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Top of the Pops

1990 on BBC Four (January 2018)

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BU
buster
The 1991 revamp was also notable for moving the Top 10 to the start of the show - well after the opening performance. I suspect this was Appel reviving the pre-1980 routine of the chart at the start of the show, without presenter voiceover, for no particular reason other than that's how it used to be (indeed it was put back at the end of the show pretty quick).

Another producer change I've noticed was in the Jan 1981 episodes recently repeated by BBC4; the brief return to the kaleidoscope end credits when Robin Nash comes back on board for a bit. It really feels like things take a step backwards after largely ending with the crowd dancing throughout the second half of 1980.
SW
Steve Williams
Notice how the 40-11 charts are run over a music video (like how it was done for much of the 90s), but you have one of the presenters reading the charts out- albeit only reading the climbers and new entries, but not the ones going down (with a couple of exceptions). The new style end credits are in place as well.

Another oddity is October 1996 where they introduced a new title sequence- only to go back to the previous one the following month- though the end shot from those short lived titles continued to be used at the end of the show until the 1998 revamp.


That chart rundown style didn't last very long, only a few weeks, but it spanned the change to The Wizard and it carried on for a few weeks after that. Indeed while the most obvious change in 1986 was the new theme and titles, the bigger changes to the show had already happened in March, with that weird top forty and also the introduction of the credits over a video instead of the audience dancing. I'm assuming that might have had something to do with a budget cut as certainly the show seemed a bit less of a spectacle after that.

That change to the opening titles in 1996 was very strange. I can only assume that Ric Blaxill commissioned it and started using it, but his bosses hadn't seen it and didn't like it - it didn't have the name of the show in it, just "TOTP" - and so demanded the old one back, perhaps.

That said, I never liked it when they referred to it as TOTP, because it takes no quicker to say than Top of the Pops.
JA
james-2001
Even in 1976 the kaleidoscope ending disappeared for a while and they ran the credits over the number one for a few months when Robin Nash was away and Johnnie Stewart returned (a producer who was also pushing 60 at the time! At least Nash was in his 30s)- even watching then going back to the kaleidoscope felt like a step backwards.

Interesting how little the show's look changed for years before 1981 though- the same style captions for the chart countdown and credits had been in use since 1973! And (excluding some Xmas specials) there'd been no opening titles since 1974 either (and some early 81 shows literally opened straight into the presenter linking to the first performance- they put in a spinning TOTP logo after a few weeks) The 81 revamp was much needed.
Last edited by james-2001 on 16 January 2018 8:54pm
JA
james-2001
Sort of TOTP related- David Jensen announced today that he's been suffering for Parkinson's for 5 years.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/david-kid-jensen-opens-up-11862978
JA
james-2001
That change to the opening titles in 1996 was very strange. I can only assume that Ric Blaxill commissioned it and started using it, but his bosses hadn't seen it and didn't like it - it didn't have the name of the show in it, just "TOTP" - and so demanded the old one back, perhaps.


Interestingly though the rest of the show's graphics didn't change, even the top 10 animations based on the previous titles stayed in use (Chris Cowey got rid of them on his very first show though- and bought Mark Goodier in to announce rather than whoever was presenting that week).
AK
Araminta Kane
Sad news about Jensen, though much of his latterday career has been a terrible waste. I was sort of inspired by the news to put some Network Chart excerpts on Mixcloud (and in fact a lengthy recording of that show from 1992 is my most-played upload on there).

At the time, related to an earlier speculation on the effects of Savilegate on TOTP had it still been going in 2012, it was often suggested that Global Radio's reformatting of Smooth - moving away from being a "Radio 1 retirement home" and dropping the more Radio 2-esque elements, which included Jensen's departure - had something to do with the general discrediting of the Radio 1 culture of that era. I never really bought that tbh - obviously that culture *had* been shown in a bad light, but Global would have wanted to move away from that style of presentation, with its echoes of the needletime days, and towards "that was, this is" anyway.
:-(
A former member
Im surprised today edition of TotP has played out Russ abbots Atmosphere, was this its only time it got played out ?
:-(
A former member
Why did ITV hate this chart show format? Ie the Roxy? Was there some distrust over this type of show? If it managed to get a network slot could it have rivailed TOTP and take its crown?
LL
Larry the Loafer
Why did ITV hate this chart show format? Ie the Roxy? Was there some distrust over this type of show? If it managed to get a network slot could it have rivailed TOTP and take its crown?


Did they hate it? They probably figured TOTP was already established enough that they'd have trouble poaching the performers from them. Then again my theory doesn't explain CD:UK... When they nabbed The Chart Show from Channel 4, at least it was a different format to TOTP.
JA
james-2001
CD:UK was 10 years after the roxy ended though! And in a different timeslot.

CD:UK had a fair few format difference to TOTP too, though TOTP tried to copy them in later years, especially once Andi Peters took over.
Last edited by james-2001 on 19 January 2018 10:15pm
SC
Si-Co
I can’t remember a lot about the format of The Roxy, but it was chart-orientated and I think a lot of artists were reluctant to travel up to Newcastle when they could appear on TOTP in London.

Thames moved the show to after midnight after a few months, which was seen as another nail in its coffin.
:-(
A former member
If this is any help about ITV stations:

September 87
* 18.30: Thames:, Central, Granada, TT, UTV
* 19.00: TSW
* 19.30: Anglia, Border, HTV, TVS, STV, YTV,

January 1988
* 19.00: Border, Central, Grampian, Granada, Thames, TSW, UTV, YTV.
* 19.30: Anglia, HTV, STV, TVS,
Last edited by A former member on 19 January 2018 11:07pm

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