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30 years ago today: the smokey globe and the 2s

(February 2021)

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BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
Si-Co posted:
Tim Goodwin1 posted:
I never really liked the smoky globe. Thought it looked a mess. I liked the balloons and the COW


Same here - at the time I found the colours of the 90s globe quite drab and depressing compared to what had gone before. Looking back at it now though, it has a certain abstract beauty in its own way. Though compared to fat men paddling in the Bristol Channel, what hasn’t?


"Dark and moody" certainly was an early-90s aesthetic, wasn't it?

*

That said, I liked it.
GE
thegeek Founding member
Blake Connolly posted:
I remember waking up early to see that, after Andi Peters and Edd the Duck popping up in front of the COW the day before to say it was the last time it would be used to introduce Neighbours.

It may be a false memory but I feel like I saw at least some of the OU continuity that morning too - though likely wouldn't have seen mention of it before Neighbours as Scotland would normally opt out of that junction. Can't think where I'd have heard about it in advance though.

Are any of the other junctions from that morning kicking about? I can't even remember what kind of pres the pre-Going Live! programmes would have had. They didn't use the pres studios for those, did they?
VM
VMPhil
Blake Connolly posted:
Si-Co posted:
Tim Goodwin1 posted:
I never really liked the smoky globe. Thought it looked a mess. I liked the balloons and the COW


Same here - at the time I found the colours of the 90s globe quite drab and depressing compared to what had gone before. Looking back at it now though, it has a certain abstract beauty in its own way. Though compared to fat men paddling in the Bristol Channel, what hasn’t?


"Dark and moody" certainly was an early-90s aesthetic, wasn't it?

*

That said, I liked it.

I like to call that era 'dark but colourful' myself.
MM
MMcG198
MMcG198 posted:
I believe it was because the sidebar imagery had viridian as the dominant colour and in many cases this didn't blend in well with the programme imagery alongside it. They often had to add an effect to programme images, to incorporate a hint of viridian. As well as the time and effort that required, it also often didn't look great. I'm sure they spent a lot of time trying to find images that would work fine without the need for any further tampering.


A good example:



AndrewPSSP and Si-Co gave kudos
JA
james-2001
thegeek posted:
Are any of the other junctions from that morning kicking about? I can't even remember what kind of pres the pre-Going Live! programmes would have had. They didn't use the pres studios for those, did they?



At that point in time it was "Saturday Starts Here" presented by the characters who got spun off into Radio Roo... I think.
RW
Robert Williams Founding member
james-2001 posted:
thegeek posted:
Are any of the other junctions from that morning kicking about? I can't even remember what kind of pres the pre-Going Live! programmes would have had. They didn't use the pres studios for those, did they?



At that point in time it was "Saturday Starts Here" presented by the characters who got spun off into Radio Roo... I think.


Saturday Starts Here had ceased to be by that stage - the programmes before Going Live that morning were linked by the continuity announcer, as I distinctly seeing the new-look programme slides in use that morning before the globe had been unveiled, as was the clock which introduced the unscheduled news summaries. As to what was used to introduce the other children's programmes that morning, I really cannot remember but presume it must have been the Children's BBC symbol of the time, as it certainly wasn't the globe, nor was it an in-vision presenter.
LO
lobster
I actually quite liked the smokey globe, I thought all the presentation, captions and stings etc hung together really well.

The only missed opportunities I think was turning some of the amazing stings they came up with into idents to give a bit of variety

Last edited by lobster on 18 February 2021 10:40pm
RW
Robert Williams Founding member
Robert Williams posted:
james-2001 posted:
thegeek posted:
Are any of the other junctions from that morning kicking about? I can't even remember what kind of pres the pre-Going Live! programmes would have had. They didn't use the pres studios for those, did they?



At that point in time it was "Saturday Starts Here" presented by the characters who got spun off into Radio Roo... I think.


Saturday Starts Here had ceased to be by that stage - the programmes before Going Live that morning were linked by the continuity announcer, as I distinctly seeing the new-look programme slides in use that morning before the globe had been unveiled, as was the clock which introduced the unscheduled news summaries. As to what was used to introduce the other children's programmes that morning, I really cannot remember but presume it must have been the Children's BBC symbol of the time, as it certainly wasn't the globe, nor was it an in-vision presenter.


Found some footage:

RD
Roger Darthwell
lobster posted:
I actually quite liked the smokey globe, I thought all the presentation, captions and stings etc really hung together really well.

The only missed opportunities I think was turning some of the amazing stings they came up with into idents to give a bit of variety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8J9QBSNThw

I have an idea......do you guys know that this year Channel 4 had the 80s day to celebrate the start of It's a Sin where trailer packages were reused as idents? Now given that next year it's the BBC's 100th birthday maybe if the virtual globe is reused again, BBC1 could easily turn some of the stings they used into idents! Again Channel 4 did the same thing, so why can't BBC1 do it as well?
BR
Brekkie
They won't do that when they can just do Onehundredness.
RD
Roger Darthwell
Brekkie posted:
They won't do that when they can just do Onehundredness.

Well that would be a big wasted opportunity if you ask me
SW
Steve Williams
Robert Williams posted:
Saturday Starts Here had ceased to be by that stage - the programmes before Going Live that morning were linked by the continuity announcer, as I distinctly seeing the new-look programme slides in use that morning before the globe had been unveiled, as was the clock which introduced the unscheduled news summaries. As to what was used to introduce the other children's programmes that morning, I really cannot remember but presume it must have been the Children's BBC symbol of the time, as it certainly wasn't the globe, nor was it an in-vision presenter.


Yes, it was quite interesting - between 1987 and 1990, the pre-Going Live programmes (in the winter, at least) went out under the banner of Saturday Starts Here, with their own (pre-recorded) links, and after 1992 there was the Broom Cupboard on Saturday mornings, but between 1990 and 1992, uniquely at the time, the kids' shows were linked by normal out-of-vision BBC1 continuity, which seemed a bit of a step backwards. But it was just as well they did, as during the Gulf War that line-up was interrupted and rescheduled for several weeks.

Here's what the amended line-up was during the war - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1991-03-09 - though, as I've mentioned before, by the time they'd started billing the news bulletins in the Radio Times, the war was over and they'd already stopped. That 8am news bulletin quite frequently overran, mind, and Eggs 'n' Baker would start nearer 8.20 some weeks, as seems to be the case that morning.

As you suggest, and as I remember too, that morning they used pretty much all the presentation elements of the new look - the clock, the slides, the menus (which were in the existing Winter 1991 style with the door, but with the new logo and font) and the OU logo, but not the globe which was kept until Going Live. Like you, I can't remember how they linked into the programmes themselves, but they must have used the CBBC ident.

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