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March 28, 2024, 10:53:46 AM

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The Day Today at 20

Started by Neil, January 19, 2014, 09:21:12 PM

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Guy

The broadcast of TDT episode 1 was my first exposure to CM too.

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on January 19, 2014, 10:09:26 PMJust pulled the DVD out. I love that the "7.00 Hanging From Studio B12 (1953)" still is under the first disc.

*wonders if that's an oblique reference to Warp act B12* (Is it bollocks.)

Quote from: Neil on January 19, 2014, 10:54:36 PMI think I recall this generating a lot of complaints as people thought it was "cunt, bitch", rather than "cop, bitch", as the people on the BBC duty log would then point out.

For years and years I thought it was "cock, bitch".

The horn stab is from Kool Is Back by Funk, Inc.

Quote from: Neil on January 19, 2014, 10:57:32 PMIn an NME interview with CM that went out when the show started, they reprinted the story that he "once apparently tried to apply make-up to victims of an accident on a TV news report", which I think comes straight from the press release.

That one was also in the blurb on the back of the VHS covers, so to quite some extent was directly furthered by the TDT team themselves.

There was a bit of talk recently about the difference between the look of the pilot and the series. The first time I saw the pilot (when I got the DVD) I thought the look of it was very reminiscent of something like The Channel 4 Daily rather than the exaggeratedly slicker beast it became. Having just watched this clip of the C4 Daily, those bordered graphics and the set are totally TDT pilot aren't they? And Dermot Murnaghan even has the hair of the pilot Christopher Morris. :)

McChesney Duntz

TDT is, to my mind, damn near perfect; scarcely a wasted second or half-hearted gesture in its six half-hours.  I honestly can't think of any program that compares in terms of pure comedic consistency (even On The Hour had a few comparatively dry patches, likely due to its looser, more improv-based creative approach, but even its rambles have a considerable charm to them).  I have more to say, but I'll save it for a TDT-centric blog post I'm working on; I'll post a link when it's done and look forward to having every suspect assertion and misappropriated piece of received wisdom torn to shreds by the CaB brain trust.

Until then, a couple of stray observations and queries:

* While looking for embeddable bits for the aforementioned blog post, I rewatched "RokTV" and was slightly taken aback to see Madonna as the subject of the, um, "vaginal zoom" logo-bumper bit near the end.  The version I have (from a torrent I snagged years ago, probably supplied by one or another of the CaB crowd) uses a clip of Cher from her "If I Could Turn Back Time" video instead.  So what's the story there?  Which came first?  Was this a change made between original broadcast and repeats or a switch made for the home-video version(s)?  Does anyone know of any other edits/alterations of that sort?  (I'm already aware of the "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" switchout from the "Elvicution" sketch, which actually makes the bit funnier IMO.)

* While we're celebrating round-numbered birthdays, let's not forget that we also just passed the 20th anniversary of Why Bother?, which I was somewhat surprised to realize went out on Radio 3 the week before TDT's debut.  Being able to enjoy all of these projects all at once muddles up the chronology quite a bit, so it's incredible to realize what a period of concentrated, top-level creativity 1993-94 was for all involved: the last of CM's GLR shows and the first of the Radio 1 ones; TDT; Why Bother?; the TV version of KMKYWAP*; and I'm sure I'm leaving something out as well.  I mean, just fucking wow.

* (this is a footnote-type asterisk, not a bullet-point-type asterisk, if anyone's confused; of course, those with keen eyesight will already have noticed that the f-t a has a distinguishing scar on its top-left point that it sustained in a drunken scuffle with a roaming gang of hashtags)  It always strikes me funny that the radio version of KMKYWAP dates back to only a few months after the second series of OTH, just because it doesn't jibe with the chronology of the (slight) rise and (steep) decline of Alan Partridge (the man, not the character, if that makes sense).  To go from sport desk to chat show back to sport desk and then to chat show again doesn't feel right to me, arc-wise.  (May have to pull I, Partridge off the shelf and see how it's laid out there.)  Of course, none of those responsible likely had any idea how enduring AP would be or how much richness and texture they'd get out of following the troughs and valleys of his professional and personal lives in more or less real time, so it's surely a matter of little concern.  In fact, I might safely wager that I'm the only person in the world for whom this has even the slightest consequence.  I really need to start socializing more.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: HappyTree on January 20, 2014, 12:10:54 AM
Ah, it's "cop". I've always thought he was saying "tough".

^

check this shit out

BlodwynPig

I always thought it was "Womble, bitch"

Pepotamo1985

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on January 23, 2014, 01:40:48 AM
* While looking for embeddable bits for the aforementioned blog post, I rewatched "RokTV" and was slightly taken aback to see Madonna as the subject of the, um, "vaginal zoom" logo-bumper bit near the end.  The version I have (from a torrent I snagged years ago, probably supplied by one or another of the CaB crowd) uses a clip of Cher from her "If I Could Turn Back Time" video instead.  So what's the story there?  Which came first?  Was this a change made between original broadcast and repeats or a switch made for the home-video version(s)?  Does anyone know of any other edits/alterations of that sort?  (I'm already aware of the "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" switchout from the "Elvicution" sketch, which actually makes the bit funnier IMO.)

http://sotcaa.org/history/sotcaa2000/index.html

McChesney Duntz

Ah, glorious.  I thought the vintage SOTCAA site had been lost forever in the digital mist.  Cheers.

Subtle Mocking

I did have a thought the other day that the 999/Helicopter sketch might be the most densely-packed sketch ever made in terms of jokes.

Pepotamo1985

Really?

I never found it that funny.

Then again, the last time I watched it I was...15, so maybe the passage of time will help reveal hidden truths and funny.


Thomas

I love it.

'If a helicopter hits the ground at a hundred miles per hour, it can be rebuilt.'

'A watch we later found to have a dangerous design.'

Artemis

Just the very concept of an old lady going to the (then) trouble of videoing a potential tragedy before calling the emergency services, then explicitly copyrighting the footage before allowing it to be used on a pseudo-educational television show is enough to get me chortling, 20 years later.

Kane Jones

Quote from: Pepotamo1985 on January 24, 2014, 12:16:54 AM

I never found it that funny.


The 15 year old Pepo didn't even laugh at the "narrowly avoided hitting an old woman up a stick in a field" bit?  That's the sort of Pythonesque absurdity I loved as a teen.

At this point I can safely say I prefer On The Hour. I still have love for The Day Today but for me it hasn't withstood repeat viewings like OTH has repeat listens. Maybe something to do with the medium? Who knows.

FredNurke

Missed it when it was first broadcast, though I did see some of the little trailer sections; first saw it sometime in 1997-98 via a friend's video. Said friend watched TDT before watching any of Newsnight, and when he finally did see Newsnight he spent the whole time laughing, because it had been rendered utterly ridiculous. What greater testimony to the power of TDT could there be?

Subtle Mocking

Quote from: Artemis on January 24, 2014, 03:18:07 AM
Just the very concept of an old lady going to the (then) trouble of videoing a potential tragedy before calling the emergency services, then explicitly copyrighting the footage before allowing it to be used on a pseudo-educational television show is enough to get me chortling, 20 years later.

And filming the potential tragedy for ten minutes before deciding to call the emergency services, whose number starts with '3'.

Thomas

I didn't notice it until recently, but rain against the windows of the travel pod is a nice touch.

Hangthebuggers

Quote from: Kane Jones on January 24, 2014, 07:55:34 AM
The 15 year old Pepo didn't even laugh at the "narrowly avoided hitting an old woman up a stick in a field" bit?  That's the sort of Pythonesque absurdity I loved as a teen.

He later used the 'stick' gag in the sex episode of BE. With the asexual man up a stick clapping.

But yeah TDT is just damn near perfect.

SteveDave

A few years ago I found out that my friend hadn't seen TDT nor Brasseye so I bought both DVDs for his birthday & we settled down to watch them. He liked both series but said "He thought there'd be more" such was a) my fervour for them & b) their reputation. But in a way I think that's why they have such a reputation.

Big faced man, too flappy for yacht says captain

Stevie81

In 1983 - Nobody Died.

'These police uniforms are just too small'

Wet Blanket

Quote from: SteveDave on February 09, 2014, 01:32:26 PM
A few years ago I found out that my friend hadn't seen TDT nor Brasseye so I bought both DVDs for his birthday & we settled down to watch them. He liked both series but said "He thought there'd be more" such was a) my fervour for them & b) their reputation. But in a way I think that's why they have such a reputation.

Big faced man, too flappy for yacht says captain

Is there any story as to why TDT didn't return for a second series? 

Thomas

There's mention of it here - http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?page=cabkbarticle&id=185

Quote from: Chris Morris, 1994'From the word go I thought in terms of two series, and there were talks about another one next year; but I increasingly think it's a one-off thing. We may make one more programme, but a whole series... times have changed... the whole thing is... in 12 months' time everyone's going to be such a coke-headed egomaniac that it'll be totally impossible'.

Interesting that that template, of a series and then a one-off thing, was eventually used for Brass Eye. The Steve Coogan foresight, too.

Wet Blanket

That is interesting. As is his apparent distaste at the state of comedy in the early 1990s, now regarded as a golden era.

Glebe

Quote'in 12 months' time Steve Coogan's going to be such a coke-headed egomaniac that it'll be totally impossible'.

zomgmouse



The opening and closing credits are both also jampacked with fantasticity, from Chris Morris sticking his face into the main title to the almost neverending theme music at the start to the fake credits (like "MAPS - FAYE DUNAWAY" or "THRIFT FUNNEL - GEORGE CLINTON") and dimmed-out antics (e.g. heroin) at the end. He continued that credits japery in Brass Eye, too, and took it even further, managing to fit all of Deep Purple into the credits of one of the episodes somehow.

The newspaper headlines and assorted treats are sublime, too, as they were in On the Hour. "The Daily Telegraph and other broadsheets feature tabs here down the side for ease of turning the pages..."

I recently watched This Is David Lander/Harper after having listened to Delve Special a few years back and couldn't help but be struck by a few similarities in spirit that Chris Morris - and especially The Day Today/On the Hour - has with this particular show. Letting alone that it's a mock-investigative journalism programme, the deadpan daffiness is what really struck me. It doesn't reach the same heights that Chris Morris does, but it was there.

Also, the thing that they did here with the "audio caption" to a real video clip was also done on HIGNFY, I wonder if Morris was aware. Probably.

neveragain

Someone in a post above me (I can't find it now) mentioned On The Hour having some 'dry patches'. I'd be interested to hear what they are as I've re-listened countlessly and love all of it. Except perhaps the reports on Wimbledon and public schools in s2, which just have a bit of a dreary atmosphere that sort of sucks out the joy ...and the earthquake bit because it isn't as good as the train crash, but I do love the space documentary and all of the Audio Pullouts.

McChesney Duntz

That was me, I'm pretty sure, and you've named the bits I was thinking of.  (One of them - maybe the public schools piece, that was the "urine man" one, right? - was even capped with an acknowledgement of that fact, with CM saying something along the lines of "Genuinelyhumourous Comedyreportername there with those... six minutes.")  Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way claiming that those pieces are bad, just the slightest bit - not "conventional," per se, but not quite as tightly packed as the rest of the show.  But, as Nigel Tufnel so wisely posited, that's nitpicking, innit?  OTH and TDT are both near-perfect things, and to say that any of it falls short is just a way of avoiding coming off like an uncritical, "it's all great!" fanperson.  Which is tough because, well, it's all great!  The "lesser" material in this case would be, say, a 7.5 where we're used to them knocking off 9s and 10s without breaking a sweat.  Sometimes I guess I need  to be reminded of what an aberrant standard that whole group set, that such sustained, concentrated brilliance is not to be taken for granted.  And even there, they kindly included "Thank God It's Satire Day" so I don't even have to go through the pain of finding and listening to a lesser show for said reminder.

Also, I don't care how many times I've heard them, "'Kleenex-Fingered Man Too Flappy For Yacht,' Rules Judge" and the name "Conan Batterschrist" make me laugh like a snarky hyena on nitrous oxide, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  God, the number of tranquilizer darts I've taken in the neck for that...

Child Sloth Stumbles Out of Sandwich might be my favourite headline from the entirety of OTH and TDT combined.

neveragain

QuoteNigel Tufnel... Kleenex-Fingered

I agree with you most heartily.
Except for the '...six minutes' bit, which is for the Barton's Matches section. A section par excellence in my opinion. Crammed with jokes, maybe a few minutes too much.

Depressed Beyond Tables

I still maintain that that's Bill Bailey in the MTV spoof jingle.

benthalo

Quote from: Subtle Mocking on January 24, 2014, 12:37:42 PM
And filming the potential tragedy for ten minutes before deciding to call the emergency services, whose number starts with '3'.

And she's got the same name as the drummer from the Velvet Underground.

I haven't watched The Day Today since it came out on DVD. I knew it too well, but maybe it's time to look again.

Captain Z

I love the finger-point during the 'Speak Your Brains' segment in episode 2. I have always been fascinated as to whether the "complaint" was written confusingly on purpose with the intention of Chris making the gesture, or whether the guy was actually too dim to realise that [point at mouth] was an instruction, forcing Chris to react lightning-fast.