Classic Video Thread (pre-2008)

[10Viewer 334]

More vintage Tampa: WTVT 1988 newscast (Charlie Van Dyke v/o):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQCh9UgnZM

[TexasTVNews 1377]

WXIA 11 Alive News Tonight (1985)

 

WXIA 11 Alive News Reporter ad (1985)

[ChesapeakeTV 311]

 

More vintage Tampa: WTVT 1988 newscast (Charlie Van Dyke v/o):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQCh9UgnZM

 

Pretty nice that they cite their claim of being Florida's most watched news. Reminds me of WAFB's original open with Newschannel.

 

From the Internet Archive (not UCSF), a local cable access newscast from Lowell, MA - NewsCenter 6. 1991: https://archive.org/details/Newscast19910305_201402

[Samantha 2895]

Here's another one of the same newscast, but from December 1987 when it was known as "Local Cable News": https://archive.org/details/Newscast19871230 — the theme is Mannheim Steamroller's "Dancin' in the Stars"

 

From Canada: "Atlantic Pulse News" from ASN in 1993. This news theme replaced Hello: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laG-Uht_i_g

And ASN in 1995, same theme but slightly updated open:

[Ntropolis 596]

Short-lived WVEC news open from 1996:

 

And the open that came after that... WVEC from December 1996. Also has some WAVY from 2001:

[WWUpdate 1292]

Antenne 2, France; 8 P.M. national news open, 1978 -- the person providing the voice-over is the producer:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPSaAImoj3U

[Marvin Dillweed 74]

WPIX has posted an open from 1975.

 

 

It could just be me, but it looks like they had some technical problems that night.

[WWUpdate 1292]

WPIX has posted an open from 1975.

 

 

It could just be me, but it looks like they had some technical problems that night.

I wonder if that reporter round-robin beginning at the 0:35 mark inspired the legendary news opens of Toronto's CityTV. (Example:

)

[WAVY 10 Fan 233]

Couple more eyeontv uploads

 

WJZ Eyewitness News Promos from 1977 (includes shot of a young Oprah when she hosted People are Talking):

 

WTOP Eyewitness News Promos from 1977 (We Give It All We Got):

[WWUpdate 1292]

I assume all of you know about the short-lived but influential NBS, right? Here's a rare clip of America's fourth network from 1970 -- the NBS Nightly News with Ted Phillips:

 

[Samantha 2895]

One of my personal favorites of fake things. The 1983 movie Special Bulletin follows a nuclear disaster in Charleston, South Carolina, through the lens of the television network RBS. The first minute or so shows some good "presentation" though I feel like I've seen some of the elements before:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKY-2zkWJuo

 

(I particularly like the logo.) The film was shot on videotape to allow for a more realistic feel (and it does look very real, too real in fact), but they sometimes pushed the limit: the Charleston station was "WPIV", and the network that aired this film was NBC (then-affiliate WCIV). Other familiar elements include the CBS slab serif chyron typeface.

 

The credits list Image West as providing some effects and Ferdinand Jay Smith as composing the promo and news music. The latter, under the name Jay Advertising, is credited with a WHEC theme from the late 1970s.

[Marvin Dillweed 74]

Clips from WPDS (now WXIN)'s first newscast effort in 1984. This started as a 10pm primetime newscast, then whittled down to 5 minute updates throughout the broadcast day.

 

[WWUpdate 1292]

All April Fools jokes aside, but still on the subject of "fake" newscasts (and nuclear disasters), I've always felt that the "China Syndrome" (1979) was very accurate in its portrayal of local TV news. For example, take a look at the opening scene from the movie -- not too many movies have captured the stressful (and decidedly unglamorous) behind-the-scenes atmosphere of a control room this realistically:

 

[WXmanTim 88]

One of my personal favorites of fake things. The 1983 movie Special Bulletin follows a nuclear disaster in Charleston, South Carolina, through the lens of the television network RBS. The first minute or so shows some good "presentation" though I feel like I've seen some of the elements before:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKY-2zkWJuo

 

(I particularly like the logo.) The film was shot on videotape to allow for a more realistic feel (and it does look very real, too real in fact), but they sometimes pushed the limit: the Charleston station was "WPIV", and the network that aired this film was NBC (then-affiliate WCIV). Other familiar elements include the CBS slab serif chyron typeface.

 

The credits list Image West as providing some effects and Ferdinand Jay Smith as composing the promo and news music. The latter, under the name Jay Advertising, is credited with a WHEC theme from the late 1970s.

Another good fake news event movie was the Halloween 1994 CBS alien-invasion movie "Without Warning" which featured a number of actual TV news anchors and reporters in including Sander Vanocur (who had recently retired from ABC) and then-KCBS anchor Bree Walker. The program also used the CBS news graphics package (though with an alternate logo).

 

Without Warning [Full] (1994): http://youtu.be/f9xMTA7qhZM

[Samantha 2895]

WBTV, 1991 with Signature. This is a VERY early example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX4S2L1CSZ4

 

A chunk of a WJZ weekend newscast from 1988: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMOQAmnBqek

[Samantha 2895]

WPDS, 1984, the first chunk of a "59 Headline News" 10pm newscast:

 

This was right before the newscast was canceled. Some sort of production music theme for it.

[WFTV Channel 9 80]

 

WPDS, 1984, the first chunk of a "59 Headline News" 10pm newscast:

 

This was right before the newscast was canceled. Some sort of production music theme for it.

 

Wow. That's a rare find. I think I've only seen two videos on YouTube from the WPDS days of channel 59 (The newscast and the sign-on). I hope more will be uploaded.

[WFTV Channel 9 80]

I hate to do a double post but I found this at a garage sale.

 

WOKR (WHAM) NewsSource 13 Open (1990)

[Samantha 2895]

 

I hate to do a double post but I found this at a garage sale.

 

WOKR (WHAM) NewsSource 13 Open (1990)

 

You find awesome stuff from all around the country at Florida garage sales. I think Florida as a retiree home is a key to that.

[WWUpdate 1292]

Antenne 2, France; 8 P.M. national news open, 1978 -- the person providing the voice-over is the producer:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPSaAImoj3U

Here's the same network 19 years later (1997) -- with one of the most minimalist looks ever attempted in TV news:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEZ6dKyHIR4

 

And here -- slightly off-topic for this thread, but posted here for comparison -- is what the newscast looks like these days:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sq87Gz9VPE

[WFTV Channel 9 80]

 

You find awesome stuff from all around the country at Florida garage sales. I think Florida as a retiree home is a key to that.

 

That's probably the main reason. I think another reason, at least during the winter time, is the snowbirds that come down. Hopefully one day I'll find a Canadian station at these garage sales since a lot of snowbirds come from Ontario. It's a very low chance but i shouldn't say impossible.

[WWUpdate 1292]

Here's a 1979 WLS report on WBBM Newsradio 78 (the clip includes the close):

 

 

And here's WLS's coverage of the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, 1980:

 

 

Can you imagine such in-depth, intelligent coverage of an important international news story airing on local TV news these days? I'm having a hard time.

[justin2kx 237]

 

 

Can you imagine such in-depth, intelligent coverage of an important international news story airing on local TV news these days? I'm having a hard time.

 

I think the closest is due to being such a giant figure that is the death of Nelson Mandela. Certain stations such as WPVI and WLS if i recall did just that kind of coverage. Even with that though is few and very far between. As Americans, We are our own world and only know certain other nations, all of them our allies. Other countries just don't 'exist' a blip in our mind, thus the state of local news, let alone national news, it has become.

[ChesapeakeTV 311]

eyeontv has struck again with a Telesound demo reel from 1982 featuring many opens you may recognize, and several previously-unknown uses, including...

• KSBW: Look for Us
  
• WCKT: Count on Us
  
• KNTV: Count on Us
  

There's also "Saturday Live" from KRON featuring Streets of..., production elements, and a boatload of promos. Truly a huge haul!

 

[TServo2049 81]

There's also this accompanying promo reel:

 

One commenter asked if this was proof that Telesound did WNBC 1979 and/or Our Pride Is Showing. I'm not sure...

 

1.) WNBC 1979 isn't actually heard in the WNBC promo, it's the same animation but different music. (WNBC 1979 may have been composed by someone named Michael Craig Tschudin - I've found a 1979 copyright registration for a NewsCenter 4 theme by Tschudin, also listed in ASCAP.)

2.) In an interview, Karl Sjodahl said that NBC contracted Telesound to produce affiliate versions of the 1980 and 1981 fall campaigns - so they definitely didn't do the network campaigns, just the local station versions.

3.) Some of the promos may even have music by Tuesday. The WIIC song sounds like it MIGHT be Tuesday (but perhaps not); the first WIS promo has the "News People" sig (but could be Telesound incorporating/"borrowing" the sig, sort of like how Tuesday worked the Number Thirteen melody into News Watch); and the music in the John Chancellor promos is in the NMSA sampler for Tuesday9 - though for all we know, the Chancellor/KSD/WTVO/etc. theme could have been Telesound, and Tuesday9 was just cribbing off of it. (Telesound was definitely offering an NBC affiliate news package - it was mentioned in trade publications.)

 

And I know that later, Telesound/SjoCom worked together with Frank Gari (their website says they produced the KVBC version of the "Turn To" campaign). So just because they produced the promos doesn't necessarily mean they produced everything in the promos (sort of like how Jerry Smith Productions would do the live-action production for a lot of Gari promo campaigns).

 

I know Telesound did stuff in cooperation with other companies, but I'm just not sure how much. For example, not only does the WIIC "New Spirit of Pittsburgh" promo song sound a bit Tuesday-esque (though again, I could be wrong), but the animation also appears on a Calico demo reel. And I previously found out from eyeontv that the previously-circulating clean "And You" animations came from a demo reel for Diamond and Diaferia (the same animation studio that did the classic ABC News animations - notice the resemblance?)

 

Karl Sjodahl is still alive, I should ask him about this stuff sometime...