[Neil Jones]

What the original American version of Fun House looked like in its Pilot state:
www.youtube.com 

Like most of these compared to what our version eventually became, it looks and feels a bit flat. They did tweak the format a bit before taking it to series, but I can't see they kept the bike race. They used some other race variations and the odd vehicle, but not anything like the pilot, whereas we had the go-karts from the off.

Still, we got ten years out of this format, it only lasted three seasons in the US.

[tellyblues]

I imagine if the UK version had been daily as well, it wouldn't have lasted ten years.

[James2001]

Clips from a Disney Club episode from November 1995. This video used to be online years ago, but it vanished, but now it's back, and in 50fps. Quite notable as The Disney Club used to straddle the 9:25 switch between GMTV and the ITV company- you can see the switch at 3:15 (clearly the region this was recorded from still had a TV-am esque non-sync switch), and you have both GMTV and STV for IT\* endcaps. I don't think any other show straddled the switch, at least not until Lorraine started doing it over 20 years later, but the distinction between the breakfast and regular hours had all but gone by then anyway (apart from in STV land).

www.youtube.com 

Warning for jailbird Paul/Des Ballard who looks VERY young here compared to clips from Diggit only a couple of years later.

[Milkshake]

The Disney Straddle between 8am and 10.45 on Sundays, could NEVER make up its mind. Some times they would have Disney Adventure, but then sometimes they would incorporate that into the main Disney club show from 8.

That 95 series - the second from Kent house has Craig Doyle, in charge, and I think its if 4th show in control.

[James2001]

Another familar face in there is Gunnar Cauthery who's probably better known as Lloyd on the Demon Headmaster- the first series had presumably been filmed by this point, but didn't air for another 6 weeks. I think he's the only one of the show's main child cast still acting (a bit of research shows he played Gary Lineker in a west end play about Gareth Southgate last year!)

[Neil Jones]

Another familar face in there is Gunnar Cauthery who's probably better known as Lloyd on the Demon Headmaster- the first series had presumably been filmed by this point, but didn't air for another 6 weeks. I think he's the only one of the show's main child cast still acting (a bit of research shows he played Gary Lineker in a west end play about Gareth Southgate last year!)

Long done I'd have thought by that point, considering the school scenes for Demon Headmaster were done in an actual school (and they make up a good chunk of the original three episodes of the first series), so it makes logical sense for those to be done during the six weeks holiday - the other exteriors can be done anywhere anytime (and some studio work I presume for some of the interiors).

But yes, I think Disney Club is probably relatively unique in this era for straddling (I notice it gets a GMTV "endcap" on the video followed by STV). A couple of years later the F1 coverage would technically occasionally straddle for the races that went out early morning (or occasionally completely take the whole 3.5hrs over).

[James2001]

In that case, I don't think the F1 was considered part of GMTV's hours, and they got that time back with extended slots on certain days.

[Steve in Pudsey]

So what happened technically at 9.25 in that era?

Up to 9.25 the programme was being played out by GMTV. In the run up to 9.25 each region put an incoming feed off the programme on their output so when BT switched them to air it was all fairly seamless.

But that "STV presentation for ITV" endcap makes me wonder whether it's still being played out from the same facility (though now under the auspices of LWT) as would make sense or if STV are feeding it to the network?

[James2001]

On that video, the switch occurs at the end of an ad break, so there wouldn't have been any sort of glitch or interuption to the show itself. How it was handled in terms of playout though, I don't know, was the whole thing played out by either GMTV or STV and just routed through the other, or were the pre and post 9:25 segments played out from different places? Likely the former, the latter feels like it would be ridiculously convoluted, but there's no way of telling just from the video.

The Friday episode of Home and Away was a show that straddled the Thames/LWT switch as well (though by the back end of 1992 it seems to have moved after the early evening news rather than before it, so entirely within LWT), I'm pretty sure in that case it was played out by Thames and routed through LWT- and the switch did happen mid show, not during a break.

[Neil Jones]

I would speculate it makes more sense that pre 9:25 was routed through GMTV, and post 9:25 came through the normal networking arrangements, presumably everybody just put this feed (STV or LWT) to air ready for 9:25.

As James2001 alludes to above, it just seems too complicated to bodge it any other way, there's too much to go wrong.

Must be remembered of course, GMTV was partly owned by STV (and LWT), Disney and The Guardian so it probably made logical sense to get Disney Club on the air through one or the other of these companies