TFTP On This Day: "Night Flight" from USA Network (Jun. 7, 1985)

Posted to YouTube by user 'pannoni4'
Length - 14:51

It Was 33 Years Ago Today: "Night Flight" was a freeform program that aired on USA Network during weekend late nights in the early- to mid-1980s. Although mainly continuous music videos a la MTV, "Night Flight" also contained segments devoted to cult movies, alternative culture, and exploitation fare. The program format and scheduling was flexible, and "Night Flight" typically aired for anywhere from just a few to several hours on Friday and Saturday nights starting at around 10 pm and running sometimes until 4 or 5 am the following morning.

The set of clips above is from the fourth anniversary program for "Night Flight", which aired 33 years ago today on June 7, 1985. As a special edition, this night's program probably contained more older and vintage material than usual, but "Night Flight" nearly always had at least a helping of older black and white imagery. The set of excerpts above includes parts of performances by Ike and Tina Turner, the Doors, the Who, Cream, John Lennon, and the Kinks, as well as by jazz legends Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Lionel Hampton. (The typical "Night Flight" program had a high degree of current music videos, which are completely absent in this set of clips.)

A number of commercials appear here also, including as-seen-on-TV fare like Art Instruction Schools, Trim Trak exercise equipment, and an oldies music-compilation called "Cruisin'". There are some great USA Network interstitial materials, too: a program promo for USA airings of the late-1960s program "Room 222"; several "Night Flight" bumpers; and a promo for the network's inimitable late-movie host "Commander USA".

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1985 (KLPB/Lafayette, LA)

Posted to YouTube by user '20th Century Vision'
Length - 2:11

Each Friday afternoon, TFTP signs-off for the week with a classic station sign-off sequence for your enjoyment and to bid farewell until Monday...

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

This 1985 sign-off from Lafayette, Louisiana, public TV station KLPB (LPB for Louisiana Public Broadcasting) is one of the very few that features on-screen lyrics to follow along with during the national anthem film; here, the lyrics scroll up the screen, rather than along the bottom, bouncing-ball style, like in this sign-off featured by TFTP earlier this year. The national anthem film is preceded by the ownership/technical voiceover that is on a still of the KLPB "24" logo.

Happy Thanksgiving from TFTP: Television from the Past!

Posted to YouTube by user 'Ranger232'
Length - 0:31

As we celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, enjoy this Butterball turkey Thanksgiving commercial from 1985. TFTP: Television from the Past wishes everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Station Sign-Off from KNBC/Los Angeles (1985)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Eighties Archive'
Length - 0:26

Each Friday afternoon, TFTP signs-off for the week with a classic station sign-off segment for your enjoyment and to bid farewell until Monday...

This week's sign-off sequence is a (very) short and sweet one, from Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC. From the mid-1980s, this clip consists only of the final voiceover giving ownership and technical info over a slide of the station's stylish logo.

TFTP Flow: WDAZ News Update w/ promos (1985)

This is a flow clip with a news update from 1985 that hits close to home for TFTP; the station, WDAZ (Grand Forks, ND), is right in our backyard. The clip begins with an ABC network promo for "David Hartman: The Future is Now", an ABC News special about space travel featuring then-host of "Good Morning America" David Hartman (you can read more about it here). The news update follows, with Kathryn Bursch reading the news. This news update is in a form commonly found over the years: simply an anchor or newsreader in a head shot looking into the camera with no graphics, no B-roll footage, and no other accoutrements, reading news for 30 seconds.

The update is followed by the beginning of an ad spot--I think for the sponsor mentioned at the beginning of the news update--but then abruptly cuts to the end of an ad spot for Kingsford charcoal, followed by a network promo for "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure." This is likely due to one of the major reasons that flow clips like this have survived for us to watch them now: This was probably the transition point in the video tape recording of two programs, one of which had the WDAZ news update after the end of the program being recorded, the next program which started with the Kingsford ad and promo before the beginning of the program.