Jack Yan on Vox

Alarm für Cobra 11: a year ago

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:50:12 +1300

Go back one year and this was how Tom Beck was promoted in his first season of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei. There were a few episodes I didn’t see, judging by this RTL promo.

Alarm für Cobra 11_Trailer

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This week on Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:14:21 +1300

Now that I’ve figured out how to watch these on the RTL site, I am very much looking forward to this week’s instalment of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei.

Alarm für Cobra 11-Alte Freunde(15.10.09)

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More from the new series of Alarm für Cobra 11

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:58:15 +1200

Looks like I finally got in to compose on Vox after an hour. I’ve tried proxy servers, and the site is slow through there, too.
The latest series, starting next week, of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei looks really good. First up is a compilation of TV promos on RTL:

Alarm für Cobra 11—die 200 Folge

as well as two separate TVCs:

Trailer Das ende der welt saison 26 partie 1

Trailer Das ende der welt saison 26 partie 2

Meanwhile, here’s a very good preview from all the episodes in this 26th series:

Alarm für cobra 11 Trailer saison 26

Methinks Amazon.de will be getting an order from me in due course.

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Sam’s a cop who had an accident and woke up in 1977

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:30:53 +1200

Remember this scene?

La chica de ayer table jump 1

It’s Quin Gallardo and Samuel Santos figuring out who’s behind the kidnappings in the first episode of La chica de ayer—Spanish Life on Mars. Seems the show is doing very well in Spain with this Antena 3 TVC:

Autopromoción - La chica de ayer

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The 1980s are back, and it’s criminal

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:38:17 +1200

I posted this last week but didn’t do a blog entry: a promo for the second series of Ashes to Ashes, which begins on the 21st at 9 p.m. on BBC One. It’s rather well made (it’s not from clips of the show, but especially filmed), and I didn’t recognize Chris (Marshall Lancaster) with his new hairdo!

Ashes to Ashes series 2 trailer

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Was the call from Hyde? (That’s Hyde Park, NY)

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:31:58 +1300

Not many clues about the eighth US episode of Life on Mars in the latest promotion, tied in with the new Lost. I am wondering who has called Sam at an address he has more or less concocted himself at the end of the seventh episode, because it sounds more sinister than the Hyde 2612 call at the beginning of the original’s second series.

Lost & Life on Mars Promo

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‘KITT happens’

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:10:05 +1200

Life on Mars isn’t the only show that has had a producer change and rejig Stateside. Knight Rider, shown as a telemovie earlier in 2008, has gone through many changes, though Justin Bruening and Val Kilmer remain. The rest of the telemovie, I have read, has been chucked out.

Knight Rider - The New Series (teaser trailer 1)

Knight Rider - The New Series (teaser trailer 2)

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How ABC really promoted itself in the early 1970s

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:55:28 +1200

For those who saw my earlier post on the ABC retro-style promo—and the discussion that it wasn’t that genuine—here’s what a 1972 promo for the network really looked like.

ABC 1972 This is the Place to Be

Gotta dig that slitscan technique—no computers doing these effects then!
Some from 1973 announcing programmes:

ABC Telops 1973

Since ABC has used the Mod Squad theme for its Life on Mars promo, how about a real one for Mod Squad—really from 1973 itself?

The Mod Squad - last series television commercial 1973

Surely if the BBC can re-create its 1973 graphics, and ABC wants to play the same trick, it wouldn’t be that hard to make something like this, would it?

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ABC goes old school for US Life on Mars

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:55:20 +1200

Looks like ABC is getting into the retro theme with this 15-second promotion for the American Life on Mars.

ABC Life on Mars Old School campaign—15"

OK, so the typography is meant to be reminiscent of the 1970s but it looks more modern (I seem to remember Peignot was used a lot then on ABC, but perhaps Americans can tell me more definitively), the theme is that of The Mod Squad, and the voiceover sounds like the old announcer on that network (who I understand has passed away). The logo looks suitably retro, too.
This reminds me of the campaign the BBC used for the second series of the original Life on Mars in the UK, which included the old BBC1 globe before each episode. A pity TVNZ never did it here in New Zealand—I did suggest it to them at the time, and they could have got out old TV1 logos. For those who might not remember the 2007 campaign:

Life on Mars outdoor ad

with all those lovely brown tones from 1973 and typography looking like it was done on Letraset (it was more likely digitally set). The retro ident was also computer-re-created but it looks nearly indistinguishable to the original, apart from the widescreen ratio:

"Retro" BBC1 Ident (Life on Mars)

It looks like ABC is being far more serious about Life on Mars than when David E. Kelley was helming the programme, though I wonder if first-time viewers will understand the retro campaign for a first series. Even the UK, despite its nostalgia for The Sweeney and The Professionals, waited till the second year before springing the retro marketing campaign on to the public.

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With mild green Fairy Liquid

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:54:59 +1200

Life on Mars meets Camberwick Green

I hope Kiwi Lifers seeing the ninth episode of Life on Mars tonight for the first time enjoyed it. I did watch it again—yes, with the ads—and I didn’t mind the repeat, even if I could have chucked on the DVD. The acting was superb on every count, including that of guest star Marc Warren. Simm and Glenister were brilliant was always. Most of my commentary on the show was on IMDB, so it looks like I didn’t blog as much about the second series as I thought. Those messages, dating back to March 2007, have all disappeared, but I do remember being spooked out by the telephone call at the end from Hyde 2612.
   As to the image at the left, wait till episode five of this series.
   Strangely, the first promo I ever saw for the second series of Life on Mars was around 6.30 p.m.—two hours before the broadcast. If I hadn’t bought the DVD I would have been furious for the late under-promotion. I understand from the VO at the end of the episode that it replaced Without a Trace, and the American show was even advertised in some publications. The decision to air Life on Mars seems to have been a very late one, which explains why there was so little by way of promos.
   If only TV One promoted this prime-time show with the fervour that the BBC had—I even suggested a year ago that the old 1973 NZBC logo should come on before the programme, just as BBC One put on the early-1970s blue globe before its second-series Life on Mars episodes:

"Retro" BBC1 Ident (Life on Mars)

If anyone caught the promo for next week’s episode, Emmy is misspelt by TV One staff as Emme. Let’s hope they catch it before more of this typo airs.

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