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Seaside Special

Seaside Special is a European light entertainment show broadcast from July 5, 1975 until August 20, 1979, starring the dance troupe The Young Generation and hosted by various personalities. It was an outside broadcast based at a big top around numerous British seaside resorts. While this show was originally made in the United Kingdom, it was also co-produced in France, Switzerland and Belgium. The format was revived by the BBC as Summertime Special broadcast on BBC1 from Brighton, in 1981, and Eastbourne in 1982. There was a final series in 1987 - Seaside Special '87 - broadcast from Jersey and hosted by Mike Smith.

Between 1986 and 1988, ITV broadcast their own incarnation of the format under the Summertime Special banner from Bournemouth, hosted by Bobby Davro & others and produced by TVS.

The show's theme, "Summertime City", written and sung by Mike Batt with The New Edition, was released as a single on July 11, 1975 and became a UK Top 10 hit. For Summertime Special in the early 1980s, the theme song was "Never Needed Summer", written by conductor and arranger John Coleman. It was due a single release but it was cancelled. The ITV series used a different theme tune.

The Shillingbury Times

Sportsnight

Starsky & Hutch

Starsky & Hutch is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie and 92 50-minute episodes. The show starred Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul in the title roles and was originally broadcast from April 1975 (pilot movie) to August 1979.

The first season of the show had a dark and ominous theme written by Lalo Schifrin that seemed to fit the hard action and violence of the season; the main title version was edited down from the chase climax cue of his score for the pilot episode. This version was not released as a single in the UK.

The first season theme was replaced for the second season by a Tom Scott written theme entitled "Gotcha". "Gotcha" is the best known of the show's themes, and has been covered by several musicians, including the James Taylor Quartet and The Ventures. The latter's version was the first to be released in the UK, on April 29, 1977. Scott's original was released on September 23, 1977. Neither charted. The James Taylor Quartet's cover was released in September 1988 and spent three weeks in the UK singles chart, peaking at #91.

For the third season, a more dramatic theme was used that highlighted the show's move to more socially conscious and light-hearted stories. It was written by Mark Snow and released on an LP around 1979. A reworked "Gotcha", similar in style (but not identical) to the version on Scott's Blow It Out album, returned for the fourth and last season. The revamped version was the most easy-going of the different themes for the series, reflecting the last season's increased "buddy cop" feel.

The Ventures

Tom Scott

James Taylor Quartet

The Sweeney

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