Today, we try to figure out what the heck TV Land used to talk about when it bragged about having shows in “VertiVision.”
In Pop Culture Questions Answered, I answer whatever questions you folks might have about movies, TV, music or whatever (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brian@pop culture references.com).
Reader Robert B. wrote in to ask something he apparently has been dying to know for over twenty years, namely, what the heck was up with TV Land and its use of the term “VertiVision”? Robert wrote that he remembered back in the late 1990s, when TV Land was still a pretty new company, it kept talking about showing old shows in “VertiVision,” and he never knew what it meant back then, and he was wondering if I could help him now.
But of course, Robert!
You see, back when TV Land started, the idea of having blocks of episodes was still fairly novel. Sure, syndicated shows would often air an hour-long block of really popular sitcoms, like Cheers or M*A*S*H*, but there just wasn’t enough Cable TV options out there to find room for networks to do, like, three or four hour blocks of episodes. So when TV Land started doing it with shows, it began to refer to it as “VertiVision,” as they were nominally “stacking” the episodes on top of each other, vertically.
It was objectively a terrible name, and TV Land ended up changing it to “Block Party Summers” a few years later, but that’s what the original idea behind VertiVision, Robert.
Thanks for the question, Robert! If anyone else has a question, drop me a line at brian@popculturereferences.com.
I miss the Sci-Fi Channel’s “S.C.I.F.I. World,” with Superhero Land, Creature Land, Intergalactic Land, Fantasy Land and Inhuman Land. I liked the daily themed marathons, and the “Pop-Up Video” style blurbs. (Mostly, I just liked it when the marathon of “Otherworld” got to the episode where the 1980s teenagers introduce rock ‘n’ roll to the other world, and the pop-up text for one of their massively successful concerts read, “Start suspending your disbelief now.”)
Networks were SO big on “Pop-Up Video” style stuff and then all abruptly stopped at once. I miss it, too.
I remember as part of the show’s anniversary, they did a “Pop-Up” episode of NewsRadio for the episode where Bill ended up in an asylum. On the commentary they mention that the pop-up portion would be part of the special features on a later season’s bonus features. It never showed up on any of the later DVD box sets, so I’m curious as to why the plan changed.
On topic, I miss the early days of Nick-at-Nite and TV Land where they were still figuring out their format but throwing every black-and-white show they could get the rights to onto the air.