Jim Cornette on Explaining US TV To Someone From The UK

[@rofbagging9749]

Growing up in the 90s, I discovered UK television with Mr. Bean. I loved his low key, silent humor while nearly everyone I ever met cannot stand it. Modern wrestlers should study Mr. Bean because he was a master of telling comedy without ever speaking.

[@agastyasoni8384]

Rowan Atkinson the 🐐

[@WaynoTube]

Dude Mr Bean is f**king awesome 🤣

[@BUPMY1]

What were they're reasons for not liking the Bean?

[@rofbagging9749]

@@BUPMY1 main critique I would hear was his facial expressions were too much and they hated that he wouldn’t speak the entire time. Which was the entire point to begin with.

[@hoozle]

An heir to Chaplin and Lloyd. Not my kind of thing but Atkinson is a genius.

[@Snacksaloon]

Now the UK is the same as the US, thousands of channels but nothing worth a damn is on any of them 😂

[@derpderpin1568]

But still not nearly as much commercial uptime thanks to far better regulations. The percentage of ad/content time in the US is absolutely insane compared to anywhere else on earth actually.

[@RAD1111able]

​@derpderpin1568 Definitely . I'm in Poland,I complain about commercials here but Americans have so many excessive commercials and ads everywhere that I don't understand how they live being bombarded with a lot of useless shit all the time.

[@irieite9666]

​@derpderpin1568 not to mention the content of the adverts. They advertise medicine like its skittles lol. And they'll even throw in a line like "Ask you doctor about Regaine" Yeah ok. I fill the shelves at Wallmart, I definitely should go to my GP who has studied medicine for 10 years and tell him what medication I should be on lmao.

[@ashtonhaggitt216]

​@@RAD1111ableit's a nightmare. At 19 (I'm 35 for context) I got rid of all cable due to commercials. I've gotten rid of all streaming services as well that have ads. I will not pay extra to not have ads, I'll just not use the product.

[@jasmith85]

I'm in the UK and the TV is crap here too. ITV was local as some of was split into certain regions IE Yorkshire we had our own ITV compared to down south, mainly the difference was the news for specific regions. The TV was SO SO bad over here the only things that was worth watching over Xmas was Worlds Strongest Man/Giants Live, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

[@northleedspoppa]

Most American adverts seem to be for drugs

[@kaminsod4077]

Seriously, you'd think all 300 million of us are going through prescription medications like socks just from watching our TV ads.

[@stevenbeadles7838]

You forgot sex and rock and roll bookend that!

[@troyuk8017]

the way every possible side effect is listed Amercians be like nah I pass

[@TheFourFats]

I still can’t believe that’s legal selling prescription drugs, it’s like Americans got used to getting shafted by the healthcare industry

[@Methodius93]

Prescription drugs, fast food, & telling you how to think/feel.

[@jonnybyrne989]

U.s. TV is a lot worse than UK t.v. ads every two seconds, a 30 min show lasts over an hour

[@hotrod3471]

Far worse. And we might have only had 4 terrestrial channels till the late 90’s in the UK but you could get dozens more via satellite tv from late 80’s. They were just garbage till early 90’s

[@alantyndall85]

I'm old enough to remember having 3 channels. It was much better than having 1000, everyone watched the same things and everyone would talk about it the next day. The quality was also much higher than it is now, as we only got the best US stuff and not the dross, along with much better homegrown shows.

[@ScottRen14]

Lol i can remember when channel 4 was launched in the uk

[@mac888spectral7]

I was going to say that's ridiculous, then remembered I only use KZbin, Tubi, and Pluto TV.

[@lucienswift447]

The joke of ' and nothing worth watching' would be over 40 years old now. Television was just as shit back then. For every 'Yes Minister' there were 5 Are You Being Serveds, It Ain't Half Hot Mums, or Mind Your Languages, just to use UK examples.

[@MetalScholar_007]

I’m an American, and I remember watching “Are You Being Served” on a local over the air channel here in the US with my brother; we would flip to this show every weeknight after the Late Show with Letterman had ended on CBS.

[@JustMe-ts8bn]

Also not everyone is a slave to tv.

[@Devypocalypse]

UK TV only had four channels until late 90s hut it didnt suck. Back then BBC fucking crushed. The level of shows, especially comedy was unreal.

[@knigweenis7092]

It did fucking suck. When Channel 5 launched in 1997 we all got excited and that was shit as well. Without Rose tinted glasses on, the absolute shit we had to sit through other than prime time telly and documentaries was abhorrent. The afternoons were pretty much Australian soaps. I still have PTSD if anyone plays the theme from a Country Practise as it was always on when I got home from school on Central

[@Tim85-y2q]

As long as you were satisfied with 6 episodes every other year.

[@userjim83]

Yeah, i had sky in 1994, I think people might have their dates wrong.

[@SaulidSnake]

There were five, there’s channel 5, then you’d get Sky/Satellite for more

[@Devypocalypse]

@Tim85-y2q quality better than quantity. I'll take six banging episodes of Blackadder or Bottom over 24 of utter SHITE like Friends or Seinfeld.

[@Rungusman69]

The main difference is American tv has 20x as much adverts

[@HisDudeness316]

Raw was on late at night in London, Brian? No shit. It's on at 1an every week here.. 😆

[@Jay_Baumans_Stuntdouble]

I was surprised by that comment too. You think a man of Brian's alleged intelligence would figure out that the time zone between the u.s and u.k were going to be different.

[@HisDudeness316]

@Jay_Baumans_Stuntdouble if I'm generous to him, I'll maybe say he meant the old Thursday 9pm showing. But he certainly didn't express himself very well.

[@byronlaw6491]

@@HisDudeness316Friday nights at 10pm from 1996 right up until it was shown live in the mid 2000s. Nitro was on at 9 on Friday’s from late 96.

[@HisDudeness316]

@byronlaw6491 I could have sworn it went live in 97. I remember going to friend's houses for Rawnights when I was in sixth form... but I'm 44 now, so my memory is hazy. It could certainly have been a Friday showing.

[@byronlaw6491]

@@HisDudeness316​​⁠it definitely wasn’t live during the attitude era. It was the Friday night wars back then. Im glad actually as was only 4 days after the US and I liked the atmosphere of it on Friday. The PPVs were all live from WM 13 onwards (before that they didn’t show the in your house events live) before that they were mostly live but some weren’t. I remember I wasn’t happy about survivor series 96 being shown like a week after it had actually happened.

[@jamesedmonds7519]

I think someone needs to teach Jim that British TV has changed since he last visited 30 years ago.

[@henrygvidonas9573]

I didn't know it's 2046, already.

[@davidlevy7068]

Yeah in London we do get Raw late at night in fact at 1am because 8pm Eastern time is 1am GMT(UK Time).

[@pleaseshutup7053]

All these years later and I finally learned what syndicated tv means 😂

[@cunninglinguist-hu1dz]

In the UK and Europe TV programmes are interrupted by adverts whereas in the US adverts are interrupted by TV programmes.

[@KdHinken]

I live in the UK and I cam confirm no we had more than 4 channels by the 90s

[@jamesedmonds7519]

Even before I got Sky we had BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

[@richardbradley5217]

I remember only 2 TV channels. BBC 1 and ITV

[@Halbared]

I think the person who wrote the letter was raised in a box.

[@HessenUK]

@@jamesedmonds7519I mean channel 5 didn’t launch until 1997

[@HessenUK]

And Sky had less than 10% of households by the mid 90s. The overwhelming majority of households for half the 90s only had 4 channels.

[@JoeMercersWay]

Should get the sign language person for whenever Andrade cuts a promo

[@klawstecno2083]

I would love to see Jim explain the Japanese TV, because i never see such a mess on screen😂

[@dkupke]

Nah. Spanish language tv. Telenovela’s are hell.

[@ScottRen14]

Uk television knows how to do dramas & comedy, the US has to many episodes per series & don't seem to know when to leave something on a high, for example, peaky blinders, fawlty towers, the office, i could go on

[@standardofexcellence]

This is correct

[@Raveneffect1989]

UK ITV was made up of several regions for different areas of the country, for example Granada, Carlton, Grampian etc they were consolidated years ago into ITV in England & Wales, STV in Scotland & UTV in Northern Ireland. Main differences are still the local news occasional programmes and different football matches between countries.

[@rajnirvan3336]

Loved regional ITV. I was Thames LWT

[@stenic10]

I'm sure there's some law (or just a really strict regulation) in the UK that BBC, ITV + channel 4 have to air shows with sign language for a certain number of hours per week so they're all late at night when very few people are still awake.

[@Rintin07]

They're also on at breakfast time

[@joegardiner394]

Yeah, that's right. Public service channels have a certain percentage of programmes they need to supply sign language for. This came up on LBC's Mystery Hour a few weeks ago, and the sign language interpreter was saying there are shockingly few people who can sign in BSL sadly.

[@danielburger1775]

Local tv for local people...

[@jasmith85]

Is there a Local for shop local people (There's nothing for you here).

[@jbedstudios]

I think your Cosplaying as Tubbs, under the door I slide him my teat.

[@Halbared]

friends. ...pens.

[@leepower2717]

​@@Halbared- ok Pauline

[@leepower2717]

​@jasmith85- We didn't burn him.

[@davidhunter1555]

Local access is why we have Mystery Science Theater 3000. Praise Rowsdower.

[@StoneColdSergio]

Keep circulating the tapes!

[@8thaccount535]

When I grew up we had channel 3 - NBC, 5 - ABC, 8 - Fox, 19 - CBS, 45 - PBS. It was huge when we got 43 - WUAB, that was the channel that played the afternoon cartoons when you got home from school, like Animaniacs

[@warlock12uk]

For those of you outside the UK, here's an attempt at a quick historical breakdown of our Network TV. From the 50's to the mid-60's there were TWO national networks: The BBC and "Independent Television". BBC, a government funded company, carried several hours nightly of regionally focused programming in the early evening, but prime time was national. Independent Television was divided into several regional franchises which also provided focused programming. These franchises would also produce their own series for prime time some of which (but not all) would be broadcast nationally. All their operations were funded by advertising revenue. The BBC carried NO ads. In the 60's, there were 2 big changes; BBC got a second channel, and programs were first shown in colour. In 1982, a fourth national channel - surprisingly called Channel 4 - started up. it was funded by ads, carried no local programming, but gave the UK its first regular look at the NFL and Sumo wrestling. Towards the end of the 80's and into the 90's, Satellite TV stations started to broadcast in the UK, bringing programming from across the world into our homes... for a low monthly subscription. And in 1997 a fifth national channel - imaginatively named Channel 5 - was added to the airwaves. It became home to programming that wasn't good enough for the other four networks but was marginally better than what was being broadcast on satellite. There is also a cable TV network which developed across the country from the 90's onwards. Originally operated by several different companies, they have all combined into a single broadcaster - Virgin TV. For UK wrestling fans, your only option was to pay for Sky TV - for decades it was the sole broadcaster. They also showed WCW (on TNT) and ECW on one of the smaller channels (Bravo, I think).

[@AmberSocks]

During the early to mid 90's, ITV would show an hour of WCW. Never in a regular time slot, usually between 1-5am.

[@byronlaw6491]

@@AmberSocksit was changed in 92 to Saturday afternoons but sadly they showed actual 92 WCW. In them early 1am slots it was 1989 WCW so it was actually good.

[@byronlaw6491]

It was on bravo ECW on Saturdays then it moved to Thursday when they started showing smackdown on Sky from January 2000. In the early days of Sky Eurosport also had the WWF on. Wrestlemania V was the first event shown live on uk tv. World of Sport the old home of British wrestling showed some WWF wrestling challenge on ITV in 1988 too. There are clips on KZbin

[@SweetStevieAaron]

Not bad but you could get cable TV and some local TV as early as the 60’s (according to some sources). I knew people who had cable TV in the early 80’s. Sky had one channel (Sky Channel) back then but there were a few others. Depending what region you were in, you could pick up different channels and all sorts long before Sky TV took hold). You could also get some channels on the Astra satellite dish without a subscription to Sky for a long time (German stuff, EuroSport, Lifestyle, Children’s Channel, etc).

[@SweetStevieAaron]

Also, long before TNT and Nitro, WCW aired in certain ITV regions. You could watch PPVs in German on DSF (that was fun). Alternatively, GLOW was available on Lifestyle for free if you really wanted to go there. Dubbed NJPW used to air on EuroSport and there were other shows if you looked (I do recall NWA Power Hour on BSB; Sky’s main rival before they merged).

[@ShaneKraemer]

Local Access channel was given to our high school, did a little work on it. And growing up, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS was what we had in rural areas. FOX came along in mid to late 90s

[@quentinkaasa47]

How rural you talking? Because it looks like you should replace FOX in that statement with UPN/The WB.

[@Zumii]

UK TV doesn’t suck, even in the 90’s yes there were only 4 (then 5) terrestrial channels, but Sky TV was around then and had a ton of choice. Yeah maybe if you only had access to terrestrial television then you’d feel like you were low on options. Also UK TV is not laden with adverts like American television. US TV feels more like you’re watching adverts that occasionally take a break to show you a television program rather than the other way around. Be a shame if this tv show got in the way of all the adverts wouldn’t it..

[@totallybored5526]

When I went to the u.s on holiday I tried watching tv. It was insufferable. Every show seemed to follow the same format: cold open, commercials, opening credits, commercials, about 2 minutes of the show, commercials and so on and so on.

[@northeu]

There was also local access cable, what has eventually become virgin cable nationwide was a seres of local cable networks in the 90s anyone could buy time on. The UK is so small and the viewership of each network so tiny, putting a show worth anything on it was pointless

[@davidjsaul]

Sky TV showed all American shows though 😂

[@purpleperc1012]

No, let’s be honest. The UK took a long time to discover that they had to be entertaining to get people to watch television.

[@almanacofsleep]

@@purpleperc1012 Considering the golden age of British comedy shows was the 70's and they got their peak ratings around that time I wouldn't say it took them that long.

[@keatonsellen9679]

Corny doing the sign for shit in the corner *chefs kiss

[@Tim85-y2q]

Should have been AEW in the main window.

[@The_Flexorcist]

I helped run the local access channel in Greensboro NC in the mid-late 90s and it was a freakin blast!

[@philsie204]

In Winnipeg, we had some Cable Access classics in the 80's. These 2 old, old ladies called The Cosmopolitans would put on shows at Nursing Homes. One would play the organ, and the other was on the drums. It was so bad it was good. There's some videos on KZbin out there.

[@PantheonLincoln]

It's messed up, and might be about to change with the Netfllix deal, I'm not sure, but WWE airs here in the UK on... TNT Sports. Yeah, THAT TNT. I know inernational rights are a different thing, but it's weird knowing TNT is where AEW Collision airs in America, yet here in the UK, it's been the home of WWE for years.

[@andrewgraham6339]

In Britain, we had our ITV World of Sport wrestling where we watched the “European” style of wrestling and we were not aware of any other wrestling until they put on a match from Germany where Pat Roach would be fighting in. In America, you had the territories and if we had a taste of that sooner, then you would have found a ravenous market over here as we loved our wrestling but we would like to have seen something different. I don’t think the Japanese stuff would have been shown as it might have been too violent but that would make kids want to watch it more. I’m not sure if it was the Crabtree promotions blocking foreign wrestling shows in Britain with their deal with ITV but they missed a trick.

[@NJTRAF]

The guy saying until the late 90’s saying we only had 4 channels isn’t quite correct. We had 4 terrestrial TV channels until 1997 when Channel 5 began, but we had two Satellite TV services from 1984 onwards, with Sky TV being the first one and British Satellite Broadcasting from 1986 onwards. Both merged in 1990 to become BSKYB (British Sky Broadcasting - now simply known as Sky U.K. LTD) which had a bunch of other channels on them. I know this because I used to watch WWF as it was back then on Sky, as they started broadcasting in 1989 there, and it was on Sky Sports if I remember correctly which was something you paid extra for. And if I remember correctly with WCW, they had a show called Worldwide I think that was like a 1 hour kind of highlights show that aired on ITV (Channel 3 on terrestrial TV) and if you had Sky TV (or later Comcast Cable) then Nitro was on TNT which was a basic cable channel, so for a lot of people I knew we would watch Nitro because it was on the basic cable package, but we’d watch the WWF Highlights show that aired on like Saturday morning on Sky One which was a basic cable channel. So it’s not quite accurate, there were other channels available back then, you just had to pay for them.

[@Halbared]

yip.

[@jenova625]

I was in England for a weekend. All that I got to watch was 2 hours of snooker

[@Phil_Tutty]

Sounds great. Did someone go for a deep screw off the bottom cushion?

[@totallybored5526]

Snookers better than 20 minutes of adverts every Half an hour

[@WaynoTube]

Yeah we sometimes had Royal Rumble on channel 4 but Raw and Smackdown and most other PPVs were on sky sports which we had to pay extra for

[@BUPMY1]

Royal Rumble was free but Raw/SmackDown/others PPVs weren't? 😮

[@ernie316]

​@totallybored5526 initially they were all free in a sky sports subscription. Then the big 4 went to ppv, then the number of ones inc with ss decreased, until it was all ppv.

[@BuddhaonaBus]

​@@totallybored5526 I don't know if this changed later but the PPVs were a separate purchase even if you had Sky Sports when I watched from 2000-2007 at least.

[@totallybored5526]

@@BuddhaonaBusif you had sky sports you didn’t have to pay for ppvs until about 2010 and were free in the 00’s

[@ekmad]

I think Channel 4 had Sunday Night Heat, or was it Jakked? Either way it was one of the only "free" WWF shows you could get regularly here and it was always on at 2 or 3am. They had South Park on at the same time too, got to love the 90s (or early 00s as it was)

[@JimmyHeartburn]

I remember as a kid in the 80’s growing up in the Vancouver area we had 5-6 channels if you didn’t have cable. In the early 90’s I lived in the interior of BC and only had 2 channels. You had to have satellite if you wanted more.

[@29xthefun]

UK does have regional set up. BBC and ITV both are split into regions that have different TV. More so for ITV as the regions are owned by different people. No real difference to that and what is happening in USA TV. Where I am in Scotland even now chooses to not show many of the ITV network stuff due to expense.

[@davidjsaul]

Believe me, you're not missing anything but soaps and reality TV trash

[@Halbared]

I didn't know that STV stayed separate when all the other combined in the 90's.

[@andrew6382]

@@Halbared When ITV were franchises it was great. If you had a strong aerial sometimes you could pick up two ITV channels. Sometimes different schedules or programming.

[@stevenman013]

The person writing in is half right. There were only 4 terrestrial channels until the late 90s but Sky satellite and cable television brought hundreds of channels to millions of homes for those willing to pay in 1992.

[@andrew6382]

Back it was a when a rich man's pleasure.

[@huh8662]

If your hands shake while doing sign language, is that considered stuttering?

[@binzy698]

BBC1 and ITV saturdays in the 90s were out of this world. Kids TV was quality too back then. So many brilliant sitcoms too.

[@calikid05]

ECW use to come on cable access in Los Angeles. Only way I could watch it.

[@-The-Darkside]

It's not MASSIVELY different to UK, in the 80s with ITV and BBC having different versions depending where you were, Granada, grampian, Thames, etc. And cable being similar to sky.

[@Halbared]

True.

[@SweetStevieAaron]

The four channels thing is something of a myth. Whilst there were only four channels nationally from 1982 (only three before then), many regions still got some local TV (if limited) and many more regions had cable and satellite TV since forever. True, it became more common after Sky got on the Astra dish in 89 and BSB were briefly competition before merging and Sky got really popular, but I’ve always known someone who had access to more than four channels and I grew up in the 80’s and my parents had BSB then Sky by 1990.

[@Halbared]

Yip.

[@Halbared]

The letter writer is incorrect. The UK had four channels (fulltime) by the end of the 80's as well as a few satellite companies (sky and BSB) and a burgeoning group of local cable companies (I recall one called Diamond). The WWF became popular in the late 80's in the UK thanks to the satellite telly company, Sky.

[@WhatwouldRoddyPiperdo]

Yeah I started watching WWF January 1990 because we just got Sky TV

[@Halbared]

@@WhatwouldRoddyPiperdo I remember kids in school bringing in tapes they had made, more kids got it, and then eventually we got Sky too! Just in time for Wrestlemania I think.

[@WhatwouldRoddyPiperdo]

@Halbared I was the kid with sky id tape first hour of nitro and Raw for my mates but I used to go to every 90s UK event summerslam 92,one night stand,capital carnage, rebellion,insurrexion because it was cheaper to actually go than to do sky box office which they only did for UK based PPVs.

[@Halbared]

@@WhatwouldRoddyPiperdo I was at Summerslam. I went to a few (two I think) of the tours, I saw Andre the giant. That was cool.

[@davidjsaul]

I'm old enough to remember when there were just the four channels in the UK, channel 5 didn't come until much later and at first the reception sucked for lots of people. But the positive side effect of that was we weren't slaves to the screen like the younger generations are, we were all out playing instead.

[@andrew6382]

I agree you only watched CITV then went out soon afterwards and back home for tea.

[@dkupke]

Guess I lucked out with public access in the 90’s. We had East Coast Professional Wrestling and Biker Billy Cooke With Fire.

[@TribalThief]

Tv in America has about 17 adverts in half hour

[@PAlt-p6y]

Fact check, a 30 minute program has roughly 8min of ads in the US.

[@TribalThief]

@PAlt-p6y that's insane

[@richmiller8615]

I remember discovering Are You Being Served? on public access TV here in the states back in the early 1990's. I thought it was hilarious. Frank Thornton as Captain Peacock was a great straight man to the other characters, like Mollie Sudgen's Mrs. Slocombe character, who had one of the funniest catch phrases ever when she would emphatically say something, then follow it up with"...and I am unanimous in that!"

[@lucienswift447]

That's not her most famous catchphrase. An awful lot of cat double entendres.

[@stfi7566]

My mother was a huge fan of John Inman’s Mr. Humphries. She always laughed hard when Capt. Peacock asked Humphries if he was free and he responded with: “Yes, I’m free!”

[@SairajRKamath]

When I was a kid in 2003, I lived in London for six months. We only had 4 channels and the only show I could watch was 'Make Way for Noddy' in the morning before school. Other than that, nothing at all. 😢

[@ronniemacdonald2768]

"Commercials" every 5 minutes.

[@rajnirvan3336]

Only had BBC 1, BBC 2 & ITV. Channel 4 launched 1982. Then late 80s early 90s Sky and all other channels launched.

[@azure1259]

By the late 90s UK were getting free, live WWF ppvs on channel 4 late at night. I watched Royal Rumble 2000 and many others that way.

[@neilarcher2551]

I haven't watched broadcast TV here in years. You saw WWF PPV late night on one of the free channels but Raw/Smackdown were on Sky pay channels. Cable ran ECW, LPWA (yes with Jim), some New Japan (Eurosports channel) and WCW on Cable TNT. WCW was also shown on free to view ITV for a few years.

[@michaelunderhill8847]

Channel 4 occasionally got WWF PPV's, technically we did used to get "free" WWF/WWE PPV's with a Sky subscription, now you have to have a sky or bt subscription AND pay for a ppv or ple when it comes on, although that will change with netflix. ECW was on Bravo and and Nitro was on TNT or a heavily censored version on Channel 5.

[@vycanismajoris6871]

I always preffered UK TV. And do it still today. The US has way way too much ads

[@Tim85-y2q]

My grandma never had cable but lived in a major city. If the reception was good I'd guess she easily got over 20 channels.

[@shamonrp]

Are PPV free in the UK?

[@only1icon1801]

They weren't ever free but if you subscribed to sky sports in the 90's and 00's until 2008 they were part of the package. You could either pay for it which ranged between £18-£30 per month or you could get a chipped box or "dodgy" box where you got them at no extra cost illegally

[@irieite9666]

@@only1icon1801 There definitely was a period of time where they were "free" if you subscribed to sky. My Uncle recorded St Valentines Day massacre and Wrestlemania 15 for me and that was just on Sky Sports 3. There was no extra cost except the subscription to sky.

[@irieite9666]

@@totallybored5526 Yes I remember they were on Sky Sports 3. Just as part of the subscription.

[@robertroddy]

Keeping Up Appearances great show

[@petebagwell6666]

Raw and smackdown in the uk air at 1am because of the time zones

[@martinwalton9307]

The UK had a satellite TV service dating all the way back to 1982 .

[@simonkeegan5580]

I never met anyone who had it until 1990 when Sky TV came out

[@NuMetalfan1996]

But almost no one had it until 1992 when Sky TV fully took hold here in the U.K.

[@Jay_Baumans_Stuntdouble]

Can confirm, our house had sky TV around 93-94ish. It's how I discovered Cartoon Network and Power Rangers.

[@martinwalton9307]

Think WWF started airing regularly on Sky back in 1989.

[@NuMetalfan1996]

@@Jay_Baumans_Stuntdouble you must have been a rich family then.

[@davidpaterson1435]

Hotel tv is not normal tv in the UK

[@Rintin07]

There were originally two competing satellite TV providers but they merged at the end of 1990. This engendered hot competition for programming including the Adolf Hitler/Eva Braun sitcom "Heil Honey, I'm Home".

[@benmac6147]

Network TV in the UK is not completely representative of UK TV as a whole but how Jim described it as dry is mostly accurate. Network TV just mainly caters to 60+ now. Most young & middle aged people are streaming these days. TV is pretty much dead.

[@fatabbott8138]

I’d rather watch “I eat poop” than what we had on our public access channel, all we got was local church services playing 24/7 and I don’t even live that religious of a state lol

[@Gullyman23]

Would that be Tito Antanna, Jim?

[@emilsitka9537]

In south dakota we had two channels, one had wrestling.

[@MikeCameron-jh6si]

Because the US is 5-8 hours ahead of US Timezone wise a PPV event would normally start at 1 am (UK time) and with Raw and Smackdown when they decided to show them live at same time as it was shown in UD it would be the same. We have a 9 pm -5:am window where we can. Have adult themed programmes so even when it was recorded it would usually be broadcast between these hours pre PG era

[@gayrambo4529]

First of all, we don't need a loicence to watch TV in the colonies.

[@kimkaze]

Channel 5 launched in the UK late 1990s. Growing up, we had ariel TV only, Sky and cable TV weren't yet a thing in the UK. Our TV was very good quality, especially the comedies, news and series stuff. But that was it, we didn't have community TV, although we did have community radio all around the UK. The UK was largely ruled by the BBC, both for TV and radio. Our local news played after the national news several times a day on BBC1 and ITV (3). We later got cable TV into homes that were willing to pay (the above was all free except you paid your TV licence) via fibre optic cable, and that had a lot of channels, some global. Sky was the emerging juggernaught, originally BSkyB (known as five channel TV). Then sky dishes came out and since then, it's gone nuts with freeview boxes and loads of new ways to watch TV. And finally, now fewer ppl actually watch TV, because so many are into On Demand and streaming! :D

[@AdLamb]

Sky was around long before Channel 5, it wasn’t common until digital in late 90’s but I remember that sky sports getting the premier league when it launched in ‘92 saved sky from going under, then it just got bigger from there.

[@Halbared]

Satellite and cable companies were regional in the UK in the 80's, like the USA. eventually they went national in 1990 as they merged.

[@liamfenech6609]

Sky TV was launched in the UK in 1989 but very few people had it back then it wasn't until the mid 90s with the launch of the Premier League in 92 that cable and satellite TV became popular here

[@LadyTreez420]

The sky tv's are cool 😁

[@Halbared]

1984.

[@hartiwanger9176]

Cable access has more public participation than so called public television and radio

[@thehandoftheking3314]

I saw this one on the group

[@m00rtin4]

hearing british tv as "dry" with 4 channels and not airing "entertainment" makes me wonder how they feel of other eu countries. would love to hear them expand on this topic and other nations versions of "entertainment" xD. in sweden we had 2 channels up to 1987 and 1989 when our first two cable channels arrived. And local news like 1 h , 30 min throughout the day on one of those two national broadcast channels. 1990 we got a fifth channel that was broadcasted nationally aswell. so throughout 1990s we had 3 channels broadcasted nationally but with cable we could get like 5 at the basic cable price but with the expanded package or it might be via sattelite we could got around 10-15 like "action movie channel", "discovery channel", "animal planet", etc.

[@Digthemadscientist]

Hey Brian and Jim I set some of your best clips to music and I thought you might find it amusing 😁 video is called (Jim Cornette A Musical Tribute) you guys are awesome thanks for all the hilarity 🤘🤓🤘

[@deadforever]

"It was on late at night not the normal timeslot" Let me blow your mind and tell you that we are several hours ahead of your time

[@pccleric]

Yep three channels in the 80s NBC CBS and ABC. If the president was on you were fucked and not watching anything.

[@damightybenstein]

"THE PRESIDENT'S ON! HE'S ON EVERY CHANNEL! WE'RE GONNA MISS 'FLIPPER'!"

[@HumanZooMedia]

There were only 4 channels if you didn't pay for satellite or cable. We had like 20-30 channels even in the early 90s.

[@Cruising_On_Lake_Havasoma]

Does Raw air live in the UK? 8 pm EST is 2 am in England.

[@conormoncrieff5942]

Yea. It starts at 1 in the morning. Most people just record it and watch it in the morning.

[@tristhekid]

The pharmaceutical adverts on US Tv make me giggle 😂 it’s very rare we get them in the UK

[@NotAdultingToday]

We didn't use to get them. There was a rule against it up until the 90s, maybe the early 2000s i can't remember which. Then it was gotten rid of and then it was open season. I wish we'd go back.

[@iancruise6927]

The explanation of the side effects takes longer than advertising the product. Makes me chuckle

[@FatherJacksBrick]

@@iancruise6927right! He speaks so fast it’s almost inaudible, except the final 3 words “may cause death”. 😂

[@dannystaton5386]

Happy new year to all 🎉🎉🎉

[@aretnap3653]

It's Called "PBS" In My Neck O'TheWoods. (PublicBroadCastSystem)

[@acidmack1041]

James Bacon is forgetting that you could get Sky TV in the UK since the 1980's. So there were not only 4 terrestrial channels in the UK...there only was if you chose to not pay for Sky TV which is basically what Cable TV was in the US. I used to love Sky TV in the 90's but it is crap now so ive binned it off

[@paulc1553]

I'm from the UK.

[@ulvetid.01]

My condolences

[@AlbertoLeonV1]

You're probably a northerner, so it dont count

[@john_blues]

Looks like we made it through the holidays without some doing something stupid enough for Jim and Brian to have to post a 'Breaking News' video. It's a Festivus miracle!

[@LoPhatKao]

_someone in wrestling_ doing something stupid anyway ☹

[@john_blues]

@@LoPhatKao What happened?

[@kurtpaulsen6579]

Having UK friends ask me if I pay my tv licencing fee each year, and having to explain that we don't have any such animal hereabouts...

[@smokey817]

I don’t know what they’re reviewing next. But man I’m excited. Lol.

[@1whu965]

We had sky satellite in1990 cable 2 years later free to watch was 4 until Chanel 5 come out but no one could get a signal for months 😂

[@DemoSonicScreamer1]

Somehow I didn't expect to hear about I Eat Poop on one of Cornette's videos, haha. I went to HS with Jimmy Humphrey, the main guy behind that show. He helped me out with some of my own videos years after that show was done, both acting and editing. I didn't really watch it when it aired on local access TV, but I borrowed his compilation tapes or DVDs and watched a lot of it later. The did stuff like parody the Full House opening credits and a fun riff on Guy Ritchie's British crime style stuff. It was semi sketch comedy mixed with proto Jackass stuff. If you want to see late 90s/early 2000s Louisville South End goofing around, that was the show to watch. Jimmy also did I Eat Poop for the Cardinal Newspaper at U of L, but it was a comic strip that I don't recall having much in common with the show.

[@RussellHastie-ej1id]

Jim and Brian should watch an episode of Eurotrash or The Word if they think UK tv was all boring news and debate shows back then.

[@jonesjavontae]

You do realize that the word "on" in the title is completely superfluous

[@rockypalladinofilm]

Sky was essentially cable in the UK… that’s where we watched sports, wrestling and new movies

[@marktyler9168]

Why would a deaf person need to have someone to do the sign of choking to understand someone is getting choked when they could see it?

[@Hertfordshire247]

That's a bit of an exaggeration in regards to how many channels the U.K. Had and when. Channel 4 launched in November 1982 with Rupert Murdoch's SKY launching in 1989 which really gave WWF a platform.

[@kevindwyer2064]

I could listen to Jim talk about anything

[@richardcoreno]

Smiling Bob and Mrs. Bob miss the good ol' days.

[@jovanss2361]

Finally caught up with my Cornette videos!! Been behind for probably over 2 months but I made it!

[@davidpaterson1435]

We had satellite tv...BSB in 1987

[@megsley]

its funny that jim thinks UK tv right now is any better 😂

[@neilarcher2551]

Like myself most people don't watch anything but some of the sporting events where they have to show a certain amount on terrestrial channels. It's easy to get streaming as a bonus free with mobile contracts or even bank accounts so I have Netflix and Disney Plus for no charge.

[@MaestroDawg65]

I'm from Bedford, Virginia, and I can remember the days of only having 4 stations. WDBJ7, WSLS10, WSET13, and WBRA15 which was PBS. If anyone has ever seen the 1984 A Year In Transition videos for Mid Atlantic Wrestling, that was on WSET late at night. Anyone watch Cook'n Cheap? That came straight from our local PBS.

[@totallybored5526]

What the hell is wrong with u.s tv station names, and their obsession with random letters?

[@undergroundriptiles7005]

Lmao I’m sure their tv isn’t great any more either

[@markwrenn5965]

TV may suck over there, but 1) they once had an all-wrestling channel and 2) they get most of the ufc PPVs on regular TV. Or at least used to. Edit: from my understanding, anyway. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. It's youtube comments, so I'm sure someone will 😂

[@Dx298]

Is that poop or a chocolate frosty from Wendy's

[@frankdeblasio1109]

CAN WE GET SOME REVIEWS PLZZZZZZ LMAO

[@theredraven]

It's not true the UK only had four channels up until the late 90s unless you're only referring terrestrial ones. Cable and satellite channels started emerging in the 70s and 80s (although some were very niche local ones). Wasn't it the emergence of Sky and its broadcasting of WWF in the late 80s and early 90s that helped murder the British wrestling scene as it then existed?