ITV no episode days (1988-1993+)

[dan]

Thank you for the information about the specials Jeremai. Do you know if Network Seven made and supplied the specials or if ITV's Mr Snippy was just getting a bit creative with some of their old tapes and managed to get Norman and Debra on board for them? The only one I can remember ever seeing was about Shane and Angel, which seem to air a few times from memory (and can be found on youtube at the moment), The production sort of looks a little bit budget as if ITV sent a bare minimum crew out for a short shoot with Mel, Dieter and Norman, then cobbled it together themselves, but maybe I'm being unfair given it is 20+ years old and I'm watching a youtube upload of a VHS recording of a probably-not-perfect analogue broadcast.

[Jeremai]

The Shane and Angel love story is very different to the others specials. The others just have regular opening and closing titles. The Shane and Angel love story was produced and directed by Andrew Howie which would suggest it was made by Seven. And it does include Norman at the end in the same place and in the same clothes as his intro for the Sophie's baby special, so he obviously recorded those segments at the same time. It does feel like his bit at the end of Shane and Angel is rather shoehorned in though, so it's possible ITV could have had those bits made. Who knows?!

[Red Ranger 1]

I seem to remember at least one of Debra's intros (to the bushfire episode) was shot on the Summer Bay House set, so unless they sneaked in there without telling anyone they must have had some co-operation from Seven Network.

[Martin2013]

For anyone interested the evening showing of the episode broadcast on Friday 7th May 1999 was seemingly dropped by ITV(or HTV Wales at least) due to extended coverage of an election.

I have the following monday's episode on tape and it starts with an extended recap before the opening titles with a continuity announcer explaining that it is an update "for those viewers who missed friday's episode due to extended election coverage".

Does anyone have any idea if both the evening and lunchtime showing were dropped that day and if all regions dropped the evening showing that day or if it was just HTV?

There was also no ep broadcast on Monday 3rd May 1999(may day bank holiday) but bizzarely HTV still aired Shortland Street that day(I think back then it was shown before H&A). Over the end credits they advised "There's no Home and Away today as its a bank holiday and they're all on the beach"!

 

[dan]

I've just seen your message Martin. According to BARB the episode on Fri 7th May 1999 not only made ITV's top 30 that week, but was also the most viewed H&A of the week overall, so I would assume that most regions got both broadcasts at some point (though different regions obviously broadcast it in different timeslots so this may have been a factor in why some regions could not see it and others could). Having googled and looked at ITNSource I'd hazard a guess that any loss of the evening episode on 7th May 99 would probably have been confined to the Welsh and Scottish regions, as the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliamentary elections were big news for those regions that day, with other local elections having been the day before (as far as I can see).

[nenehcherry2]

On 2016-12-30 at 0:55 PM, dan said:

Ok so I just typed up a summary of the broadcast schedule from February 1989 till June 1994, and it revealed that I had already accounted for a skip on 31st May 1993 on my spreadsheet, I just didn't put it in the original post as I was just guessing to make the numbers work. The thing is the list as detailed on this post ties in with all previous evidence I've found, including a couple of youtube videos, the Christmas schedules site cited previously, and all the viewing figure data I have used. The dates do not however tie in with the definite dates for episode numbers in NenehCherry2's post, and I can't see any possible changes that wouldn't contradict previous evidence, so I'm struggling to figure out what's gone wrong. Here's the list as I have it up to Friday 3rd June 1994.

Saturday 11^th 1989 or Sunday 12^th February 1989 (regional differences) – pilot episode
Monday 13^th February 1989 – Monday 25^th December 1989 – Episodes 1 – 226 [226 eps]
Tuesday 26^th December 1989 – NO EPISODE [BOXING DAY]
Wednesday 27^th December 1989 – Friday 29^th December 1989 – Episodes 227-229 [3 eps]
Monday 1^st January 1990 – NO EPISODE [NEW YEARS DAY]
Tuesday 2^nd January 1990 – Friday 25^th May 1990 – Episodes 230-333 [104 eps]
Monday 28^th May 1990 – NO EPISODE [TELETHON ‘90]
Tuesday 29^th May 1990 – Thursday 7^th June 1990 – Episodes 334-341 [8 eps]
Friday 8^th June 1990 – NO EPISODE [WORLD CUP ’90 – ARG VS CAM IN EVENING SLOT]
Monday 11^th June 1990 – Wednesday 21^st November 1990 – Episodes 342-459 [118 eps]
Thursday 22^nd November 1990 – NO EPISODE [THATCHER’S RESIGNATION, EXTENDED ITN SLOTS?]
Friday 23^rd November 1990 – Monday 24^th December 1990 – Episodes 460-481 [22 eps]
Tuesday 25^th December 1990 – Wednesday 26^th December 1990 – NO EPISODES [XMAS BREAK]
Thursday 27^th December 1990 – Monday 31^st December 1990 – Episodes 482-484 [3 eps]
Tuesday 1^st January 1991 – NO EPISODE [NEW YEARS DAY]
Wednesday 2^nd January 1991 – Tuesday 24^th December 1991 – Episodes 485-739 [255 eps]
Wednesday 25^th December 1991 – Thursday 26^th December 1991 – NO EPISODES [XMAS BREAK]
Friday 27^th December 1991 – Thursday 24^th December 1992 – Episodes 740-999 [260 eps]
Friday 25^th December 1992 – NO EPISODE [XMAS DAY]
Monday 28^th December 1992 – Friday 30^th April 1993 – Episodes 1000-1089 [90 eps]
Monday 3^rd May 1993 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 4^th May 1993 – Friday 28^th May 1993 – Episodes 1090-1108 [19 eps]
Monday 31^st May 1993 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 1^st June 1993 – Friday 29^th April 1994 – Episodes 1109-1347 [239 eps]
Monday 2^nd May 1994 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 3^rd May 1994 – Friday 27^th May 1994 – Episodes 1348-1366 [19 eps]
Monday 30^th May 1994 – NO EPISODE [BANK HOLIDAY]
Tuesday 31^st May 1994 – Friday 3^rd June 1994+ – Episodes 1367-1370+ [4 eps+]

And looking back through my previous sources I may have found the one that might have misled me. Have a look at the brief description of an episode on this old tv schedule and see what episode number you guys think it is. https://www.transdiffusion.org/2014/10/18/tonights-tv-in-1991

Not sure if this has now been accounted for but I believe I've found evidence that there were NO SKIPS in early 1994 (including the Bank Holidays).

This clip shows the end of a Coronation Street lunchtime repeat (the original episode was broadcast on Wednesday 11th May, see my citation here for this) going into episiode 1359 of H&A. From memory, the lunchtime repeats of Wednesday Corrie episodes were networked across ITV (in about 1993 - 6) on the following Friday. If this was true, this would've meant that Episode 1359 was shown on Friday 13th May 1994. Given that 1305 definitely aired on 28th February, this would mean that there was no (first) May Bank Holiday Monday (or Easter) skips in 1994. Whether an episode was skipped on 30th May is a mystery.

On the other hand, someone has commented (on the YouTube post itself) that this clip was shown on 4th May 1994; this would be impossible, as this aired AFTER the above episode.

From memory, it was only really Christmas Day and New Years Day where episodes were skipped until about 1995/6 (by which time the gap had become significantly shorter). Otherwise, ITV generally showed H&A 259 days a year, even during the Easter public holidays.

 

 

[Martin2013]

I uploaded that Youtube clip and I'm almost certain the date is actually Thursday 12th May rather than Friday 13th May. 

On the tape which this came off of , episode 1955 of Neighbours is recorded after this Home and Away episode. This Neighbours episode was definatley shown on thursday 12th May.

In addition after the Neighbours episode there is the start of the six o clock news reporting on the death of Labour leader John Smith which definatley makes it that date.

 

 

[James Martin]

Couple of bits I can add here.

Dale's death in 1993 was definitely lunchtime only as I distinctly remember having to set the VCR for it.  The now infamous Galatasary vs Man U makes sense, as the time difference would have pushed the game back into teatime territory.  As an aside, the following episode contained an extended 4 minute recap, which wasn't present on 7Two's transmission more recently.  It was also the first chopping of the credits, presumably to fit in the extended recap.

Episode 2390, 3rd July 1998, was only shown at lunchtime.  An afternoon World Cup match (Italy v France) went to penalties, and this meant the evening showing had to be dropped.  It was however the final week before ITV dropped to 4 episodes a week as they were starting to get dangerously close to Australia.

Maggie Thatcher's resignation is possible but I distinctly remember H&A not being shown for John Majors appointment, so that may explain the discrepancy.

Almost certainly the missing evening episode in 1999 on HTV Wales was restricted to themselves and possibly STV and Grampian.  If it was network wide I doubt the lunchtime showing would be on by that point as ITV would have taken the excuse to help drop behind Oz.

Another interesting discrepancy is TSW's decision to air the evening episode at 3:25pm for about two or three years.  God knows why.

CITV was definitely heavily disrupted for coverage of John Smith's passing but I can't remember whether Home and Away got the boot that evening.

Another thing to bear in mind is the Budget in March, which was a late-afternoon affair in the 90s.

[dan]

I've just seen the last few replies here, thank you everyone. nenehcherry2 the two clips of H&A you linked to seem to be the start and finish of the same episode, as you say #1359. Both clips also reference the Capital Woman 'best of' episode that day, and I've found reference to that at the bfi http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7d6b3176 so that appears to confirm the Friday 13th date. In regard to what Martin said, is it possible you set the video for something on the 12th (lunchtime Neighbours, or the previous H&A?), which then wasn't shown because of news coverage of John Smith's death, then also recorded Neighbours at teatime that day, then you spooled the tape back and recorded Friday's H&A over the unwanted news coverage? I can only guess. JamesMartin Thank you for your additions, John Major's appointment would be either 27th (the vote) or 28th (the formal appointment) November, so a definite possibility.

[dan]

On 01/07/2017 at 6:28 PM, James Martin said:

 

Another interesting discrepancy is TSW's decision to air the evening episode at 3:25pm for about two or three years.  God knows why.

 

Looking back at one of the schedules I have for that era it would seem that TSW were somehow under the impression that the teatime teen audience would rather watch Take The High Road.....