1994: EARTH 2 PRINT ADVERT (NBC)

From 1994: the print ad promoting the launch of EARTH 2, the big-budget NBC space drama that - ahem - went nowhere.

This was, essentially, the old Western standby of a settler family battling against the odds to build a new life in essentially hostile territory.  The twist being that this was, of course, another world.

So far, so average.  And when I watched a couple of episodes way-back-when (it aired on either SKY ONE or the short-lived SKY TWO over here) I could find little to hook me in.  It was certainly less campy than LOST IN SPACE... but that didn't make it good fun.

The cast, however, had a few standouts.  The excellent Debrah Farentino (oh so good in the brilliant EZ STREETS) took the lead, beating ST: VOYAGER to the prize of having a female commanding officer by a couple of months.  The always-compelling Tim Curry also had a recurring role.  Another familiar faces on the roster were Terry O'Quinn, Roy Dotrice and Richard (MAN IN A SUITCASE) Bradford.  

The first-and-only season of 22 shows is now on DVD. 

1979: NBC SATURDAY MORNING ANIMATION ADVERT

From 1979: Something to keep you from doing the work you should be doing... a NBC ad for their Fall 1979 Saturday Morning Kid-Vid line-up, tarted-up as a quiz and a chance to join the Saturday Morning Peacock Club. 

1984: NBC SATURDAY MORNING TV PRINT ADVERT

Here's an example of what used to be an annual tradition: the appearance of adverts hawking the US Fall Saturday Morning schedules on the three US networks, published in US comic books.

For British readers, these were early indicators of what we *might* see on UK screens over the following few years. The BBC and ITV had strict limits on the amount of imported cartoons they could show so - if the shows crossed the Atlantic at all - it might be more than a year before they hit British screens.

At this time, the networks and Saturday mornings were still the main place to find kid-vid.  Cable was starting to make inroads but their children's offering was often limited or restarted to off-network reruns.    Weekday afternoons were generally given over to shows aimed at adults (soaps, audience shows and gameshows) although syndicators were starting to make inroads with off-network (and often toy-related) fare like HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, THE TRANSFORMERS, G.I. JOE and numerous wannabes.  

Someone slap me if I'm wrong but I don't think any of the traditional broadcast networks offer a kids schedule on Saturdays anymore. 24-7 (or thereabouts) cable has made it a redundant (and far less commercially viable) proposition. 

This particular ad is from Marvel comics dated December 1984.  Thanks to the three-months-ahead cover dates used on comics at the time, this would have gone on sale September/ October time... just in time for the start of the new season.  By the time sea freight copies reached British newsagents it probably WAS December!

NBC was the top-rated network in both primetime and Saturday morning at this point (thanks to the runaway success of - of all things - THE SMURFS) so the big spending network splashed out for the centre pages of Marvel's December editions.  This originally appeared as a double-page spread but my scanner isn't large enough so I've chopped it into two single pages.