Early episodes: Getting airdates

[crishan]

With a lot of the old episodes from 1988 onwards to the lates 90s,
no airdate is known, so it is difficult to place both Hiroke's rips
and AJ888's.

This has so far been solved by attaching the person's handle to it,
like 1989AJx01 and so on.

While I know that it would be utterly boring to check all presenters
against the episodes' airdates, might I suggest doing so by
comparing the presenter's IMDB profile to the airdate of the
show?

e.g. Beki Adams:
http://german.imdb.com/name/nm252518...ries#tt0163503
Tom Boswell:
http://german.imdb.com/name/nm229933...ries#tt0163503
Chris Goffey:
http://german.imdb.com/name/nm032460...ries#tt0163503
William Woollard:
http://german.imdb.com/name/nm094122...ries#tt0163503

Looking at the airdates and all of them appearing together in the 1989AJx01
episode, this was either from the 4th of April, the 9th of May or the 19th
of October 1989; It also could not have been the first episode of that series.

By the way, IMDB also lists the cast for each episode...

[AJ888]

That's assuming someone's filled in every episode that each cast member has appeared in correctly. The solution will be available once the Beeb get their programme catalogue (http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/) back online - this contains the airdates and details of every episode of Top Gear.

[Mr Thwipy]

I've been cross referencing various imdb-type sites and using a few other methods to try and add transmission dates to all the available "old" TG eps. It's not 100% accurate but I'll post it if anyone's interested?

[AJ888]

Yeah, just bear in mind that IMDB is by no means complete, so for example a season might appear to end on one date on IMDB, you find an episode that appears to be from the end of the season and put 2 and 2 together and end up with 3.

Perhaps leave a message on the talk page saying how you worked out the date. That way, if it later appears to be wrong it can be checked easily.

[Mr Thwipy]

http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/ftvdb/

Good for Top Gear and Driven.

[AJ888]

Originally Posted by Mr Thwipy

I've been cross referencing various imdb-type sites and using a few other methods to try and add transmission dates to all the available "old" TG eps. It's not 100% accurate but I'll post it if anyone's interested?

Do you still have this list? Be interesting to see how it compares to the ones I've established.

[Mr Thwipy]

Originally Posted by AJ888

Do you still have this list? Be interesting to see how it compares to the ones I've established.

I have. I'll edit it so it's postable on here. I agreed with your dates for the '98 eps.

28 Apr 87 [1987x01]
05 Nov 87 [1987x01]
26 Nov 87 [1987x02]
04 Apr 89 1989 AJx01
11 Apr 89 1989 AJx02
02 May 89 1989 AJx03
21 Sep 89 1989 ep 1
28 Sep 89 1989 ep 2
05 Oct 89 1989 ep 3
12 Oct 89 1989 ep 4
19 Oct 89 1989 ep 5
02 Nov 89 1989 ep 6
27 Mar 90 1990 ep 1
03 Apr 90 1990 ep 2
10 Apr 90 1990 ep 3
24 Apr 90 1990 ep 4
01 May 90 1990 ep 5
08 May 90 1990 ep 6
15 May 90 1990 ep 7
27 Sep 90 1990 ep 8
04 Oct 90 1990 ep 9
11 Oct 90 1990 ep 10
18 Oct 90 1990 ep 11
25 Oct 90 1990 ep 12
08 Nov 90 1990 ep 13
15 Nov 90 1990 ep 14
22 Nov 90 1990 ep 15
29 Nov 90 1990 ep 16
28 Feb 91 1991 [14x01] Episode 1
07 Mar 91 1991 [14x02] Episode 2
14 Mar 91 1991 [14x03] Episode 3
21 Mar 91 1991 [14x04] Episode 4
28 Mar 91 1991 [14x05] Episode 5
04 Apr 91 1991 [14x06] Episode 6
11 Apr 91 1991 [14x07] Episode 7
18 Apr 91 1991 [14x08] Episode 8
25 Apr 91 1991 [14x09] Episode 9
02 May 91 [1991x10]
03 Oct 91 1991 [14x11] Episode 11
10 Oct 91 1991 [14x12] Episode 12
17 Oct 91 1991 [14x13] Episode 13
24 Oct 91 1991 [14x14] Episode 14
07 Nov 91 1991 [14x15] Episode 15
14 Nov 91 [1991x10] (damaged)
21 Nov 91 1991 [14x17] Episode 17
05 Dec 91 1991 [14x19] Episode 19
12 Dec 91 1991 [14x20] Episode 20
19 Dec 91 1991 [14x21] Episode 21
05 Mar 92 1992 ep 1
12 Mar 92 1992 ep 2
19 Mar 92 1992 ep 3
26 Mar 92 1992 ep 4
02 Apr 92 1992 ep 5
09 Apr 92 1992 ep 6
16 Apr 92 1992 ep 7
27 May 93 1993 ep 8
03 Jun 93 1993 ep 1
10 Jun 93 1993 ep 2
03 Apr 97 1997 ep 1
10 Apr 97 1997 ep 7
17 Apr 97 1997 ep 3
24 Apr 97 1997 ep 4
01 May 97 1997 ep 5
08 May 97 1997 ep 6
18 Sep 97 1997 ep 9
02 Oct 97 1997 ep 2
16 Oct 97 1997 ep 8
30 Oct 97 1997 ep 10
27 Nov 97 1997 ep 9
19 Feb 98 [1998AJx01]
26 Feb 98 [1998AJx02]
05 Mar 98 [1998AJx03]
12 Mar 98 [1998AJx04]
19 Mar 98 1998 E2
26 Mar 98 1998 E1
23 Apr 98 [1998_04_23]
07 May 98 [1998_05_07]
10 Sep 98 1998 E3
17 Sep 98 1998 E4
24 Sep 98 1998 E5
01 Oct 98 1998 E6
08 Oct 98 1998 E7
15 Oct 98 1998 E8
22 Oct 98 1998 E9
29 Oct 98 1998 E10
05 Nov 98 1998 E11
12 Nov 98 1998 E12
19 Nov 98 1998 E13
03 Dec 98 1998 E14
10 Dec 98 1998 E15
21 Dec 98 Blood, Salt & Tears
18 Mar 99 TG9901
25 Mar 99 TG9902
01 Apr 99 TG9903
08 Apr 99 TG9904
15 Apr 99 TG9905
22 Apr 99 TG9906
06 May 99 TG9907
13 May 99 TG9908
20 May 99 TG9909
27 May 99 TG9910
03 Jun 99 TG9911
21 Oct 99 TG9912
16 Dec 99 21 Years of TG
01 Mar 01 2001x01
29 Mar 01 2001x02
05 Apr 01 2001x03
12 Apr 01 2001x04

Both [1987x01] and 1997 ep 9 have two possible dates as I couldn't be sure either way. I'm fairly confident with all the other dates.

[AJ888]

Yeah it does seem to mostly fall into place -
"02 Oct 97 1997 ep 2" seems wrong however. The BBC introduced their new logo two days later so unless it was edited and rebroadcast on BBC World within two days, then it must have been earlier.

[Mr Thwipy]

Most probably that ep was 27 Mar 97 in that case.