Knowing that the “mop tops” would be broadcasting a special screening during the holiday season, it is understandable that British audiences would expect some combination of the above: holiday songs interspersed with some holiday-themed comedy sketches featuring the lads from Liverpool. Instead of this anticipated straightforward entertainment, Magical Mystery Tour presented what was essentially an elaborate and expensive home movie. It was more avant-garde than comedic and more experimental art than musical film. No holiday elements were involved except for the fact that mystery tours would have been a popular way to spend a bank holiday like Boxing Day. The final performance, “Your Mother Should Know,” even essentially poked fun at the theatrical, over-the-top performances typically aired at that time of year. While the reaction was certainly negative, it actually supported Kenneth Adam’s earlier findings in that viewers were more annoyed by the dull and obscure elements of the film rather than stripsteases or references to knickers.
Magical Mystery Tour vehemently embraced color in a way likely inspired by LSD-induced synaesthesia. Unfortunately, the arrival of colour television was delayed due to international disagreements on which system to use. When Europe finally agreed on a standard, BBC2 was the only British station with the technology capable of immediate implementation. The first…show more content… Even before ending touring in 1966, the Beatles had begun to push past the mop-top antics of A Hard Day’s Night and Help! to accommodate their status as artists and counterculturalists. However, even the pot-fueled performances in the latter, or the colorful cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, did little to prepare holiday audiences for the psychedelic onslaught that crashed their evening of traditional