Tiswas Reunited

I thought Carlton junked most of it when they moved to Gas Street.

Broad Street was scheduled to close by Central, read the 1990 franchise application which promises a new West Midlands TV centre.

Surely Carlton of all people would have seen the lucrative potential of ATV's back catalogue?

I was shocked to hear some archive junking was still going on as late as 1993; to think the practice continued beyond then is unbeleivable.

Last I heard when the ATV archive went into the hands of Polygram they were the ones who I believe junked most of it. When Carlton regained the ATV archive they went out and digitally remastered and restored alot of it, like the 1960's ITC shows such as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, The Prisoner and Randall & Hopkirk Deceased.

As NWTV points out, the ATV archive didn't belong to Central and only returned to Carlton fairly recently. The junking of Tiswas episodes would have taken place either at the time or in the early 80s when the archive went to Polygram.

The fact is that it was only really in the late 80's that TV companies realised there was money in video release. It's only hindsight that says to those in the 70's 'what were you thinking of!'.

Junking of material still happens of course, just not to programmes. Rushes material is junked after a while as most of it just isn't needed. Of course the same thing that happened with programmes in the 80's has been happening again with the emergence of DVD extras and 'producers cuts' and producers wishing they had the raw material to hand

It's worth remembering that Tiswas wasn't all pies and water and outrageous moments. What we see now is the best condensed bits of 3 or 4 years.

I have an episode from 1980 on VHS and to be honest it just doesn't really live up to the hype. There were worthy (IBA pleasing) bits, and cartoons filled quite a bit of time, it wasn't all what legend makes it out to be

I wonder where these suggestions come from? The logic and true answer is they all were moved to Centrals Nottingham studios that had more than enough space.

Also a myth that Polygram damaged any of it - it was all done by ATV. The ATV masters never left Broad Street - what there were of them. (Polygram possibly had copies.) One of the staff told me that although the tapes were at Central, they had to request permission to use the ATV footage.

Because some people never let the truth or logic get in the way of a good whinge about Carlton!

Try http://upandhappy.podomatic.com/ for the MP3 download links.

We have Tiswas Reunited's programme editor Tony Nicholson in our Tiswas Reunited Backstage Blog telling us about the edits made on the programme:
1) Why the ATV endcap wasn't shown, and why the ATV ident was.
2) Why some bits were dropped.
3) And the stuff that WILL be reinstated for the extended version of the show on DVD.

The DVD's out on Monday, btw.

£10 at Virgin Walsall.

Bought it.

Watched it.