This week we celebrate 50 years of Play For Today. On this day in 1970, the very first play was broadcast – The Long Distance Piano Player, starring Ray Davies. I will be broadcasting this at 9.20, the same time it originally went out (it even went out on a Thursday night, for optimal synchronicity).

In the afternoon we have some schools programming and a CITV block. After Star Trek, we take a dip into the late nineties home improvement craze with Changing Rooms and Ground Force, then some Robot Wars before the evening’s main event. After this, we look at der trubbles with a late news report on the Enniskillen bombing, and a Cook Report focusing on racketeering by paramilitary organisations. We finish off with the sixth episode of Micro Live.

4.00 Ceefax
4.05 The Pink Panther
4.15 ITV Schools: Experiment – Scattering of Alpha Particles
4.30 ITV Schools: Starting Out – Showdown
5.00 BBC Schools: Scene – Faulty Towers
5.20 Thomas the Tank Engine – S01E19 The Flying Kipper
5.25 Thomas the Tank Engine – S01E20 Whistles &…

4:30 The Toys That Made Us – Lego

5:15 The Toys That Made Us – Hello Kitty

6pm Batman – Season 1 Episode 26 – Batman Sets The Pace

6:25 The Simpsons – Season 2 Episode 20 – The War Of Simpsons

6.45 King Of The Hill – Season 6 Episode 18 – Dang Ol’ Love

7:10 South Park –Season 4 – Episode 11 – 4th Grade

7:35 The Twilight Zone – Season 4 – Episode 18 – The Bard (Last Of Season 4)

8:25 One Foot In The Grave – Series 6 Episode 2 – Tales Of Terror

9.00 Chronological Alan – The Day Today Episode 2

9:45 I Love Lucy –Season 2 Episode 24 – The Indian Show

10.15 Dennis Potters – The Singing Detective – Episode 3

11:25 Stephen Poliakoff – Shooting The Past – Episode 3 (Final Episode)

hogTV returns this Wednesday with another double-bill feature – Human Highway & True Stories, directed by and starring Neil Young and David Byrne respectively.

What can I say about these 2 films?
They’re odd.

Human Highway is the oddest. It evades any kind of description, so instead I’ll just tell you who’s in it:
All the members of Devo (including Booji Boy), Dennis Hopper (Frank from Blue Velvet), Dean Stockwell (Al from Quantum Leap, also co-director), Russ Tamblyn (Dr Jacoby from Twin Peaks) and Charlotte Stewart (Eraserhead’s wife + Bobby Briggs’ mother) to name a few.
Filmed over the course of 4 years and largely funded by Neil Young himself ($3 million according to wiki), the project was a labour of love that maybe got a bit out of hand. Nevertheless, I think it’s proper good fun and very enjoyable.

True Stories on the other hand is a bit more conventional in unconventional terms.
David Byrne, with blissful, innocent, Theroux-like presence drives around the quaint, fictional town of Virgil,…

During the evening of Wednesday (14/10/20), hedge will be presenting a replacement dish of hog TV in place of my regular Meatball TV serving. However, prior to that, in the afternoon, I will be doing a live commentary for John Carpenter’s seminal horror masterpiece The Thing.

Other CAB TV crew are welcome to join on microphone for the commentary (provided that they are willing to stay on point and not start humming the Terminator theme). If anyone would care to join, then please ensure that you have a copy of the film to watch on your end (so that all commentators will be watching the film in sync with each other).

If there is any time left after the film, before hog TV commences, then I will also do a brief gaming stream.

The commentary will begin at 3:45pm (14/10/20).

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Join the stream from 3:45pm (GMT) and onward, Wednesday 14/10/20, over at https://live.fc2.com/25093044.

4.00: Rocket Robin Hood: Dr Mortula (Season 2, Episode 1)

4.25: Tom & Jerry #052 – Tom & Jerry In The Hollywood Bowl

Tom conducts a symphony at the Hollywood Bowl, but Jerry destroys the concert.

4.32: Knightmare: Series 5, Episode 02

4.57: The Mysterious Cities Of Gold – The Manuscript (Series 1, Episode 24)

 Tao goes back into the underground grotto to study the mystery of the jade mask.

5.25: Noggin The Nog – Noggin And The Ice Dragon (Episodes 1 – 3)

5.50: Futurama – The Luck Of The Fryrish (Season 3, Episode 4)

Fry goes on a quest to recover his lucky 7-leaf clover after being convinced that his brother took over his identity after he was frozen.

6.12: The Prisoner – The General (Episode 12)

An instant learning process becomes the Village’s latest fad, but Number Six is sure that Number Two is using it as a brain washing tool.

7.00: …

Really disorganised this week; I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do this time. Might be a pseudo-Funbucket or maybe a special show? I dunno. I’ll figure it out soon. There will definitely be something, and I’ll start at 4pm as usual in any case.

This week we have an extensive schools block with some nice youth dramas. The second series of 3rd Rock From the Sun kicks off with the two part conclusion of last week’s cliffhanger, and Louis meets Eugène Terre’Blanche in Weird Weekends. Today’s main feature is a 1975 Play For Today about day to day life in a mental hospital – The Funny Farm, written by Roy Minton and directed by Alan Clarke. Wrapping things up we have a Calendar Special on the Bradford City stadium fire, followed by some FREFF action in the fifth episode of Micro Live.

4.00 Ceefax
4.15 The Pink Panther
4.30 ITV Schools: Stop Look Listen – Fairground
4.40 ITV Schools: Good Health – Still One of the Family
4.55 ITV Schools: Starting Out – Them and Us
5.20 BBC Schools: Scene – And Mum Came Too
5.50 Thomas the Tank Engine – S01E17 Percy Runs Away
5.55 Thomas the Tank Engine – S01E18 Coal
6.00 Tugs – S01E07 High Tide
6.15 Woof!
6.40 Home and Away
7.05 Star Trek: The Next Generation – S02E04 The Outrageous Okona
7.55 3rd Rock From the Sun – S02E01 See Dick Continue to Run
8.20 3rd Rock From the Sun – S02E02 See Dick Continue to Run,…

Scheduled thusly:

18:10 AMRAKUS – A Space Rock Opera Part 1 (pre-show). Earth has buggered up all its water, human people travel to the planet Amrakus to extract the water purifying element Trinogen. There is no way this is not a good idea.

18:30 Grass – Woody Harrelson narrates America’s history with marriage-joanna. Features some wonderful archive footage from propaganda films, news reels, tv shows and interviews.

19:48 1950’s LSD Experiment. An artist is given the drug and is bothered by a man with a European accent… for science.

20:12 A Date with Your Family. More life lessons for CABTV viewers. Do not forget your copybooks.

20:22 Out of the Unknown – The Midas Plague. Black and white Sci-Fi from the BBC’s answer to the Twilight Zone.

21:24 Sea Sheppey Part 3. Our final look at the history of Sheerness docks.

21:30 Mother Night. Adapted from the book by Kurt Vonnegut, it tells the tale of Howard W.…

4:30 Transformers – The Master Builders

4:50 – Go-Bots

5:15 The Toys That Made Us – Transformers

6pm Batman – Season 1 Episode 25 – The Joke Trumps An Ace

6:25 The Simpsons – Season 2 Episode 19 – Lisas Subsitute

6.45 King Of The Hill – Season 6 Episode 17 – Fun With Jane And Jane

7:10 South Park –Season 4 – Episode 10 – Probably

7:35 The Twilight Zone – Season 4 – Episode 17- Passage Of Lady Anne

8:25 One Foot In The Grave – Series 6 Episode 1 – The Executioners Song

9.00 Chronological Alan – The Day Today Episode 1

9:45 I Love Lucy –Season 2 Episode 23 – Lucy Hires A Maid

10.15 Dennis Potters – The Singing Detective – Episode 2

11:25 Stephen Poliakoff – Shooting The Past – Episode 2