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Wide Wonderful World of Media - A Look Back At Television
Phillip Dampier:
Another year, another new opening for Fright Night:
WOR-TV Station ID and Fright Night Open - 1985
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
Here was one of the more bizarre promos for WOR in 1986 showcasing the reruns they loved to air.... You should be able to identify where most of these clips came from.
WOR-TV - Promo Set - 1986
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
RKO sells off WOR-TV and the new owners stick another W in it to launch WWOR-TV. A new ID, a new look, and more important, a whole new attitude....
WWOR-TV ID 1987
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
No relation to Robert Downey by the way. WWOR ushered in the late 1980s by totally alienating the older viewers who watched the station for more than 20 years. Gone were the classic movies and older dramas. In came the confrontational, more working-class attitude programming, personafied by the man who started TV down the slippery slope towards Jerry Springer.
His name, Morton Downey, Jr. His attitude - a right wing populist who chain smoked on his show filled with thug-like audiences, with a whole lot of hollering and fist fights. You get a sense of where we're going just from the opening theme:
Morton Downey, Jr. Show Open - 1988
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
To give you an even better sense of how ludicrous Morton Downey, Jr.'s show was, here is a lengthier segment of the show covering heavy metal music. An interesting bit of trivia - Downey died of lung cancer and recorded public service announcements retracting his earlier statements about protecting "smoker's rights."
The most interesting part of this whole clip in the opening sequence. If you watch it slow, you'll figure out what he stands for on just about everything.
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