Challenge Discussion

To start things off, the 2000 series of Family Fortunes started last night, and has anyone noticed how piss poorly the end credits are edited? The music is very badly looped. Why would Challenge do that?

Probably because they edit out where Peter Dickson says "if you would like to take part on Family Fortunes".

I've seen a few episodes where they included the "to take part" spiel but they have overlayed a caption saying sommat like "contestant entry has closed"

Speaking of Challenge in general, their presentation and continuity is terrible... then again I suppose Flextech/VMTV is known for that.
Those idents are awful and their attention to what it shows is very low. I recall an episode of Big Break last year which had a technical problem (in the days were their idents were conversations on a white background) and they fixed it alongside a breakdown slide. A couple of weeks ago on Big Break, a fault occured again, with no attention payed to it whatsoever, and left the show pretty much unviewable.

I admire the channel very much because of it's content. I just wish it had a better look.

ISTR that UTV did exactly the same when they showed FF.

Whether this poor edit was a Carlton or a UTV thing I'm not sure.

I think that the master tapes of FF are edited as such, for easy 'syndication'

Big Break always seems to have technical faults, this year and last year have had the same problems on transmission without anyone fixing it.

Didn't that used to be the Family Channel? I remember there were quite a few game shows back then.

Challenge did evolve from the Family Channel - and there are still a couple of tapes in their archive which have Family Channel logos on them.

I think it's fair to say that the VMTV channels had a few teething problems when they moved to Red Bee last summer.

Ahhhh, I see. I used to like the classic movies they used to show. They really ought to consider bringing it back.

The transition also included Family Late showing the Family progs from after midnight I believe.

Yes 12.30am-5.00am, a peak time for Family viewing! I think it was more of a contract issue, but as soon as they could they started showing Gameshows in that slot (Autumn 1998 I think it was) and it eventually became Challenge.

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or did I just watch a recorded episode of Nortonland in WIDESCREEN ??? The DOG wasn't in 16:9 format but I wondered why everybody and everything seemed thin in a 4:3 format, and I noticed there wasn't any "semi-letterbox" on the programme.