United States--1972

Time Life Films logo

"50 half hours", Time Life ad; Variety, May 1972

• With the expansion of educational and public television services across the country, all hungry for quality material, the BBC strikes a distribution deal with Time Life Films, the film and television distribution division of media empire, Time Life. This deal gives Time Life the exclusive rights to sell BBC product throughout the United States and Latin America. The deal includes such fare as War & Peace (a co-production between Time Life and BBC), The Ascent of Man, and Doctor Who.
  • TIME-LIFE LOGOS and IDENTS
• At the time the deal is signed off, the ninth season of the series (starring Jon Pertwee), is drawing to a close. The package offered includes 13 serials, 72 episodes, all in full colour. These episodes are converted from the PAL to NTSC (525-line 2-inch colour video tapes). Pertwee's debut serial, Spearhead from Space is not included in the package, presumably because it was on colour film.
• April 1972: Time Life presents the package of episodes at the April 1972 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) event, initially selling to eight markets (as was later reported in the 3 May 1972 issue of Variety magazine). (Interestingly, the advertisement states the package was "50 half hours" rather than 72, which takes the episode count only as far as Day of the Daleks.)

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JON PERTWEE

13 stories, 72 episodes:

Time Life Films ad, 3 April 1972 - DR WHO in the sixth TV down

TV Guide, June 1972

BBB	Doctor Who and the Silurians	7
CCC	The Ambassadors of Death	7
DDD	Inferno	7
EEE	Terror of the Autons	4
FFF	The Mind of Evil	6
GGG	The Claws of Axos	4
HHH	Colony in Space	6
JJJ	The Daemons	5
KKK	Day of the Daleks	4
MMM	The Curse of Peladon	4
LLL	The Sea Devils	6
NNN	The Mutants	6
OOO	The Time Monster	6

- Inferno is supplied as an early edit of part five, featuring a scene deleted from the UK broadcast. (This highlights that the BBC still held the original colour tapes of these three seasons as late as 1972.)

- Day of the Daleks is called "The Daleks" in publicity material, and subsequently appears under that title in many of the TV billings.

• ADVERTISING: Time Life Films promotes the series in several publications:
  • BROADCASTING MAGAZINE – 3 April 1972 features a full-page promo for several BBC programmes, including Doctor Who.
  • The 10-16 June 1972 issue of TV GUIDE has a two-page feature, Yoo-Hoo, Monsters! introducing viewers to "Dr Who", the Sea Devils and the Master. It reveals that the series was coming in "the fall".

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Philadelphia Inquirer billing, Dr Who (Premiere), 21 August 1972

• 21 AUGUST 1972: Doctor Who makes its USA TV debut on WPHL, channel 17, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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