The "present date" is
July 1, 1975 (a Tuesday). In the Dominion of Canada, the people are celebrating Dominion Day, the 108th Anniversary of Confederation, when the British North America Act, giving the United Province of Canada and several nearby colonies home rule as part of a federated state. IOTL, this event would become known as Canada Day from 1982, as July 1st of that year marked the date that the constitution was repatriated from the United Kingdom. Happy Dominion/Canada Day, everyone!
A lot of you are responding to each other and answering your own questions, so I'll try to summarize my response to these conversations so as to avoid repeating myself
As far I know, this changed due to a cultural change on the BBC Board of Governors with new people coming in who decided the BBC had to justify its existence to the privatisation-happy Thatcher government by offering populist programming that could have the same mass appeal as ITV's. So in your TL with British politics sticking to a more moderate course (as well as the reasons to do with the ATV sets mentioned above), EastEnders might be butterflied away altogether--the BBC will still make soap operas, but nothing as huge with the same deliberate proletarian mass-appeal as EastEnders.
This is very fascinating, because the BBC - at least, speaking from the perspective of someone who does not live in the British Isles and has never watched the BBC (no, I am
not paying for BBC Canada, thank you very much) - seems very much a channel with plenty of room for the proles, alongside the highbrow
bourgeois material for which it has been so well-known in the past. If this trend began in the 1980s, and as a direct result of political pressures which I have butterflied away, it might produce some positively
intriguing socioeconomic dynamics, with regards to who watches what channel...
With regards to Pigs in Space, I think that Henson is going to want to develop a running gag to poke fun at Sci-Fi tropes (even if he doesn't use that term). I think the first season appearance of Shatner will guarantee that they develop the costuming and sets for a Star Trek like skit, and they are frugal enough to want to reuse that, almost guaranteeing a Trek-like running skit. It could be something different than Pigs in Space technically, but....when the first Sci-Fi skit is likely to be a Star Trek parody with Shatner, you've got to ham it up, so I think Pigs in Space is still likely.
Oh, there will be a recurring science-fiction sketch of some sort, however, for one thing, it will probably be more... "multiethnic". Both as a direct homage to
Star Trek, and to the sketch on the Shatner episode (in which a wide variety of Muppets fill in for the rest of the crew). The title, at least, is definitely out.
Glen said:
Given the success and popularity of Doctor Who in the US in this ATL, it is actually likely that there would be one skit, or at least references to, Doctor Who in the Muppet Show. If you are looking for an alternate guest star, Jon Pertwee would be GREAT!
Pertwee is a possibility, because of the Desilu connection, which also bolsters the odds that
Doctor Who elements will be included in these sketches.
Glen said:
And another recommended alternate guest star - That Wacky Redhead herself! She's overall out of the acting biz, but once the Muppet Show becomes an institution, she might come out of retirement temporarily for her company's own variety show. I could see interest in her doing an appearance being sparked by the anniversary show.
I toyed with including That Wacky Redhead as one of the first season's guests, but decided against it primarily because I don't think she'd be willing to go out on a limb like that for an untested show. She would still have considerable reservations about it, and won't be won over until it becomes a
bona fide hit. Maybe in Season 2.
The problem seems to have been that none of these soap operas survived the transition to colour tv. Coronation Street seems to have raised the bar in terms of production quality and the BBC took a while to respond. Part of this might have been that the Beeb didn't have the space for the permanent back-lot set necessary for a high quality soap opera.
This is where I would agree with you. Having actually seen
Coronation Street (it airs on the CBC every weeknight - somehow, and despite valiant efforts to close the gap, we remain several months behind the BBC), what really stood out to me even as a child was the impressive, and vividly realistic backlot. (I'm relying on the testimony of an English expatriate relative on that score.) This is part of the reason that Desilu holding on to its backlot is a
very good thing ITTL.
Interestingly the longest-running BBC (TV) soap is the Welsh-language
Pobol y Cwm, which goes out on S4C but is made by the BBC. It started in 1974 and is still going.
Translated as "People of the Valley". Just doesn't seem folksy or flowery enough to be a soap opera title. Sounds more like a science-fiction or horror movie, actually
Cymrophones (do I
have any Cymrophone readers?), does it capture the same twee-ness as a title like "EastEnders" or "Emmerdale"?
Partly because Moore stars in several of my favourite Bond films, and partly because I think the slightly campy Sixties feel is an integral part of the Bond character: no it's not like the Ian Fleming novels, but Bond is not defined solely by those.
I'm not sure why it's such a crime to funny and even a little goofy
anyway. There's a place where people can get all the grittiness they want, for
free. It's called
real life.
Thande said:
Bond is much like Batman: if you try and do an adaptation that tries to be overly serious and tries to act like the camp side of the character does not exist, though it can be technically impressive it will eventually leave a bitter taste in the mouth from over-exposure of one aspect of the character at the expense of the whole.
Hmmm. Why do I suspect that you're referencing certain films in particular here?
Thande said:
Ultimately the origins of the motto can be considered a variation on Spain's national motto (originally from Charles V): in classical times, the Greeks warned of the Pillars of Heracles (Gibraltar) "Non plus ultra" (Nothing Further Beyond, i.e. westward), and when Columbus discovered the New World, Charles V adopted the opposing motto "Plus Ultra" ([There is something] Further Beyond"). You get the idea.
Thanks for sharing that story! That's a fun tidbit, and an excellent way to make Bond seem like a part of a larger universe.
Thande, why do you say he was a member of that family. Fleming picked up the name from a bird book!! Birds of the Caribbean, to be precise.
Welcome aboard, Dathi THorfinnsson! Though I
would be very much obliged to know your thoughts on the timeline
I actually liked Roger Moore, and did not push for Billington, but Billington was a cool change.
Well, nobody
pushed for Billington. Everybody just disparaged Moore, alas
BTW, Brainbin, since you have freed Roger Moore from the Bond franchise, I fully expect a series of Saint movies with Moore as Templar. Make it so!
We'll see
With regards to all of your many suggestions about what Elvis would sing, a few parameters: he'll have three numbers (which appears to be the standard for musical guests), along with his token backstage scene. One of those will be the "Teddy Bear" number with Fozzie; another will be a duet with Miss Piggy (with her dressed as a stereotypical 1950s teenybopper, with the bouffant hair and the poodle skirt); and the third will be an "ensemble" number featuring the band. For Piggy, whichever love song he sang that you all find the
most hilariously inappropriate will do; for the ensemble number, something upbeat and anarchic (I was thinking "Jailhouse Rock").
Whenever you say something is intriguing, I get the feeling that you're planning something.
Speaking of Dallas, I have one request (if Dallas goes ahead like OTL):
Keep Larry Hagman as J.R. It is his best role.
Thanks for commenting again, Unknown. And thank you also for some of the
very nice things you've said about
That Wacky Redhead elsewhere on this forum. I
did notice
In response to your request: I can't
promise anything. And what must be noted is that, at this time, Hagman was known as Maj. Tony Nelson from
I Dream of Jeannie, and breaking such typecasting will be challenging (though he
did manage it IOTL). And, of course, we'll have to see if the climate of the late 1970s ITTL will be conducive to a sumptuous primetime soap opera like
Dallas. But I'll be sure to keep it in mind going forward
Unknown said:
A housecat named Bobby McGee? Was this before or after Janis Joplin's hit?
IOTL? After. The song hit the charts in 1971; the episode itself premiered in 1973. ITTL? Well, the cat wouldn't be named "Bobby McGee", but we will assume for narrative purposes that Fontana is a cat person, and that she had a very similar cat prior to Bobby McGee. (Cat lovers tend to think highly of their feline friends.)