Fractured Flickers (1963–64): Comic corruptions of the silent screen

Fractured Flickers was a half-hour syndicated television comedy series developed by Jay Ward Productions in the first half of the 1960s that re-edited older, primarily silent, films and overdubbed the results with new dialogue, sound effects, and music – all in the name of comedy. Yet, for all that the looming threat of lawsuits would become a running gag in host Hans Conried’s introductions, the show’s apparent deeds of artistic corruption cannot be seen as purely destructive. Via re-editing, dubbing, and other playful reflexive manoeuvres Fractured Flickers rendered its recycled images at once familiar and unfamiliar, engaging with the first decades of cinema in a way that tantalised a new generation of silent film fans and blurred the lines between artistic corruption and preservation.