TNT UK - Continuity and Adverts - April 1996
Вставка
- Опубліковано 26 лип 2020
- Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me… anyway, as something of a present, here’s a clip from TNT UK, recorded only a few months before I was born in that stable in Bethlehem. These days, people probably point to TCM as their classic movie channel of choice - I certainly would - but before that, it was called TNT. Like TCM in the old days of cable TV, it used to share its airtime with Cartoon Network, putting the cartoons to bed sometime in the night and running all the way through the early hours of the morning.
Now, I used to hate this, because I WANTED to watch cartoons in the early hours of the morning, damn it! How DARE TNT take my precious animation away from me! Have they no shame? But no matter how much I prayed this channel would never come on in the night, it always did, and while most of me hated it, a tiny, teeny little part always respected just how classy it looked. You’ll see what I mean as you watch the clip.
Anyway, it begins with a black-and-white movie. (As it should, really.) But then we quickly get some channel changing, including perplexing shots of some psychic channel called Live TV and two men about to have a sword fight over on Bravo, before we return to TNT. (Though the cable guide, you’ll notice, still refers to it as “CART”. Sigh.)
After the movie, the classiness begins. Oh, you can taste it, can’t you? This is exactly what these old movie channels should be like, though. It puts you in the mood. We’re told that up next is a movie called The Next Voice You Hear, with a different start time for those that live in the UK. You see, at this time, TNT only operated on a single feed for the whole of Europe, so they had to account for the time difference. It wouldn’t be until late 1999 that we got a dedicated UK version and stopped having to worry about what time the next Pink Panther movie would start on in France.
After that, there’s a promo for CNN - news, blah-blah-blah, boring - followed by an infomercial for some kind of massaging device, clearly beamed in from America. At first, I pondered the point of this, but then it turns out they have a phone line for just about every country in the world, no matter where you want to buy it from. I hope they sold a lot of these things, because they must have needed the cash to keep all those call centres open.
Next, an advert for the VHS release of The Shawshank Redemption. “One of the greatest films EVER made!” proclaims the review quote… with no source to back it up. Hmm. Someone’s telling porky-pies again, aren’t they?
There’s a TV spot for a film called French Twist - “Now in English!” - followed by a promo for TNT’s spring line-up. Oh, the music. Oh, the class. It’s all so wonderful… and all so wonderfully wrecked by the next promo, which is for wrestling. Yes, wrestling. On a classic movie channel. Why they thought this was ever a good idea is truly baffling. It’s about as dumb as Cartoon Network suddenly deciding to make live action programming… oh.
Then it’s time for a little bit of filler called Showstoppers, featuring what I suspect is a heavily-copyrighted clip of Jailhouse Rock. Still lookin’ classy, though. After a promo for a showing of Lolita, we get an extremely colourful TNT ident to take us into the movie.
After the film, there’s a promo for a Tracy & Hepburn double bill. It’s more class than my heart can take. There’s another CNN promo that tries for the same kind of classiness, but fails, followed by another infomercial, this time for an exercising machine. (Told you this stuff aired an awful lot.) It’s such a dated advert, however, it feels like it’s from 1986, never mind 1996. Won’t stop me from buying one, though!
Next, a promo for a film with the creative title of Arsenic and Old Lace, followed by an uncreative promo for more wrestling. It feels so out of place on this channel, it’s laughable. But that’s the end, because it’s time for a film called Captains Courageous, and one final ident signs us off. May the class be with you. - Розваги
i would be very happy if you had more Cartoon Network UK/Europe recordings from the Checkerboard era
Happy birthday, my friend! Also, this is the first time I subscribed to your channel and before that, I enjoyed watching your content for many years now, and I love the nostalgia you have archived into this UA-cam channel of yours...
Hope things are going well during the goddamn pandemic. Lots of wishes to you!
-Hari
I'm a lil bit late but, happy birthday!
Happy birthday dude. Also, you have anything from that Great International Toon-In that Cartoon Network did worldwide?
Do you have any Cartoonito recordings with Tom & Jerry Kids?
Yeah, the wrestling is pretty out of place, but at the time Turner didn't have any other European entertainment networks, so WCW had to be there. TNT US had started with much the same focus on classic movies, but then TCM was started and TNT began going into a more contemporary direction, including the wrestling. They tried launching a UK-exclusive TNT in 1999 after rebranding the pre-existing TNT as TCM to bring everything more in line. The new TNT went off the air a little more than a year later, probably because Turner Europe evidently should've hammered out carriage deals first, as no provider carried TCM, TNT and Cartoon Network as their own channels (some carried the TCM/CN mix, others had a new TNT/CN split and still others had one or two of the full channels -- confusing, isn't it?).
We definitely never had the TNT standalone channel. I only ever saw the time-share version on CN until it was replaced by TCM. Not surprising it didn't catch on over here, really.
easportsbig899 cars top speed 10 mph
only £9,500,000
I'd better race to buy it!