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1990s "sampler" cable channel - help!

fybush

fybush

Administrator
Staff member
I know someone here will remember this: back in the mid-90s before digital cable, there was a cable network that offered a round robin of short samples of new cable networks that were fighting for attention and, hopefully, full-time carriage.

I remember recording its (very funny, very self-deprecating) farewell show when it went off the air one New Year's Eve around 1995. But I can't for the life of me remember what it was called!

Anyone want to save me on this one?
 
Was it the cable provider like TCI, Time Warner Cable, Adelphia Communications that did that. It must have been the cable provider that did that to promote new channels in their lineup at that time. Note these providers were at one point the largest in the United States at that point.
 
A home viewer would have to have been pretty bored to bother watching that.
 
Found it, even though it's nearly un-Googleable. It was owned by TCI and started as "TV!" in early 1995, becoming "Intro TV" in 1996 and shutting down at the very end of that year.
 
radiofan2023 said:
Was it just carried on TCI in your area or nationwide?
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It was a national channel, but I suspect didn't get much/any pickup beyond TCI-owned systems. Which meant I was one of the few in the Boston area who ever saw it at the time, since my TCI system in Waltham was surrounded by systems that were then owned by Continental Cablevision. It all got wound up into Comcast a few years later.
 
fybush said:
It was a national channel, but I suspect didn't get much/any pickup beyond TCI-owned systems. Which meant I was one of the few in the Boston area who ever saw it at the time, since my TCI system in Waltham was surrounded by systems that were then owned by Continental Cablevision. It all got wound up into Comcast a few years later.
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Thanks for explaining that. Maybe it was on in the KC area, and I just never watched it. @Mark Roberts do you remember this channel?
 
radiofan2023 said:
Thanks for explaining that. Maybe it was on in the KC area, and I just never watched it. @Mark Roberts do you remember this channel?
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I was on American Cablevision which had severely constrained channel capacity until they finally upgraded the system in the late 1990s. For example, when KCWE came on, they bumped WGN off the system. There was no room for such a preview channel. I don't remember seeing such a channel, whether in KC, Columbia (Mo.), or Chicago (TCI in the latter two places).

Much earlier, I remember preview programming for various cable-only services when they were new, such as HBO around 1978 and 1979, but those just filled time on the actual channel.
 
It explains why Suckyvision didn't have many channels it took until May 1999 to get ESPN2 and had to pay extra for it in Kazoo. WZPX had to share Preview/TV Guide Channel when they were forced to carry it was 6PM to 1AM then went back to show the schedule for the few cable networks the had, WZPX finally got there own channel when they aired The WB on a 22-hour delay. And why they wouldn't put Wood TV's local weather station on before it became general entertainment WXSP which wasn't added until May of 2001 when Charter bought Cablevision in the fall of 2000 in Kazoo.

Upgraded to digital in the fall of 2000 as well why it took longer for the upgrade as I was one of the last few neighborhoods for said upgrade that Suckyvision was doing. And why LIN then owner of Wood TV & Cablevision didn't like each other always doing battle and why I had to watch Wood TV on rabbit ears with AV Switch for a year Jan of 1997 until Jan 1998 Wood TV did return just in time for SB32 2 days before the big game funny how that works LOL. I think I remember when visiting my uncle in Texas that his Pay-TV had that sampler channel for a couple days I had GSN, E!, the final day was TV Land I didn't watch that thou.
 
TV! aired programming from Cartoon Network, Movieplex, and some other channels based on TV listings that I've seen in newspaper microfilm. Maybe Game Show Network too.
 
I remember that channel or a similar one. The channel would show you a few minutes of one of the cable stations that was available to viewers, some basic and some you had to subscribe to. You could see a few other silent screens playing other channels in addition to the larger channel being played with its audio on. After several minutes, the channel would change. And something that was silent before would now be on the big screen with its audio up.

It was a way for folks who just had a basic plan to get interested in something that would prompt them to upgrade or subscribe to a premium channel. I thought it was odd that they would show you channels you normally couldn't see. They were on a higher tier or even scrambled for non-subscribers.

What would they do for channels such as HBO and Showtime where the language might be too strong for general viewers? Maybe they knew that HBO and Showtime would not have curses in its daytime presentations? Some hours the channel would show the premium movie channels, but only for a few minutes, before moving on to another channel. But by evening, HBO and Showtime were eliminated from the sample channels shown.
 
I’m a little late to this party… But yes! I remember TV!/Intro Television well. Being an aspiring young media geek in a TCI town, it was something of an addiction for me while it was around. I’d watch practically anything on it—from the morning news blocks from Bloomberg and CNN International, to “TV Diners” and “Essence of Emeril” from (TV) Food Network, to Travel Channel and History Channel in their original formats, to E! celeb interviews, to limited coverage oddballs like Celtic Vision and the Ecology Channel, to even the classic movies from TCM on occasion.

It was my first regular taste of Cartoon Network (back when it was primarily Hanna-Barbers classics; i.e., when it was good). And the late night music video blocks were essential VCR recording for me—country (CMT), Christian (Z Music), pop/rock/hip-hop (The Box)—it didn’t matter the genre. I suspect that contributed to my diverse taste in music today.

For what it was, they also put a fair bit of effort into the presentation, running their own promos and bumpers to give it the feel of a real channel, rather than the glorified barker channel that it probably was. Post-Remote Control Ken Ober even showed up for “TV! Network News Update” segments.

Thanks for this thread, @fybush. This was quite a nostalgia trip!


crainbebo said:
TV! aired programming from Cartoon Network, Movieplex, and some other channels based on TV listings that I've seen in newspaper microfilm. Maybe Game Show Network too.
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MoviePlex was the channel that replaced it. Though TV!/Intro did run blocks from the original Encore and STARZ.

They never ran Game Show Network IIRC, but they did play some Family Channel Wink Martindale-hosted game shows branded as “Game Net.” Game Net was a network that Family Channel was planning to launch around the same time Sony was planning Game Show Network. But from what I’ve been told, Sony grabbing the Goodson-Todman library seriously damaged Game Net’s shot at getting off the ground, and the project was eventually scrapped.


Gregg. said:
What would they do for channels such as HBO and Showtime where the language might be too strong for general viewers? Maybe they knew that HBO and Showtime would not have curses in its daytime presentations? Some hours the channel would show the premium movie channels, but only for a few minutes, before moving on to another channel. But by evening, HBO and Showtime were eliminated from the sample channels shown.
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TV!/Intro did run occasional free weekend previews of HBO (though I don’t recall them ever running Showtime) as special events. IIRC, they kept it almost entirely PG-13 or tamer. On rare occasions when an R-rated movie did show up, it was either a daytime edit or, if uncut, was only shown late at night.
 
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