Before They Were Stars: Gary Busey in “The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting”

Okay, it’s no secret that we can’t get enough of Gary Busey wackiness here at The Back Row, so it’s only appropriate that he finally get his own “Before They Were Stars” feature. For this one, I’m delving deep into the annals of obscurity for an ultra-low budget, late-night TV show from Tulsa, Oklahama called The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting. This show played on local Tulsa television in the early 1970s and featured B-movies, but there were also a lot of comedy skits mixed in with them, and a young, unknown Gary Busey (back when he still looked like a normal human being) just happened to be one of the writers and performers. It’s also worth noting that the host and creator of this program was Gailard Sartain, who went on to have quite a successful career of his own as a character actor in such films as Mississippi Burning, Fried Green Tomatoes and Ernest Saves Christmas.