Oddity Archive: Episode 94 - Prevue Channel(s)
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
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ODDITY ARCHIVE. 80S IN YOUR FACE NOSTALGIA, VINTAGE ELECTRONICS, RECORD RIPOFFS, NO BABES. STRANGE PSAS, CARDBOARD BOXES, WEIRD INFOMERCIALS AND NO BABES.
+zeldajunkielol2 Well, occasionally there's a babe.
and those good ol' 900 numbers.
Now say that in the Record Ripoffs Part 1 annoying commercial presenter voice.
Also, in those days, Prevue was what many a cable subscriber set their clocks by...as a kid, I remember using it to reset the time on our VCRs, microwave, kitchen radio, etc. after a power failure.
I love how cheerful the VO guy is about the Death of Brandon Lee.
He just couldn't get over the dedication to method acting.
7:26 Is it bad that I was enough of a nerd to actually spend that midnight actually watching the switchover of Prevue to TV Guide live?
If you don't like TV Guide, yes; if you do, no.
I did too.
Same here...imagine my disappointment when I saw the "switch" was nothing more than the Prevue logo graphic appearing for the last time, a half-second of black, then the first appearance of the TVGC logo graphic. Was hoping the changeover might have been handled with a little more fanfare!
I remember watching the Prevue/TV Guide Channel as a kid. I faintly recall more than once, the glitches of the amiga system.
Oh, that 1993 version I remember all too well. Didn't know it was an Amiga doing all the work, but as a kid I did think "hey, it's a computer doing that!" back when computers were enigmatic and elusive in my life.
This is the late October/early November 1994 Edition of "Sneak Prevue". Would have love to see the whole uncut 1 hour Laserdisc footage since they're so rare to come by.
He should have uploaded that to ArchiveAnnex.
I remember seeing those laserdiscs on your FB page. That was definitely the find of the century.
And I do remember watching those Prevue Channels as a kid, hypnotized by the glacial pace of the scroll, sticking around until the new time pushed the old one out of the way. As impractical as it is now, I'm glad there are people actively emulating the old system.
Same here. I used to be hypnotized by those old program guide channels myself. We got cable in 1982.
When channel 5 launched in the uk the pre-transmission channel looked exactly like the thumbnail
My favorite memory of the tv guide network was back in college watch it at daylight savings time and seeing the "repeat an hour" or "skip an hour" thing because I stayed up that late back then.
Also, I grew up watching the "Prevue Channel" when my family had cable. Became so addicted to it at the age of 8!
My copy of D2: The Mighty Ducks was taped off of Pay-per-View (specifically Request TV). Memories, man!
My local cable company used the Amiga Version of the TV Guide/Prevue program up until 2015. I remember seeing a LOT of Guru Meditation errors
I used to love the Prevue channel! It was fun watching, and enjoying the chill music. XD
I loved the preview channel - you could just sort of watch as things scrolled by........that and the old weather channel....
So much nostalgia! I was born in 1990 and used to watch the Prevue Channel in the mid-90s. Still remember the trailers for movies like Tomorrow Never Dies, Birth, and Mickey Blue Eyes. I would even draw pictures of my own imaginary channel lineups in the same format. TV Guide Channel was all right, but couldn't match the svelte, color-coded glory of Prevue.
I remember watching the Prevue Channel and the TV Guide Channel whenever I was young. Some of these things actually brought me memories for me. Thank you for talking about the Prevue Channel!
Love the stock 70's football footage as the backdrop for John Patrick's "Pro Football Picks".
Graham Clayton I believe that stock footage is actually from the movie Rudy.
I made it to the "Under 100 Views" club!
Don't worry, Ben. Your promo was at least as good as half the stuff on the laserdiscs.
And I LOVE the way the picture is smashed to make room for the bottom text area- just as many idiot cable subscribers would later be watching their widescreen TVs on default settings!
It always bothers me so much when people have their fancy HD cable/satellite box hooked up via composite to their huge TV and then they have the video set to be stretched out so it has bars on the top and the bottom, for that ultra-stretch. And then a movie trailer plays and it's über-stretched!
I remember being able to use the TV guide network on our cable network until about 2009 or 2010 (shortly before my folks ditched cable).
I remember watching the Prevue Guide/Channel, as well as Sneak Prevue back in the day, not to mention that classic late 80s/early 90s theme music. :-) Also recall that one promo w/its catchy "Why rent it?/You got it/Pay-Per-View!" jingle.
In the UK (at least on Telewest - the service now known as Virgin Media) it was Front Row.
Apple using that name makes searching for their promos quite difficult.
Am I the only one growing up with teletext?
Lol I thought Married with Children made parodies of adult TV shows for men... but it was real...
Loved how Preview Guide footage from Sacramento Cable/Comcast Sacramento was used in this..!!
21:56 It's that Nickelodeon 90s voice guy doing an adult promo!
He did quite a bit of announcing on A&E back in the day, too.
The best thing that happened this afternoon... More oddity archive!
It was a *JOKE*
Took me back to my childhood in the 90s. Thanks Ben!
Great episode! I myself have nostalgia for the 1998 Prevue Channel, which only ran for a year, IIRC - strangely specific nostalgia, but that's what it is for me.
You should do an episode on in-store laserdiscs (made for playing instores, with movie previews, music videos and store commercials), if you ever happen to find those. I've got a ton of them.
+eyeh8nbc Kiosk discs. Those are exceptionally rare. The videogame related ones I've seen easily clear $200 and up.
+MrWolfSnack I have a Nintendo one, from that display where you hit a button to select what game you want to see. But the ones I'm talking about were made for playing on every TV in the store, on repeat all day.
eyeh8nbc
I know. Those are kiosk discs. Because of that is how they wear out and then the store thew them away.
laserdiscs dont wear out
I sure remember Prevue Guide when we first had cable back in the late 1980's (maybe 1987). All done by computers (like you said, Amiga computers). Our cable provider was named C-Tek. Now it is Comcast.
One night on Prevue Guide there was "Prevue Previews" (I don't know who was the host). That was the only time I've seen a TV program on that channel (I couldn't catch the first half of it). It talked about upcoming movies and TV shows. During the commercial brake, they kept on showing that Plymouth Voyager ad. And, of course, there was the scrolling text of programs at the bottom.
I thought this was about those preview loops before a channel's launch day. Do an episode on that someday.
They got someone's Grandpa to operate the camera on some of those shots. I'm surprised we didn't see blurred fingers covering the lens and mutterings of, 'how the hell....', and, 'where's the blasted stop button....', from behind the camera.
GURU MEDITATION ERROR - Press left mouse button to continue.
+GP1138 Amiga :D !! :D
Presses left mouse button. Crashes again.
+Tom Bunyon (days later) screw this, I'm going to Verizon.
+GP1138 Only Amiga makes it possible!
It's supposed to be on the top of the screen. :p
It's been a year since I discovered this channel, and I'm glad to see it's still going strong.
As a kid, I use to watch the prevue channel just for the ads.
Not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, but during the introduction for the movie Double Cross (17:23), the host mentions that director Michael Keusch's previous movie Lena's Holiday starred Judge Reinhold. According to iMDB, Judge Reinhold was NOT in that movie (Chris Lemmon was the highest billed male actor, Judge is nowhere in the credits.) I know 1994 was before internet was in the mainstream, but you think they'd have had Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide or something on file! The closest link to the two that I could find is that Michael directed an episode of Lonesome Dove in 1994, and Judge guest starred in a different episode that same year
i used to watch this channel in 2013 and i just started watching it again recently
good memories...
what for Me
I remember seeing the EPG when we first got Cable TV back in 1985. It was quite handy in case no TV Guide or TV listings from the local newspaper was available. As for those Cable TV companies on that brief clip, only Comcast, Cox & Time Warner Cable are still in business.
+TimelordR Just found out Cablevision is still in business as of this year.
Time Warner Cable is now Spectrum.
thank you for doing an episode on this
Sneak Prevue was my childhood!
This Channel is pure Gold Epicness! I Love it!
I watch preview guides when I was a kid to see what's on and I wish it came back it's a good idea. 😀👍
This was one of the more amusing episodes you've ever made. I only saw a bit of Prevue while I was on vacation in the US, and we used to have TV Guide here before the cable channel created its very own system which it ditched in favor of built-in programming guides on the decoder boxes.
After seeing this, and finding something that's Archive worthy, I almost have the courage to do a video inspired by you... agh.
I came back to see 'The Crow' Prevue ad that mentioned the death of Brandon Lee, a very similar incident happened yesterday on the set of Alec Baldwin's new movie
I really don't want to know what 'Latoya-style' means. Does she open that four days of PPV with praying 'rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub, yay, God?'
Tazzer88 Forget Jim "tinfoil hat" Garrison & his fairy tales, the real conspiracy is what happened to LaToya Jackson after her brother Michael's death?
Now it's time for my own personal history with the EPG. My grandma had a company called American Telecasting that had the Prevue Channel for a few years. I did watch it to see what was on (since on-screen EPG didn't become huge until the early 2000's with the advent of digital cable). As for TV Guide Network...they added that on my system in 2001. Though they were a barker channel...and they added in reruns of 90210, the Young and the Restless, etc. Though, as of note, they (Time Warner) did have the electronic variant installed on the boxes until about a year and a half later.
Take this 90s, we’ve got on demand!
I think that you should make a minisode about Prevue Channel, because a lot of things happened regarding the channel since 2016.
Always happy to see new episodes. And STILL getting those Code Lyoko videos popping up too. I love this corner of UA-cam, lol.
Oddity Archive is best archive
in your history you forgot to mention the Antiope (télétexte) system, created in 1972 and used from 1976
in French television.
It's the 1st system used to able a TV guide on the screen I know.
It was also used to subtitle films for the deaf.
It had been stopped this year, sadly.
Best episode I've seen so far.
"What's Eating Gilbert Gottfried?"
Should be the title of his second book
I always thought I was weird for liking Prevue & that no one would ever have nostalgia for such a thing.
The numbers are small, but the people are there.
Damn right we're here. I learned to read partially because of the Prevue Channel. My parents always saying the name of the shows as they watched ignited a desire in me to learn how to be able to do that too. They showed me how to read the titles, and I have a vivid memory of being up at the mid '90s big screen television and slowly reading "I Love Lucy" off of the guide.
ah, yes. the 90's "fashion models" with their bikini/ underwear pulled up so high... even the pants from the time were hiked over the ladies belly buttons...
Nothing says early to mid-90s more than high-waisted thongs!
I seem to remember getting Prevue as late as January or February 2001. And there's another video here on YT that has it on as late as December 2003. Did some cable companies continue to use Prevue even after the official rebrand as TV Guide Channel in 1999?
We got cable in '92, also. It had Prevue Guide, and it looked exactly like the first version you showed at around 3:30. It became the split screen version soon after, with lots of crashes.
Wow, this episode has some serious eye candy! I haven't seen this much on the Archive since the American XXXtasy episode.
Great stuff, Benny Boy! Loved that damn Prevue Channel!
As for the original programming guides, I used to watch when it didn't have info yet, and every line was "The GUIDE is waiting for new data."
i don't even watch television but this showed up in my recommended and it's strangely fascinating
Fan for a while of your show. Call me a looser but i watched the hell out of the preview channel. I remember the early hours of the morning they used to make announcements for boxing and in 91 Tyson and Hollyfield was announced before Tyson's stay at club fed. Ahh the memories
Where I lived in NJ, your town either had Cablevision or TCI (previously known as UA-Columbia Cable). Cablevision had their own program guide but TCI had Prevue. I wanted Prevue so bad, for the reasons you explained about the sometimes relaxing aspects of the presentation.
I think we need those laserdiscs preserved on Archive Annex, if not for the extreeeeemee interactive camera angles. Just sayin.....
(and you thought Prevue Guide emulation was an unusual thing? Look here for old Weather Channel local forecast emulations, that used a similar system back in the day!)
Something I just recently learned is that my city was also covered by UA-Columbia Cable back in the '70s, until it got bought out by the Canadian Rogers Cablesystems and that's what we had for our local cable company back in the '80s. Yep, a city only about 100 miles away from the U.S./Mexico border was covered by a Canadian-owned cable company. Maybe that's why we had a freak snowstorm back in January 1985?
yeah, the voiceover on that ppv promo for the Kennedy movie is the one I PERSONALLY associate with being the ppv voiceover as i've heard him more than any other i know of
I don't think we ever had the Prevue Channel in my area, but Newchannels (and later TWC) had their own channel guides. I think TWC replaced theirs with TV Guide Channel in my area in around 2001.
This makes me wonder if big cable providers modelled their own interactive TV guides (if you have a box and a fancy remote) on Prevue. I think I want to find one of those EPG simulators to have fun with (if I can). As always Ben, great episode, and well-researched.
Never ready had the experience of these separate "preview channels" except
for maybe TV Guide Network which I didn't really watch that much. Instead,
my family had DirectTV with its own preview button which is kind of like these
but no separate previews or ads or anything like that.
I also remember recording movies off the Pay Per View service like Emperor's
New Groove, Shrek 2, and Agent Cody Banks 2 so that nod at 16:17 made me
laugh.
P.S. Wasn't these channels a joke on an Even Stevens episode?
On my cable system (Home Telecom in Charleston, SC), Pop still has the electronic programming guide attached to it. However, I'm not so sure how long it'll last, since Home recently announced that they will soon be discontinuing their analog cable service (last time I checked, they have not so far).
About the EPG emulations, I was able to get text ads and a custom title working on the Atari-based EPG jr. a long time ago. It took me a lot of research for me to discover a web page that allows you to generate code to be sent to the emulator/real hardware via serial. However, I no longer have a link to it.
I've been an avid follower of your channel for some time now, and have always appreciated how consistently you put out such high-quality and fascinatingly informative videos! Not to mention the great deal of nostalgia that they tend to evoke!! I thought that I'd finally take the time to let you know how much I appreciate them, as well as all of the hard work that you put into this project!
As an aside, I finally read about the film "Manos, The Hands of Fate" the other day, and I finally figured out where you got one of those bizarre scenes from your intro from!!! (The look of disgust on that actress's face as John Reynolds was fondling her is priceless!!!!)... Anyway, I found the story behind the creation and production of that film to be beyond fascinating...but I digress... did you talk about that film in any of your previous episodes? I think I've pretty much seen them all, but don't recall you doing so. If you did discuss it, can you kindly tell me which episode it was???
How about this as an idea for a future Oddity Archive Topic: as I was watching your Divx episode, you made me think back of an old DVD rental scheme whereby you could rent a film at a convenience store without the need to return it. This was accomplished by purchasing the movie disc, but once you opened the airtight package containing the DVD, the air would start oxidising it, so you would only have about 48 hours to watch it before the disc went bad and was rendered unreadable by your machine. I think that this may be yet some other nostalgic DVD ephemera that may be worth discussing (if you haven't done so already).
Anyways, thanks again for all of the hard work and effort you put into Oddity archive! Needless to say, I shall look forward to more awesomely nostalgic videos from you!!!
Cheers, Alex.
5:17-5:33 is the Sacramento area's Prevue guide pre-1995,I want to say this is a weekend edition around 1993 or so because Real Stories of the Highway Patrol is airing on KTXL and they usually had an hour-long 10PM newscast,but likely only did a half-hour on weekends. KXTV is showing Picket Fences,a CBS program and KOVR is showing PrimeTime Live,an ABC News program. Those two stations swapped networks in 1995. Also,KRBK and KSCH still around back then.
5:25 My cable co still uses that! As seen here - ua-cam.com/video/mwptjrnF9Os/v-deo.html
Fascinating stuff. Well-researched!
I am from Belize and I remember back in the late 2000's my cable provider CBC added a preview channel was added and this happen when they made upgrades and added new channels like Comedy Central and we did have our own version of a TV guide books but it only lasted a few years but that happened before the concept of the preview channel. Unfortunately I haven't saved any of them and not sure where to find one since people here don't keep things for a long time... unless I get lucky to find an abandoned building or something
I would love an oddity archive on discredited cartoons or with the upcoming election in the US, things on that.
John Patrick's tips sound like a 90's version of those internet videos where a guy tells you how to make millions through online forex trading.
19:54 I haven't seen a chroma key that bad since I watched that '50s Milton Berle sketch.
I would have loved to see that 130xe with its oh, so special EEPROM!!! I wonder if any still exist?
Where can I see "What's Eating Gilbert Gottfried?"
The Z Channel...😆
8:30 Brings back memories of the old Comcast days
Before they became a greedy multimedia corporation.
"two pack shaker".XD
My cable company still has a channel like this. I'm not sure what system it would run on, but it's a full screen version of the one at 5:32. I'm guessing it would be related to the Rovi company as the DVR we have was made with that company and Motorola. Although, it still existed before we ever got a DVR in the household. It always plays classical music on a loop.
That was kinda funny the announcer talking about Hugh Grant Four Weddings and a funeral while showing clips of Pink Floyd Pulse concert footage. Lol and yes that is Latoya Jackson before she went crazy.
I recall in 1990 or so when at my brother's apartment clicking through his cable and finding the PPV channel and they had some kind of unknown kickboxing championship thing they were advertising. Typical of the times.
Oh, and you shouldn't have forgotten all about the Spice channel, with the softcore porn where you knew what they were doing, but you never really saw the body parts in action. Just before my parents moved from my hometown and turned off the cable, I had a sleepover with a couple of friends of mine, and after leaving a fiver on the kitchen table, did my (to this day) only actual PPV purchase when I bought the channel for the night. (Of course, somehow the $5 bill I left on the table never got to them, and they got a little upset at my behind the back PPV purchase.)
One last thing. I recall a show called "The Art and Science of Flirting" they had available for, like, 99 cents one afternoon, which I actually tried to call and order, but at that time we didn't have the add-on to allow purchases from the box and you could only call in for PPVs from, like, 5pm to 9pm otherwise.
Welp, that's my youth with PPVs.
So basically, the network that TNA Impact moved to used to be the Prevue Channel? HA! How fitting.
+Harold Duggart weirdly the Prevue Channel would air Pre-Shows of WWF Pay-Per-Views called the "Free For All" back around 1996-98.
Ah the days before WWE Network.
"Welcome to WWF In Your House".
(Guy gets kidnapped by Aliens, All Males)
Guy: Guys, can we do this some other time?
Aliens: Nope. We must Evaluate The Human Species.
Guy: But I Wanna get home and Watch WWF?
Aliens(Glance at each other) WWF?!!
(Zaps Guy back home)
Aliens: This is what we consider visually simulating entertainment, lots of Male Earthlings brawling, but the Female Earthlings are Immaculate.
Guy: I know, its Awesome, right Guys?
Aliens: That Blonde Hair Female is Gorgeous.
Guy: She's a Babe!
(Zaps Miss Sunny into Guy's Living Room)
Guy: Aw, Sweet!!!Thanks Guys!!!!
Aliens: Its The Least We Could Do.
Announcer: WWF In Your Your House. Live Every Other Sunday on Pay-Per-View".
I'm Sure you remember seeing that Ad Frequently on The Prevue Channel around 1996, I certainly do.
"immature audiences only" LOL
Guru Meditation :-) Do a show on Amigas please.
If you want to see Prevue Network's EPGs in action, Amiga and Windows units can be seen regularly during Vintage Computer Festivals.
2:47 I feel somewhat special because this clip was recorded in the area I live in
I haven't found anything about Future Fights October, but it looks interesting!
17:35 "The tragic death..." - has a smile on her face.
You need to sell shirts. They would sell fast. Like so he sees!
I love your videos they're funny yet odd and creepy
cool video, is there a way that you can upload the whole uncut laserdisc sneak prevue videos? I would love to see them someday.
+Uriel Benavides I have a few of these, I'll upload them if I ever decide to stop being lazy!
cool, if you do them. Thanks a lot.
what year did your sneak prevue laserdiscs came from?
Haven't seen this in awhile. I watched Action PPV alot, it was actually pretty entertaining. lol and the 90s NC17 rated adult cable channels like Spice, the porn channel that never really showed anything. 90s tv was pretty fun though, especially with a black box descrambler.
Also, for the last few episodes, Code Lyoko was gone. Now it's back (I think the episode "A Space Oddity" might be partially to blame).
Hmm...interesting how the videos they used look during the last part...it's like the TV recordings but clearer but it appears things of that time had their resolution limits...
Amiga was a cool little computer! and I remember Jones Cable it was the first cable network in our area before CC or Cablevision or now (TW) bought them out.
Time Warner Cable is now Spectrum.
National Lampoon's Disco Beaver From Outer Space has two great spoofs of late 70's preview channels in it. You can watch all of Disco Beaver From Outer Space right here on You Tube.
19:38 - "decide for yourself who killed JFK." I'm thinking it was Benny Boy; sitting behind the cardboard screen is to thwart pursuit by the Men in Black.
Hey Ben how did you edit the preview channel screen at the beginning. I’m making a film with retro tv vhs visuals (vhs static). I’m also wondering how you edited the beginning of the teletext episode and weather alert episode. I plan on using elements like those in my film. Any suggestions or hints ?
I love the creepy guitar intro.
Preparation for the Hard winter?
She`s gonna need a sweater, not those shorts! :-)