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Shows abandoned before broadcast

Things that were filmed, but never made it to air. (August 2012)

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JO
Joe
Incidentally, it's these causes which have ruined modern gameshows, as rather than behaving like normal people, gameshow contestants now have to act in such a contrived manner that shows such as The Cube don't feel at all natural. The Colour of Money was the worst example I've seen, but they all do it now, even stuff like Blockbusters.

Could you explain that a bit more, please?
JE
Jenny Founding member
Making Waves is another drama that ITV axed mid-run in 2004. So 3 of those 6 episodes are never likely to see the light of day again.


Strangely, it did come out on DVD, mostly or exclusively sold through Royal Navy gift shops (at Portsmouth Historic Dockyards, HMS Belfast, those sorts of locations). It goes for silly money second-hand now.
JE
Jenny Founding member
I know Ireland had a "Big Brother on a boat" where the boat "sank", so maybe stories getting mixed up in history there.


Correct! The Irish show was "Cabin Fever: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_Fever_%28TV_series%29

UKGameshows has an entry for "Press Ganged": http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Press_Ganged
JE
Jenny Founding member
Isn't there a Richard Whiteley episode of Countdown that hasn't been shown? One of the extras that were made for days when the cricket finished early.


Two I think, both back from the days of the purple set.


Also a bunch of "Countdown Masters" games filmed for The Channel 4 Daily. The slot was abruptly dropped at the outbreak of Gulf War I and never returned.
BR
Brekkie
Jenny posted:
I know Ireland had a "Big Brother on a boat" where the boat "sank", so maybe stories getting mixed up in history there.


Correct! The Irish show was "Cabin Fever: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_Fever_%28TV_series%29

UKGameshows has an entry for "Press Ganged": http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Press_Ganged

From that episode guide I wonder if it was abandoned during filming (or post-production) as five episodes seems very short and they've nowhere near reached the kind of conclusion you'd expect of such a show. It does also sound rather ****.


Talking of shows abandoned I think there is one final series of S4C hit teen drama Pam fi Duw? which has never been broadcast. The show was one of the stations biggest hits but came to an untimely end when accusations were made against it's creator and he subsequently committed suicide.
BL
bluecortina
Although it is a slightly different situation, Britain's Got Talent was originally pulled before going back on air a couple of years later. A clip of the pilot was shown on some programme a while back, with Fern Britton as the female judge and it was terrible, looked like something from the mid 80s. It instantly became a huge show, so it does make you wonder what other potential huge shows the TV market has missed out on.


Wasn't it a non-broadcast pilot? In which case it's no surprise it didn't look amazing. Plus this was 2005-ish, before X Factor really started pushing the whole uber-glossy look of these type of shows. (I think the clips you saw were on The Talent Show Story, a great series from Shiver that's being repeated at the moment)

Isn't there a second series of Shane (Frank Skinner's sitcom) in the can, that never got broadcast?


The main reason is got pulled was the host Paul O'grady jumped ship to Ch4.

There is also STV drama made in 2006 which has never been seen in England, but was broadcast in Scotland in 2009 instead of sharp.


Made in TLS Studio 2. It was never designed to be broadcast. It went on for ages. Two 'forces' were in play here. Simon Cowell wanted to see if the format would work, and TLS pulled out all the stops to try an get any subsequent broadcast series made at TLS by pursuading Cowell that it was more than capable. 'Pop Stars' or what ever it was - the first series with Nigel Lithgoe, was made in TLS ST1 before it all decamped to Fountain at Wembley under another guise and TLS wanted Cowell's production company to come back.

As you say POG got fed up with ITV and left (probably a decision he regrets to this day after the runaway success of BGT) and it all gets produced at Fountain.

.. and there's a whole series of Michael Barrymore's children's show in the can that will never see the light of day.
BU
buster
Although it is a slightly different situation, Britain's Got Talent was originally pulled before going back on air a couple of years later. A clip of the pilot was shown on some programme a while back, with Fern Britton as the female judge and it was terrible, looked like something from the mid 80s. It instantly became a huge show, so it does make you wonder what other potential huge shows the TV market has missed out on.


Wasn't it a non-broadcast pilot? In which case it's no surprise it didn't look amazing. Plus this was 2005-ish, before X Factor really started pushing the whole uber-glossy look of these type of shows. (I think the clips you saw were on The Talent Show Story, a great series from Shiver that's being repeated at the moment)

Isn't there a second series of Shane (Frank Skinner's sitcom) in the can, that never got broadcast?


The main reason is got pulled was the host Paul O'grady jumped ship to Ch4.

There is also STV drama made in 2006 which has never been seen in England, but was broadcast in Scotland in 2009 instead of sharp.


Made in TLS Studio 2. It was never designed to be broadcast. It went on for ages. Two 'forces' were in play here. Simon Cowell wanted to see if the format would work, and TLS pulled out all the stops to try an get any subsequent broadcast series made at TLS by pursuading Cowell that it was more than capable. 'Pop Stars' or what ever it was - the first series with Nigel Lithgoe, was made in TLS ST1 before it all decamped to Fountain at Wembley under another guise and TLS wanted Cowell's production company to come back.



Popstars didn't have any studio shows...did it? I'm pretty sure the whole thing was done docu-soap style and the final one was live from the house the band were living in as they listened to the top 40. Then the live studio shows got introduced later that year in Pop Idol which has been at Fountain ever since. Unless I've got something mixed up!
BL
bluecortina
Although it is a slightly different situation, Britain's Got Talent was originally pulled before going back on air a couple of years later. A clip of the pilot was shown on some programme a while back, with Fern Britton as the female judge and it was terrible, looked like something from the mid 80s. It instantly became a huge show, so it does make you wonder what other potential huge shows the TV market has missed out on.


Wasn't it a non-broadcast pilot? In which case it's no surprise it didn't look amazing. Plus this was 2005-ish, before X Factor really started pushing the whole uber-glossy look of these type of shows. (I think the clips you saw were on The Talent Show Story, a great series from Shiver that's being repeated at the moment)

Isn't there a second series of Shane (Frank Skinner's sitcom) in the can, that never got broadcast?


The main reason is got pulled was the host Paul O'grady jumped ship to Ch4.

There is also STV drama made in 2006 which has never been seen in England, but was broadcast in Scotland in 2009 instead of sharp.


Made in TLS Studio 2. It was never designed to be broadcast. It went on for ages. Two 'forces' were in play here. Simon Cowell wanted to see if the format would work, and TLS pulled out all the stops to try an get any subsequent broadcast series made at TLS by pursuading Cowell that it was more than capable. 'Pop Stars' or what ever it was - the first series with Nigel Lithgoe, was made in TLS ST1 before it all decamped to Fountain at Wembley under another guise and TLS wanted Cowell's production company to come back.



Popstars didn't have any studio shows...did it? I'm pretty sure the whole thing was done docu-soap style and the final one was live from the house the band were living in as they listened to the top 40. Then the live studio shows got introduced later that year in Pop Idol which has been at Fountain ever since. Unless I've got something mixed up!


I did say 'or what ever it was'. It was whatever series Girls Aloud came second in.
:-(
A former member
Pop stars the Rivals? For a bonus Ten points name the boy band and there song Razz
BE
Ben Founding member
One True Voice but got knows the song.
SO
Steven O
Ben posted:
One True Voice but got knows the song.


'Sacred Trust/After You're Gone' which was a double A-side. I seem to remember Pete Waterman, who mentored One True Voice, saying that if Girls Aloud beat One True Voice to the Christmas number one spot that year, he would "commit suicide". Girls Aloud kept their side of the bargain...
SW
SWatson7
As you say POG got fed up with ITV and left (probably a decision he regrets to this day after the runaway success of BGT) and it all gets produced at Fountain.

.. and there's a whole series of Michael Barrymore's children's show in the can that will never see the light of day.


Would it have been as successful if he didn't leave and ITV didn't pull the plug? It allowed Simon to take it to America to have the format ironed out and given glossy production values, to return to the UK in a guise that would work.

The pilot would have inevitably changed somewhat before going on air, but it was when Simon was fairly early on in being a producer, so ultimately I think it would have came across as similar to the second rate entertainment shows that ITV air in the middle of summer to about 2m viewers. Obviously the debate on this could go on forever, because we'll never know.

Just in reference to your other post- I'm pretty sure Girls Aloud 'won' it because they beat the boyband to #1? Embarassed

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