Before anyone had a TV tuner card to capture the idents and other things, did you tape something ie) an ident or news titles, and kept rewinding it just to watch it over and over again?
My story's pretty much the same as most people on here.. I got into idents at a pretty early age, I think I actually drew a picture of the BBC 1 COW at the age of 6 or 7, and then when I was 10 I remember Andi Peters after CBBC, before Neighbours (back in the days when the CBBC presenters did the continuity into Neighbours, if anyone remembers that!) standing beside Edd the Duck in front of a CSO screen with COW behind them, saying it was the last night it was gonna be shown, and the new one will be unveiled in Going Live! the next morning. And so I got up early the next day (which I think now was my 10th birthday, actually.. it was Feb 16th those idents started, right?) and my first glimpse of the new 1 & 2 was on the test cards. I was actually surprised BBC 2 was getting a new look as well, since before that they seemed quite independent of each other. But that's not as surprised as when I first saw the new BBC 1 logo, very weird and arty, I thought - until it finished and I realised it was the Open University ident!
I actually wasn't very keen on the 'big 2s' at first, but I learned to love 'em! I too remember the How Did They Do That report on the 2s. I don't think I was into news graphics that much at first, although I was very interested in the BBC News virtual set when it came out, I remember seeing a report all about it and the 'robot cameras' about a week before it started.
But it was only when I got cable in '96 (haven't got it anymore - waah!!) that I started getting interested in news presentation too, thanks to Sky News.
I can identify with what someone said about preserving things to look back on in years to come. I remember even being fascinated with old TV schedules, which probably seems *very* hard to understand now, but back in those days there were just 4 channels, so your weeknight BBC 1 schedule was etched in most people's minds.
My first taste of this on the web (when I realised I wasn't the only one!) was probably around '98, at MHP and Andrew Wiseman's site.
(Edited by Blake Connolly at 1:32 pm on Dec. 15, 2001)
Over the years Ceefax has always seemed to swing back and forth between very serious and straight BBC News style, and completely barmy weirdness.
Probably the most interesting era was when it had special themes for different times of day and week, so breakfast had content related to BBC Breakfast News and weekends had more features. There were also themes for daytime, evening, night time and I think there were special ones for Budgets and the Olympics too. This was sometime in the early 90's, anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Mike Brown's site has stills of Ceefax and other teletext from just about every era.
1995-97
Looking at the jumbley Ceefax you get on old tapes, i notice that Ceefax used to have separate Home and World News sections.
ITV was referred to as C3, and only network programme listings were shown (ie, hardly any in those days) as Ceefax hadn't gone regional yet.
CO
Conrad
Oh my god!! What a cool topic!! Right, well, I'll make this to the point! When I was about 4 or 5 I used to doodle BBC1 line-ups I saw on the telly in my school exercise books (to the best of my ability!)!! Teachers thought I was weird! But, that's how mad I am about idents!! Probably coz I've always had a tv in my room; a tiny black and white set, finally followed by 24' colour in 1994! Then my own vcr in 1995! I couldn't stop kissing my mum when coming home from school! :¬)
I used to play with the indoor aerial a lot! I couldn't decide whether to get Anglia or Carlton - I sadly chose Carlton (the most boring ident at the time!) and had a roof-top aerial fixed! No turning back! Oh, and you think you've got problems with your mum! Erasing accidents always happen at my house!! When I get bored of something, I wipe it!
My curiosity with older idents was all answered thanks to these websites I accidently found by searching for old Teletext grabs; didn't think there were any websites about idents, never thought any other ident anoraks exist!
God bless my black Philips vcr! The art of preserving idents started in 1995, although I didn't understand most of it, but loved looking at it all the same! I had tapes devoted to:
Pages From Ceefax / 4-tel On View (1995) - wiped
The Chart Show (1995) - wiped
Top Of The Pops (1995) - wiped
How Do They Do That - wiped
EastEnders (1995) - wiped
Oh and not forgetting of course,
BBC2 Closedowns (1995) - wiped
The only 1995 thing I've got left thankfully is,
Easter CBBC (1995) - Chris Jarvis and Josie d'Arby present! (Anyone remember, during continuity, they used a bright DOG in the bottom-left corner?? Didn't last long of course!)
Well, that's got me in the mood to run through my tapes! Must pray before I do... 'Please god, I promise to behave, be good etc... I just wanna find my Ceefax..' - well, praying works sometimes! ;¬)
(Edited by Conrad at 12:31 pm on Dec. 18, 2001)
BB
bbcworld2001
I first got interested in idents before just before March of this year. I was watching television one day and though ' I wonder how they produce, and make all these programmes so well', so i decided to do a search on the internet. I think I typed in something like 'How is Televison Produced', and i clicked on a site, and went through about 3 or 4 links until I got to the TV Home. And ive never stopped coming back, always waiting for new updates, and when the forum was introduced i joined, and i visit everyday, or whenever I can.
I can't say I've ever been hugely interested in TV presentation, it's more the companies and the way they work that interests me. I.e. Their political stances, styles, agenda etc.
I always used to adore the YTV Chevron, whilst never actually being able to work out quite what it was. At age 6, anything shiny and yellow is rather attractive to the eye.
I had always been aware of TV presentation, it just didn't particularly interest me. The only time I started to notice that I was actually quite interested in it was when that delightful little fella 'Elian' was shipped into the USA. The US networks were being beamed out on the British ones and I noticed the old 'Fox News Alert' graphic, which the 'ALERT' flashing in red. I don't know, but for some reason it interested me.
I'm still interested in TV presentation and studios etc. but it interests me more to look at the companies as a whole, not just their presentation. Including how well their news divisions cover stories etc.
The music channels use probably interests me more than the look of them.
Asa, 'Signs'? Aww, that really is quite sweet. The thought of a young child labelling up a video of the things and desperately trying to think of a word to call them!
BB
BBC912
When I was younger I used to tape a lot, I hammered are VCR in the early 90s before I got my own one. I used to tape Children's BBC, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet on bbc 2, most of the tapes still exist but have been wiped. Ocasionally I find something I thought I'd taped over but I hadn't. Only one of my tapes has broken ever and that was in 1995 when I broke one of my old Captain Scarlet tapes, I bet it had some good 2s on it aswell, I've been through every tape for more old stuff but the majority I didn't record over have stuff from 1996 onwards. My Mum & Dad used to have loads of late 80s stuff and more but my Dad threw some tapes out once and now when I think about it I could go mad, I told him off the other day but he wasn't so bothered as me. So here's some of what I've got left below
1993-UK GOLD DOG IDENTS, The Children's Channel
1993-CAPTAIN SCARLET ON BBC TWO & CHILDREN IN NEED 1995
1994-VIRTUAL GLOBE EASTENDERS
There's lots more but I can't be bothered it will take a while.
Tape Wipes
BBC 1 1989
Children's BBC 1992
BBC 2 1991-1992
Sky Sports 1994
TVS 1991
SKY ONE-1995
ST
Stoo
Earliest memory that got me interested was a BBC1 COW Caption and globe which I just vaguely remember.Sometime in 1990, I saw the TWO ident with the schools clock in the corner and it didnt half fascinate me!I was 5 at the time!Following year, the 'grand ol' globe came into being with all of it's elegance and it`s closedown sequence was one to beat, it really fascinated me!I never really appreciated the animated two`s until about 1995.The BBC redesign and balloons passed me by without me noticing, as the Central Cake/Carlton/Central hybrid idents(pre hearts).I also missed the launch of C5 and the C4 blocks to whatever followed it.I was a great fan of the rotomation of the C4/ITV Schools programming. Those figures that followed always reminded me of Ed Tudor-Pole of Crystal Maze fame!
Anyway,enough of me farting on like this!
Stu
CO
Conrad
BBC912 posted:
When I was younger I used to tape a lot, I hammered are VCR in the early 90s before I got my own one. I used to tape Children's BBC, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet on bbc 2, most of the tapes still exist but have been wiped. Ocasionally I find something I thought I'd taped over but I hadn't. Only one of my tapes has broken ever and that was in 1995 when I broke one of my old Captain Scarlet tapes, I bet it had some good 2s on it aswell, I've been through every tape for more old stuff but the majority I didn't record over have stuff from 1996 onwards. My Mum & Dad used to have loads of late 80s stuff and more but my Dad threw some tapes out once and now when I think about it I could go mad, I told him off the other day but he wasn't so bothered as me. So here's some of what I've got left below
1993-UK GOLD DOG IDENTS, The Children's Channel
1993-CAPTAIN SCARLET ON BBC TWO & CHILDREN IN NEED 1995
1994-VIRTUAL GLOBE EASTENDERS
There's lots more but I can't be bothered it will take a while.
Tape Wipes
BBC 1 1989
Children's BBC 1992
BBC 2 1991-1992
Sky Sports 1994
TVS 1991
SKY ONE-1995
Posts like these can make one very jealous with you elder generations!!
