WMAQ Channel 5 - Tales of the Unexpected - "The Open Window" (Ending, 1980)

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Here's the closing credits (from one of its original airings in Chicago - late night on WMAQ Channel 5) of the spooky British anthology program, "Tales of the Unexpected"; the episode here being "The Open Window". (whose opening from the same airing can be seen here)

To recap, we've already seen:

The original British opening for the program, not seen on American TV during it's original run. (presumably due to its "racy" silhouette of a lady)

The American syndicated version of the opening, with the carousel and John Houseman narrating.

Another version of the American syndicated opening, with a different person narrating (likely Roald Dahl, since he is also the host here).

A shorter version of the American syndicated opening, with a different person narrating (not John Houseman nor Roald Dahl).

The mysterious variations and growing list of companies that apparently had some part in syndicating this show to America (or in creating the separate "Carousel" opening and possibly the John Houseman on-camera introductions on some, which we still haven't seen) continues here once more. You can see the last credit is for "Park Lane Productions" (whoever they were), which was not included in end credits for another episode that aired about 3 months later. Why the change? Who were they and why did they get dropped?

Now, these end credits cut out to commercial by WMAQ a little prematurely, so we don't get to see any possible production company bumpers like the 10-8-80 episode had (of another company called S.A.L. Films Ltd., which W.B. has identified as "Survival Anglia Ltd.," a division of Anglia Television)

Confused yet? Well, remember there is also the little matter of the fact that this episode and many others aired on American TV a full 4 years before their British premiere. So, in other words, the company making this show was syndicating episodes to America that weren't even airing in Britain yet. That still doesn't make sense to me. Why send newly produced episodes of a show that was at least moderately successful in Britain to American first? And then wait 4 years before showing them in the U.K.?

IMDb lists the "original" air date of this episode as October 21st 1984, but that was a reference to the first time the episode aired in Britain, and made no account of when it originally aired in the U.S.

This aired on local Chicago TV early Sunday, July 13th 1980 a little before 1:29am.


Date Uploaded: 12/03/2012

Tags: 1980s   WMAQ Channel 5     




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whose opening from the same airing can be seen here)

To recap, we've already seen:

The original British opening for the program, not seen on American TV during it's original run. (presumably due to its "racy" silhouette of a lady)

The American syndicated version of the opening, with the carousel and John Houseman narrating.

Another version of the American syndicated opening, with a different person narrating (likely Roald Dahl, since he is also the host here).

A shorter version of the American syndicated opening, with a different person narrating (not John Houseman nor Roald Dahl).

The mysterious variations and growing list of companies that apparently had some part in syndicating this show to America (or in creating the separate "Carousel" opening and possibly the John Houseman on-camera introductions on some, which we still haven't seen) continues here once more. You can see the last credit is for "Park Lane Productions" (whoever they were), which was not included in end credits for another episode that aired about 3 months later. Why the change? Who were they and why did they get dropped?

Now, these end credits cut out to commercial by WMAQ a little prematurely, so we don't get to see any possible production company bumpers like the 10-8-80 episode had (of another company called S.A.L. Films Ltd., which W.B. has identified as "Survival Anglia Ltd.," a division of Anglia Television)

Confused yet? Well, remember there is also the little matter of the fact that this episode and many others aired on American TV a full 4 years before their British premiere. So, in other words, the company making this show was syndicating episodes to America that weren't even airing in Britain yet. That still doesn't make sense to me. Why send newly produced episodes of a show that was at least moderately successful in Britain to American first? And then wait 4 years before showing them in the U.K.?

IMDb lists the "original" air date of this episode as October 21st 1984, but that was a reference to the first time the episode aired in Britain, and made no account of when it originally aired in the U.S.

This aired on local Chicago TV early Sunday, July 13th 1980 a little before 1:29am." /> Share

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