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Date Posted: 02:26:19 10/13/11 Thu
Author: Rick
Subject:

The History of Hammer Television

This is a brief, but informative look at Hammer's work in television and credit goes to "The Hammer Story" by Marcus Hearn.

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Tales of Frankenstein (1958)

This was an unsold pilot for a proposed television series Hammer made, just prior to "The Curse of Frankenstein" made and released in 1959.

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Journey to the Unknown (1968)

This was a joint effort by Hammer and Fox Television to produce a 17-part anthology series for American audiences. The stories were a blend of supernatural and science fiction. Fox cast US actors and Hammer had theirs in the mix. The series ran 60 minutes and was aired into 1969.

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Hammer House of Horror (1980)

Hammer makes a new TV series and it contains the creative elements that made their classic horror films a huge success. The monsters were not included, but the baddies would win at the conclusion of every episode! The usual Hammer elements of blood, gore and nudity were part of the stories and familiar British faces were seen in the 13-episode series. It was only broadcast in the UK. Note: Available on US DVD region 1 by A&E and region 2 by ITV.

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Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984)

This follow-up series turned out not to be as successful as House of Horror. Hammer was on their last leg and they called in Fox Television to finance the 13-episode series. Fox had two stipulations and the first was that all the elements of blood, gore, sex and nudity were not to be allowed in the episodes. Fox's heavy censorship was a bad blow for this TV series. The second was the running time was expanded from 51 minutes to 90 minutes per episode. Fox cast US actors once again and Hammer did with several UK actors. The series was aired in America under the name of Fox Mystery Theater that year. It the eyes of Hammer, this was not what they wanted and the studio went into a state of hibernation after the series concluded. Note: Available on DVD in region 1 at some cult sites. Region 2 in the UK still has official DVD sets, but they are at high prices, as it has been out-of-print for several years.

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The World of Hammer (1990)

A series of clips that were compiled of Hammer's films in 1990. Narrated by Oliver Reed.

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Flesh and Blood:
The Hammer Heritage of Horror (1994)

A two-part documentary with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing that examines the company history and features excerpts from the BBC2 documentary "Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood!" from 1987.

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Rick

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[> Re: The History of Hammer Television -- Tim, 19:24:22 10/13/11 Thu [1]

Thanks for this informative history of Hammer on television.

Flesh and Blood (1994) is seen by many as the definite Hammer documentary, and includes interviews with many of the actors.

Tim

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