MA
I wouldn't call Upstairs Downstairs high brow! However LWT did a series of Dennis Potter dramas, Weekend World, and The South Bank show that do broadly fit that category
Applemask did refer to LWT as a "end of the pier network" which I thought was a bit mean. Yes it did make "On The Buses" but it was also responsible for "Upstairs Downstairs". No station is 100% highbrow.
We now return you to our scheduled programme
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I wouldn't call Upstairs Downstairs high brow! However LWT did a series of Dennis Potter dramas, Weekend World, and The South Bank show that do broadly fit that category
TM
Doesn't surprise me considering he harps on about how Carlton was the biggest evil in the history of ITV, even though Granada would take over the former to create ITV plc.
Applemask did refer to LWT as a "end of the pier network" which I thought was a bit mean. Yes it did make "On The Buses" but it was also responsible for "Upstairs Downstairs". No station is 100% highbrow.
We now return you to our scheduled programme
We now return you to our scheduled programme
Doesn't surprise me considering he harps on about how Carlton was the biggest evil in the history of ITV, even though Granada would take over the former to create ITV plc.
IS
Yes LWT was the brasher more showbiz, trendier station. I remember reading that Rainbow was a factor in Thames not showing Sesame Street
SC
The episodes I saw on Tyne Tees and Yorkshire (which weren’t simulcast as they were shown in different slots) usually had no closing credits at all, and ended with “Sesame Street is a production of the Children’s Television Workshop”. It was only very occasionally they actually showed the closing credits with the instrumental Sesame Street theme. I assume that wasn’t the case in other regions?
The number at the start I assume was the episode number, though when I was little I thought it was a date! These randomly started in the 1000s because the early seasons were not shown. I’m not sure how long a season was in the USA, but some contained as few as 16 new episodes, with the rest being repeats.
Watching the opening credits on that video I was surprised to see trainers tied to the top of a very tall street light or telegraph pole, as if this was something appealing to kids!! I can’t imagine anything like that being shown on British kids TV - I’ve heard various explanations as to why people actually carry out this practice - I’ve seen it in several British neighbourhoods - and none of these reasons I would want my five year old to know about. Plus there’s always the danger that a child might try to climb up somewhere to hang his sneakers off a street light “like they do on Sesame Street”. Very bizarre.....
It's one of those programmes where it's better known than it was actually watched. Even for those of us who were the correct age when it was on ITV and there was very little else on I don't think it was that popular.
I remember always finding it a very odd programme as a young child, which would have been the very late 70s/early 80s. It looked odd - washed out film and NTSC and it sounded odd - jazzy and funky at a funny tempo, plus you couldn't really relate to much if it. It was produced to teach kids using techniques and styles used in American TV, we were used to 70s British TV. I'm not sure if it was edited for the UK but the structure never made sense and of course there were loads I references in it that we didn't understand, for example the thing at the end 'Sesame Street was brought to you today by the letters... ' I was in my 30s before I realised what that was about
This was how I would have seen it and it partly explains why I found it so weird - the test pattern, then the slides, the mentions of transmitters, and the music, then that seemingly random number at the start. It felt like some sort of secret broadcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pg6Wdsc15E
Then there were the episodes that seemed to have a credit sequence that lasted 5 minutes. It's a long way from Cbeebies
I remember always finding it a very odd programme as a young child, which would have been the very late 70s/early 80s. It looked odd - washed out film and NTSC and it sounded odd - jazzy and funky at a funny tempo, plus you couldn't really relate to much if it. It was produced to teach kids using techniques and styles used in American TV, we were used to 70s British TV. I'm not sure if it was edited for the UK but the structure never made sense and of course there were loads I references in it that we didn't understand, for example the thing at the end 'Sesame Street was brought to you today by the letters... ' I was in my 30s before I realised what that was about
This was how I would have seen it and it partly explains why I found it so weird - the test pattern, then the slides, the mentions of transmitters, and the music, then that seemingly random number at the start. It felt like some sort of secret broadcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pg6Wdsc15E
Then there were the episodes that seemed to have a credit sequence that lasted 5 minutes. It's a long way from Cbeebies
The episodes I saw on Tyne Tees and Yorkshire (which weren’t simulcast as they were shown in different slots) usually had no closing credits at all, and ended with “Sesame Street is a production of the Children’s Television Workshop”. It was only very occasionally they actually showed the closing credits with the instrumental Sesame Street theme. I assume that wasn’t the case in other regions?
The number at the start I assume was the episode number, though when I was little I thought it was a date! These randomly started in the 1000s because the early seasons were not shown. I’m not sure how long a season was in the USA, but some contained as few as 16 new episodes, with the rest being repeats.
Watching the opening credits on that video I was surprised to see trainers tied to the top of a very tall street light or telegraph pole, as if this was something appealing to kids!! I can’t imagine anything like that being shown on British kids TV - I’ve heard various explanations as to why people actually carry out this practice - I’ve seen it in several British neighbourhoods - and none of these reasons I would want my five year old to know about. Plus there’s always the danger that a child might try to climb up somewhere to hang his sneakers off a street light “like they do on Sesame Street”. Very bizarre.....
GB
Cartoonito still had a few eps on demand recently.
Who, if anyone, has the UK rights now then?
Cartoonito still had a few eps on demand recently.
NJ
Going by IMDb, it looks like it was aired daily weekdays for the best part of six months, so the first season ran for 130 episodes and finished in May 1970. Season 2 was 145 episodes, Season 3 130. So by the time it appeared over here it would have already racked up over 400 episodes by the time of the HTV test airing in 1971.
It looks like it hasn't done what I would have expected a popular show to do, which is go all year round, it looks like it's mostly aired November to May, had a summer recess and come back the following November, though it may of course have done repeats in the summer.
Neil Jones
Founding member
The number at the start I assume was the episode number, though when I was little I thought it was a date! These randomly started in the 1000s because the early seasons were not shown. I’m not sure how long a season was in the USA, but some contained as few as 16 new episodes, with the rest being repeats.
Going by IMDb, it looks like it was aired daily weekdays for the best part of six months, so the first season ran for 130 episodes and finished in May 1970. Season 2 was 145 episodes, Season 3 130. So by the time it appeared over here it would have already racked up over 400 episodes by the time of the HTV test airing in 1971.
It looks like it hasn't done what I would have expected a popular show to do, which is go all year round, it looks like it's mostly aired November to May, had a summer recess and come back the following November, though it may of course have done repeats in the summer.
TM
Does anybody know when ATV first picked up the series? I've heard conflicting reports saying July 1977, but others saying that aired along with Border on June 3rd, 1978. Of course, ATV let Jim Henson used their Elstree Studios for filming of The Muppet Show, which they co-produced with Henson.
In July 1974, they, along with the rest of the ITV network, broadcast the one-off special, Julie on Sesame Street, starring Julie Andrews: it was the Britain's first glimpse of the series for the those who lived in the regions that hadn't yet picked it up.
In July 1974, they, along with the rest of the ITV network, broadcast the one-off special, Julie on Sesame Street, starring Julie Andrews: it was the Britain's first glimpse of the series for the those who lived in the regions that hadn't yet picked it up.