UK Original Airing Times - Seasons 3 to 5


rodriguezisdead

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Will make the first 3 posts in this thread the full listings as I can see them from the Guardian Digital archive - will update these posts until complete - any comments/queries can go after these 3 initial posts, thanks. SEASON 3 This Season is all over the shop in terms of order compared to the original US version... Baby Blues - Mon Jul 4th, 1988 - 10.10pm (looks like this is the first of the 10.10 slots that stuck around most of the time until the end of the show's run in the UK) Forgive Us Our Debts - Mon Jul 11th, 1988 - 10.10pm Killshot - Mon Jul 18th, 1988 - 10.10pm The Good Collar - Mon Jul 25th, 1988 - 10.10pm Shadow in the Dark - Mon Aug 1st, 1988 - 10.20pm Better Living Through Chemistry - Mon Aug 8th, 1988 - 10.10pm Stone's War - Mon Aug 15th, 1988 - 10.20pm (this ep also made the 'Watching Brief' (ie.critic's top pickings for the day) in the same paper - to quote: "A very political episode of the designer-crime drama, with the police partners protecting a journalist buddy who claims to possess incriminating videotapes of US mercenaries fighting with the Nicaraguan Contras. And yes: the actor playing the mercenary leader is THAT G.Gordon Liddy, the former FBI agent gaoled over Watergate.") Streetwise - Mon Aug 22nd, 1988 - 10.10pm Walk Alone - Mon Aug 29th, 1988 - 10.15pm Cuba Libre - Mon Sep 5th, 1988 - 10.10pm Duty and Honour - Mon Sep 12th, 1988 - 10.10pm Theresa - Mon Sep 19th, 1988 - 10.10pm The Afternoon Plane - Mon Sep 26th, 1988 - 10.10pm Lend Me An Ear - Mon Oct 3rd, 1988 - 10.10pm Red Tape - Mon Oct 10th, 1988 - 10.10pm By Hooker By Crook - Mon Oct 17th, 1988 - 10.10pm Knock Knock... Who's There? - Mon Oct 24th, 1988 - 10.10pm Heroes of the Revolution - Mon Jan 9th, 1989 - 10.10pm (then no MV for several weeks) Everybody's in Showbiz - Mon Mar 6th, 1989 - 10.10pm (incorrectly advertised in the Guardian as the 'first' of the new season! Well it was the first in the new 'bulk' showing for 1989 so from that angle they are right at least - followed next week (see Season 4) by Contempt of Court) Eps not shown by the BBC in the original run: When Irish Eyes Are Crying, El Viejo, Down for the Count (Pts 1 & 2), and Viking Bikers from Hell

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SEASON 4 Contempt of Court - Mon Mar 13th, 1989 - 10.10pm Amen... Send Money - Mon Mar 20th, 1989 - 10.10pm Child's Play - Mon Mar 27th, 1989 - 10.45pm The Big Thaw - Mon Apr 3rd, 1989 - 10.10pm Death and the Lady - Mon Apr 10th, 1989 - 10.10pm God's Work - Mon Apr 17th, 1989 - 10.10pm Missing Hours - Mon Apr 24th, 1989 - 10.10pm Like a Hurricane - Mon May 1st, 1989 - 10.25pm (this again makes the 'Watching Brief' with an image alongside of Sheena Easton and more than a little cleavage!) Rising Sun of Death - Mon May 8th, 1989 - 10.10pm Love at First Sight - Mon May 15th, 1989 - 10.10pm A Rock and a Hard Place - Mon May 22nd, 1989 - 10.10pm The Cows of October - Mon May 29th, 1989 - 10.00pm Vote of Confidence - Mon Jun 5th, 1989 - 10.10pm (no show on Mon Jun 12th, 1989 - due to crisis in Hong Kong - special documentary followed Panorama!) Indian Wars - Mon Jun 19th, 1989 - 10.40pm (then no more MV for several months) Baseballs of Death - Mon Jan 8th, 1990 - 10.40pm Honor Among Thieves - Mon Jan 15th, 1990 - 10.10pm Hell Hath No Fury - Mon Jan 22nd, 1990 - 10.10pm Badge of Dishonour - Mon Jan 29th, 1990 - 10.10pm Blood and Roses - Mon Feb 12th, 1990 - 10.20pm A Bullet for Crockett - Mon Feb 19th, 1990 - 10.20pm Deliver Us From Evil - Mon Feb 26th, 1990 - 10.10pm Mirror Image - Mon Mar 5th, 1990 - 10.45pm
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SEASON 5 In the UK we might not have got every ep on the BBC first time around but one thing we didn't have to wait for was the conclusion of the Burnett arc - Season 5 started straight after 4 finished... Hostile Takeover - Mon Mar 12th, 1990 - 10.40pm Redemption in Blood - Mon Mar 19th, 1990 - 10.10pm Heart of Night - Mon Mar 26th, 1990 - 10.10pm Borrasca - Mon Apr 2nd, 1990 - 10.10pm Bad Timing (?) - my guess as no ep name listed! - Mon Apr 9th, 1990 - 10.10pm Line of Fire - Mon Apr 23rd, 1990 - 10.10pm Asian Cut (?) - my guess as no ep name listed! - Mon Apr 30th, 1990 - 10.15pm No ep name mentioned - Mon May 7th, 1990 - 10.20pm No ep name mentioned - Mon May 14th, 1990 - 10.20pm To Have and To Hold - Mon May 20th, 1990 - 10.10pm Miami Squeeze - Mon Jun 4th, 1990 - 10.10pm Jack of All Trades - Mon Jun 11th, 1990 - 10.10pm The Cell Within - Mon Jun 18th, 1990 - 10.10pm The Lost Madonna - Mon Jul 9th, 1990 - 10.40pm Over the Line - Mon Jul 16th, 1990 - 10.40pm Victims of Circumstance - Mon Jul 23rd, 1990 - 10.45pm World of Trouble - Mon Jul 30th, 1990 - 10.40pm Miracle Man - Mon Aug 6th, 1990 - 11.00pm Leap of Faith - Mon Aug 13th, 1990 - 11.00pm Too Much Too Late - Tue Aug 14th, 1990 - 11.00pm (interesting - never before did we get 2 eps of MV on successive nights in the UK!) Freefall - Mon Aug 20th, 1990 - 11.00pm
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(Then as a first scouting of the archive I can't find any more eps from Season 3 in the UK in this original airing on the BBC??? - That is barely half of the whole of Season 3?!)

Again, the BBC had to shelve some episodes, but there are only three from this Season which were never shown.. "When Irish eyes are crying", "El Viejo", and "Viking Bikers from Hell".As for the others that are missing, they were definitely shown, but for some reason they appear to be not accounted for in your list.
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Regarding Seasons 4 and 5, by that point the Hungerford Massacre had blown over, and both these Seasons were shown in their entirety. For some reason though, the listings for these two seasons appear to be incomplete.

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I'll continue looking see if I can find anything more - got any dates for airings for any of the missing eps (anyone) ?

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Guest neworder

Interesting; if that Season 4 list is what actually happened, seemed the BBC rather sensibly cut out the slightly crazier episodes, Missing Hours, Cows and Big Thaw all missing, although I don't find The Big Thaw too bad, if BBC missed the other two, good call on them, great way to not alienate your audiences.

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Again' date=' the BBC had to shelve some episodes, but there are only three from this Season which were never shown.. "When Irish eyes are crying", "El Viejo", and "Viking Bikers from Hell". As for the others that are missing, they were definitely shown, but for some reason they appear to be not accounted for in your list.[/quote'] I now have all of Season 3 in the listing (see updated list) except for the 3 eps you mention and also Down for the Count - are we sure that aired in the UK?
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Interesting; if that Season 4 list is what actually happened' date=' seemed the BBC rather sensibly cut out the slightly crazier episodes, Missing Hours, Cows and Big Thaw all missing, although I don't find The Big Thaw too bad, if BBC missed the other two, good call on them, great way to not alienate your audiences.[/quote'] I've updated the lists mate - I found these missing eps after all!
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Guest neworder

I've updated the lists mate - I found these missing eps after all!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lol. Good effort with finding this info btw, very interesting to see how fragmented the showings were but I suppose the BBC always has to prioritise other shows as it's paid for by the TV tax.
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The lists are complete as I see it for Season 1 to 5 now - most were shown, some not - only ep not accounted for as far as I can see is (are) Down for the Count - can anyone confirm if/when this was broadcast in the UK ? Thanks

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The lists are complete as I see it for Season 1 to 5 now - most were shown' date=' some not - only ep not accounted for as far as I can see is (are) Down for the Count - can anyone confirm if/when this was broadcast in the UK ? Thanks[/quote']Actually, I've just remembered, "Down for the count" was never shown either. The BBC appear have always been very firm on censoring graphic depictions of drug use, and whilst Zito was not a drug user, it was apparent he died from an enforced drug overdose. Specifically, it would not have been possible to edit out the scene where Zito was shown dead with a needle in his arm, because that scene was integral to the story, and taking it out would have not made any sense to the rest of it. As they therefore either had to show the whole thing with that scene in, or not at all, then ultimately they had to shelve that episode as well. Contrast this with "The Good collar", where Crockett and Tubbs meet Pepin, who is standing over the body of a kid who's just taken an overdose. The BBC cut the scene down so that you didn't see the lingering scene of drug paraphernalia, the crack spoon, the rope tied around the arm etc, around the body. The event was still evident, that Pepin had found a kid's body in there, but they were able to take out the graphic part of the scene without it damaging the continuity of the story. A few years ago, the BBC screened "Pulp Fiction" as a tv premiere, and showed the whole film in it's entirety, swearing, violence, blood, death, the lot. The only scene it cut out was where you see Vincent Vega sinking a needle into his arm. That shows you how seriously they treat it.
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Actually' date=' I've just remembered, "Down for the count" was never shown either. The BBC appear have always been very firm on censoring graphic depictions of drug use, and whilst Zito was not a drug user, it was apparent he died from an enforced drug overdose. Specifically, it would not have been possible to edit out the scene where Zito was shown dead with a needle in his arm, because that scene was integral to the story, and taking it out would have not made any sense to the rest of it. As they therefore either had to show the whole thing with that scene in, or not at all, then ultimately they had to shelve that episode as well. Contrast this with "The Good collar", where Crockett and Tubbs meet Pepin, who is standing over the body of a kid who's just taken an overdose. The BBC cut the scene down so that you didn't see the lingering scene of drug paraphernalia, the crack spoon, the rope tied around the arm etc, around the body. The event was still evident, that Pepin had found a kid's body in there, but they were able to take out the graphic part of the scene without it damaging the continuity of the story. A few years ago, the BBC screened "Pulp Fiction" as a tv premiere, and showed the whole film in it's entirety, swearing, violence, blood, death, the lot. The only scene it cut out was where you see Vincent Vega sinking a needle into his arm. That shows you how seriously they treat it.[/quote'] I suspected this might be the case with the Beeb and needles :eek: ! Cheers for the info - I'll update the original lists with a summary also of the eps not shown originally on the BBC. There really is something special about knowing the exact months/dates these eps were originally shown - I can reference them all now with a little bit more certainty in terms of various events in my life!
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You know the irony in this is that although Zito's death being an essential scene to understand the continuity of that specific ep is undeniable, omission of the ep in its entirety must have then diminished the continuity of the entire Season ! It's like one week Zito's there, the next he's vanished...

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So there we have it - in summary all of the eps except for 7 were shown by the BBC in their original run. 2 were cut from Season 2, and 5 from Season 3 - the other Seasons were complete (albeit the order of eps was changed significantly from the US order). The 2 cut from Season 2 were due to the Hungerford massacre and the 5 cut from Season 3 included Down for the Count (2 eps). Eps were only ever shown on a Monday (the Pilot & most of Seasons 3 to 5), Tuesday (most of Seasons 1 & 2 and one ep from Season 5), Thursday (last few eps of Season 1), or a Saturday night (last few eps of Season 2). The start times seemed generally to get later as the Seasons progressed, perhaps reflecting the darker nature of the show as it progressed, perhaps also in response to BBC viewer concerns, and maybe even due to lower perceived demand from the UK audience. Season 1 averaged 9.25pm start, Season 2 10.00pm, Season 3 & 4 10.10pm, Season 5 about half at 10.10pm but also almost half of the eps starting much later (more violent?) at about 10.40pm or even 11.00pm. We also had just over a whole year without any MV at all during the show's run on the BBC - no eps at all between middle of July 1986 and middle of July 1987 - this really broke-up the continuity of Season 2 in the UK. In general however the Seasons were aired over a shorter timespan than the corresponding runs in the US (US averaged 9 months vs UK averaged 6 months): Season 1: US - Sep '84 to May '85, UK - Feb '85 to Jul '85 (ie US=9 mths, UK=6 mths)Season 2: US - Sep '85 to May '86, UK - Apr '86 to Oct '87 (but 1 yr gap Jul '86 to Jul '87) (ie US=9 mths, UK=7 mths (excl 1 yr gap))Season 3: US - Sep '86 to May '87, UK - Jul '88 to Oct '88 (and two eps in early '89) (ie US=9 mths, UK=4 mths (excl '89 eps))Season 4: US - Sep '87 to May '88, UK - Mar '89 to Jun '89 & Jan '90 to Mar '90 (ie US=9 mths, UK=7 mths)Season 5: US - Nov '88 to Jun '89 (and one in Jan '90), UK - Mar '90 to Aug '90 (ie US=8 mths, UK=6 mths) The timing difference between Season starts (US vs UK) perhaps also tells another story about the relative popularity of the first 2 Seasons vs the later Seasons: Seasons 1 & 2 both start showing in the UK before the end of the corresponding runs in the US - but Seasons 3 to 5 all average a year between the US seasons ending and the UK airings showing - that's a significant difference. Perhaps this reflects the lower demand for the show (and hence general popularity?) after Season 2 ?

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Actually' date=' I've just remembered, "Down for the count" was never shown either. The BBC appear have always been very firm on censoring graphic depictions of drug use, and whilst Zito was not a drug user, it was apparent he died from an enforced drug overdose. Specifically, it would not have been possible to edit out the scene where Zito was shown dead with a needle in his arm, because that scene was integral to the story, and taking it out would have not made any sense to the rest of it. As they therefore either had to show the whole thing with that scene in, or not at all, then ultimately they had to shelve that episode as well. Contrast this with "The Good collar", where Crockett and Tubbs meet Pepin, who is standing over the body of a kid who's just taken an overdose. The BBC cut the scene down so that you didn't see the lingering scene of drug paraphernalia, the crack spoon, the rope tied around the arm etc, around the body. The event was still evident, that Pepin had found a kid's body in there, but they were able to take out the graphic part of the scene without it damaging the continuity of the story. A few years ago, the BBC screened "Pulp Fiction" as a tv premiere, and showed the whole film in it's entirety, swearing, violence, blood, death, the lot. The only scene it cut out was where you see Vincent Vega sinking a needle into his arm. That shows you how seriously they treat it.[/quote']Doesn't the BBC show topless women?If so, things are reversed on TV in the U.S..In the U.S., they can show drug use in a show, but not nudity.
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  • 2 weeks later...
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That must have been weird not having "Down For The Count". So how long did it take for you to notice that Zito was missing?

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That must have been weird not having "Down For The Count". So how long did it take for you to notice that Zito was missing?

For the first few episodes shown after the "Down for the count" gap, I did think "oh.. i've not seen anything of Zito for a while?", but it wasn't until "Red Tape" when Switek says to Tubbs "Don't you think I wanted to quit when Larry got whacked...." that I first went "Huh????".
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Doesn't the BBC show topless women?If so' date=' things are reversed on TV in the U.S..In the U.S., they can show drug use in a show, but not nudity.[/quote']Not sure about the BBC specifically, but I have definitely seen nudity on British tv (even if it was on one of the other channels). Graphic depictions of drug use were at least up until a few years ago a no no. Having said that, last year the BBC screened "The Wire" for the first time, which also contains scenes of heroin use. I wasn't really paying much attention to it at the time though because I'd already got all five seasons of "The Wire" on dvd so I didn't really watch enough of the BBC2 screenings to notice whether or not they cut anything out.
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For the first few episodes shown after the "Down for the count" gap' date=' I did think "oh.. i've not seen anything of Zito for a while?", but it wasn't until "Red Tape" when Switek says to Tubbs "Don't you think I wanted to quit when Larry got whacked...." that I first went "Huh????".[/quote']Same here, Papa Legba. I only got to see Down for the Count for the first time when I bought the VHS a few years later. And I still go to tears ...
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