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Shows that people forget or get lost in time

Classic shows you remember, but the public might not (July 2017)

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WH
Whataday Founding member
Riaz posted:
What was that phone-in competition that featured a simple video game where the character was steered using the buttons on the phone keypad?

I can remember one episode where the player had a pulse dialling phone but the game required a DTMF phone, so what happened was that you could hear the clicking pulses when the buttons on the phone were pressed but the character did not move. Very embarrassing for the player.


Parallel 9.

DJ Dave and London Lite gave kudos
RI
Riaz
Neil Jones posted:
In fairness to pulse tones, it was (and probably still is) possible for a lot of phones to switch between DTMF and pulse dialling via a switch on the phone, sometimes by accident if it was poor design. Pulse dialling is still an option I believe if you happen to have a rotary phone or even a DOND style Bakelite Smile


Phones that could be switched between pulse dialling and DTMF didn't become common until around 1990. Most of the popular phones from the 1980s like the Viscount and the Statesman were produced in separate pulse dialling and DTMF versions. The pulse dialling version was always more common in homes than the DTMF version because they would work with the electromechanical telephone exchanges. There are still plenty of these phones in use today because they are robust and don't break like modern phones do.

Digital telephone exchanges are backwards compatible so will work with candlestick phones from the 1920s.
:-(
A former member
The Alphabet Game from 1997


Today the day, which seem to have gone under cover


Copy Cats:
WH
Whataday Founding member
Considering Today's The Day ran and ran, it's incredible it's just disappeared without trace.
RI
Riaz
Umbrella. A short religious programme for children broadcast on BBC1 at 9:15AM on Sunday mornings from 28th December 1986 to 1st October 1989, plus another short series from 15th July 1990 to 16th September 1990.

Despite being shown once a week over a period of nearly 4 years in a reasonably good timeslot the programme has almost disappeared without a trace. There are very few references to Umbrella on the internet and I couldn't find any episodes on YouTube.

Could Umbrella be the biggest forgotten programme in terms of number of episodes?

It is listed on BBC Genome.
MY
MY83
Whataday posted:
Considering Today's The Day ran and ran, it's incredible it's just disappeared without trace.


Wasn't it because Martyn Lewis retired from the BBC in 1999? It also went across to Radio 2...
SD
ShinyDave
I knew that The Alphabet Game was the original version of what later got revived as Alphabetical here, via being sold to several European countries - what I hadn't realised is that the UK had it as purely a comedy panel game, and then Spain or Italy turned it into a big money show with an almost impossible endgame, and it was that reformat that sold, snow-to-Eskimo style, to the UK as Alphabetical last year!

The Spanish endgame goes fast enough that a win actually feels possible. It still hardly ever happens, but; a) at least it feels possible; b) the winner staying on means the strongest contestants have many, many attempts; c) all those losses lead to immense rolling jackpots. Six people have won over a million euro, apparently. One won over two million:



(Also, d) the endgame consists entirely of identifying definitions. That's something that aspiring contestants can and do prepare for.)

Essentially, the format in this big-money almost-impossible variation only seems to work if it airs on constant daily rotation for many months at a time and does well enough to support both that and a top-quality set of contestants who can stay forever and a day until they win or don't. Basically I think it needs to be that country's Jeopardy! - with a side of surviving huge gaps between jackpot wins from peak UK DoND - to work?

ITV could never hope to manage it in a short-order format, especially as they have their main shoulder-prime quiz show locked down already. Being cynical, I suspect they aren't actually trying, and they simply want to see how long they can get away with giving away £250 an hour in that slot.
PA
parrferris
fusionlad posted:
Does anyone remember a show from the early 90s on Channel 4. I believe it was on a Saturday night, and broadcast live from a roving presenter with a single camera film crew.?

They just used to walk around talking to people, but can't remember if there was an aim or goal of the programme.

I thought it was called As it Happens or something similar but can't find any reference on line.

I've no idea what it was called, but was this the programme presented by Colin Bennett (best known as Mr Bennett the caretaker from Take Hart)? He dropped into places where people were working in the middle of the night; apart from that there seemed to be no aim or goal other than to fill overnight airspace as cheaply as possible. I thought it was on ITV Night Time, but I might well be mistaken as it was the sort of show one only watched on return from a night out.
JA
JAS84
623058 posted:
Does anyone Remeber shafted with kilroy?
That's not forgotten. It's infamous for not finishing it's run.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafted
LL
Lottie Long-Legs
fusionlad posted:
Does anyone remember a show from the early 90s on Channel 4. I believe it was on a Saturday night, and broadcast live from a roving presenter with a single camera film crew.?

They just used to walk around talking to people, but can't remember if there was an aim or goal of the programme.

I thought it was called As it Happens or something similar but can't find any reference on line.


I very vaguely remember this. Pete McCarthy and Andy Kershaw fronted it.
WH
Whataday Founding member
MY83 posted:
Whataday posted:
Considering Today's The Day ran and ran, it's incredible it's just disappeared without trace.


Wasn't it because Martyn Lewis retired from the BBC in 1999? It also went across to Radio 2...


Possibly, but I meant it's all but forgotten considering its longevity. It doesn't have the same sort of status as other shows which have lasted as long.
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
Anyone else remember Rod, Jane, and Freddy (their own show)? It used to be on around 12.10pm on ITV (Anglia region & probably others) at least once a week, shows like Rainbow also used to be on in this time slot. I think I may still have a few episodes on VHS somewhere in a cupboard. From vague memory it was performed on a theatre stage, or at least the opening titles gave that impression (and they also went on to do a few theatre shows / tour around the UK).

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