Sometimes, Cervi could be too hip. He booked Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on "Swingin’ Time" in 1966. The group had a new two-disc LP titled "Freak Out!" that included songs such as “Who Are The Brain Police?” “Help, I’m a Rock” and “Trouble Comin’ Every Day.” The latter, though written about the 1965 Watts rebellion, presaged Detroit’s own 1967 civil disturbance.
The Channel 9 switchboard was flooded with calls both positive and negative. Zappa later explained his musical mission to a Detroit Free Press reporter: “We are systematically trying to do away with the creative roadblocks that our helpful American educational system has installed to make sure nothing creative leaks through to the masses.”
Cervi was later quoted as saying: “We’ve never had anyone on the show that brought anything near the controversy they caused.”
"Swingin’ Time" aired for the final time in 1968 amid changing times and an edgier music scene.
Cervi, meanwhile, had made the improbable transition from rock 'n' roll to children’s television, going on air for the first time concealed beneath Bozo’s wild red hair (which came from a yak), oversized shoes and an outsize red nose.
The Bozo character first appeared as a voice on a children’s read-along record released by Capitol Records in 1946. Capitol sold the rights a decade later to Clevelander and University of Southern California grad Larry Harmon.
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