Things you no longer see or hear on TV

[Arran]

This discussion isn't about individual programmes that are no longer shown, but is instead about captions, audio quotes, and other mundane features that were once commonplace on TV but have since fallen out of use.


The Thames or Carlton to LWT handover on a Friday evening.

ITV start up sequences shown after TV-AM or GMTV.

In vision continuity.

Pages from Ceefax shown on BBC1 and BBC2 in the morning after 8AM or the early afternoon.

Colour Production - still being used on new programmes in the mid 1980s.

Cue dots in the corner of the screen. Occasionally seen on a small number of live programmes.

A <insert ITV company of your choice> production for Channel 4.

Subtitles on P888

"More details are available on Ceefax page XYZ"

"Answers on a postcard please"

"Send a stamped addressed envelope to..."

"In this week's edition of the Radio Times"

"Cut out the coupon in your TV Times"

"In NICAM Stereo"

"Set your video recorder for..."

On ITV "The film will continue after the news". This was when films were frequently split in half for News at Ten.

[amethyst]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

Flight arrivals
Holidays teletext

[angliaknight]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

Newspaper listings..As london except...when regional itv was best.
Invision tv announcers...they became almost friends. ATVs weekend guy was Peter Tomlinson who introduced the Friday night horror film surrounded by his teddy bears then did the closedown and back on air for tiswas, which he mentioned, next morning.
The sunday god slot 6.15- 7.25pm
Progs for schools.
The Epilogue. a 5 min' religious message before the national anthem then closedown, watching the white dot dissappear
Westerns..cowboys ruled the airwaves.
Adjusting the vertical/horizontal hold on your set.
p.i.f.
interludes.

[Big Tim]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

Apologies for technical problems/breakdown in transmission. Often accompanied by a picture of a clock or timer, or later, a still of a picture from the programme being transmitted, with a looped audio message relating the problem and how long it would be before service resumed. Thus, programmes scheduled afterwards would be introduced with a "running approximately xx minutes late" (a bit like trains!). Used to always be annoying if you'd set your video to record, and then missed the end of your favourite programme. On odd occasions, the entire schedule would be changed, or a programme removed to try to catch up the time lost.

[Big Tim]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

I suppose the most obvious one, which I'm sure the majority of us remember, the "Testcard" -

[fynger]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

The white dot disapearing at night on shutdown after the national anthem

[Richard1978]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

News flashes, especially when it was just a caption that appeared at the bottom of the screen, then a proper announcement at the end of the programme.

The BBC 1 mechanical globe.

Early computer generated BBC 2 Logos, =2= & the pastel TWO.

The CBBC logos generated by a BBC Micro & no announcer.

The CBBC Broom Cupboard, especially when they used to sign off early for viewers in Northern Ireland.

There used to be lots of opt outs for viewers in the home nations, & occasionally English regions, I was peeved when repeats of Star Trek on Sunday mornings were replaced by Rugby League highlights here in the North West!

Musical acts on Blue Peter trying to play the end theme & normally making a complete mess of it.

[Markxist]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

We still got the cue dots up here in Granadaland. Certainly on live broadcasts.

'We seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties...' cue some library music from the Ceefax vaults until they can return to the programme.

[Richard1978]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

There seemed to be a lot of loss of sound & vision in the past, with captions telling you it was a temporary fault.

BBC2 & Channel 4 seemed to like filling in time with some public domain music & cheap montage of stock footage.

TV shows where the interior is shot on videotape & exteriors on film, Monty Python did a sketch about this.

Strikes by studio staff seems to be a thing of the past. I'm too young to remember the 1979 ITV strike but remember when TV-AM had to show lots of old American shows for weeks, which wasn't so bad. Also the BBC was once affected by a journalists strike & couldn't have any news for a day or so.

[Arran]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

Apologies for technical problems/breakdown in transmission.

They still officially exist but have been very rare in recent years.

Often accompanied by a picture of a clock or timer, or later

There used to be timeclocks as well. ITV had different designs for each region.

I suppose the most obvious one, which I'm sure the majority of us remember, the "Testcard" -

Have testcards completely vanished or are they still occasionally shown?

[Big Tim]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

Re: Testcards - I guess they do still exist in some respect; many of the Freeview Channels sometimes go through a short transitional period between the end of whatever "Home Shopping" programme they are network screening, prior to moving to their actual programming transmission - during this time you get an ident screen of sorts. The BBC one I posted above was the definitive one from my childhood though, and after seeing it on a daily basis, it seemed strange when it finally disappeared.

The ITV regional idents were also a big part of programming - Central with the semi-eclipsed moon; Thames TV with St Paul's Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament, and London Weekend Television (LWT) with the brash red/white/blue logo are the ones that stand out for me (despite being in the Yorkshire/Tyne Tees catchment). When did they eventually disappear? At a guess it must be early 90's? (Sorry, a little bit off topic).

[Richard1978]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

I used to really like the ITV company logos at the start of programmes, I think they went around 1988-9.

At least the stayed at the end for a few more years.

I remember Highway used to just have an ITV presents one at the start, but whichever company at the end, & a rare view of one of the smaller companies logo.

[darren]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

HERE ARE SOME IDENTS.

A FEW ID NOT SEEN BEFORE.


LOVE THE CHANNEL 4 ONE GIVES ME GOOSEBUMPS.

https://youtu.be/A-kQwTG7jkQ

[Markxist]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

HERE ARE SOME IDENTS.

A FEW ID NOT SEEN BEFORE.


LOVE THE CHANNEL 4 ONE GIVES ME GOOSEBUMPS.

https://youtu.be/A-kQwTG7jkQ

Channel 4, with its ident music composed by David Dundas of 70s chart hit Blue Jeans and the score for Withnail and I fame. He made a lot of money out of that brief blast of goosebumpy music!

[Arran]

Re: Things you no longer see or hear on TV

Gus Honeybun although it was a bit before my time and I didn't live in TSW territory. In the 1980s it was broadcast in the CITV timeslot instead of the last piece of CITV continuity after the final programme had finished.

Did any other ITV regions have opt-outs in CITV where they showed their own feature instead of networked CITV continuity?