Most Egregious TV Researcher Failures To Do One Fucking Thing Prior To Broadcast

[the]

I just bowled in from the pub and caught a bit of Channel 5's 1995: TV's Most ANAL SEX Year*

^{*insert the actual 'clickbait' style title which, in case you haven't noticed, forms C5's entire business model}

In amongst looking up BARB ratings and then using that as a basis to point out that sausage factory shit which'd had its arse torn out already (ie. Heartbeat, London's Burning) was POPULAR in its EIGHTH series (and therefore worthy of inclusion and merit), it also tried to convince me that the Trebor 'Mr. Soft' advert was a slice of 1995-based advert-ostalgia.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Mr. Soft adverts appear in fucking 1987 or thereabouts?

... And lo and behold, if you (you being a drippy "TV researcher" sat on your lazy middle class media studies arsehole) do a Google search for 'trebor mr soft', a Youtube clip comes up titled "Trebor Softmints Ad 1995" (which is in fact a later updated version, not the original one shown on said clipshow). Fucking meticulous these people, aren't they?

[beanheadmcginty]

I caught the end of Flog It on Thursday while waiting for Pointless to come on and the lot coming up for auction was a load of Lovejoy scripts. That horrible wet blanket Chris de Burgh lookalike presenter (Paul something?) then said to the owner of said scripts "ooh, my favourite character was Tinker. Always tinkering with things." Clearly neither he nor anyone involved in making the programme had made any attempt to find out about Lovejoy, which is pretty fucking lazy for a BBC antiques programme. Luckily the scripts sold for 160 quid above the guide price, so no one involved gave a shit.

[St_Eddie]

I caught the end of Flog It on Thursday while waiting for Pointless to come on and the lot coming up for auction was a load of Lovejoy scripts. That horrible wet blanket Chris de Burgh lookalike presenter (Paul something?) then said to the owner of said scripts "ooh, my favourite character was Tinker. Always tinkering with things." Clearly neither he nor anyone involved in making the programme had made any attempt to find out about Lovejoy, which is pretty fucking lazy for a BBC antiques programme. Luckily the scripts sold for 160 quid above the guide price, so no one involved gave a shit.

Ooh, my favourite character was Eric Catchpole.  Always catching things with his pole.

[studpuppet]

Ooh, my favourite character was Eric Catchpole.  Always catching things with his pole.

I thought he was the medieval jester guy?

[St_Eddie]

I thought he was the medieval jester guy?

Are you sure that you're not thinking of Carrick Etchpole?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ooh, my favourite character was Eric Catchpole.  Always catching things with his pole.

:D

[NoSleep]

That horrible wet blanket Chris de Burgh lookalike presenter (Paul something?) then said to the owner of said scripts "ooh, my favourite character was Tinker. Always tinkering with things."

If I had been the researcher and some Chris De Burgh lookalike had badgered me for some tidbit of knowledge about Lovejoy, I might have purposefully armed him with something that made him look even more of a dick. I have been known to do things like this given the right circumstances.

[Satchmo Distel]

Mr Claypole, the original Russell Brand.

Mr Claycock, any male pop star done by Cynthia Plaster Caster

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'm still unreasonably annoyed by that episode of Radio 2's Pick of the Pops in which Dale Winton (RIP) followed Manfred Mann's cover of Just Like a Woman with Dylan's I Want You, and failed to mention that they were written by the same person. I mean, come on, Dale, that would've provided a fairly interesting link of sorts? Shoddy shite like that would never happen under Gambaccini's fact-checking watch.

[mothman]

Not TV, but I can pinpoint three reasons why I stopped listening to TrekMovie.com's Shuttlepod podcast. One was one of the contributors having an annoying nasally voice; another was one of the others apparently reciting his audio from inside a steel drum in his bathroom. But worst of all to me were systemic failures in knowing basic background Star Trek BTS facts and series lore, armed with which they could have tied things together a lot more and had less convention attendance anecdotes and name dropping.

[kngen]

A Border TV continuity announcer around the time The Empire Strikes Back came out: 'And be sure to pick up a copy of the TV Times, which has Star Wars villain Darth VADDER on the cover.'

Introduced the possibility to seven-year-old me that grown-ups might be talking out of their arses a lot of the time, no matter how authoritative they sounded.

[NoSleep]

I wonder how he pronounced Douglas Bader's surname?

[St_Eddie]

I wonder how he pronounced Douglas Bader's surname?

"Sjsivuutz"

[kngen]

I wonder how he pronounced Douglas Bader's surname?

A little shocked sounding, because one of Britain's finest heroes had somehow fallen in with the Red Army Faction.

[mothman]

A little shocked sounding, because one of Britain's finest heroes had somehow fallen in with the Red Army Faction.

No, they were pussycats compared to the Badder Meinhof Gang.

[Johnny Yesno]

I wonder how he pronounced Douglas Bader's surname?

I don't think we can make any predictions, given that Bader and Vader are pronounced differently to start with. James Spader and Ralph Nader, on the other hand...