Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, the recording featured guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, bassist George Murray, drummer Dennis Davis, pianist Roy Bittan and Warren Peace on backing vocals.

After completing his work on The Man Who Fell to Earth in September 1975,[1] David Bowie returned to Los Angeles to begin recording his next album.

Personnel-wise, Bowie brought back the same team used for "Fame": co-producer Harry Maslin, guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, drummer Dennis Davis and Bowie's old friend Geoff MacCormick (credited as Warren Peace), while bassist George Murray was recruited to play bass; pianist Roy Bittan, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, joined the sessions in mid-October.

[2] Music critic Robert Christgau noted the track's "spaceyness" and blend of "Lou Reed, disco, and Dr. John",[15] while Ultimate Classic Rock's Michael Gallucci found influences of krautrock.

"[14] Perone notes that the guitars during the ending section move into late-1970s hard rock territory, while simultaneously including a "rhythmic stumble that suggests changing meters", which he believes provides a direct musical link to the album's title track.

[2][13] The subject matter was inspired by a dream of Iggy Pop's featuring a similar premise, as well as a scene in The Man Who Fell to Earth in which Bowie's character, Thomas Jerome Newton, fills a room with television screens, each tuned to a different channel.

[19][20] Writing for the Spin Alternative Record Guide, Rob Sheffield interpreted "TVC 15" as "Major Tom appear[ing] as a woman who beams herself to a satellite, leaving poor David stranded on earth.

[2] It was released in edited form as the second single from the album on 30 April 1976, with the Diamond Dogs track "We Are the Dead" as the B-side and the catalogue number RCA 2682.

[29] For this performance, Bowie wore a what O'Leary calls a "pencil skirt" with high heels while a "stuffed pink poodle" held a television screen in its mouth; he was joined on stage by Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias.

[14] AllMusic's Dave Thompson found Bowie's choice to play the song as a "far cry" from the mostly greatest hits setlists of other performers at the event.

[18] "TVC 15" received very positive reviews from music critics on release, including from Ian MacDonald, who called it an "objective masterpiece" in Street Life magazine.

[30] Reviewing the record for The Village Voice, Christgau expressed some reservations about the length of the songs and the detached quality of Bowie's vocals, but deemed "TVC 15" his "favorite piece of rock and roll in a very long time" and wrote, "spaceyness has always been his shtick, and anybody who can merge Lou Reed, disco, and Dr. John ... deserves to keep doing it for five minutes and 29 seconds.

[31] Cash Box said that "the music is exuberant ragtime rock, filled with hooks and that "Bowie's voice is in excellent form, and he really pushes himself.

[35] Consequence of Sound's Frank Mojica stated that although it gives the impression of being a "straightforward piano-rocker" at its start, by its end it becomes the album's "most compelling song after the title track".

He writes that it "surrenders all the subtlety of the original [mix] in favour of unimaginatively pushing everything to the front", resulting in a "messy racket", particularly evident in the backing vocals for "TVC 15".