★ Thames startup | Wednesday 8 September 1982

[@MrTrevor181]

I remember this as a youngster looking forward for programmes to start....showing my age here!.

[@bigredsock1]

So as a kid you couldn't wait for programmes about Brunel, Lithuania and the TUC Conference?

[@mistie710]

I remember it too, though the tone here is wrong - that's the tone used by BBC 1.

[@dizmop]

@@bigredsock1 well no, it would be "bedtime for sniffles"

[@DaveJeffery]

For me it was nice to see that Thames caption was utterly filthy - in exactly the way Rory used to "distress" them. A lovely start-up, thanks for uploading it!

[@stuartharris2165]

Some of the IBA test cards were in this or a worse state in the late 70s, remember the ATV one had a thumb mark just underneath the clown.

[@wmbrown6]

@@stuartharris2165 - American TV test patterns, depending on the TV station, were in even worse shape.

[@WHUFCboy3333]

My dad was born on this exact day

[@stevebirch7175]

a wonderful cheerful burst of music!

[@dougier6786]

this is brining back some memories

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Didn't Thames usually have a red bar along the bottom of the colour bar with the high pitched tone in the final few minutes before opening? Before ETP1 came along in 1979 they would show the colour bars without the red bottom and with a low tone from 9 to 9:25 and then the tone would go up to high when the red bottom bar came on.at 9:25

[@80sandretrogubbins25]

Great clip.

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

It is there too why not also.

[@revinhatol]

3:47 SALUTE TO THAMES

[@darryllharden9141]

This is Thames Television broadcasting on the London Area transmitters of The Independent Broadcasting Authority.

[@solojinglesradio1]

Really?? No way

[@garyscottrodger]

Cor, lovely! This is from 1982, the day that Mike Yarwood made his Thames debut at 8pm.

[@markjeffries3684]

And a Christmas cartoon airing on Sept. 8 ("Joy to the World" over the title, causing the shorter version of "Merrily We Roll Along" to be played, unlike most Blue Ribbon reissues). Obvious that "Cartoon Time" was programmed by someone blindfolded and put in the film library in front of the Warners shorts rack and taking what they first touched.

[@traeyboy529]

Some of the Merrie Melodies reissues did include the 1945-1955 arrangement of "Merrily We Roll Along" but it was mainly the 1941 arrangement.

[@wmbrown6]

Given how Thames aired the old Warners' toons, wonder if this was partly how some of Benny Hill's gags (i.e. the "split-screen gag" from 1940's "The Bear's Tale" that turned up in "The Herd" sketch of his 31st March 1986 show) were formulated.

[@brucedanton]

This brings back many memories-particularly Philip Elsmore announcing that this is Thames Television from London. I don't know what year this is from, but it clearly was when there were no school programmes on at the time. Thank you for the upload-and well done!

[@brucedanton3669]

Yes indeed, and thank you so much too of course!!

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

And of course really then too as before thank you as well also.

[@kwameaboagye7959]

Thames Television announcers Phil Elsmore 68-92 David Hamilton 68-80 Peter Marshall 76-92 Richard Skinner 78-81

[@2001JamesTV]

It's strange seeing such a dirty, scratchy print of that particular Looney Tunes short, when I have a pristine HD version of it on Blu-Ray!

[@rajnirvan3336]

My guess is this had to be the last week of school holidays as being September ment back to school. I was 5 years old and had been in early years of primary in 1982

[@evonne_]

Not really as it would been at the start of term

[@ttrjw]

8/9/82.. my first day at secondary school...

[@brucedanton]

Of course, this would have been before February 1983, when TV-am came on air, so I guess that September 1982 would be about right-thank you again!

[@brucedanton3669]

Indeed so too, of course!!

[@BruceDanton-xw6eg]

​@@brucedanton3669and so it is too there.

[@mikeknell9768]

Raises more questions than it answers, really. I can't see why TK would have had a second cartoon spooled up as well as the first one, and the cut between the two just seems too convenient. As "Bedtime for Sniffles" was made in 1940 and Looney Tunes shorts made before 1948 ended up with a.a.p, I'm guessing a.a.p added their logo on the front. No idea what that utterly knackered Thames frontcap was doing before it, though..

[@Tripp1993]

Associated Artists Productions, or a.a.p. bought the Warner Bros. stuff until the beginning of August 1948 (with some exceptions) in the '50s, with the heads of the studio not thinking about the importance of those works. United Artists bought A.A.P., which kept them the owners, though some of the copyrights died out because they never bothered to renew them, and then, MGM got the cartoons after the _Heaven's Gate_ debacle that crucified United Artists, and then, Ted Turner got MGM for a couple of months, and sold it back to Kerkorian due to some problems minus something important. What was it? It was the MGM pre-May 1986 library, the a.a.p. content (as we call them these days), including the Warner Bros. vaults, and the US/Canada rights to the RKO library, etc. that went to what truly became Turner Broadcasting. That led to TNT, TCM, and Cartoon Network. And the cartoons went back to Warner Bros. in the late-'90s and early-2000's, with all the a.a.p. content after they bought Turner Broadcasting, restored to pristine form in the past 20 years.

[@McMinn1981]

wow that was a long long time I was but a year old

[@Speedcubeinfozilelai]

The Thames TV, Brings the River Thames a good choice

[@musiccity123]

Hmmm... never knew that the AAP production came on the WB production stuff only ever seen in front of the Popeye?Betty Boop paramount cartoons. You learn something new evey day, thanks for the posting!

[@syxepop]

OK (startling that someone after 5+ years came w/a sensible reply). Associated Artists Productions (aap) was a distributor formed in the '60s that bought quite a bit of vintage cartooning: Warner Bros. anthropomorphic stuff, Betty Boop and Paramount's Popeye, among other cartoon titles. At that time (maybe mid '60s), Warner Bros. was owned by the National Kinney Company (that time's owners of a major US shoe selling chain, among other stuff) and was in gradual risk of default and began to sell most of their cartoon productions rights (at that time they also discontinued their production of new ones) to both aap and United Artists (who, through a production contractor made their few cartoons of the era). It took Warner's buyout of Ted Turner's company (also known in US as TBS) to get back the whole rights for those characters and cartoons, which (along w/the Hanna-Barbera IP's) enabled Warner to start Cartoon Network and later its' other related channels. Those shiny BluRay copies are courtesy of Warner Bros. (today under the ownership of telco AT&T) efforts to keep profiting from their vintage production base... aap didn't had the money or tech to even provide ITV cleaner film copies.

[@marksimons584]

The great Thames Tv.

[@ercaysalih5433]

yes your dam right but olny the erlary years of themes was great becuse on channlel had it all rip themes

[@RobinCarmody]

As stated, this is Wednesday 8th September 1982.

[@transdiffusion]

You're welcome!

[@MrTrevor181]

When they said they were closing down on a specific time...they meant it!.

[@sillygoose635]

of course they did

[@IATM29]

I wonder how Philip Elsmore turned into Sarah Lucas lol. Great to see a Thames start-up,continuity,or closedown clip that featured someone else other than Philip Elsmore, Tom Edwards,and Peter Marshall. Also pleased to see the old Associated Artists Production ident at the beginning of the Warner Bros cartoon.

[@grahampearson5670]

The IBA announcement was pre recorded.

[@mixtapesfrommylatepartner]

@@grahampearson5670 You don't say!

[@IainLucey1972]

where did u find this,.. looks in very good nick!!

[@kwameaboagye7959]

David Hamilton known for his Thames evening slots 68-80

[@bwc1976]

I loved the bit he did at the beginning of a Monty Python episode. "We've got an exciting evening for you on Thames. But first, here's a nasty old BBC programme!"

[@looneytunes9000]

6:04 One of the most shittiest AAP prints I have seen. This is technically taken from a rare AAP print of “Bedtime For Sniffles” (1940)

[@mickeydodds1]

Where did it all go wrong for ITV?

[@kyle8952]

broadcasting act 1990

[@robertcomer2767]

With a schedule like that, it was most definitely going wrong in 1982.

[@revinhatol]

​@@robertcomer2767 Ask ATV as it made itself a new look back in 1982.

[@transdiffusion]

It's truly disgustingly dirty, isn't it? Looks like it was dropped on the floor before it went into the slide scanner/noddy.

[@syxepop]

As I've just told, aap and other distributors of vintage programmes didn't care about physical film quality offered and neither did ITV.

[@robertcomer2767]

Can anyone tell me why the IBA and the ITV companies were so insistent on checking our hearing with that neausating high pitched squeal every flaming morning?

[@nodrogd2000]

In 1982 TV transmitters (at the time there were 50 odd main stations & over 1000 relays) had to be operated automatically. The 1Khz tone was a trigger telling the remote switches at all these sites to turn the transmitters on ready for the start of the days programmes.

[@LogoBro1]

at the first few seconds of this vid i was treated to an ear rape XD

[@ДиДи-н5к]

3:37

[@robertcomer2767]

That flaming pitch. Why were ever subjected to that.

[@nodrogd2000]

See my answer to your previous post below

[@musiccity123]

Thames Telecine not on the ball that day,wrong cartoon at first (intro looks like it was a syndycated popeye cartoon) befoire the correct Warner Bros. one!

[@syxepop]

Nope, aap distributed both most pre '50 Warner cartoons as well as all Paramount production of Popeye. Once they got the rights the distributor applied its' brand to the intros and sometimes the outros of all films provided to ITV and other broadcasters. Sometimes aap goofed up and put Popeye aap intros on a Warner's cartoon (they didn't care and neither did ITV).

[@darganx]

You got there first! There's a video on KZbin about the history of Looney Tunes relating to this, when WB got sold to Seven Arts (I think) they flogged off their pre-way cartoon archive. AAP also had the Max Fleischer archives: Popeye, Inky, Betty Hoop etc.

[@mikeknell9768]

Looney Tunes? Merrie Melodies. They both ended up in the same place, anyway.

[@mixtapesfrommylatepartner]

Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab

[@leocooper4622]

Lol...!!!

[@PlanetoftheDeaf]

Soviet era Lithuania and the TUC Congress, I bet Jeremy Corbyn wishes the whole day had been recorded :-)

[@ercaysalih5433]

I prefer the early days of thames because it was better it had everything one channel had it all it improted all the American shows

[@applemask]

Lithuania.

[@Andy-Robus]

very patriotic lol :-)

[@aidanlunn7441]

A decrepit Warner Bros. cartoon, A look at Brunel's work, a documentary on a tiny Soviet satellite that no-one cares about, and the Trade Union Conference coverage... scintillating.

[@evonne_]

Well Lithuania is a rather important country these days...More than the likes of you will ever know 😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😁😁😁😁

[@robertcomer2767]

@@evonne_ If its so great why do they want to be over here then?

[@kyle8952]

In other words something for the kids before they go to school, a documentary about history, a documentary that teaches people there's a world further out than brighton beach, and an extremely important political event.

[@bigredsock1]

@@kyle8952 Except by 9.30 they should all be in school. I suppose it was fascinating stuff for the toddlers still at home!

[@robertcomer2767]

@@evonne_ it probably wasn't in 1982 when you were controlled by the Soviet Union.