This is a bit of a fluff update.. the attached image is the Label from the Fire extinguishers which appear throughout Perditus. I took the basic idea and layout from existing ones but there are a couple of joke/references i put into it which.. well.. very few people will understand or ‘get’ the joke, and less will see in game cause.. it’s a bit too small, but I like putting such detail and attention to it when I can.
The two references are techinally a reference to the same thing, but kinda two things.. I’ll go with the big one.. the Company name is ‘PlaySafe Fire Extinguishers and Appliances’. I came up with this design pretty much myself as no fixed design seams to exist (or atlest one I can get).. though there are some other ‘fan’ ideas and stuff.. What is that a reference to? Best to explain this in the long way..
In 1974, the BBC released a sitcom called ‘Happy Ever After’. it was written by John T. Chapman, Eric Merriman, Chris Bond, John Kane and Jon Watkins. The Pilot episode was from one of BBCs ‘tryout’ shows “The Comedy Playhouse”.. soo many good comedys came from that one.. written by John Chapman and Eric Merriman. It started Terry Scott (well known British Comedy actor) , June Whitfield (another well known British actor, mostly in Comedy) and Beryl Cooke (Also, well known). They played Married couple Terry and June a middleaged couple in the middle-class whoese daughters have grown up and left, and now, Aunt Lucy and her talking Mynah bird. Good show, very popular. In 1979, it’s final episode (number 41, after 5 series). Now.. I don’t 100% know BUT it’s said that at the time, it was believed the show had it’s time and it was time to move on to another show.. Classic UK shows have not only much shorter series lengths (with far less writers) then US Shows and often don’t like to wear out there welcome too much. It’s said that John Chapman, one of the main writers and creators of the show was the one that stated it had run out of ideas. However, it was felt there was more that could be done and it was still popular. Due to legal issues (it’s claimed), things had to change in the way of names.
So from 1979, the SAME year Happy Ever After finished, a new show started called ‘Terry and June’. It starts off with Terry and June movin into a new house. While the surname was changed, they were playing the same Terry and June from Happy Ever after, but without Aunt Lucy and the Mynah bird. it’s … mm.. I don’t know if you can call it a Follow on.. what with the name, but it was pretty much. John Kane, one of the writers from the original series, wrote most of the episodes. It was debatable more popular as it lasted 9 series, with 65 episodes from 1979 to 1987. Some people started to moan at this show as was more of a ‘cozy’ 70s feel but.. so? shows were more popular then and there are SUCH a host of british comedies from that area which are still popular today. but by the mid ages, ‘alternative’ comedes were coming all the range and you had to talk more about sex and drugs and swear etc.. The final series was not intended to be the last and series 10 had some scripts in the early stages but BBC were starting to feel ’embrassed’ about popular yet older style shows (yeah.. BBC started to REALLY go down hill by the end of the 80s) and Terry Scott himself said he started to feel it was time to move onto something else.So after series 9, it was just not renewed for the 10th, nor the film they had ideas for (again, BBC did ALOT of films of good comedies in them days.. ITV did some but mostly BBC).
Now.. what does all this have to do with this picture? well.. In Terry and June, Terry worked for ‘PlaySafe Fire Extinguishers and Appliances’ in the head of.. well.. I think a marketing division, with ‘friend’ Malcolm Harris (played by 3 different actors due to various reasons (Terency Alexander had become unavaiable for the christmas special one year as he had started as a main role on a drama show ‘Bergerac’, so was replaced by Tim Barrett, who carred on for about 4 years until.. for some reason I don’t know, he left and was replaced by John Quayle for the final 2 series.)) and boss of the company Sir Dennis Hodge (Reginald Marsh who was good in soo many things.. He is yet another well known face of British Comedy).
So.. that’s the first reference.. and the second? well, the lines below says it’s for the T2000S model.. now, some might think this is a terminator reference.. not a chance.. (well, the second film was okay.. the first was too… well, i’m not big on action with little plot.. and of course, i won’t go into the whole thing about what plot there is being.. erm ‘borrowed’ for the film.. look into that if you like and draw you own ideas.. it’s not so much an end product comprassion but earlier and based on what was stated by the people making it..
It’s in fact, ANOTHER Terry and June Reference! In Series 9 episode 2 (overall episode 60) ‘The Mole’, a brand new State of the Art Fire extinguisher is being made.. the Titan 2000! it’s major new feature? It talks! so you can find it in the dark and through smoke. However, the blueprints go missing and Terry is blamed so various things happen. The Titan 2000 is the T2000 bit.. the S? … no clue.. speaking? maybe.. probebly just felt like that bit.
So the company name is a direct reference to the show as a whole, and that model name is a reference to a certain episode. While I have the series on DVD, i’m not sure if it’s been pirated to youtube (which I would NOT recommend as pirating ones like that hurts the shows and people getting them), or it’s been officially released there, in which case I’m fine with that.