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Shows that people forget or get lost in time

Classic shows you remember, but the public might not (July 2017)

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RE
Revolution
Ellen Degeneres's sitcom before she came a talk show host. She was often joined by different acts/guests on her opening title sequence and there seems to be some bad continuity regarding the theme song when it is sung by a guest performer here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiNmUYYzpc4

She came out in the fourth season which was a groundbreaking moment on network TV. Channel 4 flew her to London to host a coming out party which was hosted by yours truly Graham Norton.

10 days later

NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Another worthy contribution to this thread thanks to the YouTube side bar/recommended for you thing:


A segment from a 1983 Freetime episode featuring what is basically a complete circuit in a shoebox and a former Magpie presenter. I have no memory of this show but hopefully somebody else will.
IS
Inspector Sands
I only have vague memories of Freetime, mainly of it being a bit dull. One of my school classrooms had a Freetime sticker on the window, i never found out if we had appeared on it in the past. I think it was a part replacement for Magpie.

It was revived in the late 80s, that version was the first presenting job of Andi Peters
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 30 March 2019 6:21am - 2 times in total
JW
JamesWorldNews
Yes, partial replacement for Magpie and featured Magpie presenter Mick Robinson (?) Or Robertson (?) In the lead presenting role.

Interesting that you describe it as a dull show. My views exactly the same. It didn't really catch on in the way that Magpie did. It aimed to be a cool and funky updated version of the latter.
NT
Night Thoughts
Another worthy contribution to this thread thanks to the YouTube side bar/recommended for you thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQbMoCneuaM

A segment from a 1983 Freetime episode featuring what is basically a complete circuit in a shoebox and a former Magpie presenter. I have no memory of this show but hopefully somebody else will.


Cor, not seen those titles for years and years - the early 80s looked like a grimmer place... The theme music was the only really memorable part of that show.
RO
robertclark125
In the early 2000s there was a three part series on BBC2, which was shown inexplicably AFTER Newsnight, called "Bills Baa Baas". Bill McLaren looked back at the Barbarians rugby union team, founded in 1890, selected some favourite moments, and matches, and players, as well as explained some of their history.
VM
VMPhil
Forgive me if I've mentioned this before but does anyone remember the ITV panel/quiz show Never Had It So Good? I think it was on after CiTV ended for the day which is why I remember seeing it. I can only recall Fred Dinenage being on it.
NW
nwtv2003
Forgive me if I've mentioned this before but does anyone remember the ITV panel/quiz show Never Had It So Good? I think it was on after CiTV ended for the day which is why I remember seeing it. I can only recall Fred Dinenage being on it.


Yep, it was hosted by Matthew Kelly. The other panellist on it was Roland Rivron. I believe it was made by Yorkshire Television. It wasn’t a bad show, only lasted one series from memory.
PA
parrferris
I was looking on the ITV teletext section on TV Whirl, and was looking at a set of pages from 1999 from Granada. Teletext on 3 was looking at some of the best and worst shows of the 20th century, and it mentioned one which I can't remember.

The show, on BBC1, was called "The River", and marked the sitcom debut of the singer david Essex. He played a cockney lock-keeper, who fell for a Scottish barge owner. After six episodes, the show sank, apparently without a trace, into the river.

Anyone remember it?

I do recall The River . It was written by Michael Aitkens who was better known for the very popular Waiting for God . It co-starred Shaun Scott who (later?) had a stint in The Bill but at the time was probably most familiar from a series of ads for Café Hag coffee.

As a keen narrowboater in those days I had high hopes of this series, but it was a huge disappointment - the main (perhaps only) joke in every episode was someone falling into the river...

12 days later

RO
robertclark125
I saw a trailer today for "Afternoon Live" on the BBC News Channel, and the music used on it was used for a long gone, and forgotten show on BBC1, "The Big Country Quest". It was shown the summer after Good Morning with Anne and Nick was axed, and Nick Owen was the host.

Teams were set some unusual country challenges each week, including one with barbed wire, and they were awarded poits for their success.
SW
Steve Williams
I saw a trailer today for "Afternoon Live" on the BBC News Channel, and the music used on it was used for a long gone, and forgotten show on BBC1, "The Big Country Quest". It was shown the summer after Good Morning with Anne and Nick was axed, and Nick Owen was the host.


Anne and Nick's reign of terror was still continuing when The Big Country Quest was on, it was in the summer of 1994. That was quite an interesting summer on BBC1 because the previous year there had been virtually no new programmes in the summer because there'd been an accounting cock-up so budgets were extremely squeezed and BBC1 had to show virtually non-stop repeats in primetime, and they got a lot of complaints. So I think in 1994, Alan Yentob decided that BBC1 needed new programmes, any new programmes, in the summer, so quite a lot of slight programmes that in other years wouldn't have got anywhere near primetime were given very prominent slots.

I'm sure The Big Country Quest was destined for daytimes before being presaged into primetime service. That summer they also promoted A Word In Your Ear, the Gordon Burns quiz, from daytime to teatime, while Bygones, the nostalgia panel show hosted by Danny Baker, was shown at 7pm even though it was brilliantly esoteric and was almost certainly intended for a post-watershed slot. Really anything went that summer, such a bizarre selection of programmes.
JK
JKDerry
Mid-Summer 1993 on BBC One was filled with repeats of BBC sitcoms. For example in early August 1993, on Monday it was repeats of So Haunt Me and Waiting for God. On Tuesdays it was The Good Life and May to December. On Thursday it was Keeping Up Appearances and on Friday it was Dad's Army. All in prime time, so we can see the effect on the 1993 budget issues with BBC One.

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