We Destroy the Family: Punks vs Parents (1982)

"We Destroy the Family: Punks vs Parents" (1982)
I originally uploaded this in 2008, but here is a higher-resolution version for you.
Back in 1982, local LA station KABC ran a 5-part special report on punk rock. You know the sort of thing -- part 1 airs on Monday, part 2 on Tuesday, etc. Each day's report lasts only a few minutes with a teaser for the next day's segment. Typically a sensationalized subject matter to get you to tune into their newscast instead of their competitors. And during the last segment they pretty much admit that there is more hype than substance to the issue (in this case, reminding parents that every generation has kids who like to rebel against them and/or society, and that not every punk lyric is meant to be taken literally).
Shortly after this first aired, KABC added some more footage and padded this thing out to 22 minutes (to fit into a 30 min TV slot) and then aired it very late at night (only once, if I'm not mistaken). I think this was done to make it eligible for a local TV award or something.
So, yeah, there's a lot of stupid stuff said during this short documentary, but at the same time it's pretty entertaining. And some nice vintage footage of Fear in concert to boot. So how can you lose?

[@Brewzerr]

“Maybe it’s just a phase all these kids are going through”. Nope. Still going through it in my 50’s.

[@tuskedbeast]

That family is a Raymond Pettibon drawing come to life.

[@themadmattster9647]

Haha yeah

[@apollocobain8363]

Thanks for posting this KABC punksploitation piece! I am researching for a screenplay set in OC in this era that will play up the suburban facade, the codependencies and the other things that made punk a great musical and artistic medium to cut through the bullshit. This brings back some more specific memories and has some great fodder for dialog. Just noting some time sigs: 09:35 Dad: I could only read a couple pages before I felt sick...like this is what she has done with my trust....I read letters from Ronnie's GF and brought her father over to read them 10:38 Boy: They say how we broke their trust -- we never had their trust. 10:50 Dad: They told him that my fixation for football is I'm trying to live my life through him and be the football player that I never was, etc etc. which is a lot of BS. (No it isn't and you still have the sideburns you had in high school 10 years prior). 19:21 Elijah Wood 20:58 Robbie Benson "It's just a phase" 10 years later Riot Girrrl and Grunge. Bikini Kill "Rebel Girl" 20 years later suburban kids used Gangsta Rap in somewhat the same way eg to freak out their parents and feel like they were different from them.

[@toolooselitrek]

".......you're just hugging a cardboard!!!....." THIS is too good!!!!

[@Iamthemuffinman1244]

That looked like a great show in the beginning of this

[@SwineBrothers]

Man this family is creepy. Not the kids, but the parents.

[@mkproductions2.042]

no kidding

[@marthashaffer8295]

Thanks! It was cool seeing Dead Todd again.

[@lagooncity39]

That dive at 1:45 is heroic.

[@robertkubicki126]

Hell yeah

[@TheFantod]

11:57 Social Distortion doing "Under My Thumb." 14:41 - The Original Hank Hill???

[@tymetodothis8378]

Hysteria of yesteryear, I remember it well. Of course they had to profile somebody like Fear, as opposed to DOA or Husker Du or the Dead Kennedys, who were relatively constructive and positive.

[@themadmattster9647]

I like the dads sideburns. Looks like he’s an aging horrorbilly guy lol

[@mkproductions2.042]

Reminds me of Boris Karloff lol

[@mkproductions2.042]

Punk rock is not dead in London no way! It might in America's New York though.

[@Dantemadison]

Yes, punk is alive everywhere. The media has been claiming "punk is dead" ever since Sid Vicious died 40 years ago. They wanted it "over" by 1980, so they could neatly file it away as "a fad of the 1970s." But of course its still alive. It just doesn't get the media attention because the hype (seen in news reports like this) are ridiculous. Same stupid hype the media gave to rock 'n' roll back in the 50s. The media has moved on to other issues they can exploit for ratings.

[@thec.e.oofbasedindustries8013]

12:58 you can literally see the giant red X on the t shirt 💀

[@jasonharris5279]

Is that one father the bus driver for trip with the teacher movie?

[@fallennation7861]

I'd have a beer with Fear

[@ChinWah77]

Little bit a Kim Wilde in there towards the end lol

[@jeffreysteiner5006]

Narrator (6:50) - “Punk started in England…”. 😵‍💫🤣😂

[@Vice_Spiel]

Those woman's eyes tell a different story

[@timothyzaal4906]

look out, it's not a trend! evidently...

[@omnithrope]

"what to look for" ha. Like it's a disease.

[@dedmex666]

16:28 ye

[@Moneytane1976]

Stop worrying, in a few years they will all be into death metal and shit like Judas Priest and Cannibal Corpse

[@mkproductions2.042]

lol

[@themadmattster9647]

Well I’m into both metal and punk

[@mkproductions2.042]

@@themadmattster9647 Me too & my name is Matt too! lol

[@kylecrutcher4588]

Punk started in America, then England

[@Dantemadison]

That's my feeling as well. Punk was an offshoot of '60s "garage rock" bands like The Seeds and The Music Machine. Just raw rock 'n' roll. Then Iggy and the Velvet Underground and the NY Dolls took it to different levels, leading to Television, the Dictators and Ramones. What the British kids did was to create the "punk look" and to give the genre a name (although the bands sounded so different, musically, in those early years -- it's more like "punk" was an attitude more than an actual genre or style of music). I mean, the English had some great bands, but they were all influenced by those early 70s New York bands. The kids in England were into Bowie and that whole Glam Rock scene. Richard Hell had the original punk "look" and the English kids took that and gave it a glam twist and gave punk its fashion/style. Great punk music all over the world, but yeah, that original New York scene of the early 70s was truly the catalyst and birthplace of punk rock. But I do give credit to the English for "dressing it up" and putting their own spin on it. I guess Vivienne Westwood was a big part of that...

[@bigchrisa44]

I can’t believe he said Punk started in England. Hahahah!! It started in New York by The Ramones. Everybody knows that.

[@stevegilmore2093]

it was started by the stooges in 1969.

[@Spectrescup]

As a mass youth movement, which is what this clip is referring to, it started in England.

[@known_unknown284]

Did Lee Ving work for the CIA? Seriously tho...

[@joel8750]

He was helping out with MKUltra. Their music was metaphysical LSD.

[@known_unknown284]

@@joel8750 Honestly though, it's pretty weird. This middle aged Vietnam war vet just shows up on the scene from out of nowhere (Philly/NYC), starts this kind of odd punk band, and within like two years he's hobnobbing with movie stars like it's the most natural thing in the world, and then after that he actually regularly appears in major motion pictures for some reason (I mean, he has kind of an interesting face but is there an easy to understand reason why they picked him instead of just some random extra type for all of those parts?). It's quite strange. Is there anyone else with a story that matches up with even one of those individual elements?

[@joel8750]

@@known_unknown284 I was joking, but I replied because I know what you mean. Lee was probably just under 30 when he started the band. He apparently had a wife and child when he started it with Derf. If Derf were alive, he could probably elaborate more on what you are expressing. Why he picked LA at that time and place, and chose to go to the Masque and start a band in his late 20s, isn’t conventional. It could be the right time and right place for most of those situations. It doesn’t hurt to dig a little deeper.

[@MarshallApplewhite143]

sad pathetic parents..

[@jimbothompson6540]

"A bunch of middle class teens"... All seem kinda spoiled now here in CA we don't even have a middle class, reduced to third world status, but those kids were obsessed with rebellion not this generation though... Demographics couldn't possibly play a role either... "I don't want to bring another living being into this world" could you imagine a hispanic thinking such altruistic ideas? Nope it's 3 kids by 19, you cant have punk rock when everyone is a parent, which also explains the death of rock culture in los angeles

[@robertmcbain6247]

No shit you're from California making statements like that. The vast majority of my Hispanic friends don't have a single kid but then again we're smarter here on the east coast.

[@kookadams85]

Punkrock was Never supposed to be a political/fashion movement, that's what ruined it. Was supposed to be rockNroll renaissance. REAL punk was/is the Ramones, Surf Punks, Dickies, Fear etc. 🇺🇲🎼