Floyd Vivino, better known as Uncle Floyd, host of the long-running early-cable variety show The Uncle Floyd Show, has died. Per a Facebook post from his brother, Vivino died on Thursday, January 22, following years of health issues, including bladder and prostate cancer. He was 74.
A New Jersey Hall-of-Famer, Vivino was born in Patterson on October 19, 1951. Along with his brothers, Jerry and Jimmy, Floyd was a born performer whose skills flourished as a teen. While his brothers would grow up to become the leader and member of Conan O’Brien’s house band, Floyd preferred center stage. “When I attended Glen Rock High School, it was there I realized I wanted to get into show business,” he said in 2011. ” I lived on the stage and the teachers realized that and they encouraged me.” On January 28, 1968, he recalled, he performed “Everything Is Coming Up Roses” with the school orchestra. “I felt the rush of 600 people clapping for me. It was then and there that I knew I was going to be an entertainer. I did not belong on the basketball court or in the science lab.”
Inspired by the musical comedy stylings of Soupy Sales, Floyd launched The Uncle Floyd Show in 1974. Beating Pee-wee Herman and Andy Kaufman to the children’s show parody that appealed to adults, the show’s mix of ventriloquism, puppetry, and cutting-edge musical guests made him a cult hit on early cable. “I was the third show to go on the air in the history of New Jersey cable,” he said. “The first show was what we used to call ‘rip and read’ news and sports — they would just rip stuff out of the newspaper and read it on the air. The second was a gardening show. And then us.” The show became a cult sensation in no time as Floyd attracted the likes of John Lennon and David Bowie with the help of his puppet sidekick, Oogie.
“Back in the late 70’s, everyone that I knew would rush home at a certain point in the afternoon to catch the Uncle Floyd Show,” Bowie said in 2002. “He was on UHF Channel 68 and the show looked like it was done out of his living room in New Jersey. All his pals were involved, and it was a hoot[…]It had that Soupy Sales kind of appeal, and though ostensibly aimed at kids, I knew so many people of my age who just wouldn’t miss it. We would be on the floor it was so funny. I just loved that show.” Bowie paid tribute to Floyd on the 2002 song “Slip Away.” Floyd was also namechecked by Joey Ramone in Ramones’ 1981 song “It’s Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World).”
Over the years, Uncle Floyd became a destination for the coolest of the cool in music. Everyone from David Johansen, David Peel, and Dee Dee Ramone to Cyndi Lauper, Dr. Demento, Marshall Crenshaw, and Paul Simon made appearances on the show as it bounced around different cable and UHF stations. (Appropriately, it became the inspiration for a running bit called “Uncle Nutsy’s Clubhouse” in “Weird Al” Yankovic’s film UHF.) The show ran until 1998.
Outside the show, starting in 1987, Vivino hosted the Sunday radio show, The Italian-American Serenade, playing exclusive Italian music. Floyd also appeared in several movies, including Good Morning, Vietnam, and two episodes of Law & Order.
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