Back To The Future

Great Scott, 3 classic films in one trilogy. A feat not match (well except for the original Star Wars trilogy).

Award winning filmmakers Steven Speilberg & Robert Zemeckis joined forces to produce probably one of the biggest film franchise of the 80s. With an off the wall storyline and ahead of it's time special effects, The Back To The Future trilogy become one of the best loved and very successful trilogies of all time. Still enjoyed by millions, whilst constantly being introduced to new fans, the films have never aged.

The first film was introduced in 1985, staring Michael J Fox as the high school time traveller, Marty McFly. Travelling back in time to 1955 in the DeLorean time machine created by the ever eccentric Doc Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd). As Marty is transported into the past, he's on a race against time to get his parents (who are both high school students in 1955) together so that he doesn't disappear from time itself. With plenty of action and laughs, the first film of the trilogy went on to become the highest grossing film of 1985.

It would be another four years before the sequel was released into the movie theaters. Again the film went on to become a box office hit. This time Marty & the Doc have to travel to the future, to the year 2015 to save Marty's children from getting into trouble. However whilst in the future, not all goes to plan and they must go back to 1955 to correct the errors of the future.

During the making of the second film, the filmmakers also shoot the third & final installment of the trilogy. The film was eventually released during the summer of 1990 (however we still consider it an 80s gem). The film was set in the Wild West and due to the era and it's lack of technology produce probably the best story of the trilogy.

Throughout the trilogy, the films retain all the original characters and represents them during the different time zones that the films are set in. Who can forget the Tannen clan, causing mayhem whatever the decade is? Or the family members, past, present and future of the McFly family? Also the strict presence of the Strickland family tree?

2015 is going to be the 30th anniversary of the 1st film and also the year that the second film is set. What have they planned for next year to celebrate this milestone? Hopefully a full reunion of the cast with a TV special or DVD / Blu-Ray documentary and will we actually be wearing the self fastening Nike trainers and "skateboarding" on our hover boards?

Whatever happens, I'm sure the fans won't be let down and more importantly we have been lucky enough to have been given such an excellent trilogy of films.

Saturday Morning TV

Who can forget the TV viewing on a Saturday morning when they were kids. To most this was what the week was made for. A long week at school with very early mornings, but come Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to tune into the morning's TV shows that was popular at the time.

This was essential viewing as the "magazine" format ticked all the boxes - live music, interviews, competitions, cartoons plus much more.

However it all started in 1976, when the BBC launched SWAP SHOP. Originally planned for six shows, it aired for 6 years!!! It paved the way for other shows (and channels) to revamp the trusted format and make it their own. Making their hosts (Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin, John Craven & Maggie Philbin) household names, whilst introducing new stars in the making from the World of TV, film and music.

After SWAP SHOP finished the BBC upgraded the show and SATURDAY SUPERSTORE was born. The format was the same, but the BBC altered the format slightly by dropping the SWAPPING element.

Again this show was a huge success for the BBC with millions of school children tuning in each week. The BBC had a wining formula and continued to dominate the Saturday morning TV slot.

During the last season of SATURDAY SUPERSTORE a new host was introduced, Phillip Schofield. It was during this season that the BBC decided to revamp the format of the show and in 1987 introduced GOING LIVE! The show ran for 176 programmes and ended in 1993.

Not to be outdone by the BBC, ITV (and it's regional channels) also had a number of Saturday morning TV shows that proved as popular.

ITV's most popular show was TISWAS. The show was first shown in the 70s on a variety of channels before finding it's home on ITV. The show ended in 1982, but is still consider to be a classic and many have called for the show to re-introduced to the TV screens.

However, ITV came up with other formats for the Saturday morning viewing. The channel introduced GET FRESH!, NUMBER 73, TX : READY FOR TRANSMISSION to name a few. ITV were considered to be more OTT shows that were thinking outside of the box.

Whatever show or channel you supported, we as "kids" of the 80s had some great shows to view on a Saturday morning. We were very lucky and also spoilt for choice (considering we were limited to 4 channels). Look out for further blog entries on the individual shows in the future!

Pac-Man Mania

Can you believe that the beloved Video Game, PAC-MAN,  is to make a comeback on the British TV screens?

Can you also believe that the original game is 34 years old - wow that makes me feel old!

Pac-Man, one of the most popular and beloved video games of the 1980s was first introduced to us in October 1980 and has enjoyed massive success ever since.

In it's first year alone, the game sold over 100,000 units in America, making it an instant success. Kids would fill arcades everywhere just to spend their pennies on playing the game.

The idea of Pac-Man is to eat 240 dots whilst being chased (and if unlucky eaten) by the 4 four ghosts - Blinky, Inky, Pinky & Clyde. However you did have four power pellets which, when eaten, would turn the ghosts blue and you could then eat them to score more points. With 255 levels to play, you could score additional bonus points by eating the various fruits on offer (these would appear randomly on each level), these included a cherry, strawberry, orange, apple and even a key at the highest level (something I've never achieved).

In 1981, Ms Pac-Man was introduced to the gaming public. The format of her game was the same, but she had multiple mazes, moving fruit & faster gameplay. This too became a success, but many die-hards weren't impressed and preferred the original format of Pac-Man which was still popular and still outsold Ms Pac-Man.

During 1982, Hannah-Barbera introduced the cartoon series of Pac-Man to the USA tv screens. It also featured in the UK as part of Timmy Mallett's Wide Awake Club - something that I used to get up early on School Holidays to watch.

Not only was Pac-Man a video game and a cartoon, there was also a single released under the branding called PAC-MAN FEVER which sold over 1,000,000 units.

Pac-Man fever was definitely high and the demand was getting bigger & better. Pac-Man was also awarded by the Guinness World Records as the "Most Successful Coin Operated Game".

From a simple idea, the branding grew to be one of the best brands of the 80s. Who would have though that this game which was only 24kb in size (one for the computer geeks) would become so popular.

To this very day, the game is still being played (and let's admit it, it's most people's favourite game - I know it's mine). It help pave the way for the games of today.

Here's a little link to play the game online, have fun : http://www.freepacman.org/welcome.php

LaserDisc

The 80s was a very exciting time in terms of advancements in technology and also the affordability within the household.

Some advancements became so successful, whilst others found it hard to break the market.

One of these to not find commercial success is the LaserDisc (LD), which may become a surprise to many as it was the blueprint for CDs & DVDs.

Although the disc was invented in 1958 (patented in 1961 and 1990), it was during the 80s that the LaserDisc tried to break the home entertainment market, along with the VHS & BetaMax video systems.

Who can forget the excitement of putting together the Doomday Project? Launched in 1986 by the BBC, it was ambitious project to record a snapshot of everyday life across the UK. With many schools and organisations volunteering to have their items preserved for future generations to view. The medium used to record the information was the LaserDisc, due to the size of storage and the quality of pictures, etc. More to come on the Doomsday Project in a future blog entry.

So why didn't the LaserDisc become a success it should have?

Yes we had the video cassette, but this type of media storage was very limited and the quality was not the best. The LaserDisc was, after all, formatted for Digital Audio (this was introduced in 1985) and the picture quality was far superior.

The reason for the lack of commercial success was the cost of the hardware to play the Discs and also the limited number of "video" titles available. During it's height, the number of households in America to own a LaserDisc player was roughly 2 million (about 2%), whereas in Japan (it's biggest market) 10% of the households owned a player. Although these figures look impressive, they couldn't compete with the traditional video format.

However as the cost of production lowered and further advancements came about, LaserDiscs became DVDs, which is now being replaced by the BluRay discs. Looking back it's strange to see how this technological gadget did not do better considering it brought the concept of the DVD / BluRay to the buying public.