The best part of watching TV late at night, back before infomercials, was the little segment a channel would play to let us know it was signing off the air. Soothing, civically proud, patriotic, and frequently years out of date, these sign-offs briefly tricked sleepy kids into thinking this was the introduction to a new show. Or the “sermonettes” would make you wonder if it was Sunday and you just didn’t realize it.
The best part of watching TV late at night, back before infomercials, was the little segment a channel would play to let us know it was signing off the air. Soothing, civically proud, patriotic, and frequently years out of date, these sign-offs briefly tricked sleepy kids into thinking this was the introduction to a new show. Or the “sermonettes” would make you wonder if it was Sunday and you just didn’t realize it.
The sign-off I’m most familiar with is the segment that starts around 2:32 in this clip, a bunch of stock film footage accompanied by the most uplifting orchestral arrangement of “O Canada” I’ve ever heard. (It’s also featured as the last clip in the post I linked to, but this version, from Global, has better sound. Besides, I saw this film more often on Global than I did on the CBC.) I still remember the little girl hugging her confused-looking baby brother at the end. Watching it again, I realize that these old films didn’t show Canada as a particularly diverse place — if a comparable collection of clips were made today, it would unquestionably put more emphasis on that aspect of the country. But, of course, there wouldn’t be a comparable collection of clips today, because there are infomercials out there to fill the late-night time.