The studio audience's loud cheering makes the Blockbusters theme music very deafening and it also drowns out too

MQsCues - There's been some suggestion over the years that the master of the ITV Blockbusters theme doesn't exist anymore, through either loss or damage. I did read somewhere that the Earth in the Blockbusters titles was indeed deliberately scaled for a slick looking fade from the Central Moon ident. I can't recall if it went on to say that viewers NEVER saw it, or RARELY saw it. But it has been further scaled by the Gameshow Marathon editors. Notice the sudden zoom at 0:10.

I hadn't noticed that zoom! With that much applause drowning it out, I'm sure they could have used a substandard copy of the original theme if they'd wanted/been allowed to. Further research on wikipedia tells me that the new titles came in in 1987, and since frontcaps were abolished at the start of 1988 there would have been most of one series when the new titles were shown with the frontcap. Odd, because I don't recall it (and there are no clips of it on here, either).

I do remember it, but am surprised that it isn't available online. It is possible to edit a version together, however! They didn't always get it right, however. With Family Fortunes' appearance on GSM, they edited the Central ident on the front of the 1988 titles. The 1987 titles were a bit rubbish so weren't used.

The original huge game board was a mechanical affair, apparently created using an array of slide projectors, each responsible for beaming a different hexagon onto the grid. Computer graphics would never be able to evoke the same mood (and I imagine the original board was long gone) so I don't think they'd ever have re-created the original Blockbusters magic, even if they had tried (which they apparently didn't).

AMAZING NEWS!!! Challenge is gonna bring blockbusters back next year!!!

I have a feeling frontcaps had gone by then, but it's interesting that the titles were evidently made with the moon frontcap in mind - it's too good a fit otherwise! I suspect that they couldn't get (or wouldn't pay for) the royalties for Ed Welch's version of the music - it's also been edited out of the preview bit (see separate clip) where the audience is shown hand-jiving.

Were Central still actually using the moon frontcap when Blockbusters first introduced these titles? That's some poor editing. Hate how they strecthed the orignal 4:3 size between 0:15 to 0:26. Presumably because they couldn't effectively crop the bit where the game board is overlaid. Why did they edit a big chunk out? It's not like they would haved struggle for time if they'd kept it in.

heres the host of everything on itv either vernon kay or philip schofields

Gameshow Marathon was big, brash Saturday night stuff. The real Blockbusters was gentle, understated and geeky. It would never have worked in that Saturday night slot, so I guess they had to ruin it, to fit the tacky mood of the Gameshow Marathon strand.

@gshowguy yes true ant and bloody dec lol