Reaper Man TV

What's On

Reaper Man TV is a lineup of channels you flip through like the cable box you grew up with, or the one your parents did. Channel 1 is home base: Reaper Man music videos and lyric videos, playing around the clock. The rest of the dial is a time machine. You'll find film noir full of shadows and double-crosses, Saturday-morning Superman cartoons from the 1940s, creaky monster movies, silent classics, cowboys, game shows, Sherlock Holmes, and the strange little school and safety films that taught a whole generation how to sit up straight and cross the street.

The newsreel channel shows what moviegoers actually saw between features, from Roosevelt's first inauguration to John Glenn's orbit. The Prelinger channels dig into the ads, industrial films and how-to movies made between the 1930s and the 1960s, which are often funnier now than anyone meant them to be. Long movies are split into parts with short breaks in between, just like late-night TV, so it's easy to drop in at any time.

How It Works

Press Power to switch the set on. Your browser won't play sound until you do. Use the remote to change channels: the arrow buttons step up and down the dial, and the number pad jumps straight to a channel. On a keyboard, the up and down arrows change channels, left and right change the volume, the number keys pick a channel, M mutes, F goes full screen and G opens the guide.

Reaper Man TV is a live schedule, not a playlist. Every channel runs on a fixed loop that starts from the same moment, so the TV works out from the clock exactly which program, and which second of it, is on right now. Open the page on two devices and they show the same thing at the same time. If a program is slow to load you'll see a Tuning in screen. If it can't be reached at all, a Please stand by card counts down to the next show. Your last channel, volume and favorites are remembered in your browser only, and the sleep button switches the TV off after 15 to 90 minutes.

Between shows come the commercial breaks: two to four spots each time. Most are real screen ads and commercials from the 1930s to the 1960s, from the Prelinger Archives, for coffee, candy, cereal, sewing machines and shiny new cars. About one in three is a Reaper Man commercial, always marked Reaper Man commercial break, for things on this site like the T-shirt, the Arcade and the Horoscope. The guide shows every break as a striped block, so you can see when the next one is coming.

Channel List

Every channel and every program on Reaper Man TV:

1. 1 Reaper Man TV Music

   Reaper Man music videos and lyric videos, around the clock.

   Programs: New Heights, Pockets Get Money, Let Me Fry, Drop, Make You Dance, STFU, Spinning Around, Vampires of New Orleans, Cold to the Bone, Fill it Full of Lead, Out of Your Mind, Juggalo (Ouija Macc - 17 Blunts Remix), Nothing Ever Changes That ft. Rachel Raynbow, Thoughts, Anxiety, Outta Here, Dance in the Sky, Miss U, Superstitious (ft. Tony Bumps), Prison Cell (ft. Tony Bumps), Walk (Kodak Black Remix), Run It Up (Kate Bush Remix), Rollout Mission, Lonely (DaBaby Remix), Walk It Off, Triple 6 (ft. M0$Y)[Prod. Walk Among Kings], Eventually (Prod. V.I.P.N).

2. 2 Prelinger Prime Retro

   Everyday life in the 1940s and 50s, from the Prelinger Archives.

   Programs: Doctor in Industry, Part I (1946), Health: Your Posture (1953), Sleep for Health (1950), Joan Avoids a Cold (1947), Babies and Breadwinners, Part II, The Relaxed Wife (1957), Using the Bank (1947).

3. 3 Cartoon Vault Cartoons

   Popeye, Olive and Bluto in 1950s Famous Studios cartoons that are in the public domain.

   Programs: Popeye for President (1956), Spree Lunch (1957), Popeye the Sailor: Nearlyweds (1956), Popeye: Assault and Flattery (1956).

4. 4 Hero Hour Cartoons

   The Fleischer Superman cartoons from 1941 and 1942.

   Programs: Superman (The Mad Scientist) (1941), Superman: The Mechanical Monsters (1941), Superman: Billion Dollar Limited (1942), Superman: The Arctic Giant (1942), Superman: The Bulleteers (1942), Superman: Electric Earthquake (1942), Superman: Showdown (1942).

5. 5 Monster Matinee Horror

   Zombies, vampires and a haunted opera house: classic horror from 1925 to 1968.

   Programs: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Carnival of Souls (1962), White Zombie (1932), The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Terror (1963), The Phantom of the Opera (1925).

6. 6 Rocket Theater Sci-Fi

   Aliens and mad scientists from 1950s and 60s drive-in science fiction.

   Programs: Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962).

7. 7 Noir After Dark Crime

   Film noir: shadows, double-crosses and long drives at night.

   Programs: Detour (1945), The Hitch-Hiker (1953), Kansas City Confidential (1952), Woman on the Run (1950), D.O.A. (1949), Scarlet Street (1945), The Stranger (1946), Suddenly (1954), Quicksand (1950), The Big Combo (1955).

8. 8 Silent Screen Classics

   Silent-era epics and adventures, all made before 1931: Potemkin, Caligari, The Lost World and more.

   Programs: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916), Battleship Potemkin (1925), The Lost World (1925), The Iron Mask (1929), The General (1926), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919).

9. 9 Laugh Track Comedy

   Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Martin and Lewis and a fast-talking Cary Grant.

   Programs: His Girl Friday (1940), My Favorite Brunette (1947), Africa Screams (1949), Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), At War with the Army (1950).

10. 10 Slapstick Shorts Comedy

    Charlie Chaplin's silent shorts and the Three Stooges shorts that are in the public domain.

    Programs: Disorder in the Court (1936), Sing A Song of Six Pants (1947), Malice in the Palace (1949), Brideless Groom (1947), Charlie Chaplin Festival (1917), The Pawnshop (1916), The Count (1916), A Burlesque on Carmen (1915), Chaplin Shorts of 1915 (1915).

11. 11 Sitcom City TV

    Early 1960s sitcom episodes whose copyrights lapsed: The Beverly Hillbillies, Dick Van Dyke and Petticoat Junction.

    Programs: The Beverly Hillbillies: The Clampetts Strike Oil (1962), The Beverly Hillbillies: Getting Settled (1962), The Beverly Hillbillies: The Servants (1962), The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Night the Roof Fell In (1962), Petticoat Junction: Bobbie Jo and the Beatnik (1964).

12. 12 Teen Time Retro

    1940s and 50s classroom films telling teenagers how to date, dress and behave.

    Programs: What Makes A Good Party? (1950), Shy Guy (1947), What to Do on a Date (1950), Beginning to Date (1953), Going Steady? (1951), Act Your Age (1949), Habit Patterns (1954), Junior Prom (1946).

13. 13 Western Trail Western

    John Wayne and Errol Flynn ride the range, plus an early episode of Bonanza.

    Programs: McLintock! (1963), Angel and the Badman (1947), Santa Fe Trail (1940), Bonanza: The Abduction (1960).

14. 14 Silent Shadows Horror

    Silent horror from before 1931: golems, hunchbacks and haunted houses.

    Programs: The Golem (1920), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Nosferatu (1922), Frankenstein (1910).

15. 15 Cliffhanger Adventure

    Commando Cody and the Radar Men from the Moon, one cliffhanger chapter at a time.

    Programs: Radar Men from the Moon: Moon Rocket (1952), Radar Men from the Moon: Molten Terror (1952), Radar Men from the Moon: Flight to Destruction (1952), Radar Men from the Moon: Murder Car (1952).

16. 16 Newsreel Network History

    Universal Newsreels from 1933 to 1964, as they played in movie theaters.

    Programs: Roosevelt Inaugurated (1933), Zeppelin Explodes (1937), The Bombing of the USS Panay (1937), Long Way to Go, Says FDR (1943), Eve of Battle (1944), RAF Sinks Tirpitz (1944), Manila Liberated (1945), First Pictures: Atomic Blast (1946), 1949 in Review (1949), Kansas (1957), First US Satellite Launched (1958), Space Triumph: Glenn Orbits the Earth (1962), The Wall (1962), The Cuban Crisis (1962), Fashions (1964).

17. 17 Space Channel Science

    NASA footage from Mercury and Apollo to spacewalks and the Space Station.

    Programs: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo (2009), Suit Up: 50 Years of Spacewalks (2015), 30 Minutes to Mars (2015), Apollo: Onboard Film (2004), Earth from the Space Station (2013), The One Year Crew (2015), Astronaut Training (2014).

18. 18 Duck and Cover Retro

    Atomic-age civil defense films: duck and cover, fallout shelters and the A-bomb explained.

    Programs: Duck and Cover (1951), A is for Atom (1953), Survival Under Atomic Attack (1951), Operation Cue (1955), Atomic Alert (Elementary version) (1951), About Fallout (1963), Stay Safe, Stay Strong: The Facts About Nuclear Weapons (1960).

19. 19 Manners Hour Retro

    How to be polite, popular and well behaved, according to 1940s and 50s classroom films.

    Programs: How to Be Well Groomed (1949), Dating: Do's and Don'ts (1949), A Date With Your Family (1950), Good Table Manners (1951), Cindy Goes to a Party (1955), How Much Affection? (1958).

20. 20 Motor City Retro

    Chrome, fins and the open road: car films and dream-car shows from the 1930s to 1960.

    Programs: Automotive Service (1940), Design for Dreaming (1956), A Ride for Cinderella (1937), The Corvair in Action (1960), 1955 Chevrolet Screen Ads (1955), In My Merry Oldsmobile (1932), American Look, Part I (1958), American Look, Part II (1958).

21. 21 Tomorrowland Retro

    Yesterday's idea of the future: computers, atomic power and the homes of tomorrow.

    Programs: Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? (1958), On Guard! The Story of SAGE (1956), All About Polymorphics (1959), Television Tomorrow (1939), Frontiers of the Future (A Screen Editorial With Lowell Thomas) (1937), Atomic Power at Shippingport, Part I (1958).

22. 22 Kitchen TV Retro

    Vintage food films: eating right, the chicken of tomorrow and 1950s kitchens.

    Programs: Eat for Health (1954), Good Eating Habits (1951), For Health and Happiness (1941), Out of This World (1954), Food for Fighters (1943).

23. 23 Travel Reel Retro

    Road trips, jet travel and home-movie vacations from the 1940s and 50s.

    Programs: How to Go Places (1954), 6 1/2 Magic Hours (1958), Saga of the Happy Wanderers (1957), Wonderful World, Part I (1950), Travel and Cities, 1947 (1947), Miss Clark Introduces Panorama (1960).

24. 24 Science Class Science

    Classroom science and civics films: bacteria, mosquitoes, Congress and more.

    Programs: Bacteria: Friend and Foe (1952), The Life Cycle of the Mosquito (1949), Why Study Science? (1955), Man and His Culture (1954), The Powers of Congress (1947), Despotism (1946).

25. 25 Wild Side Science

    Cats, kittens, fish and farm animals in vintage nature films.

    Programs: Park Conscious (1938), Private Life of a Cat (1947), Three Little Kittens (1938), The Hare and the Tortoise (1947), Fish from Hell, Part II (1945).

26. 26 War Room History

    World War II documentaries made by the US government, including Frank Capra's Why We Fight.

    Programs: The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), Why We Fight: The Nazis Strike (1943), Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain (1943), Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia Part I (1943), Birth of the B-29 (1945).

27. 27 Sky High Retro

    Bombers, helicopters and airliners: aviation films from the 1940s to the 60s.

    Programs: Plane Talk (1965), The Helicopter (1953), Look to Lockheed for Leadership, Part I (1940), Sentinel in the Sky (1955), Special Delivery (1946), Combat America, Part I (1945).

28. 28 Rail Line Retro

    Steam, diesel and the big trains of America's railroads.

    Programs: Big Trains Rolling (1955), This Is My Railroad, Part I (1940), Wheels of Progress (1950), The Big Train, Part I (1950), The Big Train, Part II (1950), Passenger Train, The (1955).

29. 29 Baker Street Mystery

    Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

    Programs: Dressed to Kill (1946), Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943), Terror by Night (1946), The Woman in Green (1945).

30. 30 Whodunit Mystery

    Old dark houses, masked killers and a hunter on a madman's island.

    Programs: The Most Dangerous Game (1932), The Death Kiss (1932), The Bat (1959).

31. 31 Midnight Movies Cult

    Cult oddities: Reefer Madness, giant leeches and a beatnik horror comedy.

    Programs: Reefer Madness (1938), Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), A Bucket of Blood (1959).

32. 32 Showtune Music

    Fred Astaire musicals and a Jerome Kern tribute.

    Programs: Royal Wedding (1951), Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), Second Chorus (1940).

33. 33 Screwball Comedy

    Screwball comedy and romance from the 1930s and 40s: My Man Godfrey, Nothing Sacred and more.

    Programs: Meet John Doe (1941), Penny Serenade (1941), My Man Godfrey (1936), Made for Each Other (1939), Nothing Sacred (1937).

34. 34 Adventure Island Adventure

    Pirates, the Jungle Book and the slopes of Kilimanjaro.

    Programs: Jungle Book (1942), Captain Kidd (1945), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952).

35. 35 Factory Floor Retro

    How things were made: steel, jukeboxes, books and type, filmed on the factory floor.

    Programs: Steel: A Symphony of Industry (1936), Auto-Lite on Parade (1940), A Visit to Wurlitzer, Part I (1950), A Visit to Wurlitzer, Part II (1950), The Woodworker (1940), Printing (1947), Bookbinders (1961), Typesetting: Linotype, Part I (1960).

36. 36 Kids Club Cartoons

    Felix the Cat cartoons and the Fleischer brothers' Gulliver's Travels.

    Programs: Felix the Cat - Felix Revolts (1923), Felix the Cat - Felix in Fairyland (1923), Felix the Cat - Doubles for Darwin (1923), Felix the Cat - Felix the Ghost Breaker (1923), Felix the Cat - Felix Turns the Tide (1922), Felix the Cat - Felix Minds the Kid (1922), Felix the Cat - Felix Lends a Hand (1922), Felix the Cat in Bold King Cole (1936), Felix the Cat in Neptune Nonsense (1936), Gulliver's Travels (1939).

37. 37 Silent Laughs Comedy

    Buster Keaton features and silent cartoons, all made before 1931.

    Programs: College (1927), Felix the Cat in April Maze (1930), Felix the Cat in Two-Lip Time (1926), Out of the Inkwell: The Tantalizing Fly (1919), Felix the Cat: Cat in the Swim (1922), Felix the Cat (1919) (1919).

38. 38 City Streets Retro

    American cities from the 1930s to the 60s: Coney Island, the El and Greenwich Village.

    Programs: Miracle on the Delaware (1955), Coney Island (1940), Third Avenue El (1950), Greenwich Village Sunday (1960), Around the World in New York (1940), Arteries of New York City (1941), Boats (1938), Behind Your Radio Dial: The Story of NBC (1947).

39. 39 World's Fair Retro

    The World's Fairs of 1933, 1939 and 1964, mostly in home movies shot by visitors.

    Programs: New York World's Fair 1939, Reel 1 (1939), New York World's Fair 1939, Reel 2 (1939), New York World's Fair 1939, Reel 3 (1939), Chicago World's Fair 1933 (1933), 1964 New York World's Fair Report (1961).

40. 40 Sports Reel Sports

    Bowling, sharpshooting and daredevil stunts from vintage sports films.

    Programs: The Golden Years (1960), Making of a Shooter (1946), Let's Go Bowling, Part I (1955), Let's Go Bowling, Part II (1955), Stunt Compilation, 1918 (1918), Magic in the Air (1955).

41. 41 Office Hours Retro

    Jobs of the 1940s and 50s: secretaries, librarians, phone operators and radio crews.

    Programs: Office Etiquette (1950), I Want to Be a Secretary (1941), The Librarian (1947), Telephone and Telegraph (1946), Radio and Television (1940), The Town and the Telephone (1950).

42. 42 Money and Work Retro

    Shopping, saving and the American way of spending, from the Prelinger Archives.

    Programs: A Word to the Wives (1955), American Thrift, Part II (1962), Easy Does It (1940), Once Upon a Honeymoon (1956), 17 Days: The Story of Newspaper History in the Making (1945), Consuming Women (Women as Consumers) (1967).

43. 43 Toon Town Cartoons

    Early 1930s cartoons from Van Beuren, Ub Iwerks and Max Fleischer.

    Programs: Tom and Jerry: Jolly Fish (1932), Tom and Jerry: Barnyard Bunk (1932), Tom and Jerry: Piano Tooners (1932), Tom and Jerry: The Tuba Tooter (1932), Flip the Frog: Little Orphan Willie (1930), Molly Moo-Cow and Robinson Crusoe (1936), The Song of the Birds (1935).

44. 44 Spy Line Crime

    Wartime spies and the very first screen James Bond.

    Programs: The Dawn Express (1942), Climax!: Casino Royale (1954).

45. 45 Safety First Retro

    Gloriously dramatic safety films about bikes, cars, strangers and offices.

    Programs: One Got Fat: Bicycle Safety (1963), Stop Driving Us Crazy! (1959), Road Runners (1952), We Drivers (1935 edition) (1936), Don't Talk to Strangers (1950), Safety in Offices (1944).

46. 46 Holiday Hall Family

    On the air for the holidays only: spooky classics all October for Halloween, and silent Christmas films and A Christmas Carol all December.

    Halloween (October): The Beverly Hillbillies: Trick or Treat (1962), Felix the Cat - Felix the Ghost Breaker (1923), Frankenstein (1910), Nosferatu (1922), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), White Zombie (1932), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Carnival of Souls (1962). Christmas (December): A Christmas Carol (1910), The Beverly Hillbillies: Home for Christmas (1962), The Night Before Christmas (1905), The Christmas Angel (1904), A Trap for Santa Claus (1909), Santa Claus (1925), The Insects' Christmas (1913), The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus (1914), A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (1907), Santa Claus vs. Cupid (1915), Christmas Day in the Workhouse (1914), Christmas Eve (Noch pered Rozhdestvom) (1913).

47. 47 Toon Lab Cartoons

    Trick films and puppet animation from 1906 to 1912, by Segundo de Chomón and Ladislas Starevich.

    Programs: Easter Eggs (Les Oeufs de Pâques) (1907), The Cameraman's Revenge (1912), The Electric Hotel (1908), The Lunatics (Les Lunatiques) (1908), The Invisible Thief (1909), Japanese Butterflies (Les Papillons Japonais) (1908), The Fantastic Iris (L'Iris Fantastique) (1912), Bob's Electric Theater (1906).

48. 48 Home Movie Hour Retro

    Real families' home movies from the 1930s to the 50s, many in Kodachrome color.

    Programs: Texas Farm Family (1952), New Orleans Carnival Week, 1941 (1941), New York World's Fair 1939, Reel 5 (1939), New York World's Fair 1939, Reel 2 (Part I) (1939), San Francisco, 1941 (1941), Golden Gate International Exposition (1939), Britton, South Dakota, 1938 (1938).

49. 49 Farm Report Retro

    Farms, bananas, beef and the countryside in vintage films.

    Programs: About Bananas (1935), The Chicken of Tomorrow (1948), Death to Weeds (1947), From the Ground Up (1954), Beef Rings the Bell, Part I (1960), Beef Rings the Bell, Part II (1960).

50. 50 Fright Night Horror

    Bela Lugosi in 1940s low-budget horror.

    Programs: Bowery at Midnight (1942), The Devil Bat (1940).

Credits and Sources

Channel 1 videos are © Reaper Man and play from YouTube. Every other program streams from the Internet Archive, a nonprofit library that keeps these films free for everyone. Please consider donating to the Archive. We only show items that are in the public domain or carry an open license that allows this use, and each one below links to its Archive page with its license and a short note on why it's safe to show. These are old films and shows, so some contain attitudes of their time. If something shouldn't be here, please report it and it'll be taken off every channel.

FAQ