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Post by PeterC on Feb 2, 2021 21:41:26 GMT
I recall just two episodes of a science fiction series broadcast on TV (can’t recall if it was BBC or ITV) around 1969 - 70.
In one episode a domineering husband dies, whereupon his wife arranges to keep his living brain in a sort of fish-tank in the living room. She then proceeds to take revenge for his years of bullying by indulging in all the bad habits he forbade. The final scene shows her lighting up and blowing smoke all over his seething brain. The second episode was about a woman who buys a (male) android to to do the chores in her luxury home. She falls in love with the android but as he is only an emotionless machine she finds herself lost in unrequited love.
Does anyone remember this series?
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 2, 2021 22:19:37 GMT
I recognized the first summary as being Roald Dahl's William and Mary - and apparently there was a version of this done for a US TV series called "Way Out" in the early 1960s (as well as the one for "Tales of the Unexpected" in 1979 with Elaine Stritch). I'd never heard of "Way Out" but it seems it was a sort of forerunner of "Tales of the Unexpected", with Dahl introducing each story. It only ran for one series and was broadcast in 1961 in the US, but maybe it was shown later over here? There are some episodes, including William and Mary, on YouTube. LATER: There was also a version of William and Mary done for another series I've never heard of - "Late Night Horror", shown on the BBC in 1968. There's a list of the episodes here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Night_Horror - but there doesn't seem to be one that fits your second plot (but there were episodes based on stories by the likes of Aickman and Wakefield... predictably all now "lost"). Quote: "The series was canceled after six episodes due to complaints from viewers..."
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 3, 2021 20:29:36 GMT
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Feb 4, 2021 16:05:44 GMT
LATER: There was also a version of William and Mary done for another series I've never heard of - "Late Night Horror", shown on the BBC in 1968. There's a list of the episodes here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Night_Horror - but there doesn't seem to be one that fits your second plot (but there were episodes based on stories by the likes of Aickman and Wakefield... predictably all now "lost"). Quote: "The series was canceled after six episodes due to complaints from viewers..." The opening titles to 'Late Night Horror' are like a 'Pan Book of Horror' cover brought to life: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfyJAeVQA0oA black and white film copy of the episode 'The Corpse Can't Play' was recovered a few years ago, and is supposedly getting a DVD release this year. And here's how the BBC chose to trail the series in 1968: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bHuhsqOI_Q
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Post by helrunar on Feb 4, 2021 16:56:21 GMT
Wow, Daniel, that Valentine Dyall clip is AWESOME. How fabulous to see him in his "Man in Black" role, and in color--I didn't know the BBC had color programming as early as 1968.
Great find! I hope the recovered show does have a home video release. I think in some cases they have made material like this freely available (though sometimes it's UK/Commonwealth only).
cheers, Steve
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Post by Shrink Proof on Feb 4, 2021 18:58:49 GMT
Wow, Daniel, that Valentine Dyall clip is AWESOME. How fabulous to see him in his "Man in Black" role, and in color--I didn't know the BBC had color programming as early as 1968. Cheers, Steve As a youngster in Manchester, on Saturday 14th May 1966 I was taken by my parents to see a model railway exhibition in a local school. Being the weekend it had been commandeered and in each classroom a different modelling club from around the area had set up a display. But what really drew the crowds was the set-up in one room which was nothing to do with trains. A huge and very bulky TV set was stood on a table. As an early demonstration of their proposed colour broadcasting the BBC were showing the F A Cup final live in colour, to a suitably impressed crowd (IIRC, Everton won). The colours were over-saturated but the novelty was really something. They started regular colour transmissions in July the following year...
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Post by helrunar on Feb 4, 2021 19:37:26 GMT
That's a very cool memory, Dr Shrink Proof. My grandfather got a color TV set around 1965. I still remember being called to watch a new game show because it was being broadcast "in color." It was called You don't say. Why I remember that, I have no idea, but I just checked and there was indeed a game show of that title on the NBC network in the mid 1960s. It must have just gone to color transmission after having begun in black and white in '63.
I wonder if the stray surviving episode of Late Night Horror will be released on a 2021 edition of Short Sharp Shocks. I did not pay any mind to this when it came out last year as I wrongly thought it was a selection of contemporary short horror-themed films and frankly, most contemporary horror fails to interest me at all (there are a few exceptions). It turns out the disc was a compilation of randomly surviving teleplays from the period of the 1950s through the 1970s.
H.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 4, 2021 19:44:08 GMT
I found this note from somebody who was lucky enough to attend a screening, in 2017 I believe:
Only one episode of this exists - "The Corpse Can't Play". I saw it at Missing Believed Wiped a couple of years ago. It's a black and white 16mm telerecording of a colour original, but I don't know if colour recovery will be possible with it. I thought it was pretty effective, and quite gruesome at the end - even more so for the tiny minority who saw it in colour on both of its broadcasts.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 4, 2021 21:02:51 GMT
I can't remember when my family got colour tv. Must have been the early 70s. Maybe the Olympics?
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 4, 2021 21:49:00 GMT
Seems that Late Night Horror was specifically intended to "showcase" the new colour technology at the BBC. I found this online in an unpublished PhD thesis ("Gothic Television" - Helen Wheatley, 2002, Department of Film & TV Studies, University of Warwick): [START QUOTE]
In 1967, coinciding with the introduction of colour to BBC2 transmissions, the Corporation started a practical training experiment to familiarise its staff in the use of the new equipment for the service. As a result Late Night Horror used the Gothic, and in particular the profusion of blood and gore required by Grand Guignol Gothic horror, to experiment with the possibilities of the medium, just as the phantasmagoria showmen of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had used images of supernatural beings to demonstrate the possibilities of their early projection equipment.
The producer of the series, Harry Moore, was very much aware that Late Night Horror was to be seen as a showcase for the colour 35mm film technology on television, as was Gerald Savory (Head of Drama) who referred to the series as "six experiments" (1967) in a memo to the controller of BBC2. Moore himself sent out a memo delineating precisely what he wanted from the series to all of its directors, who had, prior to the beginning of production, been sent on a "colour course" to learn the possibilities and limits of the new equipment. These directors were told:
“Late Night Horror will be the first drama series to be recorded in colour. We may not be the first to be transmitted, but all the more reason for us to do all we can to ensure that we create a standard which the other drama people have to follow... I would like to stress that we must do everything we can in our shows from the very beginning to stimulate suspense, tension, atmosphere, potential horror and HORROR! As I suggested before, use music, if there is blood, let’s see the blood. If somebody is nasty, let’s make them "real nasty"... We're in the horror business and this series will stand or fall on the enthusiasm and delight we show in our approach to it. So blood, guts, thunder, lightning, eyeballs, dark corners, cobwebs, close-ups, faces, faces, faces, and above all EXCITEMENT!” (Moore, 1967)
The sense of innovation and experimentation in Moore's instruction is very clearly coupled with the explicit portrayal of gory horror in Late Night Horror. The producer emphasises here both the need to display the possibilities of the new technology and the need to display blood and gore in close-up. An example from the series such as the removal of Diane Cilento's lower lip in “The Kiss of Blood” is telling of just how graphic these six "experiments" were, although the gimmicky nature of the series was not easily missed in the press. A report on the above episode from the Sunday Telegraph states:
“Late Night Horror culminated in another easily bought thrill, the particularly revolting mutilation of Diane Cilento... The reaction was a very loud ugh, but... you felt the story existed only to make its effects, and when these were expended the whole thing shrivelled away”. (Anon. 1968)
Although the series strove for technical innovation and the showcasing of new technology, the production teams working on Late Night Horror were disappointed by the limitations of the new equipment, which was heavy and difficult to manoeuvre, and worried that the majority of the audience still watching in black and white would find the camera work dated and unimaginative. On this subject, producer Harry Moore wrote the following:
“if we want to sell the excitement of colour we're not going to do it by restricting our shooting capacity. We have a good standard now, but as most viewers will be watching in black and white we'll be giving them "old hat" production standards. They are not going to be excited about having a colour television if it doesn't look as good as the old black and white.” (Moore, 1967)
[END QUOTE]
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Post by helrunar on Feb 4, 2021 21:53:17 GMT
That's so cool, Dr Strange! That book sounds very interesting. Pity it wasn't published.
cheers, Hel
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 4, 2021 22:07:39 GMT
Actually, turns out it was published by Manchester University Press in 2006. Wheatley is now Professor of Film & Televison Studies at Warwick University.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 4, 2021 22:16:48 GMT
Terrific! Thanks again. Wonder if it's still in print? Will have to check.
Best, H.
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Post by cromagnonman on Feb 4, 2021 22:33:12 GMT
Faced with the self-same technical challenge a year or so down the line David Attenborough simply televised snooker.
Yep, for those of you watching in black and white the green ball is indeed behind the yellow.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 5, 2021 1:25:59 GMT
Snooker on telly in the black and white 60s. Now THAT'S funny. Great story!
H.
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