Time fillers on RTE in the 80's

Beechwoodspark · 17-09-2018 06:45PM

Those cartoons remind me of the time bart and Lisa watched the Iron Curtain’s answer to itchy and scratchy -“worker and parasite”

https://youtu.be/z2_dhUv_CrI

JohnnyFlash · 17-09-2018 06:57PM

RTE was a hotbed of socialism in the early 80's, and employees were aligned to a trade union that was little more than a front for the Workers Party. It was almost mandatory to be a member if you were working off-screen - in lighting, sound, camera etc. The management were more of the Blackrock College variety, and wouldn't have had the same politics. Being a member in good standing of FF was almost expected for them.

Lolek and Bolek was shown as a continuity filler - the finest Polish communist cartoon series of the era. Other cartoons from that side of the Iron Curtain were shown as well, especially around lunchtime on a Sunday. The televised mass would often run a bit over, so they'd put a cartoon on to fill in the later time slots. This was an earnest attempt to try and impress young minds about how soviet socialism trumped any belief in a higher power.

A particular highlight for the comrades was having a calendar displayed in the kitchen of Biddy and Miley's house in Glenroe. The soap couple were having a domestic argument of some sort, but the eagle-eyed viewer couldn't help but notice that the calendar said 'Fúck Farmers'.

Gimme A Pound · 17-09-2018 07:04PM

Don't remember the pig opera one but I see they did The Owl And The Pussycat - flashback.

One I would love to find is this short of a guy getting up for work - it's a mixture of drawings and obviously bits cut out of magazines. Then he heads out to his garage but he doesn't have a car, he has a rocket with a union Jack on it. Anyway he heads up to space for a bit, sees lots of mad psychedelic stuff, then heads home and it turned out to be a dream. He then gets up and actually goes to work in his car.

Anyone?

JupiterKid · 17-09-2018 07:06PM

I loved the Butterfly Ball cartoon as a kid - think it was made around 1976 or thereabouts.

Roger Glover (of 70s legends Deep Purple) sang the lead vocals.

bodhrandude · 17-09-2018 07:15PM

Another that both ITV and RTE 2 showed was the Ratties narrated by Spike Milligan.

whisky_galore · 17-09-2018 07:18PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0fuVoSa3dc

The Crowman · 17-09-2018 07:24PM

Then there were surreal claymation animation things and weird shorts that would be shown just once and you'd never see them again, like this. I remember it being shown just the one time but it's so bizarre that it stuck in my head for years. There were a lot of other things that I can't identify as I can't remember what they were called.

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

Comhrá · 17-09-2018 07:54PM

Anyone remember RTE continuity announcer Bridin Gilroy? She used ocasionally sing a song to fill between programmes. She was in the Joan Baez style.

Loves_lorries · 17-09-2018 08:10PM

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

RTE was a hotbed of socialism in the early 80's, and employees were aligned to a trade union that was little more than a front for the Workers Party. It was almost mandatory to be a member if you were working off-screen - in lighting, sound, camera etc. The management were more of the Blackrock College variety, and wouldn't have had the same politics. Being a member in good standing of FF was almost expected for them.

Lolek and Bolek was shown as a continuity filler - the finest Polish communist cartoon series of the era. Other cartoons from that side of the Iron Curtain were shown as well, especially around lunchtime on a Sunday. The televised mass would often run a bit over, so they'd put a cartoon on to fill in the later time slots. This was an earnest attempt to try and impress young minds about how soviet socialism trumped any belief in a higher power.

A particular highlight for the comrades was having a calendar displayed in the kitchen of Biddy and Miley's house in Glenroe. The soap couple were having a domestic argument of some sort, but the eagle-eyed viewer couldn't help but notice that the calendar said 'Fúck Farmers'.

RTE still is a socialist ( of the Michael D and Mary Robinson variety) hotbed.

Ursus Horribilis · 17-09-2018 08:40PM

Most of the Halas and Batchelor cartoons they showed were pure muck. Miserable, low-rent cartoons which weren't half as entertaining as their American equivalents.

The Crowman · 17-09-2018 10:15PM

Emily Spicy Vault wrote: »

Don't remember the pig opera one but I see they did The Owl And The Pussycat - flashback.

One I would love to find is this short of a guy getting up for work - it's a mixture of drawings and obviously bits cut out of magazines. Then he heads out to his garage but he doesn't have a car, he has a rocket with a union Jack on it. Anyway he heads up to space for a bit, sees lots of mad psychedelic stuff, then heads home and it turned out to be a dream. He then gets up and actually goes to work in his car.

Anyone?

I remember that one about the guy with the rocket. I've a funny feeling there were two of them that were shown in rotation. I think maybe the guy had a bowler hat?

Atoms for Peace · 17-09-2018 10:45PM

Mr Benn had a bowler hat.

The Crowman · 17-09-2018 10:50PM

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

Mr Benn had a bowler hat.

The rocket one wasn't Mr Benn, I could be mixing up elements of the two though.

Firefox11 · 17-09-2018 10:53PM

storker wrote: »

That's the one!

I remember watching this......and then the film krull as a kid.:)

The Crowman · 17-09-2018 11:05PM

Another Halas & Batchelor one that I remember being shown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nprPZnc-EiU

The Crowman · 17-09-2018 11:29PM

JupiterKid wrote: »

I loved the Butterfly Ball cartoon as a kid - think it was made around 1976 or thereabouts.

Roger Glover (of 70s legends Deep Purple) sang the lead vocals.

It was Ronnie James Dio who sang it. Roger Glover wrote the music, I'm sure it part of some kind of overall prog rock opera.

JupiterKid · 18-09-2018 01:49AM

I’m sure RTÉ never showed this as a time filler in the 80s. Not did the BBC or ITV for that matter. But they were made nonetheless, in case Armageddon lurked dangerously close...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNVMm2KpiDI

Hotblack Desiato · 18-09-2018 11:03AM

Emily Spicy Vault wrote: »

Halas & Batchelor were mostly to blame for this filler: the above two, The Butterfly Ball, Hamilton The Elephant, and does anyone remember Barnaby? The boy with the stage Irish accented fairy godfather.

They also did british WW2 propaganda animation, and a feature length cartoon: Animal Farm.

They did loads of road safety PIFs in the 50s and 60s too, but RTE didn't show those! They're on the "Charley Says" DVDs.

La Serenissima used to be on UTV.

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

This was an earnest attempt to try and impress young minds about how soviet socialism trumped any belief in a higher power.

Nah, just trying to wind up the creeping Jesus types in management I reckon. Even as a kid it was obvious how crap they were compared to capitalist cartoons

Hotblack Desiato · 18-09-2018 11:08AM

Bits of the Protect and Survive films were shown on Panorama once - 14 minutes in. BBC got into a fair bit of trouble with the UK government over this as the films were technically secret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=milbW4RDIco

They could also be heard in the background in Threads.

Some more fun viewing from around that time was QED's A Guide to Armageddon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GJttnC8PoA

I saw both of these at the time and they scared the bejaysus out of me.

The Crowman · 19-09-2018 12:02PM

Anyone remember this? It was a bit long to be used as filler between programmes but I remember RTE showing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNTPJ6AL_Rk

The Crowman · 19-09-2018 12:16PM

Deleted User wrote: »

RTE played Popeye ad-nauseum early evenings around late 70's early 80s- must have been very cheap TV for them.

I remember the ones they showed most often were those which I think probably dated from the 50's, these were by far the best. They had the opening with Popeye blowing his pipe like a ships horn and the familiar theme music. There was a not so good reboot from maybe the 70's that they would show as well and finally there was the atrocity that was Popeye And Son from circa mid 80's in which Popeye and Olive had this awful sap of a teenage son who was the main focus of the storylines and the un PC elements and violence of the older series was mostly missing. Everyone hated it and it didn't last long.

the purple tin · 19-09-2018 06:59PM

Does anyone remember a bit from the 80's where it would show an artist drawing a picture, all you saw was his hand and I think there might have been music in the background.
The film was sped up so it took around 5 mins. He usually did pictures of birds. Who was the artist? Myfirst thought was Don Conroy but I think he had an irish name.

19-09-2018 07:02PM

Larbre34 wrote: »

Still made more compelling viewing than 98% of digital channels today.

This, a million times. It's a digital shíte fest that passes as tv in 2018. Ineffably awful.

Blue850 · 19-09-2018 07:18PM

the purple tin wrote: »

Does anyone remember a bit from the 80's where it would show an artist drawing a picture, all you saw was his hand and I think there might have been music in the background.
The film was sped up so it took around 5 mins. He usually did pictures of birds. Who was the artist? Myfirst thought was Don Conroy but I think he had an irish name.

Gerrit Van Gelderen

The Crowman · 19-09-2018 07:57PM

the purple tin wrote: »

Does anyone remember a bit from the 80's where it would show an artist drawing a picture, all you saw was his hand and I think there might have been music in the background.
The film was sped up so it took around 5 mins. He usually did pictures of birds. Who was the artist? Myfirst thought was Don Conroy but I think he had an irish name.

Blue850 wrote: »

Gerrit Van Gelderen

Beat me to it. The programe he did was To The Waters And The Wild. He used to also draw this animated carricature of himself that was like his head with the body of a bird.

Duckworth_Luas · 21-09-2018 12:06AM

Not a time filler, as it's over an hour long, but the Halas and Batchelor version of Animal Farm from the early 1950s used to be regularly aired by RTE in the 1980s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e78Fi4csAVY

Interestingly the film was funded by the CIA as an anti-Stalin/anti-Communist propaganda piece.

Losty Dublin · 21-09-2018 12:37AM

Remember 1....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEssgMQ1O_k

The Crowman · 21-09-2018 10:31AM

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Not a time filler, as it's over an hour long, but the Halas and Batchelor version of Animal Farm from the early 1950s used to be regularly aired by RTE in the 1980s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e78Fi4csAVY

Interestingly the film was funded by the CIA as an anti-Stalin/anti-Communist propaganda piece.

We did Animal Farm for the Enter Cert so we watched that on video in class as well.

Sundew · 21-09-2018 10:42AM

The Crowman wrote: »

There was another one that was constantly shown that I think might have been Halas & Batchelor. It was on the theme of opera and there was a bit where a waiter was holding up a platter with a pigs head which starts singing an opera duet with him before the waiter and pig swap heads. Can't remember what it was called.

I used to love this and have been trying to find it online with no success. It was an animation to a famous opera song. I was thinking it might be “ the drinking song” but I’m not 100% sure on that. There was the tenor with the pigs head on a platter , a fat soprano and a thin one, as she hit the high note I think she grew taller and I’m pretty sure I recall glass shattering! I loved this filler.....often on before the news!

Teyla Emmagan · 21-09-2018 10:59AM

That Storyteller song still goes through my head. It's like an ear worm I've had since 1983. Seriously annoying. "In Germany, I'm Johann. In England I am John".

There was a cartoon that used to be on Anything Goes about a guy called Simon and the strick people he drew came to life. "My name is Simon and the things I draw come true, and the pictures (?) take me to climb the ladder with you".

Time fillers on RTE in the 80's

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