Back in the day, ATV had produced many great series. By the time I was old enough to watch series (age 5-6), we were already in the 1990s genre. From 《中華英雄》 (1990) to "Flaming Brothers" (1999), ATV was serious in producing series to take the audience away from the competing station, TVB.
In the early '90s, I was a dedicated ATV fan. I watched a majority of their series. Of course, they had great ones and not so great ones. The bad ATV series were really easy to spot back then because there were/are fewer artistes in ATV than TVB. All I had to do was look at the cast list. Obviously, if it sounded like a bad script, then the story was not good.
ATV Collection
Other than series and variety shows, I have collected a bunch of ATV items in the '90s.
These are the cover pages of ATVE Express Programmes. They are similar to TVB's Programme Highlight Booklets; however, the ATV ones included filming and artistes information, letters from the audience, and series ratings. These programme sheets range from 1996-1998.
(Left: "Forever Love Song", "The Gold Rush", "My Brother, My Mum", "The Snow Is Red", "The Year of the Chameleon", "Interpol", "Coincidentally", and "Always the Best".)
These programme sheets range from 1994-1996.
(Left: "The Swordsman", "Vampire Expert II", "King of Gambler", "The Good Old Days", "Fist of Fury", "Secret Battles of the Majesty", "The Legend of Yue Fei", and "Heroic Legend of the Yang's Family".)
1997 Year of the Ox CNY Greetings from ATV artistes.
(Top left: Annie Man, Berg Ng, Miao Fei Lin, Baby Bo, Alice Chan, Thomas Lam, Kristy Yang, Eric Wan, Erica Choi, Stephen Au, Frankie Lam, Bonnie Lai, Pinky Cheung, Lee Siu Wai, Lawrence Yan, Wong Yim Na, Wong Oi Yiu, Pong Chau Aan, and Kiwi Yuen.)
Yes, Frankie was an ATV artiste from 1996-1997. He filmed "Vampire Expert II", "Coincidentally", and "Forever Love Song". He also sang the theme song of "Coincidentally".
1998 ATV Artistes Calendar
Group 1: Amy Chan, Lawrence Yan, and Gilbert Lam
Group 2: Annie Man, Stephen Au, and Eric Wan
Group 3: Alice Chan, Kristy Yang, and Thomas Lam
Group 4: Elena Kong, Andrew Yuen, and Wong Mei
Donnie Yen filmed two great series for ATV, 1994's "Kung Fu Master" and 1995's "Fist of Fury".
"Secret Battles of the Majesty" and "I Have a Date with Spring" were also very great series. The theme song of "Secret" was a duet sung by Kwong Wa and Kristal Tin. "Spring" first started off as a stage play; it then went to the big screen, and later, ATV transformed it into a TV series. The cast included Sheren Tang, Kiki Sheung, Erica Choi, Joey Meng, Kwong Wa, and Thomas Lam. "Spring" was the first series that Sheren and Kiki starred in when they went to ATV.
ATV Series Sheet
(Top left: "Vampire Expert II", "Good Lover, Bad Partner", "The Snow Is Red", "Thou Shalt Not Cheat", "I Come from Chaozhou", "Forrest Cat", "The Little Vagrant Lady", "Interpol", and "Coincidentally".
The only thing in here that does not belong in the '90s is the ATV Series CD Album and the soundtrack of "My Date with a Vampire III". Here, I have postcards and a series sheet for "Fated Love", as well as series sheets for "Who Is the Killer", "The Good Old Days", "My Brother, My Mum", and "The Heroines of the Yangs".
Now, when ATV produces series, it always consists of a star-studded cast. I am very looking forward to Lawrence Ng, Amy Chan, Joey Meng, and Kenneth Chan's 《法網群英》 and Julian Cheung and Ada Choi's 《勝者為王2008》.
In this little preview clip, Ma Ming was shown three times. That is one more than Raymond, and he is playing Emotionless. That just makes you guess that Iron Fist will come out a lot in the series.
