RAW, in the TV credits

Just got a great tip from a nice gentleman named Joe Bloen.

The South Bank Show was/is a British TV arts show, featuring a very cool opening sequence which at one point, about 1 minute, twenty seconds in, lists various important artists and art movements. Watch the list of names such as "Vladimir Nabokov" and "Baryshnikov" closely, and you'll see "Robert Anton Wilson" appear as the last name.



Joe writes,

I enjoy your RAW blog and thought I would sent you this RAW fact I haven't seen put down anywhere else. In Britain, the leading arts programme shown on the commercial channels was called 'The South Bank Show' and this had a very distinctive title sequence. The titles for the 1990-91 season can be seen here (and he links to the video above):

scroll to 1'20" to see the sequence referred to.

It consists of a list of notable artists, art movements etc. as follows;
Turner
Tom Stoppard
Theatre
Charley Parker
Steven Spielberg
Evelyn Waugh
Baryshnikov
James Dean
Kurosawa
Leo Tolstoy
Constructivism
John Huston
Sophie Tucker
Abstraction
Elizabeth Beresford
Talking Heads
William S. Burroughs
Jessica Rabbit
Elizabeth Taylor
DADA DADA DADA DADA
Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Arnold Schoenberg
Roman Polanski
Vladimir Nabokov
George V. Higgins
Walter Elias Disney
Marlene Dietrich
Offset Lithography
Blind Willie Jonson

and the final, 30th (not 23rd alas) name
Robert Anton Wilson

I suspect a Discordian in the graphics department saw the chance to get RAW on the list and took it.

I did notice that the name "Robert Anton Wilson" seems to appear more briefly than the others, at least to me, almost as if it were slipped in. In the title credits for one of the Monty Python movies, the Holy Grail one I think, the open credits rather more obviously have things slipped in, and there's an announcement that the person responsible was "sacked"; I hope the RAW fan didn't get into trouble.

I would imagine Wilson would have been delighted by this; does anyone know if he ever saw it? Any of our British friends have more information?

Thanks, Joe!