Author Topic: The "Still" Life (Read 5212 times)

TimK2003 · « **on:** January 12, 2007, 10:23:29 AM »

Not sure of the exact terminology, but this is a question regarding the official network slides, art cards and/or stills that were used on screen for a number of different reasons:

* Technical Difficulties
* Program Pre-emption
* Promo Plug
* "We Now Join 'Hit Man' (i.e.) already in progress".

How long did each network use those all-purpose stills? I want to say that NBC used them the longest -- through the mid-80s?

And for nostalgia sake, were there any favorites or interesting stills that stood out, in your opinions?

tpirfan28 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 12, 2007, 10:41:57 AM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'143028\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 10:23 AM\']
Not sure of the exact terminology, but this is a question regarding the official network slides, art cards and/or stills that were used on screen for a number of different reasons:

* Technical Difficulties
* Program Pre-emption
* Promo Plug
* "We Now Join 'Hit Man' (i.e.) already in progress".

How long did each network use those all-purpose stills? I want to say that NBC used them the longest -- through the mid-80s?

And for nostalgia sake, were there any favorites or interesting stills that stood out, in your opinions?
[/quote]
There's a picture over at Golden-Road.net with a still from the Kennedy-era "TPiR", which leads to either '85 or '86.

(It's in the Gallery->Price in the USA->Remember When?->The Hosts.)

Neumms · « **Reply #2 on:** January 12, 2007, 10:51:40 AM »

CBS had a terrific one, if not more, with a great cartoon of a man taking dozens of nuts and bolts out of the camera. They were a classy operation.

DrBear · « **Reply #3 on:** January 12, 2007, 10:59:27 AM »

Slightly off this particular topic, but...

I was watching a clip show the other day and it had the clip from MG where Gene Rayburn took to a whompin' the poor cue card guy with his own cardboard. Funny, of course, but what caught my eye was the offstage easel with the art card-singular. Never dawned on me - but of course it should have - that they would have two or three items (in this case, the art for the end-of-show parting gift plug and the ticket plug) on the same card, to save having to put new cards up with every change.

Not that it's surprising they did that, it's just that the thing finally clicked in. Which is why I'm not in TV production. (When I was a kid, I pictured a TV studio having all kinds of individual studios for each particular show it was doing - one for the news, one for the kids show, one for the Packers show, one for the noontime cooking show, one for Dialing for Dollars...never occured to my 7-year-old mind you just needed one big room and people to put up and take down sets.)

cmjb13 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 12, 2007, 11:04:45 AM »

[quote name=\'DrBear\' post=\'143035\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 10:59 AM\']
Funny, of course, but what caught my eye was the offstage easel with the art card-singular.
[/quote]
I had always wondered how they did that until I saw Price for the first time in 2000. I guess I thought it was more difficult than it really was.

MikeK · « **Reply #5 on:** January 12, 2007, 06:32:33 PM »

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'143028\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 10:23 AM\']And for nostalgia sake, were there any favorites or interesting stills that stood out, in your opinions?[/quote]
I like the two I own--a Hit Man slide and something I acquired off of eBay a few months back, a Wheel of Fortune art card with Chuck Woolery which is very 70s. They make great desktop wallpaper (read: take it and enjoy!) until several of your students see your desktop and ask about the freaky looking guy whose name isn't Pat Sajak.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 12, 2007, 07:26:20 PM »

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'143081\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 07:32 PM\']
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'143028\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 10:23 AM\']And for nostalgia sake, were there any favorites or interesting stills that stood out, in your opinions?[/quote]
I like the two I own--a Hit Man slide and something I acquired off of eBay a few months back, a Wheel of Fortune art card with Chuck Woolery which is very 70s. They make great desktop wallpaper (read: take it and enjoy!) until several of your students see your desktop and ask about the freaky looking guy whose name isn't Pat Sajak.
[/quote]

As far as the "Hit Man" slide, that's EXACTLY what my original post referred to, as far as the network-produced slides go.

I can say that I have seen art cards & slides used by local stations (moreso the independent stations) all the way into the early 90's. What was WXON -- TV 20 in Detroit used to have slides/cards going into and out of most, if not all, of their breaks.

WXON had some great ones, as I recall, for Love Connection, The Newlywed Game, and Perfect Match (The Goen Version), to name a few.

If anybody has any game shows with the art cards/slides intact, link an image -- it would be pretty interesting to see how they did them in each local market.

Now as far as that Woolery card...if that picture doesn't make you think of "Naturally Stoned", I don't know what does!! That would have made one helluva picture sleeve for Chuck's one-hit-wonder 45.

BrandonFG · « **Reply #7 on:** January 12, 2007, 07:44:59 PM »

[quote name=\'MikeK\' post=\'143081\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 06:32 PM\']
[quote name=\'TimK2003\' post=\'143028\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 10:23 AM\']And for nostalgia sake, were there any favorites or interesting stills that stood out, in your opinions?[/quote]
I like the two I own--a Hit Man slide and something I acquired off of eBay a few months back, a Wheel of Fortune art card with Chuck Woolery which is very 70s. They make great desktop wallpaper (read: take it and enjoy!) until several of your students see your desktop and ask about the freaky looking guy whose name isn't Pat Sajak.
[/quote]
There's another one that I'm assuming is also an art card, that surfaced on "Naturally Stoned". It's basically Chuck holding an index card, and Wheel of Fortune is in a stereotypically-70s font (If anyone remembers the old Taco Bell logo, it was a font similar to that).

Somewhere out there in cyberspace, there's an art card from Dawson Feud, with a pic that I believe has been published in a few game show books. Judging by the "Come on Along!" graphic, I'd guess it's from the 1982 TV season...I'll look for the Feud one.

JasonA1 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 12, 2007, 07:58:01 PM »

Here you go.

-Jason

BrandonFG · « **Reply #9 on:** January 12, 2007, 08:13:08 PM »

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'143094\' date=\'Jan 12 2007, 07:58 PM\']
Here you go.
[/quote]
Indeed. Thank you.

/Gold star.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #10 on:** January 12, 2007, 09:36:27 PM »

Anybody feel like kickin' it old school?

Wish I had more...

Concentration
The Price Is Right (One of my favorite pix of Bill)
To Tell the Truth (OK, not so old)

BrandonFG · « **Reply #11 on:** January 12, 2007, 09:54:28 PM »

On LMaD, when a TV was displayed, they usually had a card of Monty in front of a curtain, pointing at the "logo", which was printed on the card (so in other words, Monty was pointing in the air). Were any of those ever used for slides?

MikeK · « **Reply #12 on:** January 12, 2007, 10:04:49 PM »

Here's another one I have which I didn't mention, a very colorful Name That Tune slide from late in the Tom Kennedy run. Again, 1024x768, perfect as desktop wallpaper.

trainman · « **Reply #13 on:** January 13, 2007, 01:23:13 AM »

I just recently saw somewhere ABC's "in case of emergency" instructions for this year's Dick Clark New Year's special that made reference to them having a show title graphic ready to put on the air, just in case. I know that, at least as of a few years ago, they did have a standardized-design show title "slide" ready to go for each of their shows. Nothing fancy like the art cards in this thread -- the design I'm familiar with had the show title in white serif italic lettering over a background of repeating ABC logos. (If they are still using these, I wouldn't be surprised if they changed the design during the "yellow" era.)

I know one of those graphics did end up on the air for quite a while on October 17, 1989 -- it said "WORLD SERIES."

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #14 on:** January 13, 2007, 01:44:11 AM »

Sometimes you will see those graphics on ABC's soaps when they are joined in progress with a booth announcer informing us what we missed.

Tim mentioned Ch. 20 in Detroit. I interviewed for a job there in 1988, but I didn't get it, and I'm pretty sure for the reason I'm about to describe. I answered an ad in the paper for the job and got a call to interview. The gentleman asked me to come to the station on a Wednesday at 4:30pm, which I thought was a little odd to schedule an interview on the half-hour, but hey I needed the job, so why quibble?

The first thing the guy said to me when I got to the station at 4:30 was "Ya know, you were supposed to be here at 4." Needless to say I never heard from him again.