The program, produced and hosted by the renowned radio personality Rick Dees, aired from June 1990 thru October 1991 and featured 800 different guests from the field of music, sports and entertainment.
“Into The Night With Rick Dees” was broadcasted on the ABC Television Network opposite The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Late Night With David Letterman & The Arsenio Hall Show.
The numerous accomplishments of Rick Dees started in 1976 when he wrote and recorded DISCO DUCK, the award-winning #1 hit that sold more than six million copies. In 1981, Rick became a major figure in broadcasting when he began hosting the top-rated morning radio show in Los Angeles on KIIS-FM. In a short time, he turned KIIS-FM into the number one revenue generating radio station in America. In 1983 Rick started his internationally syndicated radio show, The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, which has since been heard by millions of people around the world. Rick Dees garnered many accolades including being named Billboard Radio Personality Of The Year ten years in a row, induction into the National Radio Hall Of Fame, a People’s Choice award and his induction into the National Association Of Broadcasters’ Hall Of Fame.
The original 1 Inch broadcast tapes for “Into The Night With Rick Dees” had been sitting untouched in Rick’s storage facility for over 30 years and they required and lot of work by the team at Reelin’ In The Years Productions to digitally transfer all 300 shows and then fully catalog them.
The show featured many unique interviews which was due in large part to Rick’s relaxed style with his guests where his knowledge and all around personality made them feel comfortable.
In addition to many leading film and television actors and actresses of the day, Rick Dees also presented a wide array of musical talent who not only performed live, but were also interviewed. Some of the many highlights that were discovered in this archive include Rap/Hip Hop artists such as 2 Live Crew, Public Enemy, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, MC Trouble as well as legendary artists which include Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, James Brown, Dolly Parton, Little Richard & Natalie Cole. One of the unique moments from this archive is a performance of an obscure group called Lock Up featuring an unknown Tom Morello on guitar who two years later would go on to form the iconic and influential band, Rage Against the Machine. Another surprising moment Reelin’ In The Yearss Productions discovered while fully cataloging the series, was an appearance by the (later to be) guitar legend Joe Bonamassa when he was only 13!
“I am so excited to be in business with David Peck & Reelin’ In The Years Productions” said Rick Dees. “They are the gold standard of footage archives and I’m appreciative of their intense work they put into fully restoring my archive of the one of a kind interviews I conducted, along with the world class performers I had as my guests.”
“It’s an honor to add “Into The Night With Rick Dees “ to our vast archive of legendary talk shows and to be able to make the footage available to the filmmaking community” said David Peck, president of Reelin’ In The Years Productions “ Further, I’d like to thank Rick Dees for trusting us with this important archive and I look forward to working with him for many years come”
All 300 episodes of this award winning show are fully digitized, catalogued and are now for the first time, available for licensing to all forms of media.
Reelin’ In The Years Productions, (winner of FOCAL’s 2020 “Footage Library of The Year Award”) is the premier source for footage of musical artists, entertainers and history makers. Their unique archive houses over 30,000 hours of music footage spanning 100 years as well as 10,000 hours of in-depth interviews with icons of Film and Television, Politics, Comedy, Literature, Art, Science, Fashion and Sports, filmed between 1962-2012. The interviews are from legendary talk shows around the world, including those hosted by Sir David Frost, Merv Griffin, Mike Wallace, Brian Linehan and most recently Michael Parkinson & Rick Dees.
David Peck (founder & president of Reelin’ In The Years) has directed and produced over 70 historical music documentaries and programs focused primarily on the giants of jazz, blues and rock & roll garnering many awards including a Grammy Nomination. In 2020, David Peck was one of the Executive Producers on the critically acclaimed documentary on the Bee Gees , “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” and is currently serving as one of the Co-Executive Producers on a multi-part documentary series on the famed Memphis record label, entitled “STAX: Soulsville USA” and a powerful documentary on the legendary artist Billy Preston, “That’s The Way God Planned It.” Both films will premiere at South By Southwest (SXSW) in March 2024.
For licensing enquires please visit www.reelinintheyears.com or contact us at dpeck@reelinintheyears.com