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+--- Thread: Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) (/showthread.php?tid=313)
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - DJ Dave - 16-05-2021
itsrobert post_id=12818 time=1621179600 user_id=913 Wrote: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!
Exactly the same, born in 86 so this was also my era, Am I right in saying in the later episodes they actually had a real life bus on the Patch Stop etc?
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Whataday - 16-05-2021
Playbus/days was my pre-school show and I have vivid memories watching it. It's funny, at the time I never thought for a second that all the stops were just basic set pieces plonked in front of the same hilly background. I genuinely believed each stop was a different location.
I can remember the original Dot absolutely terrifying me.
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - James Martin - 16-05-2021
I normally found the Patch Stop boring but I also found Dot very scary.
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - scottishtv - 17-05-2021
Richard post_id=12771 time=1621137610 user_id=838 Wrote:Here are the original Playbus opening and closing titles.Even as a child, it always used to annoy me that the bus driver was turning the steering wheel from left to right wildly despite seeming to drive down a straight road. I also expected the "sign of the lollipop" to refer to a lollipop person as opposed to a traffic signal.
In hindsight, I was overthinking it all somewhat.
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Lewser - 17-05-2021
James Martin post_id=12896 time=1621201765 user_id=872 Wrote:I normally found the Patch Stop boring but I also found Dot very scary.
My mum often wondered what on earth the Patch stop was all about. Just a doll that would turn up, do nothing, didn't have a voice for a while from what I remember.
She then couldn't stand the voice of Poppy :lol:
I suppose she only kept it on to keep me quiet for a while until Sesame Street came on.
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - sjames - 17-05-2021
I was born in 1988 so don't remember it being called Playbus, but do have vivid memories of Playdays. The Roundabout Stop was always my favourite and it never really twigged until recently that were different incarnations of Mr Jolly (another timelord perhaps?). The most memorable one was the later version with the 'Roll up and ride on Rosie' song. I still know all the words!
When I went to Salford a few years ago to see an exhibition on the history of Children's TV at the Lowry, they had props from Playdays there including Whybird and Peggy Patch and it was quite exciting to see them.
Does anyone remember the Playdays Live on Stage tour? I was taken to it when it came locally, and I can remember everyone being given a cardboard paintbush which had to be used at certain points to help the characters on stage restore the colours which had been taken by an evil villain. Having scoured YouTube for any more info, I've discovered a whole episode of Playdays was dedicated to behind-the-scenes and featuring Dave Benson-Phillips actually sitting and watching the show (well highlights). Can you imagine such a blatent plug for a show on the BBC now, let alone kids TV? As a side note, I've met Dave BP twice, and he's as eccentric and full of life and friendly as he is on screen!
https://youtu.be/XugsoF_rmGw
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - James Martin - 17-05-2021
Meridian MR post_id=12845 time=1621186598 user_id=1002 Wrote: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
That is quality.
Talking of preschool music, Rod Jane and Freddy wrote some absolutely brilliant tunes in the 80s, to the extent I'm amazed they never went into writing and producing as some of their work was actually really, really good in its own right.
Maybe by the time their CITV shows finished when Thames lost the franchise and they wrapped up touring in 1996, they'd already made enough to be comfortable.
4m 30s for this first one, bit of a Julian Lennon Too Late For Goodbyes vibe. Check the funky break in the middle...
https://youtu.be/WuCfn7aPGcc
And also this, with Rod sounding a bit Cristopher Cross...
https://youtu.be/JbHN0R_h850
Finally, 48s in and sounding in no way like Rat In Mi Kitchen by UB40...
https://youtu.be/vebdxSZhhYY
And staying on that vibe anyone born in a certain era can appreciate the one theme song totally wasted on Kids TV - Pigeon Street!
https://youtu.be/qYTDtnFQUyc
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Neil Jones - 17-05-2021
scottishtv post_id=12901 time=1621206365 user_id=1012 Wrote:Richard post_id=12771 time=1621137610 user_id=838 Wrote:Here are the original Playbus opening and closing titles.Even as a child, it always used to annoy me that the bus driver was turning the steering wheel from left to right wildly despite seeming to drive down a straight road. I also expected the "sign of the lollipop" to refer to a lollipop person as opposed to a traffic signal.
still annoys me today in any production to see actors turning steering wheels in such an unrealistic fashion even if the car's just going in a straight line. In fact anything to do with cars or driving is always so unrealistic even in expensive cinema. Bit like the bus jump in Speed. Mythbusters showed in reality that a) that bus can't go fast enough in the first place, and b) gravity is heavier in reality than it is in fiction. You're toast either way.
Of course sometimes unrealistic driving is done deliberately for comedy, like this scene from Airplane!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrktxWUgcyA
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Steve Williams - 17-05-2021
Lewser post_id=12902 time=1621206420 user_id=1592 Wrote:My mum often wondered what on earth the Patch stop was all about. Just a doll that would turn up, do nothing, didn't have a voice for a while from what I remember.
I remember when Playbus launched that they mentioned that Sam Patch was deliberately a doll of the kind that parents could make themselves - much like how when Play School began Hamble was a cheap doll bought from Woolworths, the idea being that they wanted to use dolls that kids would have themselves at home so they could play along and it would feel all very comfortable.
I'd long started school by the time Playbus began, I was a big Play School fan when I was in the target audience* and my earliest telly memory is of it moving "house" in 1983 (in the most on-brand anecdote imaginable, I was always referred to as "the walking Radio Times" in nursery as I would always let the teachers know when Play School and the See-Saw programme was on). So I only ever saw Playbus when off sick or on holiday, and I remember it took me about six months to see all the different stops.
It seems a bit strange that you would have five totally different programmes because you would assume that would do very little for audience loyalty throughout the week, with kids liking some but not the others - especially as Play School, when that began, themed the various days of the week but abandoned that after a few years as it was too limiting. Seemingly that was the case with Playbus as well given that in later years all the stops started spilling into each other, with the Why Bird, Peggy Patch and Poppy (I can't even remember what stop they started on) appearing throughout the week.
James Martin post_id=12912 time=1621213674 user_id=872 Wrote:Talking of preschool music, Rod Jane and Freddy wrote some absolutely brilliant tunes in the 80s, to the extent I'm amazed they never went into writing and producing as some of their work was actually really, really good in its own right.
When Jane and Freddy were on Pointless the other week (where Jane got a round of applause for saying "Thames Television!"), Xander made a point of saying what exceptional musicians they were because they graduated from Guildhall and the Royal Academy so were properly classically-trained - and as you say, they were pretty much writing and perfoming a mini-musical every week.
Kids TV, and especially pre-school TV, benefited from the services of exceptional musicians, there was always a live band in the Play School studio which was staffed by some brilliant jazz musicians who when they weren't on Play School were performing with all the big names and releasing critically-acclaimed records.
* I had the pleasure of speaking to Fred Harris, my Play School favourite, a while ago now, and he said that sometimes when he was walking down the street he'd get kids shouting as him "You're the Play School man, what a rubbish show, it's so stupid and babyish", and he'd say, "You know, when you're five you can stop watching it".
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Markymark - 17-05-2021
Early 1970s, Play School at 11am on BBC 2, followed by BBC Service Information at 11:30, then four and a half hours worth of Test Card F until the repeat showing of Play School at 4pm on BBC 1. Made me the man I am today..
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Whataday - 17-05-2021
I've always wondered how they re-edited the Playbus titles to Playdays (and the subsequent re-edits). Did they return to the original animation cells and reanimate? It looks too seamless to have been done digitally at the time. Even the distorted logo on the back of the bus was amended.
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - commseng - 17-05-2021
I miss Service Information, and the IBA Engineering Announcements too.
Where are the sad old men of the future going to come from? :oops:
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - madmusician - 17-05-2021
We talked about Playdays over at the old place, and I said then that I'm sure it's the first TV programme I can remember. We all loved Mr Jolly and the roundabout stop!
I also went to the stage show, as mentioned above (in fact, I dimly remember a second, different, one that came around a few years later). If anybody is interested in nice clean audio of some of the songs and musical themes from Playdays, then somebody has uploaded to YouTube the cassette of the stage show, which includes various things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXBC50VShYc
Somebody mentioned upthread the fact that a number of the Playdays production staff (notably Iain Lauchlan) came back with the Tweenies in the late-90s, following Playdays giving way to the Teletubbies in 1997. It's also worth pointing out that the 'through line' of children's TV production very much goes from Playdays, via the Fun Song Factory, to Tweenies.
The Fun Song Factory started off as direct-to-video specials, and it was almost a Playdays spin-off, with Lauchlan appearing in-vision as the main presenter, but other familiar Playdays 'faces' popped up as well - Sarah Davies and Dave Benson Philips. The first couple were quite basic, with the presenters and a cast of children singing songs in a theatre, which was filmed multi-camera and released on video, but the production grew and grew, various puppets were introduced (notably Ozzie Octave who became one of the main hosts) and there was a switch to studio production for the later videos.
GMTV commissioned a whole made-for-TV series of them in 1998, and this is where the Playdays-esque nature of the production really shines through, with a re-coloured version of the Poppy the Cat puppet from Playdays being used, now called Sally. Dave Benson Philips was the main presenter, and Karl Woolley (who was one of the main presenters of the Poppy Stop on Playdays) was also part of the cast.
Then, in 1999 came the Tweenies. And the reason that I see the link, is that a number of the 'original' songs that were used in the Song Time section of Tweenies (Lauchlan-penned songs, such as 'How do you feel today' and 'You know you have a friend') in fact originated from the Fun Song Factory, or even as far back as Playdays. And the song 'Come on everybody, let's dance to the music' which was featured in Playdays appeared in the Fun Song Factory, too.
So I think there's a real 'through line' in terms of production team, on-screen talent and use of certain material from Playdays through Fun Song Factory through to the Tweenies.
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Neil Jones - 17-05-2021
Of course it must be mentioned that Playdays was still using the "wrong" BBC logo on the endcap as late as 1995, which was posted [url="https://tvforum.uk/forums/post1254685#post-1254685"]on this TV Forum post[/url] by [mention]DE88[/mention]
The 1995 endcap in that post was more likely by accident, as that logo was phased in over time, as opposed to the later 1997 rebrand which I believe was done overnight. Playdays certainly wasn't the only example of something with the "wrong" BBC logo for its time.
Playdays/Playbus (1988-1997) - Flux - 17-05-2021
Honestly, despite watching the show as a child and seeing references to Playdays and Playbus separately online, until this thread I didn’t realise they’d actually changed the name of the show during its run! I always thought the Playbus was just the name of the bus in Playdays.
Mind blown.