I tell you what else scared me, well not as such but was eerie. When Channel 4 closedown at night and that final rumble they had at the end of the ident musak and it was timed at the same time the screen went blank and it would echo out. You then by then it was time to turn the telly off!
I remember at the end of Emmerdale Farm or that Miriam Stoppard programme that used to be on ITV at 7.00pm on weekdays, the big bold scary Yorkshire Chevron appearing at the end of the programme - right in the middle of the screen surrounded by a sea of blackness.
I used to sit there and think "What the hell is that? Get that off my screen now!". Don't know why it scared me. Perhaps its shape...or its colour. But it certainly has a eerie feel to it. Probably those people brought up in the Yorkshire television region don't suffer from such fears.
In the final set of Central cake idents, there were some spooky music to the drama idents that used to go out too.
How about that lovely little cake from Central. It may seem sweet on the outside, but from what I can hear that isn't obscured by the announcer it actually sounds rather haunting. It's like a little Central ghost saying, "Why are you letting me die?" (if that makes any sense).
I suppose it's hard to define what makes certain idents "scary", I don't even know if that is the correct term - maybe "eerie" or "freaky" are better suited.
I'm only really familiar with anything 1990 onwards. Music seems to play an important part in setting the mood of an ident.
The BBC's 1991 introduction of "2" was a considerable step forward to from previous idents in general, they use 'trick' photography at times or had a distorted symbol.
And I suppose the ident that Channel 4 used in the 90's for American Football was sort of weird, I never understood the design for that...
Whoever mentioned the soundtrack to the 90's 2 Powder Ident, I didn't realize a sustained droning note continued long after the 2 had landed, until recently - thought it was quite interesting myself.
Central Television from the late 80s where the "pie" would morph itself together and then (usually on a saturday afternoon) the graphic would fail and the pie would get coloured in by blobs of colour. Dunno why, but I had nightmares about that one!
Going back many, many years now but in days of 'analogue' sky TV on about channel 47 or something a new channel called Nickelodeon was due to start in September and for months on end a 'spoof' of the old BBC test card was on the screen but it was green and had Melissa Joan hart (as classila) in the middle and a high pitch squeak. I just be scared s**tless of it but I was about 8 or 9 at time I think
Also about a year later 2 new 'Spanish' channels started called 'Cinemania' and 'Documania' (they were scrambled by night) but by day they had looped moving test cards that were colourful but beautiful and music playing on them... aah memories
Ah, I forgot, I was scared **** of the Channel 4 American Football ident as well.
Bewitched_Fan_2k posted:
Going back many, many years now but in days of 'analogue' sky TV on about channel 47 or something a new channel called Nickelodeon was due to start in September and for months on end a 'spoof' of the old BBC test card was on the screen but it was green and had Melissa Joan hart (as classila) in the middle and a high pitch squeak. I just be scared s**tless of it but I was about 8 or 9 at time I think
Also about a year later 2 new 'Spanish' channels started called 'Cinemania' and 'Documania' (they were scrambled by night) but by day they had looped moving test cards that were colourful but beautiful and music playing on them... aah memories
I seem to remember The Comedy Channel having a test card with a movie of a fishtank in the centre.
And Paramount had one too, with a turkey standing in the middle of a busy road, or something.
I found Central's very first 'frontcap' (1982-1984 I believe) quite scary as a kid. The way the globe/egg thing used to explode and reform. Bit like the world exploding, I used to think.
And Paramount had one too, with a turkey standing in the middle of a busy road, or something.
Well as a graphic, it wasn't so bad but some of the car lights would flash on and off in time with about 10 different car horns going off very loudly. Should you fall asleep watching Paramount, by the time this testcard appeared, it would have woken you up straight away!
I remember that too
