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Top of the Pops

1990 on BBC Four (January 2018)

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BU
buster
The interesting thing about that caption to come out of the 26/10/89 edition is that it manages to look both professional and last minute at the same time. You've got the old TOTP logo, no circle round the "C" and no BBC logo, but the actual design of the thing is really nice. You'd expect them to come out to the BBC1/TOTP programme slide at short notice.


26'34" in.
Richard and Steve Williams gave kudos
SW
Steve Williams
The interesting thing about that caption to come out of the 26/10/89 edition is that it manages to look both professional and last minute at the same time. You've got the old TOTP logo, no circle round the "C" and no BBC logo, but the actual design of the thing is really nice. You'd expect them to come out to the BBC1/TOTP programme slide at short notice.


Yes, despite seeing it on screen for all of two seconds and never again, I vividly remembered the caption and I was very excited to finally see it again about ten years ago (when somebody uploaded a pile of old Pops episodes to Myspace). As you say, it's actually quite a good-looking caption, so clearly they spent a bit of time knocking it up.
JA
james-2001
Gill Sans too, a full 8 years before it became the official BBC font.

Popscene lists Milli Vanilli as being the playout on that edition, presumably someone's seen a BBC archive copy of the episode or paperwork to know that seeing as it was never broadcast, and UK Gold didn't show this particular episode.

Also the episode with the Road to Hell video/performance combo that Chris Rea talked about in the Story of 1989. Not the first time it was done because a performance was dull though, Nik Kershaw talked about them doing it to him in the Story of 1984, and we saw it with Enya in 1988. Also happened in 1988 to Harry Enfield and The Timelords, though I'd argue they were both quite interesting performances, so not sure why they had to cut so much of the video over them.
Last edited by james-2001 on 7 January 2020 2:18pm
JA
james-2001
I suppose it was better than by the time we got to the Blaxill and Cowie eras, as it seemed obvious that they were bias against pop/dance tracks. Sometimes they'd get less than 2 minutes but their indie faves would be able to do the whole song!


There was a lot of musical snobbery around indie in the 90s, though I guess it's always been around with one genre or another. I've never liked the idea of people declaring what's "real music" and what isn't personally.

And 2:45, that is stupidly short really, not enough time for plenty of songs to get going, though I guess they were trying to make the most of the runtime. One of the stupidest things about the 1991 revamp with the show's limited runtime was taking so much of it up with an overlong title sequence, and an even longer credit sequence. Not suprising they were the first things to go when Ric Blaxill took over (I believe Michael Hurll bought back the video playout when he filled in during the summer of 1992 as well, but the stupidly long credits were back when Appel returned).
TI
TIGHazard
Gill Sans too, a full 8 years before it became the official BBC font.

Popscene lists Milli Vanilli as being the playout on that edition, presumably someone's seen a BBC archive copy of the episode or paperwork to know that seeing as it was never broadcast, and UK Gold didn't show this particular episode.

Also the episode with the Road to Hell video/performance combo that Chris Rea talked about in the Story of 1989. Not the first time it was done because a performance was dull though, Nik Kershaw talked about them doing it to him in the Story of 1984, and we saw it with Enya in 1988. Also happened in 1988 to Harry Enfield and The Timelords, though I'd argue they were both quite interesting performances, so not sure why they had to cut so much of the video over them.


Isn't most of the Popscene database based of running orders on the BBC Programme Catalogue when that was open to the public for a bit?
JA
james-2001
Looking at some clips from the Review of the 80s, it looks like they were trying out their fancy new caption generator there going by the way the graphics animate. The new graphics didn't appear on regular editions until the final episode of January 1990 though (which was also the final double headed edition, bar the 1990 Xmas special, until the 1991 revamp)

The opening titles for the Review of the 80s edition were shown at the end of the Story of 1989, so hopefully that's a sign BBC4 will be showing it, though the titles from the 25th birthday edition on the Story of 1988. No questional presenters, clips or acts on the Review of the 80s episode though, and UK Gold did show it back in the 90s.
VM
VMPhil
I thought the Story of 1989 documentary was the least interesting of the TOTP documentaries. Admittedly I was sort of hoping for a behind the scenes on the 1989 title sequence and how that was made, but it’s not iconic or famous like the flying records sequence so I’m not surprised there wasn’t.

One interesting tidbit was Steve Wright contributed to the chart success of ‘The Road to Hell’ by playing the full length version on his show. Shows you how much power the DJs had in influencing what people listened to.
JA
james-2001
They seem to have got steadily less interesting since around 1985. I'm really hoping the 1991 one is interesting considering the big developments in the show that year.
AR
Argybargy
Looking at some clips from the Review of the 80s, it looks like they were trying out their fancy new caption generator there going by the way the graphics animate. The new graphics didn't appear on regular editions until the final episode of January 1990 though (which was also the final double headed edition, bar the 1990 Xmas special, until the 1991 revamp)

The opening titles for the Review of the 80s edition were shown at the end of the Story of 1989, so hopefully that's a sign BBC4 will be showing it , though the titles from the 25th birthday edition on the Story of 1988. No questional presenters, clips or acts on the Review of the 80s episode though, and UK Gold did show it back in the 90s.


BIB- I'm certain that this episode WILL get shown on BBC Four. There's no reason for them not to do so.
JA
james-2001
My main thinking is with it being a special review episode outside of the regular run of the show they might have decided to skip it over, but we'll have to see.
AR
Argybargy
My main thinking is with it being a special review episode outside of the regular run of the show they might have decided to skip it over, but we'll have to see.

Yes, see what you mean. However, there were a handful of new studio performances on this edition from the likes of Status Quo, Phil Collins and David Essex, to name but three. Like you say, we'll get to know by the time we get to June.

Had the 25th anniversary show not featured Savile, I'm sure BBC Four would have screened that one too.
JA
james-2001
The 30th birthday edition is even more of a curio, as there's no performances, only clips, plus the end credits suggest it was produced by a different production team to the regular show, not even Stan Appel (or Ric Blaxill, though he hadn't quite taken over at that point anyway) are credited.

The first regular edition of 1994 celebrates 30 years too though, with a big "30" in the studio, a birthday cake, a couple of members of Pan's People as guests and a medley of Yellow Pearl, The Wizard and the current theme tune over the credits.

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