It was December 28, 1981 that HBO went 24/7 after having experimented with 24 hour broadcasting for a few months. This in many ways was the first step in raising the network to the higher plane it occupied in the 80s and helped kick off a decade of premium excellence.
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
Hey Chris.. thanks for posting about this! I was rather young in 1981, but I owe HBO so much for my appreciation of 80's movies. My family got HBO in 1982 and I spent so many late night throughout the 80's watching movies! I did get to see a ton of movies in the theaters during the 80's, however HBO let me discovery hidden gems that I totally would have missed otherwise. So many great memories that are forever etched in my mind.
Thought this behind the scenes on the infamous HBO pre-programming opening might interest you:
(click to play) Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
I've seen this one; this is I think why many hold this bumper in high regard, that they took the time and effort to get it right, and it shows. If any of the houses of the model come up for sale on Ebay, maybe I'll give it a thought of buying.
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
What a fantastic behind the scenes clip! I love how they did the effects back in the day.
Talking about HBO, i didnīt even know what it is until Six Feet Under Posted by Ronnie (Member # 465) on :
I remember when I was young, I loved seeing that HBO intro as I was anticipating some cool movie I had read about in the tv guide haha...remember the tv guides??
Great video, Valley. It really was a great concept.. the whole theater thing.. because that's exactly how it felt. Especially for a little kid sitting in front of a big box television...seeing that HBO coming at you with the overwhelming music!
All that detail that went into the intro! I love it.
Loved HBO in the 80s, the movies, the concerts! Posted by Crash (Member # 7484) on :
Wonderful! I remember not only the HBO intro from the era but seeing this little documentary back in the day. I think that it's one of the best bumpers ever, spectacularly put together with so much imagination (the stargate done by moving two cell frames--brilliant!) I have a friend who is a video expert, and at the time, we always wondered how they did the colored streaks in the letter "O" at the end. We assumed that it was animated, but no, they used actual lights. Today, a 12-year-old with an Apple computer could probably do it--though not as well--in about half an hour. Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
I'll admit I was convinced at the time one of the houses along the journey just HAD to be Doc and Sprocket's, and every time the full version would be run, I'd be staring at the windows as they flew by, hoping to see Doc hard at work at whatever his latest invention of the week was (indeed, to liven up the intershow breaks, I'd imagine they and the Fraggles would be "hosting" each break). I suppose the moving vehicles--the bus, the van, the milk truck--were my favorite parts of the trek; as a kid I always wondered how they worked that; today, it's obvious they were pushed across the set by the stagehands, but it's no less magical.
(click to play)
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