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Malevolent televisions in film and TV

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    #26
    At a push, The Running Man.

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      #27
      I vaguely recall a kids' BBC drama series from the 1970s called The Changes, during which people were fielding psychotic signals from their electrical appliances, including TVs. Pretty heavy stuff for 5.20pm on a Wednesday.

      Originally posted by Snake Plissken View Post
      I always had Zelda down as Jo Whiley on a bad day.
      On a bad day? Hoo-ha, there's grim and then there's grim.

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        #28
        I've been meaning the watch The Changes, Jah. I'd never heard of it until recently, but almost simultaneously (spooky!) I came across an episode devoted to it on the Jaffa Cakes For Proust podcast and watched Children of the Stones on YouTube, with the latter provoking 'if you liked that, you might like this' links to The Changes. Consensus of opinion seems to suggest indeed that both series are amazingly dark for what was supposedly children's TV, in a 'you'd never get it these days' sort of way.


        Originally posted by Snake Plissken View Post
        Oh fuck! How could I have missed They Live!
        Oh, yes! Great call Snake. I only finally saw that for the first time ever about 2 months ago, when I randomly stumbled across it just starting on one of the outlying TV channels on Freeview. Brilliant stuff, Roddy Piper is even better in it than I imagined.
        Last edited by Various Artist; 25-04-2018, 12:12.

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          #29
          Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if you're Mike Teevee.

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            #30
            If it's on YouTube, I might well take a gander.

            (As an aside, I discovered that Going Out - which I've not seen since its 1981 broadcast - has finally been uploaded in the past year or so. Noticeably, the dialogue is delivered at around half the pace of what you'd expect for that kind of drama now.)

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              #31
              Originally posted by Snake Plissken View Post
              I always had Zelda down as Jo Whiley on a bad day.

              A key plot point in Serenity revolves around a TV signal.

              Oh fuck! How could I have missed They Live!
              Presumably you weren't wearing your sunglasses.

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                #32
                Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                I vaguely recall a kids' BBC drama series from the 1970s called The Changes, during which people were fielding psychotic signals from their electrical appliances, including TVs. Pretty heavy stuff for 5.20pm on a Wednesday.


                On a bad day? Hoo-ha, there's grim and then there's grim.
                From the young adult books by Peter Dickinson- The Weathermonger. Great stuff.

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                  #33
                  Ooh, never come across anything else by Peter Dickinson before. He wrote a great (for teens) book called the Gift, and every time there's a film or TV series called the Gift (and there seem to be loads!) I hope it's this one, but it never is.

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                    #34
                    He wrote a lot The Changes is an odd and wonderful trilogy- The Weathermonger . Set during the Changes where people develop a loathing for machines. The Devil's Children about a Sikh family who aren't affected. Part of that extraordinary wave of Manichean English children's books like Alan Garner and Susan Cooper dealing with children facing elemental battle. I read an essay by Garner who said it was because they were all at school in the Second World War where the battle between good and evil seemed very close.

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                      #35
                      Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                      I vaguely recall a kids' BBC drama series from the 1970s called The Changes, during which people were fielding psychotic signals from their electrical appliances, including TVs. Pretty heavy stuff for 5.20pm on a Wednesday.
                      Be thankful that you only 'vaguely' recall it. I still wake up shrieking at three in the morning now because of "The Changes". "The Changes", "Apache" and my sister kicking the shit out of me on 4th June 1976 made me the man I am today.

                      More significantly, I don't think it began at 5.20 pm. It was either 5.05 or 5.10 pm, I think.

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                        #36
                        Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                        More significantly, I don't think it began at 5.20 pm. It was either 5.05 or 5.10 pm, I think.
                        You don't forget a thing like that.

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                          #37
                          Lang Spoon, you're thinking of 'Doomlord'.

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                            #38
                            Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                            Be thankful that you only 'vaguely' recall it. I still wake up shrieking at three in the morning now because of "The Changes". "The Changes", "Apache" and my sister kicking the shit out of me on 4th June 1976 made me the man I am today.

                            More significantly, I don't think it began at 5.20 pm. It was either 5.05 or 5.10 pm, I think.
                            Could've been, but the BBC kids' slot I recall used to be something like: 4.0 (Play School); 4.25 (cartoon); 4.35 (Jackanory, usually); 4.55 (Blue Peter, etc); 5.20 (some kind of drama); 5.45 (short - Magic Roundabout, Wombles, Paddington, etc). Obviously, this varied a great deal, but represents the 'memory template' by which I was going.

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                              #39
                              Stay Tuned was a decent little film starring Jon Ritter and Pam Dawber. Couple sucked into a television set and end up in parodies of game shows and the like.

                              Another "can't believe I forgot that one" is TerrorVision.
                              Last edited by Snake Plissken; 26-04-2018, 09:27.

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                                #40
                                I guess The Truman Show and Pleasantville also applicable here.

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                                  #41
                                  (Ignorez-vous - repeated suggestions...)
                                  Last edited by Jah Womble; 26-04-2018, 10:06.

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                                    #42
                                    And shrunk to fit, too. Good call.

                                    edit - and already mentioned I see!
                                    Last edited by Kevin S; 26-04-2018, 10:04.

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                                      #43
                                      Yes, in both cases! Will delete...

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                                        #44
                                        Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                        Could've been, but the BBC kids' slot I recall used to be something like: 4.0 (Play School); 4.25 (cartoon); 4.35 (Jackanory, usually); 4.55 (Blue Peter, etc); 5.20 (some kind of drama); 5.45 (short - Magic Roundabout, Wombles, Paddington, etc). Obviously, this varied a great deal, but represents the 'memory template' by which I was going.
                                        That was the pre-decimalisation - 15th February 1971 - template. The cartoons in new money definitely started at 5.35 pm, which would have meant the not-suitable-for-children drama would have kicked off at 5.10 pm.

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                                          #45
                                          What nonsense, sir!

                                          Here's the BBC1 schedule for 6 March 1972. While not being exactly as I described, it's really not far off...

                                          http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1972-03-06

                                          '5.10', my fat ass!

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                                            #46
                                            First broadcast in early 1975 at 5:20 pm

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                                              #47
                                              It appears that Willo the Wisp was also broadcast in Germany (Willo das Waldlicht). Judging from the discussion boards, many German adults were equally fascinated and traumatised by Evil Edna / Edna Übel during their childhoods.

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                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                                What nonsense, sir!

                                                Here's the BBC1 schedule for 6 March 1972. While not being exactly as I described, it's really not far off...

                                                http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules...don/1972-03-06

                                                '5.10', my fat ass!
                                                That was BBC London. I watched it on BBC West, who were obviously way (or, at least ten minutes) ahead of you lot. Must have had something to do with Fred Wedlock working for them.

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                                                  #49
                                                  I'll buy regional news broadcasts and the like, but if you're seriously trying to argue that the BBC even varied their kids' programming...

                                                  Anyway, ursus has now delivered the bullet!

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                                                    #50
                                                    Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                                    I'll buy regional news broadcasts and the like, but if you're seriously trying to argue that the BBC even varied their kids' programming...

                                                    Anyway, ursus has now delivered the bullet!
                                                    Yes, but ursus could find a link to prove anything. If you asked him for evidence to show that, I don't know, Boss Hogg had a Body Mass Index of 15.5, he'd come up with the goods.

                                                    I was sure, absolutely cast-iron certain, that Points West kicked off at 5.40 pm - immediately after the five-minute cartoon-type thing at 5.35 pm.

                                                    This is the first day I've had off in three weeks. I won't be having another day off for a month. And you've ruined it by making me think, at length, about when Captain Pugwash was on the telly. Thanks a bunch.

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