The Olde Wooden Telly Thread

Scottie_uk · September 2015

This thread is for those that remember when Tellies (or is it Tellys) were made of wood, or at least plastic made to look like wood. It is for reminiscing about the TV of yesteryear, its programs, it's ident's and its theme tunes.

I'll start the proceedings of with an episode of the Golden Shot which was actually a little before my time and primative, but Bob Monkjack somehow always managed to polish a turd.

Maroc's Other Projection · September 2015

When I think of some of the old series that I used to watch one of the things that always sticks in my memory are the opening credits. A good example is Bring 'Em Back Alive, an adventure series shown in the early 80s with a kind of Raiders of the Lost Ark setting. The credits have that well-worn formula of introducing each of the characters doing something cheesy and then looking at the camera, grinning and hamming it up. My favourite bit is around 0:45 when the hotel manager salutes at the viewer. It's great and very much of its time (like Lee Majors in the bath, Hannibal Smith in the Godzilla(?) suit etc) :)

slenkar · September 2015

Even the smuggler and kingpin gave a friendly nod.
and Ron O'Neal as the Sultan of Johore..................

Luny · October 2015

For me always falls back to the Muppets, Robinson Crusoe in the summer holidays and the music for corrie, which meant it was time for bed.

saddestmoon · October 2015

M*A*S*H, Coronation Street, The Day of the Triffids (oooer!), Doctor Who, and Star Trek reruns... :x

leespoons · October 2015

Two very early ones that I remember:

This would've been around 1980/81 as we didn't get a telly until then, and it was black and white </Four Yorkshiremen> Later on we got a colour TV, but the only time I ever had an Evil Edna-style wood-effect telly on legs was a few years ago in between our old one blowing up and buying a new one.

leespoons · October 2015

Oh, and Pages from Ceefax on Saturday mornings before Saturday Superstore/Going Live.

moggy · October 2015

The telly of my youth..

Mostly Roberta Leigh's stuff like Torchy the battery boy (worlds scariest puppet) and Twizzle ,Jerry Anderson's Supercar (Mike Mercury worlds ugliest puppet)
Also TV's first interracial kiss and next days water-cooler talking point?
Emergency ward 10 (sorry Star Trek fans that came some years later)
I saw Crossroads come and go, the start and finish of Dad's Army, the independant channels so called super comedy George and the Dragon (Sid James Peggy Mount) plus a million other forgetful sit-coms and I remember standing starry eyed outside a northern TV rental shop watching the first Moon landing.

How sad that I can recall this crap yet find it hard to recall what I did last week and Ironic that back in 70's Mrs Moggy once worked for Baird TV!

def chris · October 2015

Our olde wooden telly (around 82-83 ish) used to have buttons for channels that had written above them "BBC1" "BBC2" "ITV1" and then in a genius move of forward planning "ITV2" :)

knight rider, a team and the fall guy were my ultimate top fav programs iirc

1024MAK · October 2015

You forgot Dukes of Hazzard :D

Mark

1024MAK · October 2015

I remember the Channel 4 test transmissions, and the first day that Channel 4 started up properly. It was most odd, because they had advert slots, but no adverts to show. Instead a caption was shown saying that the programme would continue shortly... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_4

Oh, and before TV AM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV-am or and Breakfast Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_Time launched, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV closed down overnight, only broadcast very limited programmes in the morning (schools programmes I think). Came on air just before lunch, maybe a programme followed by the news. Maybe another programme, then shut down again until the children's television programming started at around 3:30 pm. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign-off#Special_cases

I also remember ITV having the different idents as the different independent TV companies produced the various different shows. ITV in my town was covered by HTV West
1970's (apparently) and early 1980's

Late '80s

And then there was the late night shutdown:
HTV:

BBC2

Some well known idents
Thames

LWT

Mark

Bermondsey Bob · October 2015

We kept our old wooden telly until around 1997ish as I remember using my SEGA Saturn on it! I had it in my bedroom once we upgraded the set in the living room, so it also ran my Megadrive, Amiga and Speccys too!

Scottie_uk · October 2015

I remember many of those old regions aka ITV Franchisees. Thames in particular was one that put out a lot of great content and generated a lot of export. But Thames like TV AM was culled by Facher!! during the broadcasting act of 1990 whch saw the re-regulation of commercial television. So what replaced Thames? Carlton... Who ended up swallowing Central too and has how since merged with Granada.

Carlton also brought a sizable stake in GMTV two years before the ITC allowed it to replace TV-AM who at the time had transformed themselves in to the most profitable franchise in the ITV network (a crazy decision). A change in the bidding rules meant that the process was based purely on a blind auction and not merit or potential. Carlton put forward more cash which was why Thames TV and TVAM lost their franchises and when ITVs decline in standards began.

Who was the director of corporate affairs at Carlton, David Cameron. Jobs for the Tory boys? Was Thatcher ill advised for the benefit of vested interest? It certainly looks that way.

On a lighter note here's a bit of Bully from the Central region.

BuzzySounds · October 2015

http://www.oldtechnology.net/colour.html

Scottie_uk · October 2015

BuzzySounds wrote: »

http://www.oldtechnology.net/colour.html

I've just had a woodentelleygazm!!!

leespoons · October 2015

Scottie_uk wrote: »

On a lighter note here's a bit of Bully from the Central region.

You live in a council flat in Bromsgrove and you've won a speedboat. Super, smashing, great.

I thought the way they had "happy" and "sad" music, depending on the outcome of the game, was a touch of genius.

GReW · October 2015

leespoons wrote: »

You live in a council flat in Bromsgrove and you've won a speedboat. Super, smashing, great.

The prizes were even more odd when you consider that the teams weren't always married couples, how do you share a fitted kitchen with your mate Terry from the darts team? Or a family holiday for two adults and two children? I suspect many of the prizes went straight into the free ads in the local paper.

It was one of the first UK programmes to have a specific prize sponsor with their name in the credits - which is why Jim always show'd you "what you could have won". Some of the sponsor credits were very 'regional' eg "Speedboat provided by Ted's Speedboat and Pedalo Showroom, 4 Railway Arches, Wigan".

I remember in the first few series, Jim'd always specify which ITV region the contestants were from, "Joining us from the Tyne Tees Region..." or "All the way from the Grampion region, its...", which I thought was a bit odd. It was years later when I found out that the programme was initially syndicated to the ITV companies, so some regions would only buy episodes featuring a couple from their region - Jim's intros meant the programme buyers only had to watch the 5 minute preview tapes before deciding if they wanted the episode or not. Apparently the syndication deal didn't include UTV, so any Northern Irish contestants were referred to as "from across the water".

Of course the best prize of all, was "IIIINNN 2":
https://youtu.be/A8Kl0MZvtZc

Scottie_uk · October 2015

Shoot the dots. Every school boy did at some point.

1024MAK · October 2015

The ITV version

By the way, does anyone know why there were all these 2 to 5 minute gaps between schools programs? I can understand 1 minute gaps, but in my school, the teacher had already got everyone to shut up way before the countdown clock or even before the announcer introduced the next programme.

Mark

MatGubbins · October 2015

Probably to unplug the TV, wrap the leads around the legs of the TV on wheels, out of the classroom, trundle it down the school corridor and into another classroom, unwrap the leads, plug it in, tune it in again.

or

Usher out one class that has watched 'How We Used To Live' from the TV room, get the next class in, settle them down and they can watch 'Words And Pictures'.

Jimmo · October 2015

1024MAK wrote: »

By the way, does anyone know why there were all these 2 to 5 minute gaps between schools programs? I can understand 1 minute gaps, but in my school, the teacher had already got everyone to shut up way before the countdown clock or even before the announcer introduced the next programme.

Mark

I would imagine it was to fill the gap in transmission times, given that the programmes more often than not weren't exactly 30 mins long, but other than that, no idea.

Scottie_uk wrote: »

I remember many of those old regions aka ITV Franchisees. Thames in particular was one that put out a lot of great content and generated a lot of export. But Thames like TV AM was culled by Facher!! during the broadcasting act of 1990 whch saw the re-regulation of commercial television...

Don't you mean DE-regulation? Up until then ITV had the same public service remit like the BBC (so many hours of educational programming, x hours of children's TV, religious TV etc.) during the 90s that remit was continually diluted.

1024MAK · October 2015

Which is why ITV shows 95% rubbish now (IMHO).

It was much better when the different ITV companies competed to produce shows that the rest of the network wanted to show.

Returning to the topic, I'm working the weekend, but next week, I will try to take a picture of my nan's old telly, that I have in storage. It has the wood like effect. Forget now if it is actual wood, or just plastic that looks like wood.

Mark

Luny · October 2015

If we a talking schools, all you brits will remember this

Scottie_uk · October 2015

Jimmo wrote: »

1024MAK wrote: »

By the way, does anyone know why there were all these 2 to 5 minute gaps between schools programs? I can understand 1 minute gaps, but in my school, the teacher had already got everyone to shut up way before the countdown clock or even before the announcer introduced the next programme.

Mark

I would imagine it was to fill the gap in transmission times, given that the programmes more often than not weren't exactly 30 mins long, but other than that, no idea.

Scottie_uk wrote: »

I remember many of those old regions aka ITV Franchisees. Thames in particular was one that put out a lot of great content and generated a lot of export. But Thames like TV AM was culled by Facher!! during the broadcasting act of 1990 whch saw the re-regulation of commercial television...

Don't you mean DE-regulation? Up until then ITV had the same public service remit like the BBC (so many hours of educational programming, x hours of children's TV, religious TV etc.) during the 90s that remit was continually diluted.

Yes I meant De sorry. What it also mean what that the ITC who had replaced the IBA (which was before that the ITA) was quite hot on disciplining channels if the quality dropped, the ITC not so.

I remember reading once how TV-AM got a bollocking in in their early days for their unpolished presentation and were told to buck up their ideas. I bet that does not happen any more.

Scottie_uk · October 2015

Picture Box, reminds me of my last year in Primary school aged 10. I do remember this one too, Music Time. Some how dispute effort going in from 'some' of the presenters to make it seem cool, it always managed to make music seem like such a booing endeavor.

FFS why not, today we are going to explore the Jupiter 80 Synthesizer from Roland and the Korg Poly 6 and show you how to play Van Halen's Jump. Then we will show you can recreate this sound on your home organs. After this we will move to the Bass Guatar and show you how to knock out some funk. After this we will have a guest appearance from Cozy Powell to teach you a think or two about drumming and keeping in time.

Actually, I think Bill Bailey could do a good job of educating children about music.

Here's the theme tune.

Here is some content, see what I mean.

Not strictly Wooden Telly, but if we are going down the Schools route then let me remind you of this.
http://i54.tinypic.com/29oil5i.jpg

MatGubbins · October 2015

Yup that Come And Praise book....... and there was a little green with swirly pattens with plastic cover hymn book as well.

leespoons · October 2015

I don't remember 'Come and Praise' (which sounds to me like an instruction manual for priests) but I do remember this:

http://static.musicroom.com/img/c/f/17896.jpg

An odd selection of music hall songs, American folk songs, religious gubbins and a few Beatles numbers thrown in ('Yesterday', 'Ob-La-Di') to appear up to date. We spent most of our time making up rude lyrics - one that sticks in my mind is "I love to go a-wandering, along the mountain track / And as I go, I love to sing, and sh!t out of my crack".

mel the bell · October 2015

def chris wrote: »

Our olde wooden telly (around 82-83 ish) used to have buttons for channels that had written above them "BBC1" "BBC2" "ITV1" and then in a genius move of forward planning "ITV2" :)

knight rider, a team and the fall guy were my ultimate top fav programs iirc

just a good job ITV didnt decide to miss 2 out altogether and go straight for 3 :P

mel the bell · October 2015

looking for wooden tellys in old argos catalogues and what do i come across? the speccy page :D

http://www.bitterwallet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Screen-shot-2010-12-10-at-13.29.291.png

mel the bell · October 2015

wooden radios? :P

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/80/a4/33/80a43305864da13db9ca51a93548dfe0.jpg

ASH-II · October 2015

Scottie_uk wrote: »

I remember reading once how TV-AM got a bollocking in in their early days for their unpolished presentation and were told to buck up their ideas. I bet that does not happen any more.

The ITA closed down Opportunity Knocks because of Mr Greens Right wing bias. :-O
a show that was getting over 18 million viewers, that's like shutting down the X-factor because it's a four month plug for the Christmas single number one.

The Olde Wooden Telly Thread

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