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Time fillers on RTE in the 80's

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13

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    #62
    Beechwoodspark
    Registered Users Posts: 15,405 ✭✭✭✭Beechwoodspark


    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


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    #63
    JohnnyFlash
    Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    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'.


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    #64
    Gimme A Pound
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,482 ✭✭✭Gimme A Pound


    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?


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    #65
    JupiterKid
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 12,641 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    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.


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    #66
    bodhrandude
    Registered Users Posts: 12,455 ✭✭✭✭bodhrandude


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

    If you want to get into it, you got to get out of it. (Hawkwind 1982)



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    #67
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,918 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


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


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    #68
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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


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    #69
    Comhrá
    Registered Users Posts: 4,767 ✭✭✭Comhrá


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

    075_aaef2be31ba4feb037a0a6da21cda37e5fb211ab.jpg


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    #70
    Loves_lorries
    Site Banned Posts: 272 ✭✭Loves_lorries


    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.


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    #71
    Ursus Horribilis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,168 ✭✭✭Ursus Horribilis


    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.


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    #72
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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?


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    #73
    Atoms for Peace
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Atoms for Peace


    Mr Benn had a bowler hat.


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    #74
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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.


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    #75
    Firefox11
    Registered Users Posts: 1,515 ✭✭✭Firefox11


    storker wrote: »
    That's the one!

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


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    #76
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    Another Halas & Batchelor one that I remember being shown.


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


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    #77
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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.


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    #78
    JupiterKid
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 12,641 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    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


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    #79
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,284 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    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 :)

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #80
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,284 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    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.

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #81
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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


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    #82
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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.


    popeye-son-200.jpg


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    #83
    the purple tin
    Registered Users Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    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.


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    #84
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    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.


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    #85
    Blue850
    Registered Users Posts: 2,561 ✭✭✭Blue850


    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


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    #86
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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.


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    #87
    Duckworth_Luas
    Registered Users Posts: 5,733 ✭✭✭Duckworth_Luas


    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.


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    #88
    Losty Dublin
    Registered Users Posts: 13,035 ✭✭✭✭Losty Dublin


    Remember 1....
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEssgMQ1O_k


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    #89
    The Crowman
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 991 ✭✭✭The Crowman


    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.


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    #90
    Sundew
    Registered Users Posts: 1,554 ✭✭✭Sundew


    :p
    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!


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    #91
    Teyla Emmagan
    Registered Users Posts: 5,641 ✭✭✭Teyla Emmagan


    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".


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