A lot of people born between the mid-to-late 80's and early 2000's have fond memories of Playdays, however, when it arrived as Playbus in 1988, it was lauded by the press as the series that replaced it's long-running spiritual predecessor, Play School.
The decision was undertaken by the Head of BBC Children's programming, Anna Home, and former Play School executive producer, Cynthia Felgate, who went on to create Playdays under her independent company, Felgate Productions, (more can be read in Anna Home's 1993 book, Into the Box of Delights: A History of Children's Television).
I think Play School was in an awkward position before it's cancellation, it was too old fashioned in comparison to other children's programming at the time, but had also been modernised to the point where much of the crew felt alienated and left after many years.
Despite being born in 2000, I don't remember Playdays as fondly as it's spiritual successors, Teletubbies and Tweenies, (many of the crew on Playdays went to work on Tweenies after ironically being cancelled itself in 1997.)
Interesting but what's exactly do you want to discuss about this? This is a discussion forum after all, not a blog.
I remember the change from Play School to Playbus and finding it odd, but soon got used to Playbus and later on Playdays.
Used to be the Why Bird stop on a Monday, the playground stop on a Tuesday with Dave Benson Phillips, Wednesday was the Dot Stop (later the Roundabout Stop) Thursday was always the Peggy Patch Stop (usually filmed on location) and Friday was the Tent Stop (the Poppy Stop in the last couple of years.)
My Mum was horrified when it was taken off and replaced with Teletubbies but as we all now know it became a cult classic.
That said we were more a CITV house than a CBBC one and it's the 12:10 preschool shows between This Morning and Home and Away I remember best. Obviously everyone remembers the greatest kids show of all time that is Rainbow but I also loved Playbox, which came from the Anne Wood/Central stable that would go on to make Tots TV. Aired on Mondays between 1987 and 1992.
https://youtu.be/JUwNKxnB1kw
There was also Granada's Allsorts. It's been bugging me for years and years where I'd seen Lisa Dingle in Emmerdale (played by Jane Cox) before... and I was today years old when I got my answer!
https://youtu.be/PVn2UUzCK3I
I loved Playdays as a kid, especially the Roundabout stop. Went to see the Stage show when I was about 3, think I might even still have some merchandise from it 25 years later, will need to have a look
Remember hating Wednesday and the Dot Stop - no wonder it was the first dropped. Why Bird was a legend though.
Brekkie post_id=12738 time=1621105234 user_id=976 Wrote:Remember hating Wednesday and the Dot Stop - no wonder it was the first dropped. Why Bird was a legend though.
I use to love the Dot Stop, wasn't a fan of the roundabout stop or Poppy the Cat :lol:
More differences than just the voiceovers in the two Playdays titles above. I was going to say its a bigger bus but I think that's because the first video is in the wrong aspect ratio. The people on the bus, the road signs on the bridge, the shop display, the advertising board and when the bus is told to stop are different for a start between those two versions. The one on the CBeebies Grown-up channel must be a later revision.
There were four revisions to my memory, the first one when the series, originally known as Playbus, was changed to Playdays on Christmas Day 1989.
https://youtu.be/pKi2fP4HCDo
Then in February 1991, the theme song recieved it's first remix and the colour saturation was much darker, also, Sam Patch was replaced by Peggy Patch:
https://youtu.be/_q9Nh4Cl2_w
Finally, in September 1992, when The Dot Stop was replaced by The Roundabout Stop, the title sequence was updated with Mr. Jolly and Mr. Wobble, plus the colours were brighter again, (Dot can still be seen near the back of the bus!) then the theme song recieved a second (and final) remix in 1993, and remained unchanged after that.
https://youtu.be/M4uSKv9lrrE
https://youtu.be/0X8nbLCZzLA
Absolutely loved Playbus/days when I was a kid. Born in 1986, I was right in the correct age group for it at the time.
What makes me laugh now watching those clips is how the BBC included various accents in the opening titles. My favourites are the broad Yorkshire "Wuuurrr dus it goooorrrr?" and the Scouse "Weeer dus it stop?" and "It's the Why Biiiiiirrrd Stop" :lol:
And the theme tune/opening titles transport me right back to sitting on the circular brown rug in front of my grandma's TV set. Good times!
Really didn't appreciate what a banger the theme tune was at the time.
Brekkie post_id=12832 time=1621182202 user_id=976 Wrote:Really didn't appreciate what a banger the theme tune was at the time.
https://youtu.be/suQUoOsQ-bQ