Originally Posted by KarlHyde:
“While movies from the west were often shown on GDR television, US TV shows like Bonanza or Dallas were unthinkable. I'm not sure if politics or money was the main reason.”
“While movies from the west were often shown on GDR television, US TV shows like Bonanza or Dallas were unthinkable. I'm not sure if politics or money was the main reason.”
Well, East Germany was known for being a particularly loyal ally of the Soviet Union (until Glasnost), and the Soviets didn't show any American series either. According to Green, another reason may have been that East German TV had a significant amount of domestic production and therefore didn't need to turn to U.S. series for entertainment.
Speaking of the Soviets, this is how Timothy Green describes a typical evening's TV lineup in Moscow in the early 1970s:
"The choice in Moscow, for instance, at eight o'clock one Tuesday in July 1971 was -- U.S.S.R. soccer championships on Channel 1, a profile of worker in a vacuum cleaner factory on Channel 2, a German lesson on Channel 3, and a new film, Bracelet 2, on Channel 4."
According to Green, the first channel was the flagship channel, broadcast across the Soviet Union, but not simultaneously because of the country's many time zones. The second channel was the local Moscow channel, "concentrating primarily on the capital scene..., covering events of the day, local sports and including plenty of live coverage of concerts and ballet." The third channel was "purely educational," while the fourth channel was mostly highbrow/cultural.
In 1971, the Soviet Union was the only country in the world to use satellites as a primary method of domestic television distribution. According to Green, "Well over three-quarters of all homes can watch at least one channel, while in nearly fifty cities there is both a national channel from Moscow and a regional channel. Leningrad has three channels, Moscow itself boasts four. The Russians are not content to rest at that. The main national programme from Moscow will blanket the entire Soviet Union early in the 1970s, including the remotest and most sparsely populated regions. In addition, regional television centres with five channels are being built in Tashkent and Frunze in the south and Vilnius near the Polish border. The ultimate aim is to have five channels available to every Soviet citizen."
Originally Posted by Darren Lethem:
“Thanks for this. That has to be the worlds worst EVER news theme tune
”
“Thanks for this. That has to be the worlds worst EVER news theme tune
”
I suppose the fanfare used at the beginning of this 1984 Hungarian newscast could be a runner up in that contest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drjtj1LtKIA
Although I quite like the theme they used a few years later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxpWWDVE4wU





Here's the rain-swept 1970 Final (not 1971 as stated in the title) from the Arena di Verona, with Great Yarmouth representing the UK:
