In 1972 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had mandated that cable TV systems in the top 100 markets must provide public access, and by 1975, MCTV had become a major distribution hub for video experimentation, the YouTube of its day.

The group descended into the then little-known club with a multi-camera, live-switched, live-mixed audio/video system and despite the limitations of their set up, produced some of the most complete documentation of the early New York punk rock music scene in existence.

[2] After the dissolution of Metropolis Video in 1977, filmmaker Pat Ivers continued to film the New York punk scene together with Emily Armstrong in a project called Advanced TV, later dubbed GoNightclubbing.

Metropolis Video’s first project, the CBGB Festival of Unrecorded Bands, in August 1975, captured Blondie, Joe and Blake, The Heartbreakers with Richard Hell (their third live performance), and Talking Heads (as a trio).

Rock from CBGB's was a three-part series that aired on Manhattan Cable's Public Access Channel D in 1975, showing excerpts from the collection of band performances.