Tuesday 10 November 2015

1997: XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS CHANNEL FIVE PRINT AD

From 1997: a clever full-page ad promoting the delights of  XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS, a Saturday afternoon fixture on the newly launched CHANNEL FIVE.

Five was the much discussed, but seldom seen, fifth UK terrestrial channel. Thanks to the limitations of the analogue transmission network, vast chunks of the country (including relatively affluent... And well populated areas like... Err... Essex) couldn't actually see the channel.

And it garnered more press coverage for the its technical limitations (certain VHS machines needed to be retuned to avoid interference problems... Leading to predictions of bold-faced burglars blazingly sauntering into homes in the guise of TV engineers and departing with the family video under their arm), programming policy (football, films and f*cking were the three cornerstones of the early schedules) and sheer lack of viewers (comedians deemed it more likely that the average punter would see Sky TV... Or even Lord Lucan).

So it needed shows, and off-air advertising, that would catch the attention and work hard for a channel with tight budgets. This is one of them...

It appeared on the back cover of THE BOX issue three.

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on reaching your 400th post this year - hurrah !

    This ad seems a bit risqué for a show " the whole family can enjoy . "

    Channel 5 haven't done badly all things considered, in fact they recently screened GOTHAM and gave the uk movie CENTURION a belated tv premiere.

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  2. *** TITAN TO PUBLISH NEW 4TH DOCTOR WHO COMIC ****

    as you can see here:

    http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/977?articleID=171013

    a slight correction to what I told you last week about the ice-man story, it was actually at the back of UNCANNY X-MEN 600.

    My FP is such a chaotic mess its a wonder I find anything but I managed to grab a copy of DR WHO THE EYE OF TORMENT. Also out this week is the LITTLE BOOK OF series covering batman ,superman and wonder woman. They may look small but inside are tons of nice pics. And I found a lovely item titled THE ART OF FILM VOL 2 - FANTASY. This covers art for the lord of the rings movies and many others. Its part of the on going series IMAGINE FX PRESENTS. You can see a preview here:

    http://issuu.com/futurepublishing/docs/ifz29.issuu


    VOL 1 was THE ART OF STAR WARS which you mentioned before.

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    Replies
    1. Lots of goodies this week..

      New issues of STAR TREK, STAR WARS INSIDER and DWM in the same week. All the big licensed mags. And a new SFX with a spiffing cover.

      TOPPS have a hardback reproducing the original STAR WARS CARDS... including THAT one of Goldenrod. I'm surprised Lucasfilm signed-off on reprinting that one.

      A LONG TIME AGO looks back at the STAR WARS saga on screen.

      THE DOCTORS ARE IN is a critical retrospective of selected WHO episodes.

      MARVEL have tarted up the 1983 ROTJ adaptation for a new hardback (following the other two). There's some nice full-page pin-up pages that didn't make it into the weekly plus some fun house ads to bulk out the page count.

      I also found a nice new book about Elstree Film Studios. It was half-price in a secondhand bookshop although, bizarrely, I've yet to see it in any "new" book stores. STAR WARS features, of course.

      Those three new DC books are indeed very nice. I found them in a discount bookstore at the weekend... Although they were the same price as in comic stores.

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