Will we ever see "Spitting Image" on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Peterson]

Spitting Image was a BBC series that starred foam rubber puppets that were caricatures of political and entertainment figures from the mid 80's to the early 90's. To the un-initiated, they are probably best remembered for starring in the Genesis video for "Land of Confusion". I only saw one or two episodes (possibly it was a special) almost twenty years ago and I remember laughing my ass off and remember it strongly to this day. I would love to see these on DVD. It looks like there were several releases on VHS, but nothing defiinitive.

Is there anybody else that would love to revisit these?

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/...ittingimag.htm

 

[AndyMcKinney]

There is one Spitting Image DVD available, but:

1. It's Region 2-PAL
2. Looking at the Amazon.co.uk reviews, it's not their best work. It also seems to focus on football (soccer to Yanks).

I don't think there's much chance of ANY Spitting Image in R1. Your best bet, unfortunately, is this lone PAL offering.

The various videos that were released previously are funny, but as far as I know, were only ever available in PAL-VHS in the UK, not the US. The "Lover's Guide" instructional sex video parody is quite hilarious. Laughed my butt off when they showed Mr. Spock getting a ridiculously large erection!

 

[Tory]

I would buy this. It did air in the US and I know many people interested. There was a similar show on early Fox but it was not as good. I believe this aired on NBC as specials. The one I remember the best was the one I recorded, but unfortunately it is now lost. It was the Ronnie and Nancy Show. It was Ronnie's birthday and all the celebrities were at the White house to throw a surprise party for him. Ronnie had ordered out for pizza on the red phone and they were all going to die. I remember George Shrub and a Turkey as well as Ronnie taking a bath full of toys in his pajamas with no water.

 

[David Rain]

This was a great, bizarre show. Although I'm not sure if I saw the British version or one the was made especially for the U.S. What I saw aired on NBC, I think. And wasn't there also an American series based on these puppets called D.C. Follies ?

 

[andrew markworthy]

Point of correction - it was made for ITV (one of our commercial channels).

I think some further information may be useful:

(1) The available DVD (From F.A. to Fair Play) uses the Spitting Image concept but isn't actually a Spitting Image programme, as far as I know.

(2) The puppets preceded Spitting Image by a number of years. Fluck and Law (the creators of the puppets) used to do tableaux (like 3D cartoons) of their models for upmarket magazines. Most of these were political in nature.

(3) After Spitting Image finished broadcasting, the puppets were used in making a political campaign broadcast for the Labour Party. This led to accusations from political opponents that this proved that Spitting Image had always had a bias towards Labour (untrue, incidentally).

(4) The political comedy vacuum left by Spitting Image was filled by Have I Got News For You (I believe there is a similar show in the USA). By curious coincidence, one of the team captains (Ian Hislop) was a regular writer on the Spitting Image team. The programme is still running and a couple of excellent DVDs are available that are well worth picking up if you like Brit humour and have a basic knowledge of British politics.

(5) There is no sign of even a DVD of Spitting Image's Greatest Hits. There was a retrospective show about the series a few weeks ago on Brit TV and normally this sort of thing is used as a plug for a DVD to be launched, but nothing was mentioned. Although a lot of the jokes now will make little sense because they were very topical, some of the sketches are still widely-quoted (e.g. 'and what about the vegetables?' is well-known in the UK).

(6) It's not strictly true that the DVD is the sole product available - there is also a ringtone of the Chicken Song (a hit in the UK if nowhere else). There used to be plenty more products available (e.g. books and squeaky toys - we used to have the ones of the UK political leaders of the time as playthings for our dogs).

 

[Belial9]

I know exactly what you mean guys! I grew up on Spitting Immage, and all the episodes I had videotaped are long gone! I even tried looking on all the torrent sites to see if I could get hold of them that way, but alas, they seem to be as scarce as an eskimo in the desert! However, just recently I noticed on amazon.co.uk that they have started to make a comeback in full series form! Unfortunately, only the first four series are out (there were eight series made in total) but they are complete series, and on DVD! The good news is though, that they're letting you pre-order series five for when it comes out on 23rd March 2009. (so by the looks of things, they're gradually releasing each series again, and it shouldn't be long before we can get hold of all eight series!) I'll give you some links to the ones I found, and if anybody finds any more, or hears of any release dates, please post on here and tell me, cuz I'm dying to get hold of them! Anyway, here are the ones I've found so far:
Series 1:
Spitting Image - Series 1 - Complete: Amazon.co.uk: Spitting Image: DVD
Series 2:
Spitting Image - Series 2 - Complete: Amazon.co.uk: Spitting Image: DVD
Series 3:
Spitting Image - Series 3: Peter Harris: Amazon.co.uk: DVD
Series 4:
Spitting Image - Series 4 - Complete: Amazon.co.uk: Spitting Image: DVD
Series 5:
Spitting Image - Series 5: Amazon.co.uk: DVD

Good luck, and please keep me posted! I'll try to do the same!

 

[JulianK]

The company releasing Spitting Image in the UK has their own website, here: Network DVD

 

[Belial9]

Thanks for the heads up, and for the quick response! I'll remember to check this one out! For anyone reading this that only got the homepage from the hyperlink, this one should take you directly to the spitting image stuff on the same site:
Network DVD

Also, for anyone who is interested, I was also checking to see if any of the Spitting Image songs had been released on CD. It turns out that they have! (The CD is called 'Spit In Your Ear') although I was appauled to see how much amazon was charging! They wanted about 50 bucks for it brand new, and oddly enough 160 bucks for it second hand!?? (work that one out!!) However, thankfully I did a bit of shopping around! (So in case I wasn't alone in thinking that's way too much money for a CD, I did manage to find another site that's selling the exact same CD for about 12 dollars!!) Although I must warn you that although it does contain alot of Spitting Image songs, it doesn't have all of them! However, perhaps like the DVD series, this might just be the first of more to come! So again, please let me know if anyone manages to find any more! Anyway, here are the links to where I found them:

Here's the rediculously expensive amazon one, just so you can laugh at how they won't be getting our money! (ha ha!!)
Spit in Your Ear: Spitting Image: Amazon.co.uk: Music

And finally, here's the other one with the better prices:
Spittin' Image: Spit in Your Ear - Virgin Records (Import) - PID 8055 - 724384034429 - HBDirect

Anyways, hope someone finds these useful!

Will update you if I hear of anything else! And please post back on here or pm me if you hear of any first!

Best of luck!!

 

[David Rain]

Does anyone know if the NBC episodes shown in America were the same as the UK ones or re-edits or completely different ?

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I thought what was on NBC was called D.C. Follies...

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

D.C. Follies was a syndicated program, not network, so it ran wherever the local station that picked it up wanted to. I believe Spitting Image was broadcast for a brief time on NBC in America.

Incidentally, for any D.C. Follies fans out there, MSNBC will be reviving the use of some of those Sid and Marty Kroft puppets and voices for short bits to run during the Rachel Maddox show on MSNBC. This is good news for fans of political satire with puppets!

 

[AndyMcKinney]

From the Museum of TV and Radio:

In September 1986, NBC aired a two-part original Spitting Image special in which the secret arbiters of fame, including Bill Cosby and Ed McMahon, hatch a clandestine plot to have an over-muscled Sylvester Stallone elected president.

 

[Rick P]

Several episodes on DC Follies are available on Hulu