came across a reference to the old "High Flight" poem that used to close down TV broadcasting for the night.

brought to mind more than a few nights from the late 70s and early 80s when I was allowed to stay up on weekends. I'd go to sleep sometimes right after watching the following sequence (the local ABC must have owned their own copy of "The Great Escape" (1963). because they played it once a month as their Late Late Movie. Good times, indeed.

At some point, the closing poem was updated; Iremember this one better

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward Ive climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovring there,
Ive chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
Ive topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind Ive trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.