When investigating the Television On LaserDisc page I was able to obtain a couple of Doctor Who releases; this in turn has led me to realize that I have several archive Television titles on different formats. Presented here, and in no particular order, are a collection of archive TV titles that are on something other than DVD, CD (recent audio releases) or VHS (apart from one exception). Items will only qualify for this page if the subject has been transmitted on television (ish).
The collection of LaserDisc is a newer aspect to my TV archive; the first of which I only obtained in May 2007. As I discovered there were quite a few LaserDisc BBC Video releases and some hard to find titles may become available in this format. If I find some other hard to find television titles then I will have to also invest in a LaserDisc player as these would require conversion to DVD-/+r.
The quality of the LaseDiscs below (and if they are actually playable at all) has yet to be ascertained by myself as at the time of writing I don't have a LaserDisc player.
This was one of the first BBC Video LaserDiscs to be released. Before they were able to start releasing comedy and drama titles, BBC Video started off with a set of sport, concert and documentary discs.
With regards to Toyah there were two releases, At the Rainbow (left) and Good Morning Universe. I have often wondered that BBC Video's liking for Toyah releases stretched to the inclusion of the episode of Shoestring, that she appeared, in the two-episode Shoestring VHS release.
When BBC Video first started out it would release its titles in three formats: VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc. Very early on BBC Enterprises dropped Betamax and LaserDisc and concentrated on VHS only.
This particular video is the hour long version of The Brain of Morbius that was released in 1985 and I have also got the VHS version.
Long before VHS was a mass home market, one of the only ways to have a watchable media was cine film. This came in several formats and types; 8mm, 16mm (school projectors anyone!), silent or with sound and invariably, if a cinema film or television release, would be a heavily cut down version of the said movie/episode and in some cases a cheaper black and white option. Thankfully, I do still own a very cheap 8mm/Super 8 cine projector.
I have two of these Magic Roundabout reels which are both black and white and silent: "Mr MacHenry's Shooting Star" (cover left) and "Dougal's Busy Day".
Both covers are the same apart from the title of the story. In the film itself, as there is no soundtrack, there are speech panels inserted rather like the old films of the silent era. They last about three minutes each.
(No image is available as I only have the film itself without the cover) This version of the Thunderbirds pilot episode, "Trapped in the Sky", is only about three minutes long and features the superb sequence where the Fireflash air liner lands on the support cars. However, the editing is a bit disjointed; Virgil is seen upright after the support car, he is driving, has over-turned.
At one time the only way to have any kind of 'play on demand at home' television titles was via the audio medium: records or tapes. These releases were mainly comedy, instructional or soundtrack music titles but a few drama ones made it to the record shops as well. The vast majority of the television releases would be from BBC Records and Tapes but other companies did make a few attempts too.
In 1979 BBC Enterprises released an abridged version of the Doctor Who classic The Genesis of the Daleks. The story was tied up with specially recorded links by Tom Baker to fill in the visual bits.
Probably the very first time (a 1960s Daleks EP aside) that anyone could own a vintage Doctor Who classic. This version has since been released on CD and the full television version on DVD.
This was a Doctor Who release that sneaked out without any fanfare. I was told about this by a friend who stumbled upon it in a record shop. This release is simply Tom Baker reading an abridged version of the television story State Of Decay from the 1980/1981 season.
This same release re-appeared a short time later in Woolworths (now sadly no more), if memory serves me correctly; but the Woolworths version was a double tape.
Comedy appeared to be the largest portion of BBC Records's releases. One the mainstays of these releases were the Two Ronnies.
These are compilations of the more vocal sketches and would often have obvious abridges in the narrative where a visual moment was 'removed'. The volume I have, simply titled "The Two Ronnies" (no volume number) features sketches from the 1975 series.
Released long before the VHS tape of the television programme, this is a stereo version of the Goons re-uniting for the BBC's 50th Anniversary. It has to be mentioned that this is an audio recording of a television programme that was a television recording of the making of a radio show (it does make sense, honest!); therefore somehow it is appropriate that this television programme was released on audio.
In 1982 Jasper Carrott did a series on BBC1, broadcast live, called Carrott's Lib which was a semi-topical satire/comedy series featuring sketches and Jasper's monologues.
This album (not BBC Enterprises) was released soon after and features Jasper's monologues only; the sketches - featuring the main foil as Sun Readers - have been totally ignored which means that the supporting cast, on this series, are forgotten.
I am not sure that this really qualifies for this page as Captain Kremmin was really a radio insert for Kenny Everett during his (London's) Capital Radio days.
However, I have snuck this in as, as far as I know, it is quite a rarity and the cover features how the characters appeared in Thames Television's The Kenny Everett Video Show (and Captain Kremmin: The Movie).
This album is so much fun, I really wish that the whole of Everett's Captain Kremmin episodes could get a proper commercial release. Who knows, it could happen yet...
The smash hit satire show from the late seventies/early eighties was one of the first BBC Enterprises LPs that I bought.
Maybe a comedy release would have limited replay but these records would often be brought out to hear the songs: "Gob On You", "Bouncing", "Nice Video Shame About The Song", "Superpower Confrontation" and my favourite the "Two Ninnies Song".
Much in the same vein as the Two Ronnies release where the more vocal aspect of the television sketches are used; this is even stated on the cover: "The best of Harry Enfield with all the pictures taken out."
A lovely release this is: two separate Parkinson tv soundtracks: The Goons (1972), interviewed to co-incide with their reforming for "The Last Goon Show Of All", and Peter Sellers (1974). It is a shame that there aren't many more of these sort of releases as there is a wealth of names that Parkinson interviewed over the years.
Viewmaster has been going for decades; they've been around for as long as I can remember: reels of slides that, when viewed in the Viewmaster viewer, presented pictures in 3D. From geography, holiday destinations, special occasions, theme parks, movies and television programmes. Just look at ebay to see what's out there.
In the early 80s two Doctor Who titles appeared in short succession: Full Circle from Tom Baker's last series and Castrovalva, Peter Davision's debut.
These appear to be photographs that were taken during rehearsals/filming especially for Viewmaster as the pictures on the slides don't exactly appear on the television programme.
Unlike the Doctor Who releases, these are stories that have been especially created for the Viewmaster release i.e. this is not an adaptation of an existing episode. These also use the original puppets and models.
This is one of those rare things: something that I got as a Christmas present when I was aged about five; I still have it and it is still in good condition (apart from the sellotape on the cover).
Like the Thunderbirds release, "Attack Of The Tiger" uses the original models and puppets for an especially created story.
Also like the Thunderbirds release, another something that I got for that same Christmas and again in good condition.
Another of the Gerry Anderson releases; this one using the series' models and the original cast.
However, this viewmaster set has not been with me since childhood; I purchased this one from ebay in 2008 which makes it the last Viewmaster set I have obtained to date.
There wasn't suppossed to be any mention of VHS or DVDs on this page, however I am going to make one excepion:
I have included this here because of the video box.
This was, if I remember correctly, the third VHS tape that I bought and I find it an oddity because of the case that it came in. Unlike the plastic box that VHS tapes were presented in for most of their commercial life, this one came in a large version of an audio cassette tape box with the sleeve sitting in the case in a simlar way.
The ITC releases of the mid-80s was the only time that I ever saw these boxes.