to track him down just to chat and thank him, but he died in 2007, apparently. 😔

[@forgottenmma3694]

The donations were to pay the license fee to air it

[@Pleppit]

I’m proud to say this is how I originally watched Lain. It was late at night in the early 2000s.

[@DiegoMantilla]

Did he always appear after every episode, or it was just these three times in the video? Did the series go well and got good reception at that time?

[@greenswing7681]

​@@DiegoMantilla he did say that the third episode was his final chance on encouraging watchers to become members, he very likely only showed up during the first three episodes

[@TheKing60210]

Were you in the Bay Area

[@Pleppit]

@@TheKing60210I watched it in Walnut Creek

[@TheKing60210]

I live in Minnesota, wish our station was cool like yours lol

[@kennylauderdale_en]

This channel is a treasure. Thank you so much!

[@dechefmane3526]

I love your videos and Lain

[@Set2Wumbo]

Sup Kenny This guy was instrumental in introducing me to anime back in the day- thanks to him I got to experience Tenchi Muyou before it made it to Toonami!

[@minnmaxxing6432]

That is such a fuckin vibe for it to be aired in SILICON VALLEY lmao.

[@jacket6010]

Genuinely convinced me to go watch Lain

[@ThomasEarp]

Was it worth the watch?

[@brownpaperbag1651]

@@ThomasEarprespectfully I’ll answer on their behalf - Yes. It’s something that everybody should watch at least once in their lifetime

[@heyheyhey33351]

​@@ThomasEarp It really is a work of art. If I could make a comparison, it would be David Lynch meets The Matrix.

[@kugelblitzkrieg]

⁠@@heyheyhey33351 Funny you say that cause the Matrix is quite literally inspired by 80’s-90’s sci-fi anime, Lain being one of them.

[@Jekyl99999]

@@kugelblitzkrieg Matrix was more inspired more by Ghost in the Shell, it premiered in 1999, just one year after original broadcast of Lain in TV Tokyo

Never underestimate the power of public television! I’m not in the area but I could become a KTEH member if they’re still airing anime.

[@yukonjack2891]

you missed the mark by a few decades. remember this walrus schilling some anime for dummies like book for high donators.

@@yukonjack2891 I had a hunch they weren’t doing it anymore. That’s why I said “if”.

[@johnwenzel2756]

This guy is a chad

[@yukonjack2891]

double chin walrus men chads are every incels nightmare.

[@thrwwyaccnt123]

He seems to be a very nice man

[@ilovechuuyaa]

guys, nakedness symbolizes purity. i think its very obvious that it isn’t supposed to be sexual in an anime like this.

[@JJR93]

I know Cowboy Bebop aired on cable tv which is how I first saw it & fell in love but pretty amazing there was a domestic PBS station airing anime content like this back then....

[@KMO325]

Count me among the folks who thought Lain was introduced to the US via Anime Unleashed (Tech/G4 TV). One of my favorite anime that seems to only be known through obscure anime programming blocks😅

[@matty6878]

same. when i saw this clip in kenny lauderdales video i recognized the lain cover immediately but then i thought this couldnt be techTV's anime unleashed. sure enough it debuted much earlier. what a trip. i was barely into anime myself around this time but that was when i was introduced to pokemon and whenever cowboy bebop first ran on adult swim. truly ahead of the curve.

[@anothersphere]

Yep I always thought G4/Tech TV did it first. Maybe...roughly same time frame as Silent Mobius? I was working in a Circuit City and REX Electronics around then, often changed what tv channels I could and let it play in at least one corner.

[@baashasucks]

As an anime fan from New Zealand who was born in 2002, shit like this is invaluable to me. I'll never understand what the experience of consuming Japanese media in the West really was in the 90s and 2000s, but these otherwise throwaway pieces of media are such important pieces of insight into a time that will never happen again. A time, place, and experience that is insanely relevant to the one I and many others have today. We stand on shoulders, even in the most mundane and "meaningless" senses of the term. Anime was just not a thing in mainstream NZ culture until digital TV and the internet became commonplace in the early 2000s, and even then, I was little and can't speak to that experience firsthand. My cousin is several years older than me, and she can relate to the millennial American otaku experience, and it was still looked at as a rly weird hobby up until around 2016, 2017 (in my experience). Even though I was very internet literate for a five year old, I was still a small child and I'm definitely a product of my era, in the sense of media consumption.

[@137thattempt]

They used to play yu-gi-oh, dragonball, beyblade, zoids etc back in the day in the afternoons on public TV here, but I remember watching the cardcaptor sakura dub in the mornings as well, it played with other cartoons on either TV2 or TV3. This would’ve been around 2004-2006 at a vague guess.

[@baashasucks]

@@137thattempt I was 4 in 2006 😅😅 I remember seeing Yugioh, Beyblade and Bakugan on local TV and Cartoon Network playing Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece in the evenings. The internet is really responsible for my taste in anime, though. My aunt taught me how to use the internet and KZbin in particular, I was 5 and she was 13. I found full subbed episodes of Rozen Maiden and Soul Eater and was stoked, and then when _I_ was 13, I came across the Lain dub. Been my #1 ever since, but for different reasons as I get older.

[@manintheline5331]

The lain ending showing at pbs is so uncanny, especially how lain in the ending is naked

[@MagillanicaLouM]

On PBS? That's hardcore

[@Frustratia]

Wow! Lain was shown on public access tv? Awesome. I loved this series. Such a grimdark mindfxxk.

[@metaColin]

I’m so jealous. My childhood PBS affiliate definitely didn’t show anything this awesome. I was lucky if they showed the occasional episode of Black Adder or Monty Python.

[@yvngxd3xth]

If my pbs just played lain and not downton abbey I would definitely watch it

[@TheKing60210]

I wish he was still here. Would have loved if an Anime Review youtuber did an interview with him and talked about the memes and how the station took interest in Anime Culture. RIP Tom

[@oneinawaffle]

I love this guy! Tom was spreading the gospel, he knew about these amazing shows and tried his hardest to get them across. People like this are incredibly important to the early anime scene.

[@eggroll8984]

Man, this fooking crazy. Too cool.

[@DPTigre]

I was so glad that KTEH managed to show a lot of these shows, basically how I ended up getting into Anime.

[@gamertime4949]

common PBS W

[@Alfenium]

PBS Bros... we just keep winning!

[@kerblam]

i thought tom fanella was still alive! but now ive realized his appearances on TV were on reruns of older programs with the fundraising footage intact. (or i could be making that up, my memory is fuzzy). RIP. i saw evangelion for the first time when PBS aired it. that was amazing. wish i saw lain when it was aired too.

[@Clasped003]

Brings back memories. Bay area anime premieres. I am so luck to have lived in this era. Anime was so beautiful and mysterious back then.

[@donaldmarcato7003]

I am finally watching Lain for the first time after finding the sub on Funimation. Thanks for saving this piece of history. ❤

[@IAmAndrew1]

This is genuinely incredible

[@victor_.]

Rest in Peace Tom

[@XxLIVRAxX]

Awesome video! We got Serial Experiment Lain in Latam in 2001 through the young adult animation channel Locomotion (1996-2005).

[@donaldmouseforsaturn]

ooooh, would be cool to see how the intro looks like in these old recordings

[@Malcadon]

Oh hell yeah! I used to watch that station for those show. Uncut and mostly sub! The anime was so hot, it drowned out the BBC sci-fi shows! And this was a station that LOVES their BBC sci-fi! At the time it was a big deal! Also, they aired the first gay kiss on TV, before Ellen, with 'Please Save My Earth' (and maybe also that Tenchi Muyo time & space adventure?).

[@MetalAlchemist18]

Wish this was still a thing that PBS stations would do. Probably way better than whatever crap the're pushing now.

[@venangoproductions]

They really can’t anymore, first of all, FCC rules, second PBS funding is way down from what it used to be

[@DIEGhostfish]

@@venangoproductions They kept doing really terrible things and getting cut.

[@v1zdr1x]

@@DIEGhostfish what things?

[@carlcarlington7317]

Pbs is fucking amazing. They might not air anime do to the cost of licensing anime in America going up but they do have independent film festivals, great documentaries, and a bunch of underrated gems.

[@ventriloquistmagician4735]

@@v1zdr1x woke things

[@ryanandrew7064]

I miss the 90s

[@yukonjack2891]

no - this was like 2000.

[@snowfrosty1]

@@yukonjack2891 The years 2000/2001 were still "the 90s" in our respective W.E.I.R.D.(+) societies. More particularly it was prime Y2K era. According to the OP though, this was aired during the late summer of 2001.

[@yukonjack2891]

Thomas Edward Fanella will live on forever in Please Save My Girth fan fiction. KTEH/Tenchi -Forever!

[@SirKillington88]

Sadly I never got to enjoy this when it was new! Thank you for sharing this with us 🙏

[@metalmugen]

Absolutely based

[@adamquek1095]

Thanks for sharing! You're so awesome!

[@judacia]

I've been trying to find this for years. A boyfriend introduced me to Ranma and this program, but I couldn't remember the name.

[@JohnSpicebag]

had this as a video on my drive, looked for it and finally found it I might watch this now may this man rest in peace Edit: have watched all of Lain! I really liked it! If you haven't watched it you definitely should

[@emmastarr5242]

I wish my PBS affiliate was like this ;_;

[@yukonjack2891]

mine was not - none the less - KTEH still broadcast free anime in my home, way up north past SF. We had public access Marin 31 as well. Probably got quite a few of these stations back in the day, probably the peek years of the dying medium. it was pretty special. Urusei Yatsura and Please Save My Earth -were my favorites.

[@robosy_9421]

Hello Based department

[@Eltipoquevisteayer]

This is literally "we need you to save Lain, so take out your credit card now"

[@emmoony]

F-it I’m watching Lain, this convinced me

[@CookieThug]

this video is so beautiful… tom is the goat

[@ToasterNinja]

Thank you

[@LCTapps]

Rest well Tom

[@kreamycat9312]

Why can’t I be a nerd from California in the late 90s-early 2000s

[@Timic83tc]

why does this look like a church broadcast

[@SlapStyleAnims]

Let’s all love Lain

[@otaking3582]

Wish my local PBS station aired anime. All KERA has to brag about is bringing Monty Python's Flying Circus to America...

[@cesarrex99]

Sadly that in my country Lain wasn't ever released on television

[@Tru5t]

I loved anime night on Kteh. Very nostalgic to see this fundraiser.

[@Jaminsongunner]

This man is a hero

[@matiasfpm]

I did not know Einstein sell Anime in his free time 😂😂😂😂😂

[@CookieThug]

US television premiere… Tom is the best

[@ioritz444]

crazy piece of history

[@theuberman7170]

LAAAAIINNNN.

[@carterf7025]

this man is the very embodiment of male masculinity

[@ApocalypseMoose]

Its so weird knowing you were able to watch Serial Experiments Lain on the same channel as Teletubbies and Sesame Street and Antiques Roadshow.

[@invincible98]

Pretty cool

[@davidtollefson8411]

Lain is everywhere.

[@Jacob-bm6wb]

proud san jose history

[@kelsey1406]

The Weeb King of Anime.

[@theuberman7170]

So odd. They were so ahead of their time.

[@ishmael802]

PBS and Pioneer had a solid relationship

[@madcat4563]

I found that clip.

[@shadowmist9093]

Honestly epic

[@ComfortsSpecter]

Amazing History So Comfortful

[@animeist72]

This anyone know when this would air? Late night? Evening?

[@OtakuD50]

Sunday nights, usually around 9:00 IIRC.

[@mmchig3707]

I love his vibe idk

[@itsallgoodman8867]

*inhales* layyyyne

[@MrAnonymousme10]

Lmao i love how they show lain's naked body in US TV with an old dude

[@ilovechuuyaa]

nakedness symbolizes purity.

[@alezygal]

Lain...!

[@VectorGhost]

Truely the original weeb

[@CDJAM-webm]

0:09

[@malandrocasdomine777]

eu quero comprar

[@rafaelmauricio8000]

This was on PBS?! LOL im thinking it's a joke.

[@GoldenDaggerProductions]

I'm sure this wasn't a joke. WNYC also aired obscure non PBS programming including programming from SinoVision China and RAI Italia up until it got bought out and dropped PBS.

[@maclura]

how is this real

[@yukonjack2891]

because those times as like a California sophomore highschooler were pretty surreal. like Fast Time at Ridgemont High, Bill & Ted, and the wild west of cyberspace - the way we consumed media back in the day. sneaking free into the movie theatre each week, exploiting Block Buster's satisfaction guarantee, cheap or free internet through services like Juno - generous cheap Viacom cable with many channels after the free extension -tripling them. You could just watch endless free media long before the internet had the bandwidth or site infrastructure, which was important then - because buying PlayStation 1 games and new systems on release day was expensive.

[@yukonjack2891]

what was even more surreal was ditching out of class to go sit on film sets in the city when they were developing Nash Bridges - in addition to everything thing else - like actually stepping inside the tv set. watching a lot of films back-to-back in theatres without the risk of covid - after a while felt like you were living in them - even more surreal a few years later at that time working as a projectionist at the same mall multiplex.

[@Utsubu]

What year was this?

[@christianluchetta3106]

I believe this was around 2000-2002. Lain came out in 1998 and I think the VHS came out in 1999 here in the US, so maybe 2001 is my best guess.

[@DaveTravelsinTime]

I remember him good times miss those when I was a kid not the same anymore

[@OtakuD50]

I don't know the exact date, but it was either end of August or beginning of September 2001.

[@yukonjack2891]

@@DaveTravelsinTime not the same and very insane. feels like all gravity has been lost - spinning out into space.

[@ymdtaro]

おっさんがlainのvhs持ってんのがいい味出てる

[@SailorMoonFan92]

'One of the best animes' lol Lain sucks

[@Dahve99]

Just so you are aware, opinions are not fact and it's almost impossible for something to be objectively bad.

[@SailorMoonFan92]

@@Dahve99 meh, girl with split personality disorder is stalked by weird men who make her in to God of the internet. Made no sense whatsoever. I remember being so excited to watch it and when it finally aired in my country I remember being so bitterly disappointed by it and felt like I had wasted five hours of my life. I was a young teenager at the time and if I go back now I might think differently. Her teddy bear pyjamas and her sister going crazy and thinking she's an internet modem trying to connect are the only parts I actually remember liking.

[@kamberaung9443]

​@@SailorMoonFan92 dude..u r so serious talking about "make sense" in term of anime .tell me what is make sense in fiction story?That sailor moon in your pfp..is that make sense to you??

[@SailorMoonFan92]

@@kamberaung9443 Sailor Moon is very easy to understand lol Girl with magic powers fights against evil . Lain? Not many people can even explain what it's about.

[@kamberaung9443]

@@SailorMoonFan92 u have talked about "make sense",tell me further abt it..coz i don't see that magical girl is make sense

[@d7mf3j]

this is one of my favorite things I have ever seen