What's crazy is that all this seminal work is still more exciting to watch today than today's computer animation! Growing up at the time, before home computers were typical, like a lot of digital news at the time it all came with the feeling "This is going to be big... REALLY big!". : )

The computer graphics displayed in this clip are amazing for 1987. This was the era that 8bit computting domineered the computer scene, with 286/386 computers on the PC front.

I loved this show when I was a kid. Your grandad is the best.

I remember the desk lamp animation when I was a kid and I fucking LOVED it. There was also one of a guy with a big chin playing the piano if I remember rightly. You cannot describe to kids now how amazing this was at the time, having been used to shitty old green screen VDU's and crude 8-bit home computing.

I was watching the lamp thinking that looks a lot like the Pixar logo and then the caption came up. Superb stuff for '87

I watched this episode back in the 80's. Who thought that the animated lamp would become a logo for a film company.

I love that old CGI Animations. Kinda rogh but very lovely. That really looks synthetic in a cool way.

At the end of the clip you get a surprisingly undated glimpse of the future with the Pixar clip (amazing for 1987, really). And then... You come back down to Earth with the request for a "Self-adressed envelope" for the factsheet...a strange dichotomy of those times...

Martin Lambie-Nairn is now Creative Director at London based brand consultancy - Heavenly

a golden age...

I remember in 1986, music videos, commercials and Broadcast design were influenced by whom had the newest CGI techniques or propietary software, specially because they were extremely expensive systems. When pixar unveiled Luxo Jr., it was a ground breaking piece in shading, radiosity and volumetric lights, All the media when nuts!, we want lights like the pixar piece. Renderman was and probably still is the most powerful rendering software, Nice to remember good old times.

Lol..."Please remember to enclose 75p" - priceless. If you've never watched the comedy series "Look Around You" and you remember these programmes (Tomorrows World etc.) I strongly advise you to get the DVD - fantastic

That Honeywell commercial was pretty impressive ... reminiscent of the "Money For Nothing" video by Dire Straights. As for the Pixar guy, his animation is awesome, but I don't think it'll EVER take off! ;o)

I remember watching that when I was a Kid and thought it was a robotic lamp!! I even vaugely remember asking my Dad to get me one for my birthday!!

WOW! I remember watching this on the tele when it was first shown. The LUXO Jr clip blew me away as a kid who was still using a Commodore 64. Never thought I'd see this again. Excellent stuff! Cheers.

I've always found early CG far more interesting than modern stuff. It had a unique style of its own, almost like looking into another world where things are a bit different. It seems to be true that working within limitations forces you to be more creative. With the drive towards ever more photorealistic rendering and almost no limits to what is visually possible now, something has definitely been lost.

@Spitfire67 you won't pay your TV license anymore so they had to cut costs.

wow cool for its time!!

oh my god i had no idea that pixar lamp is older than me

@rbright79 so does other CGI from 80s like Last Starfighter,Flightof the navigator,Preditor,The Abyss etc