Looking for TCC video

oddballoddball Posts: 258
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How are you all? I very fondly remember old satellite television but since I'm 17 years old some of my fondest were from the old Children's Channel (TCC) on Astra 1A and Intelsat 601.
I can remember waking up to "Non-Stop Cartoon Capers" after having an operation on my eyes in 1990. I also remember programmes like "Jack in the Box" on weekday mornings and "Stories Without Words" on weekend mornings.
I'd really like to know if any of you out there have clips from these programmes, or especially the channel's ident sequence. At http://www.rediffusion-cablevision.co.uk there are some clips but they're well too old for me to remember, except for one at the very bottom (the turning box). Anyway, the ident was the same as the one there, just with different music and a blue background.

Any luck with your videotapes guys?

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 110
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    The channel was called The Childrens Channel
    and for many was the original Childrens channel
    even before Nick and The Cartoon Network
    I personally have fond memories of the channel
    but sadly like most of my fave channels its now
    off the air.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 108
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    I might somewhere still have a tape of "Around the World in 80 Seconds" as my school took part in the show - do you remember it - with Timmy Mallett and Wolf (Gladiators)?

    Having said that, I have no idea where to look for it!

    Paul.
  • FastFurious65FastFurious65 Posts: 1,308
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    I remember Bucky O'Hare on it. Is that shown on any other cartoon channel?
  • oddballoddball Posts: 258
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    Yes I do remember "Around the World in 80 Seconds", vaguely though.
    I shouldn't have used the term TCC, even that's a little too recent since I am looking for clips from before that time. The channel launched in 1984 so it beat Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon by about 9 or 10 years.

    I'd also like to know, though it's unrelated. if anyone has the Lifestyle ident lying around anywhere?, another golden oldie as far as I'm concerned.
  • cooltvcooltv Posts: 3,517
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    I remember this channel when I was in primary school, and was very fond of it. I can remember jack in the box, and a cartoon called Tozer. It was ok in it's early days, but not enough air time, sharing with the channel Lifestyle. All in all a good channel, shame it's gone R.I.P TCC.
  • daniel99daniel99 Posts: 12,119
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    i remember a programe on it called Dr Snuggles.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 98
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    does anybody remember the name of that show on The Childrens Channel around '93 with these two puppets on a space shuttel that had two satellite dishes for ears and the shuttel was suposed to look like a mouse.
  • oddballoddball Posts: 258
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    Yes, the show was "Ratkan Z". There was also a version for pre-school children called "It's Droibie Time" (spelling may not be correct). I remember Sophie Aldred on that one (I think I had a crush on her!), and the song:

    "My name is Sophie Socket, I mend the Ratkan rocket, there's something in my pocket, can you guess what it is"


    By the way, I also remember another of the old programmes - "The Steve and Danny show", although I don't remember what it was about, any ideas?
  • AdderAdder Posts: 1,981
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    I first saw The Childrens Channel in Milton Keynes in the late 80s early 90s. I think they had one of the early BT cable systems up there that were wired into the houses when they were built.

    The Childrens Channel shared with Discovery there and the changeover happened somewhere around 3pm/4pm. Then soon after that we got our first satellite system at home.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,757
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    Originally posted by oddball
    I very fondly remember old satellite television but since I'm 17 years old some of my fondest were from the old Children's Channel (TCC) on Astra 1A and Intelsat 601.
    I can remember waking up to "Non-Stop Cartoon Capers" after having an operation on my eyes in 1990.

    I also have fond memories of satellite TV at the time related to operations! We got satellite installed in 1991 when I got ill (I was 15 back then). I'd been nagging my parents since about '85 when, at the age of nine, I saw The Children's Channel being demo-ed at a stand at an Ideal Home-type exhibition. My parents weren't as impressed as I was (especially when they saw the size of the dish at the back of the building!) and I guess it wasn't surprising as back then all we had was a remote control-less 18" portable TV in the living room and a small black and white. We didn't even have a video, even though me and my siblings tried and tried to persuade them!

    So, as luck would have it, I got very ill in '91 (well I guess that's not totally lucky!) and I could have practically anything I asked for and one of the things was satellite TV. By this time I was too old for TCC and in any case on Astra it was only on until 10am! By the time Nick and Cartoon Network launched I was going to college - though CN can still be appreciated long after you're a child!

    The one thing I did quite enjoy on TCC was their Super Mario gameshow. I don't know if anyone remembers it but it basically consisted of a studio audience of school kids egging on two competing schoolfriends playing Super Mario Bros on the NES! Classic low budget TV!

    Getting back to your original reason for posting, I'm afraid I never taped anything on The Children's Channel. It seemed a pointless thing to do at the time but it would be nice to see some old clips of those channels that have long since disappeared!

    BTW you probably know this but TCC still has a website! They seem to have forgotten all about it! It's www.tcc.co.uk - It's of course in the last "style" of the channel (ie TCC and no mention that it's for "children" - which I believe they dropped as they didn't want to alienate image conscious teenagers).
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 36
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    Originally posted by cooltv
    I remember this channel when I was in primary school, and was very fond of it. I can remember jack in the box, and a cartoon called Tozer. It was ok in it's early days, but not enough air time, sharing with the channel Lifestyle. All in all a good channel, shame it's gone R.I.P TCC.

    Why did it go?
    I loved that channel! My family would never ever get sky in those days but I used to live round my best friends house watching it. I remember an old trailer with all these dancing flowers that were all the rage back then. i also remember they showed really old Byker Grove episodes towards the end.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,757
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    Originally posted by satelgirrrl
    Why did it go?

    I think there are many reasons but the main ones were the increased competition from the likes of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (who were backed by huge media empires, Time Warner, VIACOM and BSkyB - TCC was owned by a relatively small company) and the fact they launched the spin off channel Trouble which was far more successful.

    Fox Kids and TV Travel Shop (yep!) also played a part. Fox Kids was yet more competition in an already crowded marketplace (much more crowded than when TCC had no direct competition at all!) and TCC's new owners, Flextech, had plans for the precious space the analogue channel was using on satellite - hence TV Travel Shop.

    I think Fox Kids also had first dibs on many of the shows TCC had. Though I could be wrong, Flextech may have sold on the rights they had to Fox Kids.
  • oddballoddball Posts: 258
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    One of the later shows was Head 2 Head, where two kids would challenge each other to a "recent" video game. I remember the likes of Fifa International Soccer being played on it.
    I remember the Mario Bros. cartoons, there were about 3 different versions for the different games that were released, although Sky One also had a live action one which seemed pretty weird. I really loved those cartoons. I also found The Tick to be a great laugh in around 1997 or 98.
    I can confirm it from my collection of Sky TV Guides, The Children's Channel was no more on April 4th 1998.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 108
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    When Flextech moved in, Trouble was launched and all of the teen-programming moved on to there... as well as the presenters, Ortis and the likes.

    On Nynex, TCC did continue for a short while after the big to-do about closing down (did seem very confusing at the time!) with simply cartoons, no adverts and trailers which just said "<programme name> on TCC!" ...without any mention of the time! Was this run by Flextech or someone else does anyone know?

    Well at this point, the renowned "Sophie Socket" (aka Sophie Aldred) moved to early mornings on Living, with that being the new home of pre-school TCC viewing. Sadly, they dropped the Ratkan. :(

    There was a short lived stint of early-morning cartoons on Trouble after TCC closed to bridge that final gap of viewers inbetween tots and teens but that disappeared too.

    Paul.
  • technoflaretechnoflare Posts: 2,550
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    Try www.tv.cream.org for old themes and stuff. Mainly BBC and ITV stuff though..
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 98
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    any footage of the RatKan anyone?
  • levineglevineg Posts: 327
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    I used to have Cable Television in the 80's and 90's and remember the Childrens Channel very well.

    I remember cartoons such as He-Man and She-Ra, My Little Pony, The Care Bears.

    Anyone rememer the TCC Express on the Childrens Channel?

    I now have Sky Digital and all the kids channels now are a load of rubbish. All the cartoons they have now are nothing compared to what was on TCC in the 80's and 90's.

    Does anybody out there what happened to all these fantastic cartoons? Why don't the current broadcasters bring them back to land of the living?
  • James2001James2001 Posts: 73,367
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    While Trouble has been mentioned, I want to ask what happened to all the presenters they had? After the recent relaunch, in-vision has all but vanished from the channel and everything is done by trailers and idents.
  • levineglevineg Posts: 327
    Forum Member
    I used to have Cable Television in the 80's and 90's and remember the Childrens Channel very well.

    I remember cartoons such as He-Man and She-Ra, My Little Pony, The Care Bears.

    Anyone rememer the TCC Express on the Childrens Channel?

    I now have Sky Digital and all the kids channels now are a load of rubbish. All the cartoons they have now are nothing compared to what was on TCC in the 80's and 90's.

    Does anybody out there what happened to all these fantastic cartoons? Why don't the current broadcasters bring them back to land of the living?
  • James2001James2001 Posts: 73,367
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    Is it just my computer, or has levineg posted 2 identical posts 2 hours apart?
  • Peej KertonPeej Kerton Posts: 3,711
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    Didn't TCC and Lifestyle switch off for The Family Channel which switched off to become Challenge TV which rebranded to Challenge? But, they were all just channel rebrandings????

    So weren't TCC and Lifestyle basically owned by whoever Flextech brought up???
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,757
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    Originally posted by Peej Kerton
    Didn't TCC and Lifestyle switch off for The Family Channel which switched off to become Challenge TV which rebranded to Challenge? But, they were all just channel rebrandings????

    When Astra 1A started back in 1989 TCC and Lifestyle shared Transponder 5. Lifestyle, along with Screensport were owned by WHSmith Television. I believe TCC was owned by a company called Starstream at the time (I could be wrong though!).

    Astra 1B launched in 1991 and with it were an extra 16 transponders (or channels). TCC was able to extend it's hours when it moved to Tr24 and shared with JSTV (Japanese Satellite TV) which also moved from Tr5 (it was on for a few hours through the night on that transponder).

    The channel didn't stay there long and finally moved to Tr35 (after Astra 1C was launched) and then shared with The Family Channel. I think it must've been at this point when TCC was took over by Flextech (though I could be wrong) as Family was also owned (or part owned - I believe it was a joint venture with the channel of the same name in the US) by Flextech.

    I guess Family wasn't doing that well as that eventually metamorphised into Challenge TV.
    So weren't TCC and Lifestyle basically owned by whoever Flextech brought up???

    Like I said, WHSTV owned Lifestyle.
  • oddballoddball Posts: 258
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    You're correct, it was owned by Starstream, although I haven't a clue when the channel was acquired by Flextech.
    To be honest I actually received The Children's Channel on cable at first, we didn't get satellite until a few years later, but they got their feed from Intelsat 601. I remember that it was on two channels at the same time when Lifestyle wasn't broadcasting.
  • starstrikersnetstarstrikersnet Posts: 156
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    Originally posted by Skip Channel


    I think there are many reasons but the main ones were the increased competition from the likes of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (who were backed by huge media empires, Time Warner, VIACOM and BSkyB - TCC was owned by a relatively small company) and the fact they launched the spin off channel Trouble which was far more successful.

    Fox Kids and TV Travel Shop (yep!) also played a part. Fox Kids was yet more competition in an already crowded marketplace (much more crowded than when TCC had no direct competition at all!) and TCC's new owners, Flextech, had plans for the precious space the analogue channel was using on satellite - hence TV Travel Shop.

    I think Fox Kids also had first dibs on many of the shows TCC had. Though I could be wrong, Flextech may have sold on the rights they had to Fox Kids.

    I do believe you're correct about the Fox Kids/Flextech-TCC connection. Maybe Flextech had an interest in Fox Kids at launch alongside Sky and Saban, and that's why they pulled out of the kids market and moved into the teen market. It wouldn't surprise me, as Sky pulled all their childrens programming from Sky One for the same reason (which led to a row when they re-instated it and bought the rights to Pokemon, a move which was said to raise the ire of Fox Kids executives).

    Getting back to TCC, did anyone check out the games page of that abandoned site? With the variation on Space Invaders that includes the not-so-subtle 'N' mothership? I guess there was a lot of bitterness at the TCC camp in their dying days... ;)
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