TV CREAM FAQ

This is the official TV Cream FAQ. All answers to questions you may have about "Britain's favourite vintage TV Website" (not our words) should be found here.

TV Cream
What is TV Cream?
The Layout of TV Cream
Conversing with TV Cream

TV Cream

What is TV Cream?

• TV Cream is a directory of past television shows from the UK, US, Australia, Europe and beyond, from the 1960s to the 1980s, constructed from found archive material, but mainly from the memories of Cream contributors.
• In addition to this, the site has become a bulletin board for people trying to trace half-remembered TV shows, a catalogue of social trends, an archive of classic theme tunes, a store of links to other TV websites and maintainer of three rather popular mailouts highlighting upcoming "Cream TV" and general chatter of interest to nostalgia freaks. All these roles are fulfilled by the TV Cream staff, with varying degrees of success.
• TV Cream is not - an episode guide for TV shows, an authoritative factual database of transmission dates, an official website for any TV shows, a commercially funded website or a site run by or affiliated with any television production company or broadcast organisation. It is thus entirely independent in style and content.
• The site thrives on contributions made by people like you. The following are a few pointers as to what sort of stuff you should send us.

The TV Cream Layout

A brief guide to the way we set information out on the site.

A TYPICAL CREAM ENTRY

GRAN (1982) 1
BBC1

UNDISTINGUISHED stop motion adventures of titular senior citizen (voiced by PAT "Corn Flakes ad outtakes" COOMBS) and grandson. Cue shedloads of roller-skating and other decidedly un-octogenarian antics, a la The Beano's annoying Granpa. Pitiful theme song remains memorable, however: "Hello Gran, how are you, how do you feel today, I just dropped by to see if I could be a help in any way. You really are the most, I think that I can boast, you really are the most amazing Gran". 2

TV CREAM immortality rating - 3
... USUALLY TRANSMITTED IN BRAIN-JUDDERING SEE-SAW DOUBLE-HEADER WITH TRANSPORT-FIXATED STOP GO ("WHEELS GO FAST, WHEELS GO SLOW") WHICH WAS A LOT LIKE AN EXTENDED PLAY SCHOOL WINDOW FILM: "CAN YOU SEE THE BUS?"

1 - The header contains the programme title, date (approximate dates are given for shows that cannot be exactly dated, or that went on for a number of seasons) and the production company which produced it (again, this may be guessed or omitted, depending on available information.)

2 - The main body of the entry is an encapsulated description/review of the show, with main cast members usually indicated by capitals. It can be by turns pithy, sarcastic, obscure and awestruck.

3 - The "immortality rating" is a vary vague scale of the worth of a programme in our general opinion. It can range from minus one to forty, but the average is about six. Yeah, makes no sense, we know... The final comment is either a quick summary, another sarky comment, more info (producers, writers, or famous faces appearing in bit parts), suggestions of other shows of a similar nature, or just a piece of desperate, space-filling waffle. You decide.

A TYPICAL CREAM PAGE HEADER

DON'T ASK ME (1975-9)
YORKSHIRE

UNASHAMEDLY TACKY popular science, featuring David Bellamy, Magnus Pyke, Miriam Stoppard, Colin Welland, Marion "How" Davies, Maggie Makepiece etc. loading up on bizarre demonstrations, cruel audience-baiting techniques and insane models by way of enlightenment. Similar type shows...

1 - The initial page for each letter is accessed by the keypad on the left. This will always direct you to the start of the entries for that letter. Also a little counter similar to the one you used get on CEEFAX and ORACLE tells you which page you are on, and how many there are in all.

2 - These links (at the top and bottom of the pages) appear if the entries for that letter are divided among two or three separate pages - this is done to provide a smoother scrolling page for when there are a large number of entries. Click on each one to move through the programmes.

3 - Clicking on this icon reloads the TV Cream site - intended for people who have surfed to a particular page (from a search engine) to enable them to browse the rest of the site. You'll find this reload button dotted all around the site.

Conversing with TV Cream

• Those with burning TV trivia issues to be resolved, suggestions for glaringly obvious additions to the site or tidbits of info that help us to broaden our database are urged to send them to our MAILBOX.
• When mailing, try to include all the information you can about a show. Nothing's too trivial for this site! If you're pitching a fully-fledged Cream entry then include as many details as you can, but tell us more about the show. Think about the style of some of the entries - if you can capture the essence of the programme, and your reaction to it when watching years ago, you're more likely to see your work added. Remember, a dry run-through of actors, episode titles and TX dates is not enough. Say what you enjoyed about the programme; point out its inaccuracies and failures. What make it stick in your brain all this time? And what would your reaction be if you watched it now? We're always interested to get complete but concise summaries of shows revisited via DVD... an experience that unfortuately can sometimes turn out to be not as enjoyable as you may have thought. Read as much of TV Cream as you can, take the overall attitude on board and be soothing or scathing as you see it.
• Unfortunately, we have no facilities/time/money to trace copies of old shows, theme tunes, etc. Sorry, but we're confined to memories only. Questions of the "do you know where I can get videos of Basil Brush?" type won't get a reply, as we simply can't help.
• If you want to send us any sound/video clips, please choose the right address from the MAILBOX page. Unsolicited long e-mails (megabytes in size) to the regular address are an obstruction and will be rejected.
• This site is updated reasonably regularly. We will try to incorporate the contributions as often as we can. Please remember that TV Cream is run on a volunteer basis, and its staff have to hold down real jobs. Hopefully the changes to the way we gather contributions will enable us to reply to urgent e-mails in a quick manner. However, please be patient.