Who was Halftime entertainment 40 years ago when the Bengals faced the 49ers? Wrong! It was Up With People!

In her introduction to the show that day in the old Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, CBS' Phyllis George described Up With People as 430 young people from 24 countries engaged in a cultural and educational exchange.

That sounds wonderful! My view, slightly darker, and completely not buttressed by facts, is that Up With People was probably created by the CIA.

At any rate we were plagued by these well-scrubbed, MKUltra, dead-eyed cult members for decades, but we would only encounter them during halftime of Super Bowl’s and occasionally the Orange Bowl. I was shocked to read just today that they still exist in some form. It might well be one of the agency's greatest ever success stories.

The theme for the Super Bowl XVI was The 60's, and not in fact a tribute to the Western Hemisphere. That bit was actually The Simpson's pinpoint parody of the organization with this brief radio appearance by Hooray For Everything.

Anyway let's dig into this 15 minutes of gold from January of ‘82 and see what we find shall we. Hooray!

We open with a song I can't identify. It's possible it was written for them. Anyway the actual band is dressed in jeans and knit vests: the official uniform of 70’s and early ‘80’s Methodist Youth Pastors.

Anyway Up With People then launched into a melody of early ‘60s dance songs that have way more to do with the 1950’s. I'm beginning to think my CIA theory has legs. There hasn't been one politically charged flower people anthem. They performed "The Twist" (‘60) "Monster Mash" (‘62), and "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" (‘60). That last one is pretty racy.

At 3:42 it's their cover of “Surfin’ USA” with the happy kids from 24 countries on the field dancing with surf boards. That's followed by “GTO”.….from ‘63.

Well at least they made time for Motown with “Dancing In The Street.” “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”... ok... there's hope. “Ain't No Mountain High Enough.” It's clear this whole thing should have been a Motown tribute.

The white kids are back with “Scarborough Fair” at 7:42. Oh my God, they just boomeranged back to 1960 with the Highwaymen version of the old spiritual "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore." Now they're trying to engage the people not smart enough to hit the beer line in a sing-along.

“Abraham, Martin and John” by Dion is a beautiful song and probably as close as we'll get to anything subversive.

Now we're onto a medley of Beatles songs. That ain't cheap. Who's paying for all these royalties? (editor’s note; UWP didn’t pay royalties to foreigners.)

And Phyllis George declares the ‘60s over with "Let The Sunshine In" by The 5th Dimension.

Well hell. I guess I wasn't expecting they'd pay tribute to Michigan with a melody of The Stooges, MC5 and Alice Cooper, but my theory that Up With People was created and run by the CIA has legs. This entire performance managed to pay a quarter hour of recognition to the ‘60s without so much of a peep about protests, drugs, riots, hippies, tanks, body bags, etc. "Abraham, Martin, and John" was the closest we'd get, and some people believe the agency was responsible for two out of three of those. I'm not going to think about that any more. Too freaking spooky.

Enjoy the game!