"Savage Wildlife" or something.
May 4, 2015 1:25 AM Subscribe
Nostalgia time: I can't remember the title of a series of direct-mail nature videos advertised on TV.
These were from the late '80s or early '90s. My science teacher my senior year of high school actually ordered the thing, and that was 1991-92, but I'm not sure how long the ads had been running by that time.
They were advertised on TV, but they were not Time-Life or any of the other direct mail publishers (K-Tel Records, etc.) I recognized at the time. I'm also fairly certain it wasn't National Geographic, and it definitely wasn't Wild Kingdom. There was an off-brand, less-respectable vibe to the ads I can't quite put my finger on.
The ad featured fast-moving hunting animals, wolves and the like, and had a "due to the graphic nature" type of warning.
We watched Volume 1 in class, and some sequences were pretty bloody. There were wolves taking down some deer-like thing, like in the ads, but moreso.
The thing that sticks with me, that I found most disturbing, was the couple of minutes spent on killer whales "playing with their food": flipping seals through the air with their tails, and so on.
I've exhausted my meager Googling abilities, and I've asked a few folks I know in person, but no dice. Like me, they remember that the thing existed, but not what it was called.
These were from the late '80s or early '90s. My science teacher my senior year of high school actually ordered the thing, and that was 1991-92, but I'm not sure how long the ads had been running by that time.
They were advertised on TV, but they were not Time-Life or any of the other direct mail publishers (K-Tel Records, etc.) I recognized at the time. I'm also fairly certain it wasn't National Geographic, and it definitely wasn't Wild Kingdom. There was an off-brand, less-respectable vibe to the ads I can't quite put my finger on.
The ad featured fast-moving hunting animals, wolves and the like, and had a "due to the graphic nature" type of warning.
We watched Volume 1 in class, and some sequences were pretty bloody. There were wolves taking down some deer-like thing, like in the ads, but moreso.
The thing that sticks with me, that I found most disturbing, was the couple of minutes spent on killer whales "playing with their food": flipping seals through the air with their tails, and so on.
I've exhausted my meager Googling abilities, and I've asked a few folks I know in person, but no dice. Like me, they remember that the thing existed, but not what it was called.
Response by poster: I'm not sure. The title sounds right, but none of the episode titles do. It could be that the US direct-mail version was drastically repackaged, or distributed out of order or something.
It was a long time ago, though.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:17 AM on May 4, 2015
It was a long time ago, though.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:17 AM on May 4, 2015
Best answer: Yeah, pretty sure it was "Trials Of Life" -- It was advertised on TV at the time with the voice-over going "FIND OUT WHY WE CALL THEM ANIMALS!!!" which always annoyed me at the time. I remember hearing/reading somewhere that it -WAS- drastically repackaged for the American market-- it was kinda a flop as a BBC production, despite a lot of work and excellent footage, but an American company promoted it as basically animal snuff porn. And I recall the sequence about the seal-- on the Blu-Ray edition package shown here you can see killer whales and seals, so I bet that's it. In fact in the Wikipedia article linked about, you'll see Episode 4 mentions: Off the shores of Patagonia, the same group of killer whales returns each year to ambush sea lion pups, which stray out of the safer shallow waters. Having grabbed their prey, they take it back out to sea and 'play' with it for some time before killing it.
posted by The otter lady at 9:29 AM on May 4, 2015
posted by The otter lady at 9:29 AM on May 4, 2015
Response by poster: Okay, yeah. I totally can hear that crap tagline.
Thanks to both of you!
posted by Mister Moofoo at 10:29 AM on May 4, 2015
Thanks to both of you!
posted by Mister Moofoo at 10:29 AM on May 4, 2015
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posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 5:11 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]