Just caught the tail end of this and saw Johnny Vaughan talking confidently and intelligently about The Clangers and some Russian animation. No stating the obvious, no crap "they must have been on acid" jokes - just considered, thoughtful commentary and appreciation. Looks like BBC2 picked the wrong talking heads...

http://www.roundst.demon.co.uk/sounds/dogtan.wav

It's been good all night really... well, up until now, anyway.

Al caught the only bit of the programme worth watching - although John Thompson came close with his observation about Kenneth Williams quickly switching charachters in Willow the Wisp.
>Hedgehog in the Fog was by acclaimed Russian animator Yuri Norstein - it was also the only non-kids show animation to be chosen - but sadly has not been scheduled for animation week.

>oh, and almost forgot to mention that all the clips had been edited for widescreen *UGH!*

>>>>>As posted in the Adam & Joe thread, but equally relevant here:

All I can say is that *(sighs)* as with The Goodies, the I Love 1970s season, Dr Who, etc; etc; it would have been better if they just showed the animations in their own right without the smart-arse or empty comments.

You can't say *Oh no, not another clip show* but then state *It's OK it's animation and not a cult sci-fi series*.
That comes across as sheer hypocrsiy - and gives broadcasters the excuse to not only shunt non-mainstream animation into graveyard slots, but to slowly remove it from the schedules.

It's akin to the Del Boy falls through the bar argument: Yes, no-one really minds it, but surely there's other stuff as well? hidden gems? Well, if it applies to comedy, it also applies to animation. Jonny Vaughan talked with a genuine passion about Yuri Norstein's Hedgehog in the Fog - but C4 won't be scheduling it, nor any other Norstein this week.

All I can say is that there is something very rotten in Horseferry Road these days, as C4 are becoming increasingly arrogant and ignoring their remit.

>Just caught the tail end of this and saw Johnny Vaughan talking confidently and intelligently about The Clangers and some Russian animation. No stating the obvious, no crap "they must have been on acid" jokes - just considered, thoughtful commentary and appreciation. Looks like BBC2 picked the wrong talking heads...

Can't say I've ever been particularly taken by Johnny Vaughan, but his comments were indeed astute and heartfelt, and shone out amongst the Whileyesque twatterings which filled up most of the rest of it.

I notice that C4 are putting out a 2hr Watch With Mother compilation on Tuesday morning at 2am - will they dare transmit them without interruption or talking head nonsense?

The whole animation week thing fell a bit flat altogether didn't it, with most of it's content scheduled at times suitable only for insomniacs, hopeless drunks and shiftworkers. Futurama was edited, and badly, the repeat of the first episode shown in a six o'clock slot was noticeably shorter than when it was shown on Saturday night. Can you imagine what The Simpsons would be like if C4 had the rights? Sure we'd be watching episodes more recent than the 1995 season, but they'd probably only run for 11 minutes, for fear that they were 'politically subversive' and 'unsuitable for a younger audience'. Gadzooks, what's the world coming to eh?!

I couldn't agree more with you Suiii.

What grates is that C4 are seriously messing up everything this year without giving a damm about their viewers. The Tour de France got shuffled about for cricket, 100 clips from TV Hell got postponed, they've gone mad with their editing equipment (not just Futurama but also Family Guy, and The Idiots), you can't be critical on the forum, yet alone try to get a response from C4VE or C4Ed, and now animation week has been a huge disappointment to serious animation fans, and I daren't mention crap such as 11oCS and Ricky Git-face, nor their toadying to Sky. (Remember the C4 trails on sky earlier this year?)

I really don't know what the hell is going on. C4 used to be brave, innovative, and was daring. They didn't care if a film had male genitalia in it - it would be shown uncut, no pixellation. Animation? Well I have a booklet from 1996 where C4 boast about being the First in Europe to have a commissioning editor for animation, now they think they can get away with a few *popular* shows, and kill off anything that is intelligent, but it is so bloddy annoying because C4 used to handle animation and other subjects with intelligence and respect. They knew and understood their remit (as well as their audience), and the programmes displayed this. Of course C4 didn't get everything right, no broadcaster does, but they really are now so far downmarket and concentrating on their revenues and pay-channels we can all get lost.

C4 11.1982-09.2000 Aged 17 years. A bright young thing with promise. Now sadly missed.
Leaves behind an audience desperate for programmes that are thought-provoking and original. Remit reading will be held after the clip-show wake on Saturday 14 October.

(Sorry for a long rant, but I'm tired and my paitence with C4 has finally ran-out).

Spot on George. Ever tried posting on Reach4 or R2R? It either gets lost amongst the hordes of illiterate (but justifiably angry) Angel and WWF fans, or deleted immediately. When C4VE or C4ED occasionally get round to answering a query, it's usually with the wrong information. I remember, about 2 days before the start of the latest run of South Park, someone posted asking when the series was due to start, and got a reply saying "We do not have any plans to show this in the near future". It's the same thing with 'Oz'. Depending on who replies, the answer is either "We've got the rights", "We're in the process of getting the rights" or "Sorry, I'm just the work experience lad".

And they did make an absolute arsejob of 'The Idiots' didn't they. "Sorry we pixellated the nudity, but if you go to our website, there's a picture of an unpixellated cock for you to look at" C4 are hopelessly lost in a constantly changing world. Having rested on their laurels for so many years, it's as if they went into a coma in 1989, they need to be kicked up the backside for their own sake. Unfortunately Big Brother was a success, so they probably think everything is alright now. It really is coming to something when 7 million people would rather tune into the Beebs Olympic coverage than watch anything C4 has to offer.
As recently as 3 years ago they did some fantastic seasons like 'Queer Street' and 'After Dark' (?) with new films, decent documentaries etc., and now what? All Back to Mine, well whoop-de-doo, the highlight of my week! I realised, with great sadness, the other day, that Sky One have a better selection of programmes than C4. It's time to start wearing black again I think. I'll write to Sir Elton and ask him to write a song for the funeral.

What was editied out of the 6 o'clock showing of Futurama? I watched it and didn't notice anything, even though I have seen that episode a few times.

It's inevitable that they will edit the later episodes though - the word "bastard" will go, as it did with Family Guy. I don't understand why they screened FG at 6pm. They don't cut South Park to screen it earlier, so why Family Guy? Channel 4 should stop screening adult shows in family slots.

Not that the BBC are any better... after showing the last season of the Simpsons totally uncut (AFAIK) they chopped out a "bastard" a couple of weeks ago. Curse them.

Sorry to go on about this... guess I'm just glad to have the forum back, and am literally moist (OK, maybe not LITERALLY literally) with anticipation for the return of SOTCAA... yay!

Some kind soul has documented the Futurama snips somewhere, if I can find his site I'll show ya! I was drunk at the time, so only noticed that it was a little shorter!

Yeah, if you do remember where that site is I'd be very interested to see it, thanks.

My memory is notoriously bad, but hopefully the URL will pop up in a nightmare or something!