Public Broadcasting Service: Difference between revisions
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→The general shape of PBS stations' buying patterns: mentioned the Five Doctors airing on PBS first
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The practical result of PBS affiliates being wed to universities is that the audience for ''Doctor Who'' in its American heyday was significantly student-based. PBS stations usually offered the strongest signals to campus televisions when most people still received television signals aerially. The effect of ''Doctor Who'' upon student populations in America was thus pronounced just because of the particular channel that carried the programme. | The practical result of PBS affiliates being wed to universities is that the audience for ''Doctor Who'' in its American heyday was significantly student-based. PBS stations usually offered the strongest signals to campus televisions when most people still received television signals aerially. The effect of ''Doctor Who'' upon student populations in America was thus pronounced just because of the particular channel that carried the programme. | ||
==The general shape of PBS stations' buying patterns== | ==The general shape of PBS stations' buying patterns== | ||
Though a handful of pioneering PBS stations may have begun broadcasting ''Doctor Who'' with a few [[Jon Pertwee]] stories, ''Doctor Who'' broadcasting on PBS stations began with the Time + Life distribution of [[season 12|seasons 12]] to [[season 15|15]]. | Though a handful of pioneering PBS stations may have begun broadcasting ''Doctor Who'' with a few [[Jon Pertwee]] stories, ''Doctor Who'' broadcasting on PBS stations began with the Time + Life distribution of [[season 12|seasons 12]] to [[season 15|15]]. These initially appeared as individual episodes, with [[Howard Da Silva]] linking narration at the top of episodes to explain things for viewers who may have forgotten where the narrative had left off. These three seasons were put onto a loop my most of the stations that carried them, because the stations had bought the right to show the episodes a certain number of times. The fact that this initial package ended with ''[[The Invasion of Time]]'' allows us to date general American involvement with ''Doctor Who'' to no earlier than about [[1978]]. | ||
PBS would then obtain rights to subsequent seasons. | PBS would then obtain rights to subsequent seasons. Usually, the prospect of getting the new season was used as an incentive during PBS donation requests, or "pledge drives". As each new season was added to the library of the particular station, the "Tom Baker loop" would grow ever longer. Each station would go as far as they could with their Baker episodes, then snap back to ''[[Robot (TV story)|Robot]]'', and do it all again. Thus, Tom Baker is particularly vivid in the minds of many American fans because his adventures were played so often. Eventually, the [[Peter Davison]] and [[Colin Baker]] seasons were added to many PBS station libraries. | ||
Arguably, the influence of the PBS broadcasts reached their zenith on November 23, 1983, the 20th anniversary of ''Doctor Who'', when PBS broadcasters aired the anniversary special ''[[The Five Doctors]]'', several days ''before'' the BBC. | |||
Sales to PBS stations began to drop off around the time ''[[The Trial of a Time Lord]]'' went up for sale. There were a variety of reasons. One of the biggest was the advent of the VHS recorder. This allowed American fans to copy episodes of ''Doctor Who'', which were being replayed on a regular basis. It was possible for viewers in some markets to get a complete Tom Baker-Colin Baker run in about a year, if they were so inclined. Also, [[BBC Video]] had begun releasing official NTSC VHS editions of stories at that point. Thus, there was simply less actual need for a PBS station. There was also the strong possibility that [[Colin Baker]]'s portrayal dismayed PBS donors. Smart PBS programmers would also have sought out information about [[Sylvester McCoy]]'s [[season 24|first season]] before they committed to it. If they did so, even just by getting a reasonably recent copy of ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'', they would have discovered that it had been widely panned by the British press. | |||
It was around this time that many PBS stations chose to look backward instead of forwards. In the late 1980s, they began to more strongly buy existing [[serial]]s from the [[William Hartnell]], [[Patrick Troughton]] and [[Jon Pertwee]] eras. | It was around this time that many PBS stations chose to look backward instead of forwards. In the late 1980s, they began to more strongly buy existing [[serial]]s from the [[William Hartnell]], [[Patrick Troughton]] and [[Jon Pertwee]] eras. | ||
==The PBS "omnibus"== | ==The PBS "omnibus"== | ||
PBS broadcasts of ''Doctor Who'' in the 1980s and 1990s often used an "omnibus" format. Instead of airing each individual episode on a weekly or daily basis, each [[serial]] was edited together into a movie format. This meant that individual broadcasts could be as short as 45 minutes (for broadcasts of 2-episode stories), to 90 minutes which was the most common length for airing a stiched-together four-episode story, to a four hour marathon in the case of ''[[The War Games]]'' (''[[The Trial of a Time Lord]]'', however, was never broadcast as a single omnibus, but was aired in four installments broken down by the generally-defined story arcs - three 90-minute episodes followed by a 45-minute conclusion). Due to the independent nature of affiliate stations, however, viewers in one part of the United States often had a very different experience of ''Doctor Who'' than those in another. Some stations exclusively aired omnibus editions, some never did. And some stations broadcast omnibuses on the weekend, while transmitting standard episodes during the week. | PBS broadcasts of ''Doctor Who'' in the 1980s and 1990s often used an "omnibus" format. Instead of airing each individual episode on a weekly or daily basis, each [[serial]] was edited together into a movie format. This meant that individual broadcasts could be as short as 45 minutes (for broadcasts of 2-episode stories), to 90 minutes which was the most common length for airing a stiched-together four-episode story, to a four hour marathon in the case of ''[[The War Games]]'' (''[[The Trial of a Time Lord]]'', however, was never broadcast as a single omnibus, but was aired in four installments broken down by the generally-defined story arcs - three 90-minute episodes followed by a 45-minute conclusion). Due to the independent nature of affiliate stations, however, viewers in one part of the United States often had a very different experience of ''Doctor Who'' than those in another. Some stations exclusively aired omnibus editions, some never did. And some stations broadcast omnibuses on the weekend, while transmitting standard episodes during the week. | ||
