In the late 1970s a British Phenomen made it's way stateside via syndicated package from Time Life, originally offering the first seasons of Fourth Doctor Tom Baker and the rest is cult TV history.
This beautiful piece not only has to sell the long running series to an American market but also explain it, which actually was a bit of a chore in 1978.
This beautiful piece not only has to sell the long running series to an American market but also explain it, which actually was a bit of a chore in 1978.
The Doctor's American invasion built steadily over time until today when the series has become something of a household world in North America.
Funny how none of those many words and pictures were sufficient to communicate the show's peculiar charms. You just had to see it for yourself.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of odd that there's no mention of Howard Da Silva in those pages. For anyone who hasn't heard about this: when these episodes first aired in America, Time-Life added new voice-over narration by the American actor Howard Da Silva to the opening and closing of each episode, so at the start we'd get a recap of the previous installment and at the end we'd see a preview of the next chapter. This may have been done out of fear that American viewers accustomed to self-contained stories would be confused by serialized adventures. Or maybe because local channels could be pretty reckless about schedule changes, so they were concerned about viewers missing episodes and becoming lost. Anyway, since adding Da Silva was a selling point of the American syndication package to make the show more accessible for viewers this side of the pond, I'm surprised they don't even mention that here.
ReplyDelete"Intellect and Romance
ReplyDeleteOver
Brute Force and Cynicism"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9P4SxtphJ4
ReplyDeleteEarlier than that Time Life first syndicated Doctor Who starting in 1972 with Jon Pertwee episodes. We got it Sunday Morning at 10 AM in the mid 70's. Those were syndicated from 72-78. Then the Tom Baker shows in 1978
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=325760454191434&set=a.312728178827995.54980.164975760269905&type=1&theater
ReplyDeleteIf you have Facebook here is a article from TV GUIDE 1972 talking about the Sea Devils and Doctor Who coming to America