SMTV Live
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| SMTV Live | |
|---|---|
 SMTV Live logo. |
|
| Genre | Children's |
| Running time | 2 hours 5 minutes |
| Starring | Ant McPartlin, Declan Donnelly, Cat Deeley, James Redmond, Brian Dowling, Tess Daly, Claire Richards, Ian 'H' Watkins, Des Clarke, Shavaughn Ruakere, Stephen Mulhern |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Original channel | ITV1 |
| Original run | 29 August 1998–27 December 2003 |
| No. of episodes | 279 |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
SMTV Live (an abbreviation of Saturday Morning Television Live also written 'SM:TV Live' and in early promotional material 'SMTV://live') was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, first broadcast on ITV1 on 29 August 1998 and last broadcast on 27 December 2003. On the surface it did not seem to stray away from the format of other Saturday morning programmes, featuring an audience of children, competitions and cartoons, though it constantly won in ratings battles with the BBC version, Live & Kicking, and gave ITV their most watched children's programme since Tiswas.
[edit] Presenters
The show went through a series of presenters, starting in 1998 with the most famous line-up of Ant McPartlin, Declan Donnelly, and Cat Deeley. In 2001, Ant & Dec left the show, followed the year after by Cat. 2002 brought a new line-up of presenters in the form of James Redmond (Hollyoaks actor), Tess Daly, and Big Brother winner, Brian Dowling. Redmond was later sacked due to alleged comments made about music on the show, leaving just Daly and Dowling. For a short period, Claire Richards and Ian 'H' Watkins from the now-defunct pop group Steps also regularly presented. During the final series, Des Clarke, Shavaughn Ruakere and Stephen Mulhern were the presenters (though Shavaughn mysteriously vanished at the end of August, with no explanation. She returned for the final episode in December, but no mention was made of why she left. Only one small comment regarding her absence was made by Shavaughn in that episode, but no explanation.) It is widely believed that the change of presenters from the original line-up was one of the biggest reasons of SMTV's loss of popularity.
[edit] Sketches
SMTV Live featured many sketches, some of which became staple to the show. Listed below are just some of them.
[edit] Ant and Duck
A short-lived sketch, this has "Farmer Ant" presenting a pseudo-preschool show teaching children about the countryside and Dec as the aggressively misanthropic Duck. It would end with a song near the end where Duck would twist the lyrics to diss the countryside and where, at the end, Ant would force Duck into line by singing threats of calling the Chinese takeaway. Much of the humour came from Duck's attempts to twist the lessons about the countryside; for example, when Ant was talking about (in examples of people living in the country) the aristocrat who owned an estate, Duck replied "Big Tony runs the estate!" (meaning a council estate). Duck was done by having Dec sitting on a stool in a duck costume, with fake duck legs on a haystack so it would look like Duck was short and sitting on the haystack. In the last sketch, there was a gag where Farmer Ant finds Duck has gone (leaving his legs behind) and, as he asks where Duck's been, a toilet is heard flushing and Dec in his costume walks back from the loo carrying a newspaper and then sits on the stool.
[edit] Chums
A parody of the American sitcom Friends, featuring jokes like Ant trying to hang a picture over the camera, wondering why 'There are no pictures on this wall!' Many recurring themes and plot lines appeared in Chums, such as the romance between Dec and Cat, and their kiss that was interrupted every episode. Every episode when Cat and Dec went to kiss, Dec would say the phrase "Me and Cat, alone in the flat... I think I'm going to kiss her!" When Ant & Dec left the show, their last episode featured Dec & Cat's "wedding", which never happened in the end, as Dec decided to leave and travel the world to find himself - and took Ant with him... The episode ended with Dec finally kissing Cat, which they did again in the last SMTV.
Episodes nearly always ended with the "freeze-frame", where everyone would freeze exactly where they were, a joke taken straight out of Police Squad. The celebrity guests present always took part in Chums, usually appearing as new flatmates. Amongst the best remembered episodes were their parodies of Big Brother ("Big Idiot") and Band Aid. ("Ant Aid" - where the line "Feed the world, Let them know it's Christmas time" became "Blink for Ant, Close your eyes and open them, Blink for Ant, It's time we saw what he can see"")
Chums continued for a few weeks after the departure of Ant & Dec, but finished quickly. However, during SM:TV Gold, no mention was made of this period and they treated Ant & Dec's departure episode as the last. The last SMTV saw Ant, Dec & Cat return to a deserted cobweb-filled flat, also implying that nothing happened after they left.
[edit] Fartbeat
A parody of Heartbeat. Featured very little story, with celebrity guests joining in with the fart gags. One character was Greengas, an obvious parody of the real character Greengrass (Heartbeat) Most of the Scenes took place in the police station.
[edit] F'art Attack
A parody of Art Attack, presented by 'Neil Pumpcannon' (Ant). Similar to Fartbeat above, the gags were all based around passing wind. The real Neil Buchanan appeared in the final outing of this sketch.
[edit] SMTV 2099
A parody of Star Trek, and of the Sci-Fi genre in general. This featured Dec as a Captain Kirk-type captain of a spaceship, Cat as an Uhura-esque communications officer (in a silvery wig), and Ant as a bizarre character that, upon pressing his badge, could transform from "Camp Designer Mode" to "Evil Warrior Mode" and back (the only difference being in "Evil Warrior Mode", he wore a Geordie La Forge-type visor, though on many occasions he would actually forget to put the visor on when in Warrior Mode, and had to be reminded by someone else to do so, causing much hilarity). An infamous gag repeated every week involved one of the characters claiming to draw "a pair of orbits around twin planets" (or something similar) upon a transparent gridscreen, although it was obvious they were drawing breasts. Dec (for it was usually he) would then stand in front of his breasts and say triumphantly, "What do think of that, then?"
After Ant and Dec's departure and their replacement with Brian and Tess, the show became SMTV 2099:The Next Generation, but this was only referenced as a sign at the bottom, and never by the presenters.
[edit] The Vicar of Dribbley
A parody of The Vicar of Dibley. All the gags were based on dribbling water over the characters.
[edit] Captain Justice
A sketch based on consumer rights programmes. 'Presenter' Dec would often ask individual children in the audience what their question to Captain Justice (Ant in a super-hero costume) is. But before they had a chance to speak, he would rephrase the question. Captain Justice would, in a booming voice, give an explanation of how he'd do a superhero-esque revenge in answer to the problems, such as dealing with a store by unleashing the Horsemen of the Apocalypse to lay waste to it and "leave horse manure" everywhere. Then Dec would say "or..." and, in a small voice, Captain Justice would give a more realistic answer. The sketch often had homoerotic overtones in it, playing up to the rumours of romance between the two male presenters. Captain Justice would try to impress Dec or ask him out on a date, and when Dec gave his confused reply, he said "Sorry, misread the signs! Goodbye!", and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. At the end of one sketch, Dec added to the joke by saying "Captain Justice there, always disappears with a puff."
[edit] The Beautiful Corrs
In this sketch, Ant, Dec, and Cat all dressed up as the female members of the band The Corrs. There was little story, just them asserting how beautiful they are. Often, there was a man with a brown paper bag over his head, labeled 'Jim'. He was not considered beautiful enough by the three "female" members of the group, to show his face, a reference to the fact that the real Corrs' brother, Jim, is usually pushed to the background in the videos, and very rarely sings.
The last sketch received mention as 13th in Channel 4's Best TV Moments of 2001. When the presenters were performing, the real Corrs appeared, reprimanding them for being so shallow and saying that they were not all about beauty. When Ant, Dec & Cat left the stage, deflated, the three girls turned to camera, and bragged about how beautiful they were. "Jim" then took the paper bag off his head to reveal the real Jim.
[edit] PokéRap and Pokéfight sketches
Pokémon was very popular at the same time as SMTV, and as ITV had rights to broadcast the series, they featured it in SMTV. This gave inspiration to the writers, who dressed Ant and Dec up as Pokémon characters and had them 'battle' each other (in the traditional sense of the word rather than Pokémon's connotations) in a segment played out between the parts of pokémon called "Pokéfights". Dec was frequently Ash and Misty, where Ant usually played 'G-G-G-Gary' (and one time 'J-J-J-Jessie') and Cat once made a guest appearance as Jessie of Team Rocket. As opposed to being separate beings, the cast's 'pokémon' were more like a 'move' they would do upon another. For example, 'Embarrassmon' would be whereby one dueller would tell a secret about the other, who would turn red and their health would diminish; or when Ant unleash HeWhoSmeltItDealtIt - "HeWhoSmeltItDealtIt is an Air Pokemon, and the first person to smell its pungent aroma shall be blamed for its origins!". They once had Ant attack as Britney Spears (dressing up in a schoolgirl outfit over his Gary costume) and Dec retaliating as Christine Aguilera, ending the sketch by making up - "thus showing how far removed from reality Pokemon is". Also, whenever Dec played as Misty, and Ant, as Gary, hit him with a particularly 'bruising' attack, he would shout "I'll never have kids now!". In a popular incident, Ant used "Bryan", where Westlife came on and Dec as Misty went nuts over Bryan, pulling off his Misty shirt to reveal a Bryan T-shirt and screaming "Bryan! Bryan!" in an outrageous burst of humour.
Another common Pokémon-based sketch was the PokéRap. Ant and Dec would dress up as rappers and perform a rap featuring the names of various Pokémon. They did this in knitted Pokémon jumpers, with Pikachu and their name on. This developed into a phone-in segment whereby viewers would send in their own pokeraps and Ant and Dec would rap one out each week (With seemingly little rehersal), with a "P-P-P-Pikachu!" chorus and the last line "SMTV will make you Poke-tuff; 9:25 every Saturday - don't be a Jigglypuff! Aww yeah, UH!" This led on to later sketches featuring a Pokémon-themed activity, which featured that week's guests in their own Pokémon wear, such as "Miss Poké-World". Later in the series, the sketches began with Dec refusing to do any more PokéRaps, because Ant & Cat were fed up with them and always teased him about them, and instead concentrate on another task, such as working in a mock fast food restaurant. It wasn't long before the urge to perform the rap got the better of him, egged on by further taunts from Ant & Cat, and he eventually let himself go, trashing the set, yelling angrily at them "Get out of my super-duper market!", "Get out of my Poké-shopping Channel studio", etc. When asked what he was going to do now, he said he was going to do another rap. Ant then yelled "Noooooo!", and another rap began. The last sketch featured Ant ranting to Dec and begging him to stop. Dec brushed it off, and prepared to begin. When he said "hit it!", Ant & Cat dropped a large "10-ton weight" on him, and the studio rejoiced, as did the producers, Richard and Judy in the This Morning studio, weather forecaster Sian Lloyd, and stock footage of a massive crowd.
[edit] Sabrina's Poem
Sabrina the Teenage Witch was airing on SM:TV, and was very popular with viewers. Dec had often proclaimed his love for Sabrina and would regularly read a dreadful poem he'd wrote just for her, often to the dismay of everyone in the studio. In the early days, Ant would attempt to block this by claiming that Sabrina's lawyers had banned Dec from reading out the poem on the air. This led to an early blooper when Ant was supposed to open a scroll of things Dec wasn't allowed to say in that week's poem. But while he made the sound of it dropping to the floor, he didn't actually open it, and the studio broke down with laughter. Ant's excuse was that he "thought it was still rehearsal".
On another occasion Dec was dared not to actually mention Sabrina's name in the poem, and he said names like Tina, Katrina, and names that rhymed with Sabrina, but right at the end he did say Sabrina, and got a pie in his face. Later sketches saw him write a story in which he would be the hero that saved Sabrina (played by a female guest from that week's show) from impending doom, but the 'cast' would always ruin it for him.
When interviewing Melissa Joan Hart, the actress who played Sabrina, for the programme the gag was employed. Dec asked Hart to be his 'lass'. Apparently not understanding him, she said yes.
[edit] Dec Says/The Secret of My Success
Every week, Dec would present a skit where he read a problem from a viewer. Dec would then begin to describe how he was once in a similar situation but was able to get out of his because of his excellence. However Ant, who was always standing nearby, would remember things differently and then we would fade into a flashback of Dec's childhood. The flashback would always show Dec as an inconsiderate, cheeky schoolboy who would always get himself into trouble, usually involving the show's guests playing a teacher, the police, etc. The flashback would end, with Ant saying "If only they knew the truth... if only!", and then we'd hear the end of Dec's version, where he would be saying something along the lines of "And that's when I was awarded a medal for bravery and cunning. Of course I didn't accept the medal...", etc. Ant would then make a jibe, walk off set and reappear next to Dec a few seconds later wearing a ridiculous costume.
Later sketches, rather than a 'problems' show, were based around a book Dec was 'selling' called "The Secret of My Success", and which no-one was buying. The last sketch on the last ever show, 'explained' how Ant & Dec came to be a double-act, and showed Dec & Cat auditioning for Pop Idol, hosted by Ant and Dick (Richard Whiteley), who was the ladies' favourite, who Dec replaced after an unfortunate 'accident' during the sketch. A blooper in this sketch occurred, when, as Ant was talking directly to the camera, the Pop Idol logo on the wall in the background suddenly fell off the wall and split cleanly in two when it hit the ground.
Ant also occasionally appeared as a schoolboy in these sketches, where he was an overweight boy who ate huge amounts of food and was referred to as Gi-Ant.
This section also introduced the character of 'Cat the Dog' which was Cat as a schoolgirl with very messy hair, huge teeth and a strong Birmingham accent. When asked where she was from she would say in a muffled voice "Burmingum!", the person replied "Where?", and she repeated "Burmingum!". She had an attractive best friend called Louise who appeared occasionally (played by Louise Nurding). Cat the Dog later got her own "series", The Further Adventures of Cat the Dog.
[edit] Casually
This sketch was a mix of popular BBC medical drama series Casualty and American soap operas with overacting, villains & over dramatic music all featuring. James Redmond was in this sketch during his brief tenure on this show. Ironically the following year he landed the role of "Abs" Denham on the real Casualty.
[edit] Eminemmerdale
As the name suggests, a combination of Eminem and Emmerdale. A final episode of this was meant to appear in the last episode, but it was dropped some point between recording & airing. Although most references were cut from the show's airing, clips appearing in the trailer and one of Brian Dowling's references was left in. Instead of this being shown, an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants was abruptly cut to after an advert break.
[edit] Anty and Decky the Garden Gnomes
Parody of Bill & Ben: The Flowerpot Men with Ant and Dec as Anty and Decky respectively. Cat played 'Prozac the Giggle-Fairy', and the Narrator, which was her recorded voice used as a voice over.
[edit] Competitions
There were many competitions on SMTV. Unlike many other Saturday morning children's programmes, SMTV did give away impressive prizes, such as holidays to America for the family, as well as the usual televisions, games consoles and CDs. (Ant famously gave away his own car in one of the earliest episodes) Some of the competitions were phone-ins, though a few were more notable, and had a slot on the show every week. The most famous opening was when Jason Stewart starred in one episode which got the ratings soaring!! One competition, after four weeks of a Pokemon-themed Wonkey Donkey, had a live Who Wants To Be A Mew-Trainer quiz where the winner won a holiday to Japan to go to the Pokemon Center shop and receive a Mew for his Pokemon game.
[edit] Mr Postman
The weekly reading of fan-mail began with the whole studio doing a dance to the song "Wait A Minute Mr Postman". While not strictly a sketch, there were several moments of humour and sketch-type gags in its run based around the mail they received. One time, Dec received a hand-crafted Pokemon pouch for his trousers and showed it off in a dance (with pelvic-thrusts) to the song "Too Sexy For My Shirt". They also got sent in a lot of crisps where people claimed it was the biggest crisp ever and either Ant or Dec would have a ruler to try and confirm it. They also rather famous once got sent in a toe nail once.
On a show on April 1st, Dec (appearing slightly ill) collapsed onto the floor unconscious during the Postman dance; after a few seconds, Cat called for the nurse and the show immediately when into the second half of Pokemon. The Dec Says sketch came after and Dec, now fine, thanked the viewers for all the calls received asking if he was alright and then said "oh, Happy April Fool's Day..." and winked. It's not known if it actually had been an April Fool's Day joke or if he was just pretending it had been to reassure a scared audience.
[edit] Songs
One edition of Mr Postman ending with Ant playing a viewer's home-made song about SMTV that they'd received, and after that viewers were sending in their own song's every week. Ant sang along to them in the studio as they were played and there was often a dance involved. While most of them were crafted by young kids, one song, "We All Love Cat Deeley", was done by an ameteur student band and they were brought in to play it live in one week.
[edit] Wonkey Donkey
The premise of the game was very similar to that of Catchphrase. The example the presenters always gave to explain the game was 'Wonkey Donkey'. It was a small toy donkey with one leg missing. Thus, it was a wonkey donkey. Every week, something similar was shown to the viewers who rang in to guess what it was. The golden rule was it had to rhyme. Some weeks it was very easy, and the first caller got the answer right straight away. Other weeks it was not as straightforward with viewers blurting out anything, whether it rhymed or not. Dec found it very frustrating when the callers could not get the answer right, and he sometimes threw the toy and the stand it was placed on in anger, or ranting into the camera, which became a staple occurance and sparked his catchphrase for the game, "IT'S GOTTA RHYME!". A particularly memorable incident occurred when the toy (a Gordon the Gopher dressed in formal clothes and placed in a toy limosine) was set up, with the answer being "Chauffeur Gopher". One viewer called in and offered as an answer "Rich Duck"; a flabbergasted Dec simply stared at the camera and said, with genuine dismay, "That's so stupid I can't even get angry". Once in the show's opening 'menu', when Ant & Cat mentioned that the game was coming up later, they said "And remember, for the sake of Dec's blood pressure, IT'S GOTTA RHYME!"
[edit] Splattoon
Based on the title of Oliver Stone's film Platoon, the aim of the game was for a caller to direct a blindfolded celebrity to use a gun to 'splat' small model hot air balloons, filled with paint. For this game, Ant and Dec always dressed up as WWI fighter plane pilots, complete with fake moustaches & pipes and spoke with old-fashioned accents. There was a running gag of Cat as "Private Deeley", with Ant and Dec not realising she was a woman in drag.
[edit] Challenge Ant/Brian's Brain
Each week, a child would challenge Ant by asking him ten questions they had prepared. For every one Ant did not answer correctly, the child won a prize, such as a DVD or video game. One memorable live blooper came in this game when the child asked Ant the question "Who appeared naked on Channel 5 last week?", to which the answer was Keith Chegwin, referring to the show he hosted, Naked Jungle. Ant answered correctly, and that got a laugh, but then Dec, red-faced, announced that the next prize up for grabs was a DVD of Free Willy, which reduced the studio to hysterics.
At the end of the ten questions, the child would have the chance to gamble the prizes they had won for the 'star prize', which was usually a DVD player or games console. They then asked Ant a further question, called the "Killer Question", with an accompanying dramatic sound effect. If Ant answered incorrectly, the child and audience would chant, "you're thick, you're thick, you're thick, you're thick you are, you're thick, you're thick!" and so on, and put a dunce cap on Ant's head. If, however, Ant answered the question correctly, the child would lose all their prizes, and Ant would be crowned "King of Common Knowledge", to the tune of Rockin' All Over The World, revelling in taunting the child, as he was crowned. In later episodes, the child would get a 'consolation prize' of a handkerchief reading "I lost on Challenge Ant". Although most went forward with the Killer Question, there were three occurances where the child decided to go home with the prizes they had already won. One of these occurances had the child requesting to go home and Dec replying "Well we all want to go home love".
There were also "celebrity editions", (called "Challenge Ant - Celebrity Style!") played by stars such as Robbie Williams. One edition had, seemingly without warning, Ant being challenged by his own sister and for ownership of items of his stuff (he won). Another edition took place on the day of the Tyne-Wear Derby. This involved Ant and Dec being challenged by their respective girlfriends. The grand prize for the lads was a trip to the derby, and if they lost they had to take their girlfriends out shopping. This match was a disaster for the lads.
When Ant & Dec left the show, Brian Dowling took over the game, being the one asked the questions, with Cat and later Tess Daly taking over Dec's role as host, and it was renamed Brian's Brain. This game was played in the last-ever show, and was also played in Ant & Dec's first prime-time Saturday night show Slap Bang with Ant & Dec, (the forerunner to Saturday Night Takeaway) only this time played by elderly contestants.
[edit] Eat My Goal
Celebrity guests would take it in turns to take penalties, with Ant in goal. Callers would choose the celebrities they thought would win against Ant. The name comes from a song by Collapsed Lung, which they played when a goal was scored.
[edit] CD:UK
After each programme, CD:UK (an acronym of CountDown United Kingdom) was broadcast, with the same presenters as SMTV Live. This was also presented live, and featured bands in the charts, music videos, and interviews with famous music stars. Although Cat Deeley left SM:TV Live in 2002, she continued to host CD:UK for a further 3 years- outliving SM:TV itself. CD:UK came to an end on ITV in April 2006 due to budget problems within the network but will be making a comeback on Five later in 2006.
[edit] SMTV Gold
The death knell for SMTV came in 2003, when falling viewing figures led to the show being axed. In the run-up to the last ever edition in December of that year, which brought back all the old presenters (except James Redmond), SMTV Gold began. Basically, a show comprising of clips from what is considered the 'golden age' of SMTV; 2000 - 2001. The current presenters delivered fillers and links to the clips, as well as show the usual selection of cartoons. CD:UK continued to be broadcast on ITV until April 1, 2006 and is now set to move to Five later in the year.
[edit] Video releases
Two videos from SMTV Live have been released:
[edit] Writers and producers
The first six months of the show were produced by Ric Blaxhill, a former producer for Top of the Pops. He was replaced in late 1998 by Steve Pinhay and Phil Mount. In September 1999, two writers from Men In Trousers were brought in from rival BBC show, Live and Kicking and soon overtook it in ratings.
Multi award-winning writer Dean Wilkinson was with the show for many years and Conor McAnally was its executive producer throughout the five years on air. He is still in the role of Director of Programmes at Blaze TV, who made SMTV, and is currently executive producing CDUK and its US counterpart CDUSA.
[edit] Awards
SMTV has won a number of awards
- British Academy Children's Film and Television Award (2002) Entertainment
- British Academy Children's Film and Television Award (2002) LEGO/BAFTA Kids' Vote
- British Academy Children's Film and Television Award (2001) Presenter - Cat Deeley
- British Academy Children's Film and Television Award (2000) Entertainment
- British Comedy Award (2000) People's Choice Award
- RTS Programme Award (2001) Presenter - Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly
- TV Hits Award (2000) Best Teen Show
In 2001 it came 27th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows.
