T-Bag production numbers?

[mb2000]

Hi. Does anyone know what form the production numbers for each episode of each series took? For example, were they just 1, 2, 3 etc for each series or did they differentiate between them like for T-Bag Strikes Again have SA1, SA2 etc?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[raggedbone]

OK, according to the Fremantle archive website, all series have an individual reference as do the individual episodes. 'Wonders in Letterland', for example (which is listed as 'Troubles with T.Bag' due to a copyright infringement, just to add to any confusion!) is logged as Ref: 31212. This also appears to be the VT number for episode 1, and the other nine episodes follow chronologically - ep 2=31213, ep 3=31214, etc.

You can find all this information here and all you need do is type 'T-Bag' into the search bar:

www.fremantlearchivesales.com/default.aspx

If you are trying to obtain copies of the episodes directly from Fremantle, I would warn you about the charge for this. So I've heard, you're looking at paying at least a hundred pounds for one half an hour of material - and with 94 episodes of the show in total, this would really break the bank! Also the quality of the recording you'll receive will not be overly high and, most likely, with a timecode burnt in.

[raggedbone]

Just to add to that, those references are VT numbers - not sure if there would be different production codes when the episodes were made, but those are definitely the references (indicating where they are in the archive) Fremantle would use now.

[mb2000]

Thanks of the info! I'm not lookiing to buy episode and the only reason I ask is that I recently become the editor for the T-Bag shows on TV.com and procduction codes are the only major things that are missing from the guides. I'll enquire through the Fremantle site about them anyway.

Thank you for all your help!

[raggedbone]

O, OK - well, all the best with that and glad to be of help ;-)

[mb2000]

Got a reply from my enquiry. Very quick that. Here's what they said:

"The reference numbers on the Archive website, are the same as the ones on my system. "

So, I'll take it that production number = reference number.

[raggedbone]

I had a feeling that's what they'd say. I know the guy who runs the 'Ace of Wands' website uses the VT numbers in his programme guides.

You might have to enquire further about individual episode numbers as they don't all appear to be listed, and they might not all go in chronological sequence.

All the best.

[Jamie]

Welcome to the Forum mb2000, seems very sensible taking the reference number for the production codes for T-Bag pages on the TV.com website.

Most of the T-Bag content is mine which was merged over from the late TVTome (which I sadly miss ) which I were the editor of all those pages. I'm not too keen on TV.com, I signed up and contributed to many of the T-Bag pages but it took so long to get credit for them and get them checked by the main website editors that I just gave up soon after someone started messing up the titles and moving the episodes (especially in Wonders In Letterland and Take Off With T. Bag). You can see me as a contributor on most the pages - I'm 'High-T'. I've just logged on to TV.com which I've not looked at for a few months now and I was told I was made editor of T. Bag and the Pearls of Wisdom but you've ousted me since !

Congratulations on becoming editor for all nine series, hope you improve all the details.

As for the fremantlearchive website, it's interesting to note several other 'artistes' listed for the series that were never quoted such as:

Wonders In Letterland:
Leslie Pearson
T-Bag Bounces Back:
Don Lusher & Jack Emblow
T. Bag's Christmas Ding-Dong:
Dave Hancock, Leslie Pearson, Ray Hughes, Roy Willox & Stephen Wilk
T. Bag And The Rings Of Olympus
Ray Hughes
T. Bag's Christmas Turkey:
Jamie Fowlds
Take Off With T. Bag:
Jill Goldston, Sarah Lloyd & Stephen Fitzallen

Just goes to show how many people worked on the show but were never credited.

I didn't think the fremantle archive was for individual people to get episodes from - does anyone know any different, on the faq page it says:

Do you provide copies for private use?
No, we are a commercial library and do not have the resources to provide this service.

[mb2000]

admin said:

Welcome to the Forum mb2000, seems very sensible taking the reference number for the production codes for T-Bag pages on the TV.com website.

Hi, thank you.

admin said:

Most of the T-Bag content is mine which was merged over from the late TVTome (which I sadly miss ) which I were the editor of all those pages.

Yeah, things aren't the same any more. I on;y started going there a few months before it changed but things seemed a lot less complicated then.

admin said:

I'm not too keen on TV.com, I signed up and contributed to many of the T-Bag pages but it took so long to get credit for them and get them checked by the main website editors that I just gave up soon after

Funny you should mention that, as wehn I was adding the season/episode numbers before I was editor one of the mods was accepting the submissions as I was sending them. Like they were there waiting for me or something! The credit thing is always broken there. Your level rarely goes up by more than a couple of percent each day even with 50+ submissions.

admin said:

someone started messing up the titles and moving the episodes (especially in Wonders In Letterland and Take Off With T. Bag).

Oh yeah, I've run into that exact problem. I'd like to know what bright spark decided to change both of those to just "T-Bag". The number of times I've gone into the wrong one. Anyway, I've asked the staff about changing them so it's not as confusing.

admin said:

You can see me as a contributor on most the pages - I'm 'High-T'.

I know that name well!

admin said:

I've just logged on to TV.com which I've not looked at for a few months now and I was told I was made editor of T. Bag and the Pearls of Wisdom but you've ousted me since !

I apologize, but the guide didn't show anyone as editor for any of them. Thats why I did made a try for them. The guide for POW doesn't even show you having enough points to be editor, but given the state of the site it's not really surprising. Might even have been a glitch message, you just never know any more.

admin said:

Congratulations on becoming editor for all nine series, hope you improve all the details.

Thanks, I'll do my best. Just finished adding the Christmas episodes to the end of the series they're closest to and filled in the directors. Now it's really just stuff like quotes, trivia and recaps for each episode, but they'll have to wait a while until I can sit down and watch them. Right now I'm writing summaries for the Super Sentai guide. It's in Japanese as well so it takes a bit longer!

admin said:

As for the fremantlearchive website, it's interesting to note several other 'artistes' listed for the series that were never quoted such as:

Wonders In Letterland:
Leslie Pearson
T-Bag Bounces Back:
Don Lusher & Jack Emblow
T. Bag's Christmas Ding-Dong:
Dave Hancock, Leslie Pearson, Ray Hughes, Roy Willox & Stephen Wilk
T. Bag And The Rings Of Olympus
Ray Hughes
T. Bag's Christmas Turkey:
Jamie Fowlds
Take Off With T. Bag:
Jill Goldston, Sarah Lloyd & Stephen Fitzallen

Just goes to show how many people worked on the show but were never credited.

I'll have to try to find out what they did and add them in. Thanks.

[blackiecats]

That's a cool website indeed. I'm most interested about the name changes to 'Wonders in Letterland'

I'm guessing there must have been another program with the same name and the owners registered the 'Wonders in Letterland' trademark before Fremantle could?

Sadly this probably means, if Wonders in Letterland is ever released, they will have to change the intro at the start where the narrator says "Wonders in Letterland, the adventures of a small girl, in search of the magic of letters"

Perhaps they would remove that intro totally? To be honest I don't think it's that important anyway to be honest.

However 'Troubles with T-Bag' What a crap title to rename it!

[raggedbone]

blackiecats said:

That's a cool website indeed. I'm most interested about the name changes to 'Wonders in Letterland'

I'm guessing there must have been another program with the same name and the owners registered the 'Wonders in Letterland' trademark before Fremantle could?

Sadly this probably means, if Wonders in Letterland is ever released, they will have to change the intro at the start where the narrator says "Wonders in Letterland, the adventures of a small girl, in search of the magic of letters"

Perhaps they would remove that intro totally? To be honest I don't think it's that important anyway to be honest.

However 'Troubles with T-Bag' What a crap title to rename it!

Hello Blackiecats ;-)

As I understand it (and someone correct me if I'm wrong), Letterland is the name of an American cartoon series which was around sometime before T.Bag came on the scene. These days, checks on copyright infringement are a must when putting together a TV show -- though it doesn't surprise me that Thames Television didn't cotton on till they went to sell it abroad in the late eighties!!

It was transmitted in Australia sometime between 1987 and 1989 under the title 'Troubles with T.Bag' on the ABC (as it was in New Zealand, although I'm unsure of the dates) and from the information on Fremantle's Archive site this is now the title used to refer to it. Should it be released (certainly overseas), I should imagine this is the title it will bear due to the copyright problems (again, correct me if I'm wrong).

It wouldn't be too hard to overdub the voice-over at the beginning of Episode 1 (and all the other episodes), or just to remove it completely, and replacing the titles would be a doddle. I remember hearing from various people that further measures were taken to remove the name 'Letterland' completely from the production (from the board game itself and overdubbing the song Debbie sings in Episode 6).

'Troubles with T.Bag' isn't the greatest title ... but then again, neither is 'Wonders in Letterland'. It's always felt like a slightly-clunky play on the title 'Alice in Wonderland', considering the similarities (Debbie entering a magic world, thinking small, etc). I'm sure the writers mentioned somewhere that this wasn't thought up by them.

All the best,

RB