Sunday Morning telly

[Arran]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

LWT was ITV company most opposed to the Sunday evening God slot with Highway because they were affected by it more than any other ITV company.

Was Fraggle Rock shown on Sunday Mornings?

[Arran]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

LWT had a priority at the weekend (basically because it could only broadcast at the weekend) when it came to network slots and they wanted to become more of a published broadcaster rather than a producer which is why they offered some of their slots to smaller companies which wanted to be producers but struggled to get good slots during weekdays. LWT had a friendly relationship with TVS and broadcast C.A.T.S. Eyes for them. Had TVS not been defeated by Meridian then it's highly likely that they would have merged with LWT early in 1993. They might have even taken in Anglia as well later in the 1990s.

[George 1978]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

The regional ITV companies each had a production department and produced their own programmes independently of each other. ITV today effectively functions as a single programme producer. Weekends provided an opportunity for smaller ITV companies to get a network slot and programmes were often niche interest if they weren't religious or for children.

Indeed, TVS got more networked slots on Saturdays and Sundays than on a weekday evening - LWT was more kinder to smaller companies. HTV's Robin of Sherwood and Anglia's Tales of the Unexpected wouldn't have gone out on a weekday evening.

[Arran]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

ITV had not replaced regional companies - it was still ITV when it was regional - it was just that it was referred to regionally a bit more often back then. What sort of strange stuff are you referring to?

The regional ITV companies each had a production department and produced their own programmes independently of each other. ITV today effectively functions as a single programme producer. Weekends provided an opportunity for smaller ITV companies to get a network slot and programmes were often niche interest if they weren't religious or for children.

[George 1978]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

ITV had not replaced regional companies - it was still ITV when it was regional - it was just that it was referred to regionally a bit more often back then. What sort of strange stuff are you referring to?

[Arran]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

There was some strange stuff on Sundays in the 1990s that continued to the 2000s. Weekends provided an opportunity for smaller ITV companies to network programmes. What do you think has been lost with ITV replacing regional companies?

[George 1978]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

and a children's drama called Ireland.

That should be "Island" and not "Ireland".

[George 1978]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

You missed the most prominent of all - BMX Beat.

Yes, of course. And I have been watching episodes of it from YouTube. It had the 1973 version of that Apache song from the Incredible Bongo Band that the Shadows originally performed.

Ulster did a couple of programmes in the Highway slot - one was called Sing Out (it makes me think of Dana for some reason), and the other was Mary O'Hara and Friends.

It was very much a truism that you were more likely to have an Ulster programme networked at the weekend than a Thames one - it was ironic for example that game show Password. (which I think was the only game show to be transmitted on BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV, and Channel 4), was networked on ITV by Ulster, while Thames did the Channel 4 version, although the Thames version was shown at the weekend - something that wouldn't have happened on ITV from a network perspective.

Channel provided two CITV programmes - an animation called Bertie the Bat, and a children's drama called Ireland. The programme The Dodo Club springs to mind, although I had in my mind that it was made by Granada. For some reason, Channel seems to be referred to regarding compliance on ITV or something in more recent years.

Grampian made The Electric Theatre Show, shown in many areas but not always networked - ironically, Grampian didn't show it in the same time when all the other regions did. They also did Pennywise, a money-saving tips programme seen in the post-Rainbow and pre-News at One 12.30 pm slot in the mid-1980s - it was presented by two middle-aged women with accents so strong that they sounded as if they were speaking Gaelic.

Tyne Tees was a lot more prominent on the network - Chain Letters and Cross Wits were both game shows in the 9.30 am weekday morning slot just before The Time The Place - the first ITV company to make more than one game show for that slot. They also did Play it Again where C-list actors chatted about their favourite films and they shown clips of them (very much in the vein of similar shows such as Looks Familiar; Look Who's Talking; Movie Memories and Tell Me Another) - it must have been a nightmare to clear, copyright-wise because of that. Tyne Tees also did the sub-Grange Hill series The Paper Lads in the late 1970s as well.

TSW did That's My Dog; Sounds Like Music (a game show about musicals which was not a bad effort from TSW); and Tube Mice, which if anything was a very London-feeling cartoon series rather than the south west - Dennis Waterman and George Cole gave their voices to the characters on that. They also did Secrets of the Coast as well, although that was only seen in some ITV regions.

HTV did Wycliffe as well, and as the drama series was set in Cornwall, I was wondering whether Westcountry was going to make the series! Nevertheless, a Westcountry newsreader could be seen on a television set in one episode. They also did Definition, presented by Don Moss and later Jeremy Beadle, and Three Little Words where Ray Alan was accompanied by his wide Barbie rather than Lord Charles. And of course all the programmes that Alan Taylor presented as well.

As I have said before, I stayed in Cunbria in 2003 and I have went through the Border region to get to Scotland, but that has been my only link to that region.

[Richard1978]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

I mostly remember Border from Mr & Mrs.

Channel managed to get a documentary about the German occupation networked, otherwise it was their contributions to the likes of Highway.

James The Cat was about the only thing I remember from Grampian.

Tyne Tees made Supergran, which was a rare time they had a networked show.

I was lucky enough to pick up a faint Welsh TV signal, so would watch HTV & S4C through a lot of snow.

[Arran]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

I don't know about that - Border made CITV programmes like the Joke Machine, Crush a Grape and Krazy Kitchen, both presented by Stu Francis, and the Krankies Television show. Therefore, Border was very much in the mind of a lot of youngsters, certainly in the mid to late 1980s.

You missed the most prominent of all - BMX Beat.

The way it worked was:

Channel - Did they ever network any programmes?

Ulster - Once in a blue moon. They produced a few episodes of Dramarama but otherwise the only time you would see the logo was religious programmes like Highway.

TSW - Very rare. Religious programmes seemed to be most common although they contributed to Get Fresh and Ghost Train.

Border - Very rare. Only seemed to network a few children's programmes and religious programmes.

Grampian - Rare apart from schools programmes. I think they produced some children's programmes as well.

Tyne Tees - Rare but they co-ordinated Highway. I think they produced some of the minor gameshows.

HTV - Rare but they produced some mystical children's programmes like Emlyn's Moon.

I bet if a viewer was watching from a Border region perspective, they would be so used to Border programmes not being networked that it was a Border programme was being networked, it would almost feel as if Border had opted out of the network in order to show it if it, and I bet that it would feel like an opt out if it was a Border programme on CITV.

Good question. Anybody here from the Border ITV region?

[George 1978]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

I wouldn't be surprised if more people watched Highway for the ITV logo at the end rather than the programme itself.

It's quite strange how many kids of the 1980s recognise the Border Television logo but weren't aware at the time it was an ITV company.

I don't know about that - Border made CITV programmes like the Joke Machine, Crush a Grape and Krazy Kitchen, both presented by Stu Francis, and the Krankies Television show. Therefore, Border was very much in the mind of a lot of youngsters, certainly in the mid to late 1980s.

I bet if a viewer was watching from a Border region perspective, they would be so used to Border programmes not being networked that it was a Border programme was being networked, it would almost feel as if Border had opted out of the network in order to show it if it, and I bet that it would feel like an opt out if it was a Border programme on CITV.

Looking from old early 1970s TV schedules, I could tell apart which version of Mr and Mrs were originally shown - HTV would show the Border version along with the network and vice-versa, and to avoid repeats, they would opt out of their own version on the network showing in the afternoons and show it at 6.30 pm or 7.00 pm or some prominent slot like that.

[Arran]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

It was worth catching the end titles of Highway for the rare glimpse of one of the logos of one of the smaller ITV companies at the end.

I wouldn't be surprised if more people watched Highway for the ITV logo at the end rather than the programme itself.

It's quite strange how many kids of the 1980s recognise the Border Television logo but weren't aware at the time it was an ITV company.

[Zincubus]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

Don't think I watched telly during daylight hours , I'd be out playing footie or on my bike ...


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[whitewall66]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

Great Sunday morning theme tune never watched the show though.
https://youtu.be/Y2dpq4sExgs

[George 1978]

Re: Sunday Morning telly

It was worth catching the end titles of Highway for the rare glimpse of one of the logos of one of the smaller ITV companies at the end.

You could correctly guess which ITV company made it as a result of which place Sir Harry Secombe was visiting. If he was visiting John O'Groats or the Orkneys, then it would obviously be a Grampian logo at the end of it.