That Wacky Redhead

[Richter10]

Really interesting! I take that Fred Rogers will have his CMOA, right?

 

[Asharella]

You know I remember before audio cassettes there were 8 Track Cartridges. I wonder if the replacement of the bulky cartridges with their track bleeding problem by the smaller cassettes happened in TTL or if things just started with the cassettes.

One result of video cassettes developing in the late 70s in OTL was the easier access to the promotional videos made for music singles that had been around since at least the Beatles, who made them so they didn't need to go on Ed Sullivan and other shows to promote new releases.

That easier access and usage of these videos made possible the rise of MTV and the copycat Friday Night video programs on superstations. MTV of course caused major changes in the music industry including a new focus on fashion, the revitalization of dance and a market for newer British acts in the U.S. It also meant that looks became as important for stardom as sound.

So I'm wondering what happens with music video and its consequences in TTL.

I'm also wondering about cartoons in this period. I know there wasn't any Animated Star Trek series, but I'm wondering if there was a Tribbles one?

Also there is an animated product that pre-existed Scooby Doo by half a generation and is still popular today. I'm talking about Alvin and the Chipmunks. I watched new episodes when I was in pre-school in the late 50s. My kids watched new episodes when they were that age in the 80s. Now my toddler grandson watches the CGI movies.

 

[THE OBSERVER]

See you're launching DVD's ahead of schedule ITTL.

 

[NCW8]

You know I remember before audio cassettes there were 8 Track Cartridges. I wonder if the replacement of the bulky cartridges with their track bleeding problem by the smaller cassettes happened in TTL or if things just started with the cassettes.

That's true - there was something of a format war there as well. I think that 8 track first went on sale in the sixties, so it is likely to still be around ITTL.

I wonder if the greater popularity of video-discs will lead to an earlier adoption of CDs (or something similar) for music.

One result of video cassettes developing in the late 70s in OTL was the easier access to the promotional videos made for music singles that had been around since at least the Beatles, who made them so they didn't need to go on Ed Sullivan and other shows to promote new releases.

That easier access and usage of these videos made possible the rise of MTV and the copycat Friday Night video programs on superstations. MTV of course caused major changes in the music industry including a new focus on fashion, the revitalization of dance and a market for newer British acts in the U.S. It also meant that looks became as important for stardom as sound.

So I'm wondering what happens with music video and its consequences in TTL.

Early promos were basically films made of the band playing the song in a studio or other setting, which is OK for single appearances on Ed Sullivan or Top of the Pops, but isn't really enough variety for a whole station, such as MTV. What these stations really need is the more theatrical videos that started to be produced in the Seventies, following Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Of course Queen have had a different career ITTL, so it may be a different group that starts the trend.

Cheers,
Nigel.

 

[phx1138]

Another excellent update (as usual).

The originally dominant wax cylinders that were once known as “records” were phased out after World War I, replaced by the competing vinyl discs, which became known as such from that point forward. However, a critical advantage held by wax over vinyl was that their nature permitted overwriting, or re-recording, the information stored on them.

I did not know that. Seems I learn something new every update. (Hmm... This is like the PBS of AH.)

the creation of the rerun, Desilu Productions became one of the wealthiest studios in Hollywood

Was having the option of repeats intended all along? Do you suppose Desilu would have prospered without it?

allowed for the act of wiping, in which the magnetic tapes would be reused, and the vintage programming formerly stored on them would be lost forever.

a pipe-dream that was only slightly more realistic than the rumoured desire by Gene Roddenberry to film Star Trek in Esperanto.

You think the ratings were low OTL.

Ball herself personally found the proposal ridiculous, but she also remembered about how Bill Paley had thought the exact same thing of Desi’s ideas to capture I Love Lucy on film, and to rerun episodes during her maternity leave.

Do you suppose it occurred to anybody to put Desilu's entire catalog on CED?

“The Trouble with Tribbles”, would prove the best-selling video for the system for the first several years of its existence

Why am I not surprised?

branded as DiscoVision

Why do I feel like the logo should be a white suit signed by Travolta?

As opposed to videocassette recorders

OTL, AIUI, the VTR was a reel-to-reel (professional) machine, while the VCR was a cassette (home) system.

I would like to thank vultan, phx1138, and Falkenburg, all of whom were kind enough to independently nominate That Wacky Redhead for the Turtledove Awards

I should've known I wouldn't be the only one. Oh, well. I do expect TWR to be the only one worth my vote again this year.

You know I remember before audio cassettes there were 8 Track Cartridges. I wonder if the replacement of the bulky cartridges with their track bleeding problem by the smaller cassettes happened in TTL or if things just started with the cassettes.

AIUI, 8-tracks had better quality than records in cars (yes, records) & offered longer playing time.

 

[Glen]

Great update on the alternate development of home video and another Desilu connection! Great way to cap the year!

 

[Andrew T]

Another fantastic update, Brainbin!

Walt Disney had kept his studio afloat during an otherwise desperate period by putting such classics as Snow White into new releases every seven years. The notion was that this had been a sufficiently long interval for the rise of a new generation of uninitiated children to enjoy his cartoons; however, plenty of people who had already seen them went to watch them again, as they had repeatedly done during the original release, and as they did for all hit movies.

Ah, "the Vault" -- a practice that continued at least as far as the late 1980s IOTL. A companion practice was the annual telecasting of movies, of which The Wizard of Oz was the most striking example. VCRs killed that practice IOTL; like (I imagine) millions of other Americans, The Wizard of Oz was one of the very first things our household "taped" off of TV.

In fact, Norman Lear had even proposed that Those Were the Days be broadcast in black-and-white, to emphasize the starkness of their situation; CBS naturally turned him down flat.

Don't worry, I'm sure TTL's equivalent of Ted Turner -- maybe even Ted himself, although he's been absent so far -- will be around shortly to colorize anything that might have inadvertently been filmed in black and white.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific in the United States, technological advances came in an entirely different form: optical discs (in much the same size and shape as vinyl records), as opposed to magnetic tape. This eliminated the possibility for end-user re-recording, likely a deliberate consideration by the developers, given their highly litigious society.

You say that like it's a bad thing!

Consequently, their formats instead made use of videodisc players, or VDPs. RCA, which owned NBC (largely as a vehicle for the sale of their radios and television sets), employed what was known as the Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) system, under their brand name of SelectaVision.

IOTL, home videodisc players were promoted with copies of the videogame Dragon's Lair to showcase the system's capabilities. The game's movie-quality images were a novelty at first, but the exceedingly simplistic gameplay (choose A or B at the right time) wore thin very quickly. Oh, and the game often wrecked early laserdisc players.

Interestingly, the technology to produce the rest of Dragon's Lair was as feasible in 1977 as 1983 IOTL; I suspect that releasing such a game six years earlier would only heighten the unintended consequence from OTL where Dragon's Lair highlighted just how bad the graphics were in every other video game by comparison.

This technology, a very long time in coming, was finally released in 1977; patents had been issued in 1971, and the earliest demonstrations of the technology had been made by 1973. [7] The manufacturing process for the playback hardware had a lower cost than any of the other formats, allowing for lower selling prices with comparable video quality to the magnetic tape systems. The most drastic limitation on the part of the discs themselves was their length – in their initial release, they allowed only thirty minutes per side of footage (one hour total).

Two implications: First, having scenes interrupted with text prompts to 'PLEASE TURN DISC OVER' or 'INSERT DISC 2' will become part of the cultural zeitgeist as kids who grow up in the 70s and 80s will simply become accustomed to having to get up in the middle of the movie and flip the disc.

Second, there will be tremendous pressures to keep movies under two hours in length to avoid shipping a third videodisc. IOTL, some of the biggest blockbusters of this time period are just slightly over two hours in length, including Jaws (2:05), Star Wars (2:01), The Empire Strikes Back (2:09), Superman (2:23) and Superman II (2:08), and so on.

And so, a shrewd negotiator, she made a counter-proposal. She would agree, but on her terms. In addition to a flat fee for each series sold on SelectaVision, Desilu would also receive a large share of the profits from each copy sold of each episode. RCA agreed, so long as this percentage would be tied to sales prices, rendering it a licensing charge, to be treated as part of the larger selling expenses (similar to a sales commission); as opposed to adding it to the cost of goods sold, along with the other manufacturing costs.

That's not just shrewd negotiations; that's essentially a better-than-OTL's-Microsoft deal. If RCA wins the home video wars, That Wacky Redhead has the potential to become one of the richest people in human history.

Wow.

VTRs marketed themselves on providing the opportunity for recording broadcast television, allowing for the practice properly known as “time shifting”, which allowed home viewers to record programs they might have otherwise watched, and then see them again at a more convenient time.

As you note in footnote 12, that will prompt our "highly litigious society" into some serious litigation, as time-shifting remains contentious today even in light of Sony v. Universal.

[8] IOTL, a portion of an episode of Get Smart (codenamed “Lum Fong”) was used instead.

Not the Craw, the Craw!

 

[Brainbin]

Happy New Year, everyone! And thank you all for comments on my latest update! And now, as always, for my responses to your comments...

Really interesting! I take that Fred Rogers will have his CMOA, right?

Obviously, I'm not willing to divulge that at this juncture, and what is normally a major disadvantage of the appeals process (the incredibly long deliberation period) can be converted into something of a strength here (at least, in terms of building suspense as part of an overall narrative arc); I'm not bound to answer you until the 1983-84 cycle, if I follow the OTL timetable. And, in fact, since RCA isn't involved in manufacturing VTRs, their introduction to the American market will be later and less complete IOTL - pushing that case back even further (though I promise that it will be covered before the end of the timeline). So you'll have to sit on that question...

You know I remember before audio cassettes there were 8 Track Cartridges. I wonder if the replacement of the bulky cartridges with their track bleeding problem by the smaller cassettes happened in TTL or if things just started with the cassettes.

8-track cartridges did exist ITTL, yes, but since this post far more heavily emphasized the video aspects of applications for magnetic tape, I chose to gloss over them.

One result of video cassettes developing in the late 70s in OTL was the easier access to the promotional videos made for music singles that had been around since at least the Beatles, who made them so they didn't need to go on Ed Sullivan and other shows to promote new releases.

That easier access and usage of these videos made possible the rise of MTV and the copycat Friday Night video programs on superstations. MTV of course caused major changes in the music industry including a new focus on fashion, the revitalization of dance and a market for newer British acts in the U.S. It also meant that looks became as important for stardom as sound.

So I'm wondering what happens with music video and its consequences in TTL.

I would be remiss if I did not post about music videos, especially as we move into the 1980s. But they didn't become a force in popular culture until the launch of a certain all-music-video channel; up to that point, they were primarily a curiosity, a novelty. There's a lot more to cover before that changes ITTL.

I'm also wondering about cartoons in this period. I know there wasn't any Animated Star Trek series, but I'm wondering if there was a Tribbles one?

No. Airing in the place of the animated Star Trek series ITTL was an H.R. Pufnstuf cartoon.

Also there is an animated product that pre-existed Scooby Doo by half a generation and is still popular today. I'm talking about Alvin and the Chipmunks. I watched new episodes when I was in pre-school in the late 50s. My kids watched new episodes when they were that age in the 80s. Now my toddler grandson watches the CGI movies.

Having grown up on (reruns of) the Ruby-Spears cartoon myself, I remember that property quite fondly (though I've never seen the CGI movies, and from what I understand, I'm not missing much). Again, we're a number of years out from the date of the OTL premiere, so it's difficult to gauge whether such a revival would be successful ITTL.

See you're launching DVD's ahead of schedule ITTL.

No, I'm launching CEDs ahead of schedule ITTL. The Capacitance Electronic Disc (and Laserdisc, for that matter) were analog optical discs; the technology to store, record, and playback video on digital optical discs will not be commercially available until after the end of this timeline, as was the case IOTL.

I wonder if the greater popularity of video-discs will lead to an earlier adoption of CDs (or something similar) for music.

A distinct possibility - but remember that compact discs are digital and operate quite differently from the analog CED players, which are essentially the same as record players (complete with having a turntable needle that would regularly require replacement). Also, of course, the whole reason there are Home Video Wars is because the territory being contested was terra nullius beforehand; vinyl records are firmly established as the format of choice in their medium, and it will take some time for them to phase out completely (as IOTL); and you will note that the same also holds true for the shift from VHS to DVD IOTL. In fact, as OTL has shown, there is still a place for vinyl in modern music.

Another excellent update (as usual).

Thank you!

I did not know that. Seems I learn something new every update. (Hmm... This is like the PBS of AH.)

I like to carry on the tradition, established by finer, more august authors than myself, to educate about OTL, even as we entertain with the differences of our ATLs.

Was having the option of repeats intended all along? Do you suppose Desilu would have prospered without it?

I think it occurred to the two of them that, since they would want to re-watch their old episodes, so too would the viewing audience. Radio, the genre from which early television stole so much wholesale, virtually always broadcast live, so the idea of reruns was downright alien to them. I can say with complete certainty that Desilu would not have flourished as a studio without reruns; but then, television as a medium would be a very different thing without them, which really deserves its own timeline.

Do you suppose it occurred to anybody to put Desilu's entire catalog on CED?

It did, and they are; it's just that Star Trek is the test-bed (remember, RCA has to pay Desilu a flat fee for the licensing of each series).

Why am I not surprised?

I've mentioned before that I'm hesitant to change "Tribbles" because it would be tampering with perfection, but the episode ITTL is probably even stronger. The presence of John Colicos as Kor, who would play his character with more fire and defiance as opposed to the deferential performance of William Campbell as Koloth (and again, I quite liked Campbell as Trelane, so nothing against him as an actor) would be the biggest positive; other little changes, like a few different choices in shot selection (inspired by their mention in Gerrold's book about the episode), and the appearance of Komack as the Admiral, rather than Fitzpatrick, are also beneficial. It would be a stretch to say that people regard "Tribbles" as the best episode of Star Trek, especially ITTL, but it is still probably the most widely-known, and fondly remembered, as IOTL.

Why do I feel like the logo should be a white suit signed by Travolta?

That seemingly anachronistic title did indeed inspire me to investigate further, but it dates from 1969, if you can believe it, so I kept it as-is.

OTL, AIUI, the VTR was a reel-to-reel (professional) machine, while the VCR was a cassette (home) system.

You are correct, but nomenclature has nothing to do with logic, and the term "VTR" prevailing instead ITTL (especially as VTR formats are less prominent early on) is just one more example of that, to add to countless others. (Even IOTL, Sony v. Universal refers to "VTRs" as opposed to "VCRs", and that was in 1984!)

I should've known I wouldn't be the only one. Oh, well. I do expect TWR to be the only one worth my vote again this year.

Thank you, and I appreciate your future vote

Great update on the alternate development of home video and another Desilu connection! Great way to cap the year!

Thank you, Glen! And it's certainly been one heck of a year, has it not?

Another fantastic update, Brainbin!

And thank you very much, Andrew!

Ah, "the Vault" -- a practice that continued at least as far as the late 1980s IOTL. A companion practice was the annual telecasting of movies, of which The Wizard of Oz was the most striking example. VCRs killed that practice IOTL; like (I imagine) millions of other Americans, The Wizard of Oz was one of the very first things our household "taped" off of TV.

The "Disney Vault", as you note, did exist in an embryonic form prior to home video, but it was really something whose mythos is tied to the development of that medium; after all, it was commonplace that virtually all movies would be out of release, most of the time. But then, over the course of a generation, movies that had lain dormant for decades were suddenly widely available to consumers, but Disney kept up with their (previously quite liberal) release practices. I think the gem in that particular Disney crown would have to be holding off on a home video release of the aforementioned Snow White until 1994 - one year after squeezing out one last theatrical re-release.

Don't worry, I'm sure TTL's equivalent of Ted Turner -- maybe even Ted himself, although he's been absent so far -- will be around shortly to colorize anything that might have inadvertently been filmed in black and white.

I have repeatedly warned all of you that I'm not writing a utopia - and we'll be meeting Exhibit A himself soon enough!

You say that like it's a bad thing!

At times like this, I can't help but be reminded of Shakespeare - specifically, Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2, Line 73

Two implications: First, having scenes interrupted with text prompts to 'PLEASE TURN DISC OVER' or 'INSERT DISC 2' will become part of the cultural zeitgeist as kids who grow up in the 70s and 80s will simply become accustomed to having to get up in the middle of the movie and flip the disc.

This is a very good point, and it got me to thinking about TV-on-CED, and how this format is actually far more conducive to television than to motion pictures. Virtually all shows are half-hour or hour-long programs, meaning that a single episode (or two!) can fit on just one disc; and, of course, they're actually shorter than that, because of commercials. I actually checked through my episodes of Star Trek (50-51 minutes long, and in their original editions, of course) to confirm, and indeed, every episode has an act break between 24 and 30 minutes in. This provides a natural place to interrupt the action, and entice the viewer to rise, turn the disc over, and sit back down.

In "The Trouble with Tribbles", for example, the act break is at 26:08, at the conclusion of the bar fight. After the viewer is exhorted to "PLEASE TURN DISC OVER", we then open on Kirk interrogating his crew as to who started it. The episode then continues to a total runtime of 50:21 (with the remaining 24:13 on side B). Having never owned a SelectaVision CED player, nor would any of the few surviving discs made for Star Trek episodes IOTL be likely to remain playable (as they were limited to about 500 plays, under ideal conditions), I can't actually test to determine whether that's what was done IOTL; but it does seem logical.

Second, there will be tremendous pressures to keep movies under two hours in length to avoid shipping a third videodisc. IOTL, some of the biggest blockbusters of this time period are just slightly over two hours in length, including Jaws (2:05), Star Wars (2:01), The Empire Strikes Back (2:09), Superman (2:23) and Superman II (2:08), and so on.

And that is an excellent point, especially since (as noted) the two VTR formats also have a two-hour maximum. For movies that are just over the line (like the OTL Jaws) I suspect that the standard tricks (such as speeding up the credits) will be employed to bring it back under the limit. Since there's going to be some delay between theatrical and home video releases (as there was IOTL), this urgency won't be felt immediately, but you'll note that, especially for CED, the major studios will have a vested interest here.

That's not just shrewd negotiations; that's essentially a better-than-OTL's-Microsoft deal. If RCA wins the home video wars, That Wacky Redhead has the potential to become one of the richest people in human history.

I've always felt that she was a much better businessperson than most people give her credit for; this is me laying it out on the line, so to speak.

As you note in footnote 12, that will prompt our "highly litigious society" into some serious litigation, as time-shifting remains contentious today even in light of Sony v. Universal.

Fortunately for me, I happen to have a consultant who is an expert in legal and technological matters on retainer

 

[CaptainCrowbar]

Hi! New reader here, only recently discovered this timeline and just caught up. For your demographic purposes, I'm a New Zealander, born 1962.

I've always been much more of a fan of Doctor Who than Star Trek (for the record, though, I liked TNG better than any of the other incarnations). Thanks to the fact that we got Who a few years behind the UK, I'm old enough to remember when William Hartnell was the one and only Doctor; he and Patrick Troughton were the heroes of my childhood (although Eccleston is now my favourite Doctor). I'm sad that many of the Who adventures I enjoyed then are now lost and will never be seen again (I have particularly fond memories of "Power of the Daleks" and "Evil of the Daleks", which were the talk of the schoolyard when I was a kid).

I'm learning a lot about TV history here, especially on the American side; until the last couple of decades or so, our TV tended to be dominated by British shows. (It's often said, with some justice, that the biggest difference between NZ and Australia is that we tend to look to Britain for inspiration while the Aussies look more to America. Even our spelling follows that model.) I was aware of the historical significance of shows like All In The Family and Soap (and of course Trek and Who, but that goes without saying), but I have to admit I'd always thought of Battlestar Galactica and Three's Company as unimportant footnotes in TV history. With the sole exception of All In The Family, there's always been a strong belief here that American remakes of British shows are always inferior; Three's Company, for example, was largely ignored in the wake of the enormously popular Man About The House. (The fact that American shows recorded in NTSC were visibly inferior in picture quality to British PAL shows didn't help.)

A thought that occurred to me about Doctor Who, in the wake of the Trek crossover: The contract between the BBC and Desilu undoubtedly allowed both studios to make some use of each other's continuity in future episodes. (Even though Trek, at least, doesn't seem to have done anything with this, both studios would have wanted such a clause to avoid awkward constraints on future plots. Probably it had some kind of limits about how often the other series could be referred to, etc.) This might become important after the US run of Who finished; with a reduced budget, but audience expectations formed during the Yank Years, the BBC would have been eager for any opportunity to re-use props, models, FX shots, etc from Trek; and with Trek itself finished, and Desilu having no immediate plans to restart it, they'd probably have been happy to sell a boatload of Trek paraphernalia to Britain at mate's rates. So there's a good chance that post-yank Who would have made quite a few uses of Trek references, and in particular of the Klingons and Romulans (because of all the FX shots that would let them re-use). (For example, I could easily imagine the Big Bads in "The Invasion of Time" being Romulans instead of Sontarans.)

This could have the interesting effect that (at least outside the US) the next generation of fans might actually come to associate the Klingons and Romulans more with Who than Trek. (Depending on where the Trek restart you've been hinting at goes, of course.)

 

[phx1138]

Aside: one of the ultimate outcomes of Sony OTL is this abominaton.

No. Airing in the place of the animated Star Trek series ITTL was an H.R. Pufnstuf cartoon.

Was that the OTL one? Which lasted longer TTL? (I do vaguely recall one, & liking it. I also vaguely recall the familiar song was actually the theme.)

I like to carry on the tradition, established by finer, more august authors than myself, to educate about OTL, even as we entertain with the differences of our ATLs.

I'd say they'd count you a worthy disciple indeed.

I think it occurred to the two of them that, since they would want to re-watch their old episodes, so too would the viewing audience. Radio, the genre from which early television stole so much wholesale, virtually always broadcast live, so the idea of reruns was downright alien to them. I can say with complete certainty that Desilu would not have flourished as a studio without reruns; but then, television as a medium would be a very different thing without them, which really deserves its own timeline.

An interesting thought. As for the second point, I entirely agree. It appears TV, again, was perfectly placed for the tech: radio didn't have really good recording media (I can't think making a lacquer copy of every show would be too practical...). Plus, by appearances, radio was following the vaudeville/live theatre model, so recording shows IMO would've seemed like a pretty odd idea in the first place. (It does make me wonder what would've happened if somebody had done it...)

It did, and they are; it's just that Star Trek is the test-bed (remember, RCA has to pay Desilu a flat fee for the licensing of each series).

Noted. I misunderstood that.

I've mentioned before that I'm hesitant to change "Tribbles" because it would be tampering with perfection, but the episode ITTL is probably even stronger. The presence of John Colicos as Kor, who would play his character with more fire and defiance as opposed to the deferential performance of William Campbell as Koloth (and again, I quite liked Campbell as Trelane, so nothing against him as an actor) would be the biggest positive; other little changes, like a few different choices in shot selection (inspired by their mention in Gerrold's book about the episode), and the appearance of Komack as the Admiral, rather than Fitzpatrick, are also beneficial. It would be a stretch to say that people regard "Tribbles" as the best episode of Star Trek, especially ITTL, but it is still probably the most widely-known, and fondly remembered, as IOTL.

Change it? No, by no means--except fix the clumsy editing. Other than that, it needed nothing.

anachronistic title

Not the anachronism that troubles me: it's an awful name.

You are correct, but nomenclature has nothing to do with logic, and the term "VTR" prevailing instead ITTL (especially as VTR formats are less prominent early on) is just one more example of that, to add to countless others. (Even IOTL, Sony v. Universal refers to "VTRs" as opposed to "VCRs", and that was in 1984!)

Noted, & not meaning criticism: just sayin'.

The "Disney Vault", as you note, did exist in an embryonic form prior to home video, but it was really something whose mythos is tied to the development of that medium; after all, it was commonplace that virtually all movies would be out of release, most of the time. But then, over the course of a generation, movies that had lain dormant for decades were suddenly widely available to consumers, but Disney kept up with their (previously quite liberal) release practices. I think the gem in that particular Disney crown would have to be holding off on a home video release of the aforementioned Snow White until 1994 - one year after squeezing out one last theatrical re-release.

I've always thought Disney was extremely smart to do it this way.

we'll be meeting Exhibit A himself soon enough!

On the coroner's slab, after Orson Welles hears what he's planning to do to "Citizen Kane"?

At times like this, I can't help but be reminded of Shakespeare - specifically, Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2, Line 73

Ah, but friend Henry was offering it as a warning: if you mean to control the country, you need to eliminate your most effective opposition, who are least likely to be credibly branded wild-eyed radicals...

This is a very good point, and it got me to thinking about TV-on-CED, and how this format is actually far more conducive to television than to motion pictures. Virtually all shows are half-hour or hour-long programs, meaning that a single episode (or two!) can fit on just one disc; and, of course, they're actually shorter than that, because of commercials. I actually checked through my episodes of Star Trek (50-51 minutes long, and in their original editions, of course) to confirm, and indeed, every episode has an act break between 24 and 30 minutes in. This provides a natural place to interrupt the action, and entice the viewer to rise, turn the disc over, and sit back down.

Given every show at the time was structured on four acts, a convenient break is extremely likely.

I suspect that the standard tricks (such as speeding up the credits) will be employed to bring it back under the limit.

True. Even so, it does suggest pressure on directors to get the project in at around 2h, so the titles/credits can be trimmed/sped enough... Which also suggests pressure (or greater inclination) to indiscriminate &/or bad cutting...

I've always felt that she was a much better businessperson than most people give her credit for; this is me laying it out on the line, so to speak.

+1. I think there was some modesty--but also, if she'd being underestimated, it gives her an edge...

there's a good chance that post-yank Who would have made quite a few uses of Trek references, and in particular of the Klingons and Romulans (because of all the FX shots that would let them re-use). (For example, I could easily imagine the Big Bads in "The Invasion of Time" being Romulans instead of Sontarans.)

This could have the interesting effect that (at least outside the US) the next generation of fans might actually come to associate the Klingons and Romulans more with Who than Trek. (Depending on where the Trek restart you've been hinting at goes, of course.)

Intriguing. It suggests the Brits might create something akin to the "TNG" Klingons. (Or, at least, something more nuanced than the OTL "TOS" ones...)

 

[NCW8]

And, in fact, since RCA isn't involved in manufacturing VTRs, their introduction to the American market will be later and less complete IOTL - pushing that case back even further (though I promise that it will be covered before the end of the timeline). So you'll have to sit on that question...

I suspect that VTRs will be more popular than CEDs in Britain. Since there are fewer reruns, there will be more demand for the ability to "Time-shift" programmes.

I think it occurred to the two of them that, since they would want to re-watch their old episodes, so too would the viewing audience. Radio, the genre from which early television stole so much wholesale, virtually always broadcast live, so the idea of reruns was downright alien to them. I can say with complete certainty that Desilu would not have flourished as a studio without reruns; but then, television as a medium would be a very different thing without them, which really deserves its own timeline.

One of the important differences between American and British tv at this time was that America had a range of smaller networks which were the natural home of syndicated reruns. Before the arrival of satellite tv in the eigthies that didn't really exist in the UK - there were just the main tv channels (3 of them in the 1970s). That means that apart from summer repeats, there was no time available for the showing of reruns.

For movies that are just over the line (like the OTL Jaws) I suspect that the standard tricks (such as speeding up the credits) will be employed to bring it back under the limit. Since there's going to be some delay between theatrical and home video releases (as there was IOTL), this urgency won't be felt immediately, but you'll note that, especially for CED, the major studios will have a vested interest here.

You can actually get away with speeding up the whole film. Films were generally made with 24 frames/second while British tv broadcasts at 25 frames/second. In the seventies, films broadcast on tv would generally just be sped up to 25 frames/s - an increase of 4%. Apparently this had a more noticable effect on the sound (which would be slightly higher pitched) than on the motion. i can't say that I ever noticed it myself - one of the benefits of not having perfect pitch.

Cheers,
Nigel.

 

[Thande]

To add to what is said above, I think there is more of a stigma to repeats in Britain compared to the USA--less so today with satellite TV but I remember back in the 80s and 90s when amount of repeats was basically used as an indicator of the quality of a channel, i.e. "ITV has 5% more repeats on this year, they must be going to the dogs". At one point around 1990 I recall people were saying BBC2 was a "basically pointless channel because it's all repeats" (it wasn't, they were just a bit more visible than before). You get my point. This sort of thing does help you understand why the BBC tended to wipe so many programmes in previous years, even years after this had stopped there was a continuing attitude from older generations that repeats were not only worthless but the subject of contempt, treated as cynical money-saving laziness on the part of the broadcaster.

 

[phx1138]

repeats were not only worthless but the subject of contempt, treated as cynical money-saving laziness on the part of the broadcaster.

That attitude hasn't disappeared...

One thing having repeats has done is give networks the option to make fewer new ones. The number is about half what it was in the '50s... (Same thing could happen in radio {unabashed plug}).

 

[Brainbin]

Hi! New reader here, only recently discovered this timeline and just caught up. For your demographic purposes, I'm a New Zealander, born 1962.

Welcome aboard, CaptainCrowbar! You're my first confirmed Kiwi commenter, so now I have the entire Commonwealth Trade Agreement as part of my active readership!

I've always been much more of a fan of Doctor Who than Star Trek (for the record, though, I liked TNG better than any of the other incarnations).

Well, nobody's perfect

Thanks to the fact that we got Who a few years behind the UK, I'm old enough to remember when William Hartnell was the one and only Doctor; he and Patrick Troughton were the heroes of my childhood (although Eccleston is now my favourite Doctor). I'm sad that many of the Who adventures I enjoyed then are now lost and will never be seen again (I have particularly fond memories of "Power of the Daleks" and "Evil of the Daleks", which were the talk of the schoolyard when I was a kid).

Congratulations! You're obviously one of the lucky ones. I'm sure that many of the people in this thread envy you greatly.

I'm learning a lot about TV history here, especially on the American side; until the last couple of decades or so, our TV tended to be dominated by British shows. (It's often said, with some justice, that the biggest difference between NZ and Australia is that we tend to look to Britain for inspiration while the Aussies look more to America. Even our spelling follows that model.)

I've always thought of New Zealand as somewhat analogous, culturally speaking, to Canada; the cultural pull of a much larger neighbour who is in very close proximity (Australia and the United States, respectively); the continued but distant influence of our cultural heritage (the United Kingdom, mutually); and an established, vocal minority population integral to our national identity, who are distinct from either of these (the Maori and French-Canadians). Obviously it's not a perfect match, of course.

A thought that occurred to me about Doctor Who, in the wake of the Trek crossover: The contract between the BBC and Desilu undoubtedly allowed both studios to make some use of each other's continuity in future episodes. (Even though Trek, at least, doesn't seem to have done anything with this, both studios would have wanted such a clause to avoid awkward constraints on future plots. Probably it had some kind of limits about how often the other series could be referred to, etc.) This might become important after the US run of Who finished; with a reduced budget, but audience expectations formed during the Yank Years, the BBC would have been eager for any opportunity to re-use props, models, FX shots, etc from Trek; and with Trek itself finished, and Desilu having no immediate plans to restart it, they'd probably have been happy to sell a boatload of Trek paraphernalia to Britain at mate's rates. So there's a good chance that post-yank Who would have made quite a few uses of Trek references, and in particular of the Klingons and Romulans (because of all the FX shots that would let them re-use). (For example, I could easily imagine the Big Bads in "The Invasion of Time" being Romulans instead of Sontarans.)

I admire your line of thinking, but production companies are notorious for their reuse of props and models; that Star Trek paraphernalia isn't going any further than elsewhere in the studio lot at Desilu. Some of it might even see reuse in Mission: Impossible, let alone the more fitting choices of Re-Genesis and The Questor Tapes.

This could have the interesting effect that (at least outside the US) the next generation of fans might actually come to associate the Klingons and Romulans more with Who than Trek. (Depending on where the Trek restart you've been hinting at goes, of course.)

The Yank Years, at best, were something of a mixed bag. There's going to be some sentiment among those in the production team for Doctor Who that they should really return to their pre-established lore and universe, and use the same talented roster of writers who were available to them in the 1970s IOTL to write new material. References to Star Trek will probably be more subtle than any kind of overt continuity crossovers. Star Trek itself will of course never refer to it again, at least on television.

Aside: one of the ultimate outcomes of Sony OTL is this abominaton.

I can't say I'm surprised. Sony has been responsible for many abominations

Was that the OTL one? Which lasted longer TTL? (I do vaguely recall one, & liking it. I also vaguely recall the familiar song was actually the theme.)

Pufnstuf never had a cartoon spinoff IOTL; there was just the original series.

An interesting thought. As for the second point, I entirely agree. It appears TV, again, was perfectly placed for the tech: radio didn't have really good recording media (I can't think making a lacquer copy of every show would be too practical...). Plus, by appearances, radio was following the vaudeville/live theatre model, so recording shows IMO would've seemed like a pretty odd idea in the first place. (It does make me wonder what would've happened if somebody had done it...)

People have done it, though. Plenty of old-time radio broadcasts continue to exist in archival form. You can find many of them on the internet; they've also been sold as, appropriately enough, cassette tapes, a few of which I own personally. Ironically, as noted, most early television broadcasts no longer exist.

Change it? No, by no means--except fix the clumsy editing. Other than that, it needed nothing.

Don't worry - all the changes are positive ones, I assure you

(Just like "The Doomsday Machine". ITTL, Uhura is right where she belongs at Communications in lieu of Lt. Palmer, who subbed in for her IOTL.)

I've always thought Disney was extremely smart to do it this way.

Well, we can't argue with the OTL results, now can we?

Ah, but friend Henry was offering it as a warning: if you mean to control the country, you need to eliminate your most effective opposition, who are least likely to be credibly branded wild-eyed radicals...

I would like to direct you to this article, and please read the last line thereof very carefully

Given every show at the time was structured on four acts, a convenient break is extremely likely.

Yes, and by the late 1970s, the number of commercials has increased further from the days of Classic TV, making it likelier still.

True. Even so, it does suggest pressure on directors to get the project in at around 2h, so the titles/credits can be trimmed/sped enough... Which also suggests pressure (or greater inclination) to indiscriminate &/or bad cutting...

Well, film editing is a venerable profession, and the 1970s were a good decade for the art IOTL. Perhaps some sort of understanding could be reached?

I suspect that VTRs will be more popular than CEDs in Britain. Since there are fewer reruns, there will be more demand for the ability to "Time-shift" programmes.

It certainly wouldn't be the first time that different technologies took hold on either side of the Pond!

You can actually get away with speeding up the whole film. Films were generally made with 24 frames/second while British tv broadcasts at 25 frames/second. In the seventies, films broadcast on tv would generally just be sped up to 25 frames/s - an increase of 4%. Apparently this had a more noticable effect on the sound (which would be slightly higher pitched) than on the motion. i can't say that I ever noticed it myself - one of the benefits of not having perfect pitch.

What's interesting is that the standard format for CEDs, IOTL, was 30 frames per second, (in NTSC formatting: 450 RPM at four frames per rotation), which is also the standard video framerate as opposed to the 24 frames per second of film. For PAL formatting it was instead 500 RPM at three frames per rotation, which is indeed 25 frames per second. Even under the auspices of the New Hollywood movement, virtually all movies that would enter wide release will be filmed as opposed to videotaped, allowing for up to a theoretical 20% reduction in runtime (6/30). Of course, with a difference that significant, there would be noticeable video and audio irregularities that even a fully tone-deaf person would notice. What was largely done with CED technology IOTL (along with all of the other home video formats with a hard time limit) was a less sophisticated strategy, one still practiced today, of lopping off enough short, inconsequential scenes to get the movie under that arbitrary threshold.

To add to what is said above, I think there is more of a stigma to repeats in Britain compared to the USA--less so today with satellite TV but I remember back in the 80s and 90s when amount of repeats was basically used as an indicator of the quality of a channel, i.e. "ITV has 5% more repeats on this year, they must be going to the dogs". At one point around 1990 I recall people were saying BBC2 was a "basically pointless channel because it's all repeats" (it wasn't, they were just a bit more visible than before). You get my point. This sort of thing does help you understand why the BBC tended to wipe so many programmes in previous years, even years after this had stopped there was a continuing attitude from older generations that repeats were not only worthless but the subject of contempt, treated as cynical money-saving laziness on the part of the broadcaster.

In a way it makes sense that there are fewer repeats in the United Kingdom, because the dominant shows over there either have extremely short runs, or are so tightly serialized that they would have no second-run audience. Ever since dramatic series stateside began to become more serialized in the 1980s, those are increasingly difficult to find in syndication as well. And, of course, the aftermarket has become so important in the United States that most shows operate at a loss (at least, for what value the word "loss" has in Hollywood, anyway) until they reach the minimum threshold to be sold into syndication. Two highly divergent approaches.

 

[The Blue-Eyed Infidel]

Brainbin,

Just returned after a longish vacation; very impressed with the updates since I left.

Two minor comments:

On the NHL update: with the divisions as you've set them up, there are going to be some teams (LA, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton) with horrific travel schedules / budgets due to mulptiple games withing the division. I predict re-alignment in fairly short order.

On the format wars: I know you said - and believe you were correct in so doing - that you weren't going to address porn ITTL; it could be a factor in the format wars, though, as people are going to be reluctant to "interrupt their viewing" in order to flip over a disc.

TB-EI

 

[Asharella]

Brainbin,

Just returned after a longish vacation; very impressed with the updates since I left.

Two minor comments:

On the NHL update: with the divisions as you've set them up, there are going to be some teams (LA, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton) with horrific travel schedules / budgets due to mulptiple games withing the division. I predict re-alignment in fairly short order.

On the format wars: I know you said - and believe you were correct in so doing - that you weren't going to address porn ITTL; it could be a factor in the format wars, though, as people are going to be reluctant to "interrupt their viewing" in order to flip over a disc.

TB-EI

I seriously doubt that most porn viewers will feel that flipping the disc a half hour into the show would be a let down in their viewing enjoyment. Now if it was five minutes in, then yes.

 

[The Blue-Eyed Infidel]

I seriously doubt that most porn viewers will feel that flipping the disc a half hour into the show would be a let down in their viewing enjoyment. Now if it was five minutes in, then yes.

Notice that I put "interrupt their viewing" in quotation marks.

TB-EI

 

[Asharella]

Notice that I put "interrupt their viewing" in quotation marks.

TB-EI

Maybe I should have put "let down in their viewing enjoyment" in quotation marks too?

 

[NCW8]

The Yank Years, at best, were something of a mixed bag. There's going to be some sentiment among those in the production team for Doctor Who that they should really return to their pre-established lore and universe, and use the same talented roster of writers who were available to them in the 1970s IOTL to write new material. References to Star Trek will probably be more subtle than any kind of overt continuity crossovers.

There may be even fewer references than IOTL, so no Federation background for TTL versions of the Peladon stories.

I wonder how soon Doctor Who will be released on CED - I doubt that these rights will have been sold to Desilu, so the BBC will still have control and it will depend upon how quickly TTL's version of BBC Enterprises gets up and running. Maybe contact with Desilu will prompt them to be a little quicker than OTL.

An episode of Doctor Who was about 25 minutes long, so it would fit conveniently on one side of a CED. OTOH, during the Yank Years, stories were 5 episodes long, which is not so convenient as you need 3 discs, with one side left blank. OTL's practice of generally having 4 or 6 episodes per story would actually have worked better.

Cheers,
Nigel.

 

[phx1138]

I can't say I'm surprised. Sony has been responsible for many abominations

Can't blame this on Sony. Of course, Congress has been responsible for many more abominations, so this is no surprise, either...

Pufnstuf never had a cartoon spinoff IOTL; there was just the original series.

Huh. It has been awhile...

People have done it, though. Plenty of old-time radio broadcasts continue to exist in archival form. You can find many of them on the internet; they've also been sold as, appropriately enough, cassette tapes, a few of which I own personally. Ironically, as noted, most early television broadcasts no longer exist.

I was thinking less archive & more Desilu...

Don't worry - all the changes are positive ones, I assure you

I knew it was safe with you.

Well, we can't argue with the OTL results, now can we?

Not me.

Yes, and by the late 1970s, the number of commercials has increased further from the days of Classic TV, making it likelier still.

Today, the timing is a bit odd, so less chance of a "perfect" 24min break...

Come to think of it, tho, with commercials out, you'd get two whole 30m episodes/disk.

Well, film editing is a venerable profession, and the 1970s were a good decade for the art IOTL. Perhaps some sort of understanding could be reached?

I was thinking more of the suits (not this guy, of course) indiscriminately cutting the films because they don't like Carey Grant looking like a bad guy & ending up with a 48m cut that makes no damn sense.