Franchise: South and South East England
Companies: Southern, TVS, Meridian
Provides examples of:
- Art Deco: The first Southern logo was done in this style.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Southern ident had a couple of different jingles before it settled on the acoustic guitar one that the company would use until they lost the franchise.
- He Also Did (In-Universe): IVC announcer Christopher Robbie appeared in Doctor Who as The Karkus in "The Mind Robber" and as the Cyber Leader in "Revenge of the Cybermen".
- "The Hero Sucks" Song: "Portakabin TV", a song Richard Stilgoe sings at the dinner marking the end of Southern Television which really mocks the incoming TVS. On top of mockingly calling it "Portakabin TV", it sings about how they have no idea where Maidstone is. It might have been for the best that the whole song isn't included in the documentary, as it goes even further with the mocking.
- Human Sacrifice: Harris quips that many of the Southern IVC announcers we in fact rehired by TVS rather than ritually slaughtered as C. David Wilson might have wanted viewers to believe they would be.
- Network Sign Off: Southern's final transmission ended with its star logging spinning away and fading off into a starry sky.
- Portent of Doom: MTM's Mascot, a cat named Mimsie, died shortly after MTM's sale to TVS. Harris posits that this could have been regarded as a bad omen, given TVS' rapid rise and fall after buying the company.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode is bookended by clips from "Southern Fried Rabbit."
- "What am I, George Monbiot?" Monbiot is a well-known environmental scientist and columnist.
- The Rank Organisation's trademark gong Vanity Plate shows up briefly when it gets namechecked as an early investor in Southern.
- D.C. Thomson and Co were early investors in Southern and couple of their major publications, such as The Beano, The Dandy and The People's Friend get a mention.
- One of Southern's early jingles is described as sounding as though it was being played by Dick Van Dyke's one-man band in Mary Poppins.
- One clip shows a Southern IVC announcer introducing Just William.
- Take a Letter Mr Jones and Under Manning and The Trevor Baker All-Weather Show are cited as low points for Southern in terms of programming. The Trevor Baker All-Weather Show opens with a snippet of "Don't Rain on My Parade".
- We see a clip of an orchestra playing "Music in Camera" from Symphony No 1 by Edward Elgar.
- Setanta is cited as an example of a company that did the bare minimum for a Network Finale.
- Southern gets some credit for producing Worzel Gummidge, and in the process, "giving Jon Pertwee his second-greatest role", after you-know-Who.
- Mary Tyler Moore is briefly mentioned in the context of TVS buying hers and Grant Tinker's production company, MTM Enterprises. Harris mentions a couple of shows produced by the company such as Tyler Moore's own sitcom, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart.
- Harris states that the third criteria of the ITC's specifications for the franchise round were that "TVS were not permitted to harm OCP employees", before correcting himself in that the bid to win the franchise had to be a sensible price.
- Sore Loser: Southern's reaction to losing the franchise. Their final programme is described in the video as a “near three-hour televised tantrum”, emphasizing their classic programming to highlight how low-brow their successors were seemingly going to be, C. David Wilson providing a lengthy drunken rant, and even a mocking song that called TVS "Portakabin TV" (keep in mind the fact that the reason for the name was because TVS had been forced to use portable office buildings as Southern had refused to sell them the necessary space needed for them until they were finished).
- Tagline: TVS's tagline, "For the best view of the South" can be seen in one of the clips.
- Today, X. Tomorrow, the World!: This sums up TVS's expansionist approach at the start of its tenure:"First Maidstone, then the world."
- Suburbia: Harris posits that the south of England has a lack of a strong regional identity as it the natural habitat of the middle class.
- Young Future Famous People: Fern Britton was one of the IVC "faces" of Southern.
