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Communist-Era Television
DocumentaryFan
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I thought it would be interesting to start a thread devoted to television from Communist-era Eastern Europe (and other communist countries).
HERE are screenshots of logos and idents used by East German television; unfortunately, the accompanying text is in German only.
From the Soviet Union, here's the main evening newscast from 1977 in its entirety (via YouTube):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4 (sports and weather)
Again via YouTube, here's the beginning of a special report from East German TV on the 10th Party Congress, which took place in 1981.
HERE are screenshots of logos and idents used by East German television; unfortunately, the accompanying text is in German only.
From the Soviet Union, here's the main evening newscast from 1977 in its entirety (via YouTube):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4 (sports and weather)
Again via YouTube, here's the beginning of a special report from East German TV on the 10th Party Congress, which took place in 1981.
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While she is confined to bed in her flat her family rig up a special TV studio and relay "pretend" news broadcasts to her, mixed with videos of old East German programmes . This deception goes on for weeks. I won't tell you the ending in case you want to see the film.
I saw the movie. IIRC, those pretend newscasts were even titled Aktuelle Kamera ("Current Camera"), the actual name used on East German TV.
You can see the beginning of Aktuelle Kamera from October 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, HERE.
From less than a month later, HERE's the beginning of a special report on the fall of the Berlin Wall from West Germany's ZDF.
That'll be The Fernsehturm It's open to the public and you can travel up to the top where there's a revolving restaraunt.
The ball shape is nicknamed The Pope's Revenge because when the sun shines on it the reflection forms a cross
I went to Moscow in the 90s and the TV news was very staid. I also went to Poland back in the day. They were showing Baywatch which was obviously dubbed. However, it was just one guy doing the dubbing. So The Hoff and Pamela Anderson sounded exactly the same.
Have you seen any of the North Korean TV brodcasts on You Tube ? Bizarre, I just wish i knew what they were saying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEZHZHNByCs
You can see the puzzled look on Ceauşescu's face when he realizes they are not cheering him but jeering him.
Here's Czechoslovak TV news from 1989, reporting on an anti-Communist demonstration in Prague that was broken up by police. The report claims that the demonstration was organized by Radio Free Europe and other anti-Socialist forces.
And here's the main evening news from 1988 with reports on a different anti-Communist demonstration.
For comparison, here's what Czech TV news looks like today.
BTW, that was truly history in the making in your clip, DBC!
I remember that at the time, along with the footage of the trail and their corpses.
That and the Berlin Wall are probably the most defining images of the end of the Eastern European communist era. No other country had that public a revolution.
http://www.enverhoxha.info/video/videototali.htm
http://www.elufa.net/
Richt click on the images to download the video (.asf) files.
HERE is an East German commercial from 1969 for the infamous two-stroke Trabant car.
And HERE's a Hungarian commercial for blood sausage.
Yugoslavia was considerably more liberal than other communist countries and its westernmost republic of Slovenia had particularly close ties with the West, which you can sense in THIS 1976 Slovenian commercial for milk. Similar songs (catchy but slightly sugary) were popular in Western advertising at the time.
Great thread!
It happened on Christmas day, but wasn't shown live.
The trial, lead-up and the immediate aftermath of the execution on the Christmas Day news bulletins here. However according to Wikipedia, Romanian TV showed the footage a few days later.
I can't remember if the actual moment of execution has ever been shown, I certainly don't think the TV news would have shown it here.
The young lady at 26-28 seconds is certainly pride of the Eastern Bloc
I was due to visit Communist Prague in 1983 but our train from Vienna was stopped about 5 miles into the border and the very obvious Red Army troops would not let us go any further. We spent a tense 11 hours on the train before being sent back to Austria with no explanation. I don't know who was more scared them or us.
Here's the main evening news from Cuban TV recorded just over a month ago. Note the US influences, especially when compared to other communist TV services.
And here's an equally recent commercial break from Cuban TV. The advertising block opens with an anti-American cartoon, and, ironically, promos for programs taken right off of American pay-TV channels. A Disney movie follows the break.
Is it wrong that I kept expecting the reader to say " th th th th th th th th th Chris Waddle " ?
I used to have one of them. On the flat, and with only one person in the car, it would go like the clappers, because they only weigh about as much as Kate Moss after a week at the health farm, but as soon as you had to go up the slightest hill or give a lift to a fat girlfriend, you were reminded of the fact that it only had a diddy engine.