Old Children's ITV programme

I could never remember CBBC on BBC1 being stripped - when did this happen and how long did it last?

Definitely happened and I think that it's quite " recent history ". Can't be more accurate than that! Somebody else will have to help...

ITV? Sell something? Pull the other one.

Anyway, here's the Gigglish Allsorts titles (the later mid-90s version of Allsorts with Jane Cox and the box etc...) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OfjyRpwscUg

I think that happened in January 1993 when Carlton took over from Thames so Rainbow was axed. I remember it later came back once the programmes moved to the afternoons but not like the original Thames version.

Tots TV was made by Central I think tho - I think Rosie and Jim also returned once they moved them to the afternoons but in a 10 minute slot.

One of my faves was Play Box which I believe was shown on a Monday at 12.10pm. Tuesday was Rod Jane and Freddy, Wednesday Allsorts, Thursday The Riddlers and Friday Rainbow.

Interesting take on the stripped idea.
It was an idea to follow the satilite channels, though unlike the channels which usually repeat the same programmes for a few months at least, ITV still had all of their new programmes. But with everything commissioned for 13 weeks, you ended up with complete change in line ups half way through a week. The worst problem is the fact that anything commissioned with a Christmas ep had the Christmas ep going out at the start of October.

CITV did revert this within a year, it was definately back to different day, different programmes in 2003, and I suppose they only do it on the channel, because it's a channel and they don't have all of the commissions that they did have.

As for CBBC, they used to always strip programmes on the CBBC Two Breakfast Show, with exception to the repeats of Blue Peter and SMart, etc. They did have a stint as they do on the channel of airing the same programmes such as Mona the Vampire and Tracey Beaker everyday, but they still have things like Blue Peter that used to break that up.

Stripping the schedule on CITV in the early 2000s came about because Janie Grace had come across from Nickelodeon, a channel that had run striped programming forever and a day and the concept had never really been done justice on terrestrial TV. It worked well on satellite channels because the programme would be looped on repeat once the series ended.

The stripping schedule works wonders for Nickelodeon because it can take any series of any length you care to mention and you can make it fill a week even if a series ends on a Monday - just repeat it again and replace it with something else the next week, nobody will notice and those who do will probably watch it again anyway.

But yes I would agree that the stripped scheduling didn't do the CITV service any good, maybe if (later) shows had been commissioned in batches of 20-25 (more the typical length of a US mainstream show) it may have helped matters as there would have been less programme rotation than there was. Obviously if the show's been commissioned for 13 weekly showings there's little you can do about that but later into stripped scheduling commissioning to fill a week up would have made all the difference.



Channel 5 made a big deal about having a stripped and stranded schedule when they launched back in March 1997. Mind you they also made a big deal about hourly news bulletins in the evenings. Channel 5 now stripes probably its Australian soap hour and that's about it. The hourly bulletins disappeared years ago - I think.



CBBC Channel is pretty firmly stripped with mid-week changes to programmes as and when. Seems to work well and there's plenty of variety since new stuff is still being made for CBBC on BBC One. If you miss it it'll be repeated on the CBBC Channel and then aired pretty much randomly for the next couple of years, then it'll do a Big Kids and turn up unexpectedly five or six years later when the kid stars have grown up.

CITV Channel is stripped too but doesn't seem very committed since all the awkward scheduling gaps are filled with My Parents Are Aliens. I know the Leeds studio closed but they were tooting the idea of making new stuff for CITV. Or did I imagine that?

I adored Children's Ward. I am desperately trying to get hold of the mysterious DVD that has either been released, or is being released sometime. I would love to see the opening titles and that haunting theme music again.

I won't quote your post Neil, but I will reply to it.

There were reports around the end of last year that CITV were going to commission a few new programmes. Although the ones stated were finger tips, and something else. I'd personally say that Art Attack would be a better one to recommission than finger tips.

The problem at the moment is that they've left it a few years without commissioning anything, so anything that they do will have to start from scratch.
When you just look at the factual side of things, over the last few years of CITV on ITV1, they had finger tips, brilliant creatures, how 2, prove it, the big bang, art attack and quick trick/tricky TV that used to air at varying points through the year.

I'm not sure which works better for children's TV, is it stripped scheduling, or would a return to different programmes on different days work, even on the channel.

I know CBBC are the only channel that seems to be doing IVC nowadays, but I really do think it helps. Even if the programmes are repeats, the parts surrounding the programmes aren't.
I'm not sure about ratings for things like Nick & Disney, but surely with the amount of repeats that they used to show that Nick L8R and Studio Disney would have brought people in, especially as Disney used to put so much effort into theirs.