The obvious tensions and stresses of four egos, and non-stop work for seven years, burnt out Firesign's writing sessions, causing internal and personal problems that the group was not able to solve in 1972. They broke up again during the preparation of their next record Not Insane, Or Anything You Want To (1972), a mish-mash of material derived from live performances and their first short film, The Martian Space Party (1972), a low budget pseudo documentary of a special radio broadcast. Many of the group's followers were terribly disappointed with the new release after being spoiled by their former masterpieces. Listening to the record twenty-five years later, without preconceived prejudices, it's not as bad as remembered, with some terribly funny bits and pieces confusingly thrown together with dated psychedelic production qualities. It tries too hard to achieve a non-linearity that is not present in the material, and doesn't finish some of the story lines developed.

A DJ interview album, A Firesign Chat With Papoon (1972), the group's presidential candidate for the election was released by Columbia. Papoon never shows up, and neither does the whole group, leaving Proctor and Bergman acting as campaign managers to comment on the pre-election strategies on side one and the post-election results on side two. It's very silly and shows just how good Proctor and Bergman worked together as a duo.

Proctor and Bergman then splintered off to tour and record several team albums, TV Or Not TV (1973), What This Country Needs (1975), Give Us a Break (1978), and solo records were also produced by Ossman, How Time Flies (1973) and Austin, Roller Maidens From Outer Space (1974) individually, but with the rest of the group participating as well. Singles were released from the solo recordings, "Communist Love Song/Nasi Goring" commercially from TV Or Not TV, and for airplay "Dick Private's Mystery, an EP edited from Roller Maidens, backed with songs from the album, "Switchblade Pitch Forks" and "The Bad News."

All was forgiven or at least put aside in 1974, as the group reformed to put out a version of the lost Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra (1974), starring Hemlock Stones, as the coke-snorting detective. The pun filled-album, with many scatological and sexual jokes, again disappointed fans looking for another high class non-linear Dwarf or Bozos, and turned their backs on the group, drifting more towards British rivals Monty Python, who were just emerging on the American scene, systematically invading ABC television, movie Theatres and record bins.

So within the year The Firesign Theatre tried to regain them with a come back LP, the UFOlogist Erich Von Daniken inspired Everything You Know Is Wrong (1974). This lunatic fringed interpretation of American history failed to reach the sales it deserved. It harkened back to their best work without being a commercial formulation. A promo EP was released with cuts from the album and "Station Breaks" on For Your Ears Only. Columbia also bankrolled a small budget promotional filming of the album as Firesign lip-synched to the already prerecorded soundtrack. The Everything You Know Is Wrong (1975) film, shot by burgeoning cinematographer Alan Daviau, saw little release in the movie Theatres but is gaining popularity today on the video market. It's the closest the group ever got to visually attaining the comedy and pace of their recordings. Unfortunately most of their audience was lost by that time and Columbia decided not to renew their contract.

The Firesign Theatre repeated the formula for the Dear Friends subscription set by offering a ten album package of selections from their radio show Let's Eat (1974).

The group dissolved again and Proctor and Bergman went out on the road. Austin and Ossman teamed up, toured the West Coast and wrote most of the group album, In The Next World, You're On Your Own (1975), knowing it was to be their last under the Columbia contract and. They tried to sum-up and conclude The Firesign Theatre engagement. Proctor and Bergman returned for the recording but contributed little to the writing. Plans for a Bicentennial album, with a gatefold game board printed on the inside jacket were shelved along with the group by Columbia, who offered up the Forward Into The Past (1976), "Best Of" double-album anthology as a finality, instead. Its a satisfying album that is book ended by the "Station Breaks/Forward Into The Past" single. The break with Columbia ended an era, the Vietnam War was over and Disco was king.

A one off LP with Butterfly, a disco label, Just Folks . . . A Firesign Chat (1977), reprised Dear Friends, with the brightest moments being the fake commercials, The Ben Bland Show, a mid-morning TV matinee movie satire, and Pass The Indian Please, the group's excellent encore performance piece. A bootleg album soon surfaced on the Dog and Cat label put out by Wizardo records of a Berkeley concert called Firesign World (1977).

Proctor and Bergman again departed, produced more records, movie scripts, film projects, toured, and were almost shot to death in a Chinese gangland massacre at the Golden Dragon restaurant in San Francisco, after a performance.