CITV's 'Old Skool Weekend'

[clem]

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=62976407&postcount=73

Bollocks I’m at work on the Sunday. There’s also ’30 Years of CITV’ on ITV1, 29 December, 6.30pm

Topic

[Ridley]

Ooh.

[Reece]

Well that’s my first weekend of 2013 sorted.

[Danny Stephenson]

Holy shitballs! That’s amazing!

[si]

Having just finally gotten round to looking at the full schedule…FUCK ME, THAT’S AMAZING.

Mike & Angelo (especially if it’s the original cast), SuperGran, Knightmare, Fraggle Rock, Woof…all staples of my childhood. Kids today might have whole channels for their stuff, but those couple of hours when we got home from school were amazing, really, when you think about it, weren’t they?

Art Attack, Finders Keepers, Fun House? Proper TV. DangerMouse and Count Duckula? Only my two favourite cartoons ever. And as for Button Moon – I once went to see a Button Moon stage show at the Library Theatre, Sheffield, only to get there and discover that it had sold out and we couldn’t get in. I cried all the way home.

I doubt my Sky+ box will be able to cope with all this.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT: Wouldn’t it be great if they had all the old…what’s the word? Not idents, but you know where the presenters used to be? There used to be an animation, which zoomed through the town to the hill where the CITV studio used to be, didn’t there? And while CBBC had Pip/Andy/Andi in the broom cupboard, CITV used to have different celebrities every week. Oh, nostalgia. I’m going to find my Look-Ins…

[Stephen R. Fletcher]

THIS. IS. AWESOME.

I’m interested to see if they air the UK version of Fraggle Rock (with the Captain and Sprocket in a lighthouse). Oddly enough, I’ve only really seen the American versions of the show (with Doc and Sprocket in the workshop) and when the show was last broadcast here two years ago on a kids channel, they also aired the American versions. Plus the itunes downloads and I also believe the Region 2 DVDs are the American versions, too.

[Lexo Ross]

I remember having a dream similar to this a couple of years ago, who would’ve thought this would become a reality in a way?

BTW is it a permanent fixture, will every weekend be an “Old Skool” one, or is it just this weekend?

[Alex]

My immediate thoughts are, ‘screw everything else there, THEY”RE SHOWING SOOTY FROM 1985 AND AN EPISODE OF SOOTY & CO!’

I fucking love Sooty.

[Lexo Ross]

Hey, ho, it’s Sooty and Co! Jesus Christ, I wish I was 3 again so so much.

[Ridley]

AN EPISODE OF SOOTY & CO!

Hope it’s the From the New World/Hovis tune episode. Although I’ve just found it on YouTube so something Sweep heavy instead would be nice.

[genericnerdyusername]

Can’t get enough of Neil Innes, so I’m looking forward to the Raggy Dolls the most (at the moment).

[clem]

And Puddle Lane, surely?

[genericnerdyusername]

I had no idea it existed. Looking it up now and YES.

[clem]

Got the Sunday off work!

> Mike & Angelo (especially if it’s the original cast)

IIRC there was a scene in which original Angelo basically regenerated into new Angelo.
I hope it’s an Eric episode of Woof. I’d rather see a later T-Bag though, as I got the first three series DVDs, and I don’t think there are currently any plans to release more, unfortunately.

[HelloMabel]

> Can’t get enough of Neil Innes, so I’m looking forward to the Raggy Dolls the most (at the moment).

I love you genericnerdyusername!

[Danny Stephenson]

I’m interested to see if they air the UK version of Fraggle Rock (with the Captain and Sprocket in a lighthouse). Oddly enough, I’ve only really seen the American versions of the show (with Doc and Sprocket in the workshop) and when the show was last broadcast here two years ago on a kids channel, they also aired the American versions.

Apparently the majority of the UK links to Fraggle Rock have been either deleted or lost entirely… I remember there was an appeal a while back for anyone who had any copies to come forward and donate them…

[genericnerdyusername]

>I love you genericnerdyusername!

I love you too, HelloMabel!

I got the back catalogue of Neil Innes’ available works off iTunes and I’ve started mixing various tracks up with Viv Stanshall’s solo work and I pretend to myself that these playlists are new Bonzo albums. Good time well spent, imo.

[Pete Part Three]

I was more of a CBBC kind of guy, but I did like me a bit of Sooty.

[takerdemon]

Fuck it, I’m getting the snacks in and not got out that weekend.

Knightmare!!!

[Seb Patrick]

Man, just by mentioning this on Twitter today I’ve had a fuckton of retweets and mentions. It appears nothing gets the people of this country going quite like nostalgia for old kids TV.

Frankly, I think ITV should pay heed and use this as their weekend schedule for ITV1, instead of just the CITV channel.

[si]

I was talking to someone on Twitter earlier about this, and they suggested a full channel of classic CITV *and* CBBC shows. How good would that be? Shows from between 1977-1997, maybe? Saturday mornings alternating between Going Live/Saturday Superstore/Motormouth/No 73/Ghost Train…oh, the possibilities. Thursday evenings watching Johnny Briggs. Fridays with Round The Bend. Sunday mornings with Parallel 9, The 8:15 From Manchester or On The Waterfront.
Oh, it’d be marvellous.

[Somebody]

Apparently the majority of the UK links to Fraggle Rock have been either deleted or lost entirely… I remember there was an appeal a while back for anyone who had any copies to come forward and donate them…

Isn’t it all something to do with TVS losing their ITV licence/going bust, and most of the stuff in their archive falling into uncertain ownership, meaning it’s in no-one’s interest enough to go through and catalogue it all?

But yeah, the result is that only the twelve (?) episodes that were released on VHS have accessible masters…

[Ben Paddon]

I bought the DVD set with those twelve episodes for my girlfriend at the time.

That is all.

[thomasaevans]

For me… it’s all about Spatz. The ONE show that NEVER get’s repeated, has NEVER been released on any format… it’s the tit’s!

[Danny Stephenson]

I posted this on Twitter and Facebook, but you can watch every episode of Round The Bend from Tony Husband’s website.

http://www.tonyhusband.co.uk/rtbs1e1.html

[si]

I do like Tony Husband’s site. I like listening to the Oink! flexidisc I cherished so much when I was seven.

http://www.tonyhusband.co.uk/oinkmusic.html

[Lexo Ross]

Well, it starts tomorrow. We all pumped?

[si]

Have set the Sky+ for the *really* special shows, but have been and bought some blank DVDs from the poundshop specially. Recording the whole weekend over four discs. Can’t resist.

[Ian Symes]

Working from 9am til midnight today. I hope the channel goes down all day.

[si]

I’m recording the whole weekend. Watched Mike & Angelo – ot quit as good as I remember it, though itvwas nice to see the original cast. Enjoyed Super Gran, then turned the telly off til Duckula, which was gteat. Watched Art Attack, then changed my disc to record the rest of the afternoon’s stuff. Rrally looking forward to Woof! episode one.

[Michael Warren]

The following shows need to be brought back:

Finders Keepers
Fun House
Knightmare

[clem]

I’m sure Mike & Angelo got better. Tomorrow’s episode is from 1996.

[mick]

It’s worrying how much of it I already had on Tape or DVD.

My 5 year old absolutely LOVED Finders Keepers.

[takerdemon]

Things I learned from this weekend:

– Neil Buchanan liked slapping kids on the head
– Pat Sharpe is a really bad commedian
– An answerphone is an acceptable and apparently desirable prize for kids on Fun House
– The red twin on Fun House was the ugly one
– Woof really wasn’t that great
– Knightmare ruled!!!

[MANI506]

Duckula was just as good, if not better, than I remembered. Great music and artwork throughout as well. Seriously considering the box set – there are twenty five 5 star reviews on Amazon!

[Ian Symes]

Managed to see a couple of bits of this, barely any though. I was mostly struck by How 2 having an email address on screen along with the infoburst, and that Knightmare is even more impressive to me now than it was as a child. Fantastic television.

[Pete Part Three]

I saw a few things on Saturday : Woof!, The Tomorrow People (both a bit slow), Art Attack (holds up fine) and Press Gang – which I’d never really watched and still didn’t take to) but didn’t really watch anything yesterday. The schedule did seem a bit samey, mind.

I missed How2, Sooty and Knightmare which was a bit of a nuisance. Funhouse always seems to pop up on Challenge so didn’t have a huge incentive to watch that, despite its awesomeness.

A nice idea though. Now, if CBBC could do the same thing…

[Alex]

The weekend’s viewing reminded me of this similarity between the first episode of Sooty & Co and ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading’ from Father Ted 3 years later.

[Seb Patrick]

Observations:

I thought Fun House held up remarkably well. Although it was clearly on its last legs by the time of the later ep they showed on Sunday – the prize budget had gone south, whereas the previous day it was a genuinely exciting batch of stuff.

It appears that in the ’90s Gladiators would appear on anything and everything.

Spatz, predictably, doesn’t live up to memories but had flashes – notably a v. strong Nicholas Parsons guest appearance.

Harry Potter owes The Worst Witch a huge debt. As do the rest of us, because it gave us Felicity Jones.

Neil Buchanan is still great.

The first series of Mike and Angelo was shocking. Conversely the first ep of Sooty and Co was pretty darned good.

A new series of Knightmare would be HUGE.

[clem]

> Woof!, The Tomorrow People (both a bit slow)

I suppose those episodes of Woof! that were on were bound to be – the very first, and what was essentially a reboot. Pretty sure some of the Eric era at least was very good indeed.

[Pete Part Three]

It seemed an odd way to structure the first episode; we open on him turning back into a human and he spends the rest of the episode discussing with his friend what he should do if it happens again. And then it ends, without a further transformation (barring a flashback to the first occurrence).

I don’t remember the series that well, certainly not enough to describe the sort of thing that occurred in the average episode, but I got the impression from the opener that it was 90% talking about dogs and 10% seeing the dog do smart things. It had a lot of charm but I don’t think it was the best way to start show about such an interesting idea. If the transformation had occurred half-way through, I think a solo change would have been fine. But to open on one and spend the next 15 minutes teasing it for future episodes…hmmm.

I had no idea, by the way, that it was scripted by Fegen and Norriss.

[si]

I used to really like Woof! I preferred it when it was Eric and Roy – the cameo by Eric in Rex’s first episode was nice, although the girl’s (I can’t remember her name) last line was a bit cringeworthy.

Oh, and who the fuck calls a kid Rex?!

[Pete Part Three]

> the cameo by Eric in Rex’s first episode was nice

I’m annoyed I missed this over the weekend, as I remember this particular scene from 20 years ago or whenever it was (easily my clearest memory of the whole show).

I love a bit of torch-passing, like when Richard O’Brian left with Mumsie in ETP’s first Crystal Maze.

[Seb Patrick]

>I had no idea, by the way, that it was scripted by Fegen and Norriss.

Bernard’s Watch and Aquila were Norriss, too, and Fegen still does a lot of kids’ TV stuff these days.

[Ian Symes]

Whatever happened to John’s proposed Woof! fansite?

[Carlito]

> A new series of Knightmare would be HUGE.

They tried that a few years ago. The pilot is on Youtube. It sucks.

[takerdemon]

I have yet to see a negative review of Knightmare from this past weekend’s viewers. In fact, the show they had on I wasn’t sure about (given it was a later series) but the dungeoneer that had was great. That guy could talk. I remember one part where he’s encountering an evil chap with a girl captured in stocks and he simply says “Oh well, can’t I just go away then?” Brilliant TV.

[Seb Patrick]

> A new series of Knightmare would be HUGE.
They tried that a few years ago. The pilot is on Youtube. It sucks.

“New” =/= “a few years ago”

[Tanya Jones]

That’s not even a fully finished show, is it? In any case, the reason why we don’t currently have Knightmare is the same reason we don’t have a lot of quality kids’ shows; chronic lack of money. And although I don’t think aiming sugar & fat-filled snacks at kids is a brilliant thing, it did bring ITV an awful lot of money in!

[Ian Symes]

I think Knightmare could comfortably sit in a Saturday tea-time slot – extend it to 45/60 mins, have each episode following one self-contained quest from start to finish, and have a story arc across a series of 13. Aim for the Doctor Who audience, but it’s a game show as well.

[Carlito]

Interesting idea, that. I’d watch, as long as it was in the old format and not that CG one they piloted.

[Author]

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