most nostalgic TV test cards // interesting UK vs USA comparison!
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
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At an institute of electrical engineers dinner in Bournemouth i met Carol's father he explained the reason why they used a child is because their fashion doesn't change whereas adults do therefore giving the test card longevity
Hi, very interesting.
Is that icon picture of your's one of a mill on the Dorset Stour? It looks par for the course, but I don't recognise it.
Yes at Christchurch
@@johnwilcox7826 Yes, I see now, it could be that little one at Two Rivers Meet, near the quay. A bit like the sidestream at Throop, though that is a shadow if it's former days now. Cheers chap.
Correct
These are the kinds of topics that I LOVE doing, but the algorithm doesn't always love, so if you're enjoying this type of content, definitely let me know!
Very interesting
I love this type of "I didn't know that I needed to know that" content - please keep doing it!
It’s like Wikipedia, only video.
@@michaelrochesterharbinger3320 Probably far more accurate too.
@GirlGoneLondonofficial Love these topics. I think you've only done one that I haven't also looked into at one time or another. This wasn't it. 😂😂
Once again Kalyn dives deeper into a subject than any professional historian, it baffles me where you find this information. Information we didn't realise we needed until now.
Remember when she came of the screen in
Life on Mars 😬
One of the more esoteric subjects covered by UK/US comparison channels. Well done, take a hat tip. 🤩
Chapeau!
Thanks for that. Clearly, the American colour test card is much more dominated by large blocks of colour than the British one. This might be because adjusting the colour correctly was significantly more of a challenge on US TVs than European ones. The US standard for colour analogue TV was NTSC, which stands for National Television Standards Committee, but people joked that it stood for Never Twice the Same Colour because it had problems with colour consistency. The West Germans developed the PAL system used for colour broadcasts in the UK, which didn't have the same issue (and was also slightly higher resolution) and the French had SECAM, which didn't have the problem either.
American tv engineers also say that PAL stand for 'Picture Always Lousy '
@@jimcook1161 Is there a basis for that, or is it just retaliation?
I really appreciate the variety of the topics. Keep up the good work.
"There's no more telly. It's time to go to bed". - Neil.
Or no TV in the morning - or the afternoon...
How to feel old...I went to a swing dance event a few years ago...There was a chap there who had an amazing suit made out of cloth that was patterned just like a Test Card!! I went into work to tell my team on the Monday..."Hey this guy had a suit that looked like the test card!!" BLANK LOOKS..."You know! When telly wasn't on in the afternoons or late at night!!?" BLANK LOOKS..."When there were only 3 channels??" BLANK LOOKS!!!😅😅😅😅😅😅😅...Felt officially old!!
Carole Hersee (born 25 November 1958) is an English costume designer who is best known for appearing in the centrepiece of the United Kingdom television Test Card F (and latterly J, W, and X), which aired on BBC Television from 1967 to 1998. As such, she became the most aired face in British television history.
Definitely love this type of content, this is now my favourite UA-cam channel, love the variety and especially Kalyn's humour, which is next level. :) bravo
These “more than you ever knew you needed to know” videos about fragments of UK and US culture videos are just great. More please!
I am loving the subjects you choose very creative
Hi Kalyn, a lot of the topics you choose are just so far out of my sphere of thoughts that it's impossible for me to have even wondered about them. Please keep it up so I can continue to know what I don't know. 😊
Carol Hershee was also referenced in the TV series Life on Mars.
Totally love the topics you look into. Honestly they're often topics that even as Brits were aware of but often haven't had the time to look into. So it's great that you're doing this. Love learning about this kind of thing.
So rare to see a test card after the 1980's - even before 24x7 tv the BBC would broadcast teletext in the early hours, which looking back is both weird and pretty smart I guess?
Speaking of the small hours - hands up who remembers the BBC broadcasting Open University content first thing in the morning?
When I was a teenager I hurried home from school in order to catch the test card (test card C in those days) as I loved tinkering with old TV's that I bought for a few shillings from jumble sales.
That dates me!
I am old enough to remember the black and white testcards before Carol ad Bubbles came along.
I do love your deep dives into unbelievably specific areas of life both here in the UK and the US!
Well done on such a nerdy video but well appreciated by an old TV engineer like myself. I remember watching test card F as a kid while waiting for kids TV to start in the afternoon.
The test card was a much more interesting watch than a lot of TV programmes these days.
You should also look into the "Trade Test" films that were shown during the day on BBC2 in the late 60s. There were a set of short films shown on the hour every hour. I remember ones about paint, rebuilding an old car, Italian petrol station, fish farm, plastics factory and the city of Calgary.
R
I remember the Italian BP petrol station and the the Crown of glass? Liverpool RC Cathedral ones.
From what I understand Carol is the person that has been on television the most in the whole world, I am sure that is true, I thought it would be mentioned in this video.
Approximately 70,000 hours in total.
Every day is a learning day. Proper job 🙂
Glad you commented on the central cross of Test Card F - it was the one thing I remembered from its history :)
Another weirdly British bit of telly was the five minute films concerning the long distance footpaths of England & Wales. Theses were often on at 08;55 on Saturdays; I think it had to do with including or not to help with schedule time management.
Still happens. Famously the BBC have five minute mini episodes of Coast as gap fillers.
@@nowster Ahh yes. Not the same as in the old days though. 😀
@nowster Coast is a perfect choice for a gap-filler, isn't it?
You just HAVE to smile!
If I'd been given 10,000 guesses as to what would be the next subject we'd be investigating, I'd never have got anywhere near the correct answer.
ITV channels also used Test Card F in the early 1970s. Then the IBA invented Electronic Test Pattern 1 (ETP1) which was used on ITV and most memorably on Channel 4.
ITV companies would internally use colour bars or the unmodified PM5544 (LWT in particular).
If ETP1 came from the transmitter site rather than Channel 4 itself there would be no horizontal lines above and below the letters in the blue box.
The weirdest and creepiest thing to ever be seen on a screen.
The test card that is, not Kalyn.
Kalyn is rather charming. 😁
I remember the days when for most of the day, BBC weren't broadcasting, so all that was on the TV was Carol with some music. She was my little dancing girl and I used to dance around to the music being played.
I’ve just posted the same 😂
Back when black and white TVs had separate contrast and brilliance controls the viewers needed Test Card C to set them correctly.
By the way, if you can't find the test card use the BBC News programs. Their studio isn't used for anything else so the lighting and camera settings are set right and stay right.
Please check out the 'Interludes' shown between programmes e.g. Muscle Man or Potter's Wheel. I remember these as a small child in early 1960's. (p.s. love your content👍)
I look forward to the piece on Ronco and K-Tel products.
What a great idea for a video, Kalyn🙏. Now that’s a deep dive!
I can well remember the early black and white test cards. When there was no daytime TV and programmes began with childrens' programmes up to the six o' clock news tens of thousands of kids must have sat patiently studying those images waiting for The Woodentops, Andy Pandy, Tales of the Riverbank or Bill & Ben to appear, before we graduated to Animal Magic with Johnny Morris and Blue Peter. A more innocent age....
The Test Card Circle also focuses on the music that what played along with the test card. Something that, for those who've been sufficiently interested in it, have found a whole new world of music, from light Jazz to electronica. Channel 4 also used an array of music with their modified ETP-1, for the first 5 years of its existence, that many people old enough to be around during the period have fond memories of due to the associations they had when it was broadcast/listened to at the time. A real nostalgia fest, but also an appreciation of different genres of music.
She's been on telly longer than any human. Oh, and Jimi Hendrix mentioned it in "The Wind Cries Mary". The lyric "after all the Jacks are in their boxes, and the clowns have all gone to bed"
I worked at the BBC in the 80s/90s and one of my colleagues was Carol's older sister. Their father BTW was the BBCs Chief Engineer.
Oh I remember the sad old days of analog cathode ray tube TV receivers with a million little knobs you had to adjust to make the image straight. Test cards really helped with that.
What an enjoyable little fun video. Thank you.
This is kind of second hand, but as a child I remember my mum (it's the housewife days) doing whatever she was doing in the kitchen or whatever .... yes, it sounds bad, but it was what it was... while the test card played out. And this simply prompts me to talk about 'Life on Mars' - which sums up our paranoia about that picture on the screen. The music was terribly jaunty! I still remember one of the tunes to this day.
Life on Mars 😊
back in the Very early days I think they used to close down at 9 the screen would fade to black and a disembodied voice would say something like....."well that's the end of broadcast for tonight, Good Night Ladies and Gentlemen please don't forget to turn off your TVs we don't want any fires now do we"
ITV used to do this all the way up to them broadcasting 24 hours. After the company's tune or the national anthem the announcer would say, "If you want something to keep you company, these fine independent radio stations are on air through the night. [Slide of radio station logos, fade to black.] Once again, a very good night. And don't forget to switch off and unplug your set." followed about 30 seconds later by a loud tone.
I was pretty sure I didn't get it all right memory full of silver moments
I've seen the American test card. It was used on the Outer Limits intro. 'There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission....You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.' 😁
Staying up until about 1230, just to see test card come on.. them was the days.
This is absolutely not what I expected. It's BRILLTASTIC as ever but a total different subject.👍
I used to repair TVs in the late 1950s and Test Card C was the current one. It was very useful for setting up in the days when customers had too be educated in how to adjust line and frame hold which tended to be unstable in the days of thermionic valves. There were also controls for brightness and contrast.
I got married in 1967 and haven't owned a TV since then! :) Too many interesting things to do and I was well aware of how addictive TV was so we went cold turkey.
As a little kid I was the only person in the family with a delicate enough touch on the vertical hold to stop the picture rolling. I remember one Saturday afternoon when the wrestling (Dad’s favourite programme) was on ITV, and I was playing on the path between our house and the farmyard and one of my sandals was off my foot; suddenly the cry came from the house - “Arwel, come and fix the telly!”, so I ended up hopping up the path so Dad could watch Mick McManus fight Jackie Pallo! 😂
@@arwelp I did my practical test for TV repair on a Saturday trying to concentrate on finding the faults on the test TV rather than watching the wrestling :)
And she’s still got Bubbles !
Test card C was used for 405 line B & W tv. a very similar Test card D was used for 625 line transmission
Nice one Kaylin..🤥i remember lol...in the uk.
Nice work. Much appreciated .
Don't forget that message that everyone hated. "Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible"!
Are you aware of the short Trade Test Colour Films that used to be shown on BBC 2 from 1967 to the early 1970s? One film I remember very well was called 'Giuseppina,' about a young girl who worked at her father's petrol station in Italy.
I believe there's a copy of that on UA-cam.
I remember these but didn't know that they had a collective name. Just looked up the one you mentioned and I'm sure that I remember it. Thanks for the memory jogger... ua-cam.com/video/EIbQSLI6FjE/v-deo.html
Hello, I have very recently watched that very “trade test film” of ‘Giuseppina’ and a John Betjeman narrated ‘Journey into the Weald of Kent’ on UA-cam. I liked ‘The Test Card’ music was good too. Brings back memories. Best wishes from Oxfordshire
@GirlGoneLondonofficial You should have finished the video with a test card, or better still, the tiny white dot, that used to linger for ages, in the centre of the telly screen when you turned it off. 🤣
I remember seeing the nbc test pattern with the indian head.
Yes, love these. Even treated myself to a bowl of Ice-cream while I watched. Now I just need to find another excuse to have another bowl of ice-cream
Ask GGL to do a US/UK ice cream comparison?
Familiar with both older ones thanks to UK 1980s childhood and playing US Fallout games in adulthood.
During the day when there was no broadcasts my parents put the TV on for Test Card F as there was background music played over it and it entered me and I used to dance to it 😂
Those colours for the US NTSC system which didn't stand for Never The Same Colour Twice. 😅 I joke but they developed their colour TV system around 10 uears before the European PAL and SECAM systems so they had inferior technology available when designing it.
Interesting thing about her, is that she has to be excluded from the guines world records for most tv time, as she was on tv just 24/7 some times and for 8 hours over night, back when tv used to turn off.
A very common question in quizzes: who has appeared the longest time on British TV? The testcard girl! (Btw: she was born in 1959, and is now 65.)
The most televised person ever - c70,000 hours,a record unlikely to be broken
Terrible tactician at noughts and crosses mind.
I think her sister was first choice and got passed over as she’d been to the dentist earlier and had lost a tooth
I miss the Test Card, now all that's broadcast when BBC 3 and 4 are off air is programmes begin at 7 pm. BBC 1 has continuous news and 2 has trailers. Others have shopping or a blank screen or a message showing when programming commences.
I lerned about the fan-club many years ago - good to see they are still going. And UA-cam has a lot of the Trade Test Colour Films too - another feature?
I know I’ve said it before, but you would be a brilliant journalist or presenter.But we would all miss you on UA-cam.
Well researched good video :) TestCard F [4:3] first seen 2 May 1967, TestCard J 26th March 2013, TestCard W 16:9 onwards, And as you can see by my avatar, I use the TestCard WC with a Cow replacing Carole Hersee and Bubbles.
I reckon that, growing up, you never foresaw yourself reviewing British telly test cards for our viewing pleasure!!
Strange how life works out…
You’ll have to do Ceefax and Teletext next.
Spent many an hour waiting for childrens programs to start as there wasn't much else to see back in the day.
UA-cam need to up their "test card" game for their premiere countdowns...
Be great on a t-shirt 👍🏻
That girl was apparently left handed but they flipped her around for the card
I have gone from 405 lines ,625 lines , i think . To the tv of today
I felt short changed with HDTV only being standardised at 1080 lines instead of the 1250 lines (twice as many as 625) as I was expecting it to be back in the early '90s when Sony already had some working 1250 line high definition widescreen CRT televisions (one was at the BBC) and others in development.
Although I do now have a 4K telly and the picture quality on that is insane when watching anything in 4K.
Yeah, Kalyn, that's kind of pushing the boat out, but full marks for tackling something that we either hardly remember or couldn't care a monkey's uncle about.
(p.s. You're acquiring some fame, you know, as I've found at least three US reaction channels commenting on your videos). Robert, uk.
I'm letting you know I find 😊your topics interesting.
I wonder if there's any difference between the test cards due to the NTSC & PAL difference. Another overlooked UK/US difference these days but one that used to be super important.
I can tell you have been living here for quite a time, there is a little bit of British irony in your vids, not too sure if your American viewers will realise it lol, keep up the great work !!! xx
Still scared of that clown
These days the test card would be the best thing on the telly
I could swear Carole was actually you but a tad younger.
Memory lane for me.
I'm shooketh the test card is BBC based. Wasn't Channel 4 famous for it? I was too young to remember, but apparently the only programme C4 could broadcast at launch was Countdown, so for the rest of the day they had the test card. (Or so I've heard.)
Channel 4 didn't have enough funds to run all day to start with, so only did teatime until midnight most weekdays, with slightly extended hours at weekends.
At the same time BBC2 was operating similar hours (Play School and Open University programmes excepted). Back in the late 1970s BBC2 would actually switch off completely (transmitter power off) during the day if it didn't have anything to broadcast.
Originally Channel 4 was funded by the adverts that local ITV franchises could sell for them. There were union disputes in the early days which meant that many viewers got a slide and music instead of any ads.
You , me , a brief history of the test card and a bowl of boiled muscles in a faux champagne sauce.
Can life get any better?
“If you are a super geek” - don’t you know your audience? 😂
I’m off down a rabbit hole, see you on the other side
Maybe 1st lol.
you were first even before me making the pinned comment! Thanks for watching!
Well! That was pretty pointless......I loved it.
The girl died of old age a few years ago....you can look her up.
My apologies I've just checked and Carole Hersee is still alive!
Her name came up in a pub quiz....I couldn't remember if it was about her death or the fact she's now 65 years old.....Well now I know
Did you notice the Native American was in a black circle "Indian reservation"?
Carol must be nearing pension age now.
She's 65
She qualifies for her pension on 25th November (just less than 3 months after me!).
but will never grow old
I would say there would be a Woke riot if they introduced the Indian Head and Carol today LOL.
Hopefully, one day, the BBC will be shut down. Perhaps they will finally broadcast Carol and Bubbles.