Early memories of TV where you can't identify the program

[kphoger]

Most of the time, the tape would break

highly doubtful

I find it highly likely. It is Magnetic Tape after all. Hopefully they had a backup copy.

Emphasis added to reinforce what I found doubtful.

[PHLBOS]

Then Joe & Sons (another NJ family) was another one season show, but had two actors that lasted in their careers.  Florence Stanley, who went on to be Berniece on Barney Miller, and the Judge on My Two Dads; and Jerry Stiller who made many supporting roles and a bunch of different sitcoms since leading up to Seinfeld and King of Queens.  Richard Costalano, was famous from the Godfather, but do not remember any other roles that he had anywhere else.

I watched & remember that show as well.  The actors that played the kids, Barry Miller & Jimmy Baio, would later appear in other subsequent TV shows and even movies (Saturday Night Fever for Miller).  I actually liked that show and was a bit surprised when the series was cancelled.  It was replaced with another short-lived show called Popi, a spin-off of the 1969 movie baring the same title.

[roadman]

Most of the time, the tape would break

highly doubtful

I find it highly likely. It is Magnetic Tape after all. Hopefully they had a backup copy.

When it comes to breakage potential during use, movie film is less durable than magnetic tape.

[crt08]

Several of 'Allo 'Allo! credits have a Film Editor and a Video Tape Editor in the same episode.

Most of the time Keeping Up Appearances, not much newer than 'Allo 'Allo! was Magnetic Taped.

They Filmed Missing Persons and also Filmed Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.

It always seemed to me the final season or so (about 1994-95) of Keeping Up Appearances must have been filmed differently, because the scenes seem brighter and have more vibrant colors than earlier ones.

[In_Correct]

Most of the time, the tape would break

highly doubtful

I find it highly likely. It is Magnetic Tape after all. Hopefully they had a backup copy.

When it comes to breakage potential during use, movie film is less durable than magnetic tape.

It is magnetic tape. It will malfunction in many other ways, not just breakage.

[kphoger]

Most of the time, the tape would break

highly doubtful

I find it highly likely. It is Magnetic Tape after all. Hopefully they had a backup copy.

When it comes to breakage potential during use, movie film is less durable than magnetic tape.

It is magnetic tape. It will malfunction in many other ways, not just breakage.

But not "most of the time" "the NBC affiliate in Des Moines" aired the show.

[bandit957]

I swear there was a commercial in the early '80s where a woman thanks Phillips Petroleum for preventing her face from falling off. I've never been able to find it on YouTube.

[ErmineNotyours]

Most of the time, the tape would break

highly doubtful

I find it highly likely. It is Magnetic Tape after all. Hopefully they had a backup copy.

When it comes to breakage potential during use, movie film is less durable than magnetic tape.

It is magnetic tape. It will malfunction in many other ways, not just breakage.

But not "most of the time" "the NBC affiliate in Des Moines" aired the show.

In high school in Kent, Washington, I had a teacher who previously lived in Utah.  He said he could be watching a TV show and there would be an action scene that kept getting more and more intense, and then the screen would just go black.  I highly doubted that would happen in the United States.  Later I heard about KSL, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, owned by Bonneville International, owned by the Mormon Church.  They completely ban some shows, such as Saturday Night Live, and it's possible they edit other shows.  They're in the Mountain Time Zone, so they have to record off the Eastern feed and tape (now digital) delay the shows themselves to start network prime time at seven.  That gives management time to preview the shows for editing.  Bonneville used to own the CBS affiliate in Seattle, but I don't recall such practices here, though they did have a very conservative commentator, Lloyd Cooney.

[bandit957]

In high school in Kent, Washington, I had a teacher who previously lived in Utah.  He said he could be watching a TV show and there would be an action scene that kept getting more and more intense, and then the screen would just go black.  I highly doubted that would happen in the United States.

I believe it, after seeing Cincinnati stations and even our local cable company do the same thing.

[roadman]

there would be an action scene that kept getting more and more intense, and then the screen would just go black.  I highly doubted that would happen in the United States.

Sounds exactly like what happens several times in most every Coyote/Roadrunner cartoon I've seen.

[Big John]

In the early 1970s, WBAY was owned by the Catholic Diocese.  It made a controversial  decision not to show Maude's abortion episode.  Episode in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmInvlWbmqI

[cwf1701]

there would be an action scene that kept getting more and more intense, and then the screen would just go black.  I highly doubted that would happen in the United States.

Sounds exactly like what happens several times in most every Coyote/Roadrunner cartoon I've seen.

and There was also a scene in a Bugs Bunny cartoon where they cut out the scene where Bugs and Sam was about to play Russian Roulette that was cut (Ballot Box Bunny). I remember seeing that scene once when WKBD-Detroit aired some of the Bugs Bunny cartoons in the mid-70s. I don't know if it slipped out or they was using film at the time and didn't cut the film at the end (the scene was at the end of the cartoon).

[Rothman]

https://www.oregonlive.com/movies/2013/06/saturday_night_live_will_be_ai.html

[roadman]

there would be an action scene that kept getting more and more intense, and then the screen would just go black.  I highly doubted that would happen in the United States.

Sounds exactly like what happens several times in most every Coyote/Roadrunner cartoon I've seen.

and There was also a scene in a Bugs Bunny cartoon where they cut out the scene where Bugs and Sam was about to play Russian Roulette that was cut (Ballot Box Bunny). I remember seeing that scene once when WKBD-Detroit aired some of the Bugs Bunny cartoons in the mid-70s. I don't know if it slipped out or they was using film at the time and didn't cut the film at the end (the scene was at the end of the cartoon).

In the original cartoon, the scene was blacked out as Sam pulled the trigger.  It then reappeared to show that Sam had missed.

[cwf1701]

there would be an action scene that kept getting more and more intense, and then the screen would just go black.  I highly doubted that would happen in the United States.

Sounds exactly like what happens several times in most every Coyote/Roadrunner cartoon I've seen.

and There was also a scene in a Bugs Bunny cartoon where they cut out the scene where Bugs and Sam was about to play Russian Roulette that was cut (Ballot Box Bunny). I remember seeing that scene once when WKBD-Detroit aired some of the Bugs Bunny cartoons in the mid-70s. I don't know if it slipped out or they was using film at the time and didn't cut the film at the end (the scene was at the end of the cartoon).

In the original cartoon, the scene was blacked out as Sam pulled the trigger.  It then reappeared to show that Sam had missed.

I think i do remember some airings in the 1980s of this cartoon, the cartoon ended on some broadcasts before the scene where Bugs and Sam goes to play Russian Roulette (the scene where the town has a parade which a horse was paraded as being "Our New Mayre").

[roadman]

"New Mayre?"
"Dark Horse?" (the horse was black)

[bandit957]

I have a funny TV memory, but I know what show it was.

Once when I was about 8, we were at my grandparents' house, and they were watching '60 Minutes'. The show had a feature where they read letters from viewers over the air. One of the correspondents read one of the letters that said something about "damn dumb football games."

I burst out laughing!

Also, anyone remember a weird, creepy commercial that always aired during '60 Minutes', probably in the mid-'90s? It consisted of people talking to a man at a desk, but the desk was in an elevator. An elevator door kept opening and closing in front of the desk. Remember this creepy ad?

[bandit957]

Another early TV memory. I think this one is '60 Minutes' or some other show like that.

Once when I was about 4, I was in the living room when my dad was watching some news-style program on TV. They did some scary segment that showed some little kid dying. It showed someone putting a blanket or sheet over the kid when they died.

It was terrifying!

Another scary thing is when hosts of game shows or performance shows said to viewers right before a commercial break, "Don't go away." That scared me because I was afraid people might "go away" and not come back.

[NJRoadfan]

Here is one that seems to be universally lost to time. I remember watching a movie on some random cable channel back in the 80s about a kid who gets abducted by aliens after playing and mastering a Simon style game. Nobody seems to have a copy or even know what the name of the movie or series was.

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/139739/1980s-tv-episode-about-a-simon-says-game-leading-to-alien-abduction

Other memories were mostly of early Nickelodeon airing Pinwheel which aired shorts from various international children's programming.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinwheel_(TV_series)

[bandit957]

I thought of a funny one where I can't identify the show.

Back around 1983 or 1984, there was a sitcom where a man complained that an item got "lost in the damn Christmas mail." For the life of me, I can't identify the show.

[bandit957]

I remember a couple more weird things.

Back around 1986, there was a commercial for a wristwatch. It might have been one of those disposable wristwatches they advertised back then. The commercial featured a reggae jingle where a guy kept yelling out something that sounded like "Oom rallo!" I know it sounds vaguely like the Spanish term for "a watch", but not quite.

I also remember a commersh back when I was about 4 for some baby wipes or something. It was a cartoon of a talking baby who kept pulling the wipes out of the canister and talking about lanolin. It's one of very few places I've ever heard lanolin ever mentioned anywhere.

[bandit957]

Also, does anyone remember the Pizza Hut commercials in the early '80s where the voiceover man sounded like Waylon Jennings's speaking voice?

[In_Correct]

I still am still wondering still about the P.B.S. programme with the opening and closing segments of an early computer simulation (most likely a grid, with geometric shapes flying towards you, and then the same thing happening with each end credit.) with equally mystical computer-ish synth music. Is there a long list of every programme ever aired for P.B.S.? I watched in the mid 1990s, a mid day programme, most likely rebroadcast. (It might have been produced a few years earlier.)

I remembered this commercial, "Take The Fork In The Road.". I was also going to ask this question, but I found it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koYyJlvTiLg

Honda would have been my next guess. A perfect slogan, but a very badly made commercial. You can not see that much of the new car. Also, it is quite dangerous to pick up a fork in the middle of a very narrow road.

Another commercial, made around the same time period, is probably some restaurant. It is a very spooky commercial but it is meant to be funny. It is about an empty drive thru with an unseen worker calling through the menu's speakers. It is probably some thing like "Where is everybody?" with the restaurant being some unnamed rival restaurant. Possibly a 1980s or 1990s Arby's commercial but I can not find it.

[bandit957]

I thought of a movie I saw on TV that I can't identify.

When I was growing up, around 1982, I saw some TV movie about a little girl who started attending some new school or camp. I think she had behavior problems or came from a broken home or something. In one scene, she sang, "The bear went over the mountain...To find a spot to pee!" And her teacher and all the kids burst out laughing!

Anyone else remember this?

[D-Dey65]

One famous example was titled "Special Bulletin" from 1983, which had a news crew interviewing a terrorist in Charleston, SC.  The show was videotaped in the same manner as TV news.  Worried people called into the TV stations when it aired, despite it being a fictitious news network (RBS), and at least one disclaimer with a commercial.

I remember that. The terrorists were a group of left-wing radicals who started out by protesting the Vietnam War. They even had real life footage of the accidental 1970 Weather Underground bombing in Greenwich Village that was next door to Dustin Hoffman's place.

One that I saw when I was a teenager was an old British movie about some abusive drunk, drug-addicted bigamist who married four women in England, Scotland, Wales, and British-occupied Ulster, who often goes out by himself to burn trash in a burn barrel on a beach. The guy is frequently visited by a cop that he befriends and at the end of this movie he and his fellow bobbies find that one piece of "trash" that he burns was a baby from one of his wives.

All these years I still can't find the title of the thing.