How 2 on Amazon Prime!

Just had it pointed out to me, bizzarely, that series 2-5 of How 2 have appeared on Amazon Prime!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B082FT8Q7F

Series 2 & 3 being made by TVS, so at least some of their archive is accessible, though I'm guessing that's because the rights moved to STV after they took over production? Maybe STV can dig out more of their kids' output to put on there.

What a "Busy" theme tune that was compared to the later one.

Still, surprised that that of all things has turned up. So somebody's found some tapes and some papers, eh? Interesting. Love to know where Amazon have found that from,

I think the link might be Nigel Pickard, who is documented buggered off to STV after TVS lost their licence and took some stuff with him which was subsequently made by STV. Finders Keepers for one and the later How 2 episodes.

But of course these episodes are dated 1990. The result of the 1991 round wouldn't be known for another year or so, so Pickard would have no reason to go to STV until 1992.

Quite a few TVS kids shows moved to STV after 1993. How 2, Art Attack, Finders Keepers, What's Up Doc (though the episodes of What's Up Doc that were made under TVS were still copyrighted to STV, presumable to make things easier with the changeover happening mid series).

I'm guessing STV got the rights to the TVS editions of How 2? Which wasn't always the case with shows that moved over after 1993 though, the issues with the first 9 series of Catchphrase are legendary, and I believe Challenge couldn't get series 1 & 2 of Finders Keepers either (I seem to remember similar issues causing a last minute switch from a series 1 to a series 4 edition of Finders Keepers on the CITV Old School weekend).

How2 has been on Prime Video for a good couple of months now. I jokingly made a tweet about it when retweeing a Netflix tweet, and I got a like from @STVFootageSales. An account I am not followed by.

An educated guess might imply that it maybe STV who have the rights to the TVS era episodes in question.

Still good to see it live on Prime Video.

Worth noting that Bananaman is also currently on Prime Video too.

Art Attack I believed moved to Neil Buchanan's Media Merchants production company as he bought the format from TVS, but they needed an ITV region to get it on the network after 1993 since TVS wasn't going to be around, so presumably they went to STV for that.

Earlier this week I went past the D C Thompson publishing plant in Dundee with a giant mural of him on the side!

There's audio issues ahoy in Season 2 episodes. Seems as if music is garbled with another piece of music in left and right channels.

The theme is also very garbled in some episodes. An unnecessary edit to the original excellent theme from Season 1 which you can find on YouTube.

When some episodes of whatever it was appeared on Challenge (Fun House?) with audio holes, they came from STV too with occasionally garbled audio and music and whatever else. So if its the same on these episodes and they've come from STV for reasons discussed earlier in the thread, that may imply something's happening with the dubbing?

Although that being said, this is 30 year old programming that seems to have issues. BBC stuff from the 1970s seems to all look all fine and dandy, and yet stuff from 1990 has issues already?

Bananaman is also on there - a classic of my particular youth

The thing with the Challenge Fun House audio was every time Pat Sharp mentioned "the weekend", that came out of one speaker, whereas out the other speaker was an alternate line which didn't mention the weekend. They'd clearly made two different audio tracks for depending on when it was shown, and for some reason Challenge were running them both through each audio channel on some episodes, rather than only playing one.

If a show was in mono, the audio would be on track 1, on a stereo show the left channel is on track 1 and the right on track 2. Presumably there would have been two different mono tracks on track 1 and 2 on Fun House, and Challenge treated it as if it was stereo, even though it wasn't, so both tracks went out at the same time when only one should have. Something similar happened on a Top Of The Pops on BBC4 last year, where there was some very strange audio coming out of the right speaker at some parts of the show.

Series 1 and 2 of Home and Away are also on Prime, some have the Network 7 branding on the recaps, breaks and next ep preview.

I found stuff like this whilst watching Bob’s Burgers on prime - FOX promo reels sometimes turned up before the start of the show showing what great new shows are coming soon on FOX!... in 2015, and half of them are now cancelled