I'm sure I read the reason they had Mike Smith and Gary Davies do 4 consecutive shows was because of The Roxy and its fixed presenting team at the time and they were trying to copy them.
I remember at the time they said that The Roxy had a regular presenting line-up was because in audience research they'd found that people didn't really like rotating hosts on Pops. But then when The Roxy had its revamp in early 1988, they started rotating the hosts. Maybe they just didn't like Jensen and Sharkey.
Another omission from the Story of 87 that really should have been included was the chart reveal changing from Tuesday to Sunday. Also never mentioned David Bowie recording a performance- albeit one that never got shown until TOTP2 dug it out years later because the song didn't chart high enough.
Another omission from the Story of 87 that really should have been included was the chart reveal changing from Tuesday to Sunday. Also never mentioned David Bowie recording a performance- albeit one that never got shown until TOTP2 dug it out years later because the song didn't chart high enough.
I think it was shown earlier than that - part of this programme shown on New Year’s Eve 1989 though I can’t tell you where I read that!
Another omission from the Story of 87 that really should have been included was the chart reveal changing from Tuesday to Sunday. Also never mentioned David Bowie recording a performance- albeit one that never got shown until TOTP2 dug it out years later because the song didn't chart high enough.
I think it was shown earlier than that - part of this programme shown on New Year’s Eve 1989 though I can’t tell you where I read that!
I mentioned this up thread earlier. Here’s the full performance on YouTube.
Nicholas Pegg’s exhaustive ‘The Complete David Bowie’ lists it as being shown in that 1989 New Year’s Eve programme (that I remember watching at the time!).
Simon Mayo made a tweet recent mentioning he saw David Bowie peform that, so it must have been recorded at the time of one of the editions he presented. Possibly the 18th June edition, as I think that ties in with the single release date.
My favourite TOTP memory and (I think) never broadcast as single flopped. First take, Bowie surprised everyone by jumping in the crowd. Second time, the director was ready. Bowie looks happy, I was thrilled. Haven’t seen since. Time Will Crawl https://t.co/9qfjtBw0pl via @YouTube
Simon Mayo made a tweet recent mentioning he saw David Bowie peform that, so it must have been recorded at the time of one of the editions he presented. Possibly the 18th June edition, as I think that ties in with the single release.
My favourite TOTP memory and (I think) never broadcast as single flopped. First take, Bowie surprised everyone by jumping in the crowd. Second time, the director was ready. Bowie looks happy, I was thrilled. Haven’t seen since. Time Will Crawl https://t.co/9qfjtBw0pl via @YouTube
According to a Pegg the performance was recorded in June during the UK leg of his Glass Spider tour. If we know what shoe Mayo hosted in June 1987 then you can work out the recording date.
As we're starting the 1987 episodes, I was wondering if the full length 18 minute(!) version of Michael Jackson's 'Bad' ever got an outing on terrestrial television. The Tube had shown 'Thriller' in full but ended by the time 'Bad' was released. MTV Europe launched in August a month before the single was released, so it's possible it would have been shown on there, but few would have had access to it at the time. TOTP did show the controversial full length version of 'Black or White' in 1991, so did they show 'Bad' too?
It was a breaker on the 24/9/87 edition and then shown on 1/10/87, although obviously not the full 18 minute version. However, neither of these will be screened on BBC Four as both episodes were presented by Mike Smith
Ah, nevermind, thanks for getting that info anyway. I didn't expect TOTP to have shown the whole short film, especially as that was just before they decided to limit the length of performances and videos anyway.
If there's anyone else wanting to know the answer to my question, according to a post on another forum it was shown on Channel 4. I think it was part of a longer programme called
Michael Jackson: The Magic Returns
which was originally made by CBS where it premiered on US TV. There's a 10 minute clip of it here with a C4 continuity announcement.
Tonight's BBC4 episode must be the longest playout we've had, running for 3 1/2 minutes after the credits finished rolling, right to the end of the Genesis video. Though I imagine nowhere near that much was shown on the original broadcast (the episode runs for nearly 32 minutes on the iPlayer). Interesting it ran right through to the end of the video on this episode, as even on many of the BBC Archive copies of episodes floating around online you can see the video fades out before the end.
Thankfully in a little over 6 months we should have finally passed the Smith era and HOPEFULLY there won't be issues with any more presenters (until we reach Gary Glitter in 1994 anyway).
Lots of presenters debuting in 1988 and 89 though, some of which only make 1 or 2 appearances (most them did get at least 1 of their episodes shown on UK Gold in the 90s though, where their permission was needed- looking at the lists of what UK Gold showed, only Liz Kershaw, Susie Mathis and Rod McKenzie were the only 88/89 presenters who weren't shown on there, and they only did 1 or 2 episodes, so possibly just a case of UK Gold not picking those episodes rather than them denying permission).
