Tonight Live with Steve Vizard
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| Tonight Live With Steve Vizard | |
|---|---|
| Starring | Steve Vizard |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Seven Network |
| Links | |
Tonight Live with Steve Vizard was a television talk show hosted by comedian Steve Vizard in Melbourne, Australia, and broadcast around Australia on Channel 7. The show drew heavily from Late Night with David Letterman. The show included an on-set fax machine (at the time the show ran these were just becoming popular), occasional guest hosts, and a segment in which several female media personalities would offer agony aunt-style advice. Paul Grabowski also participated as a conductor for the show's own music band.
When Channel 9 announced that it would broadcast David Letterman's show in a similar timeslot, the show ended its run.
A notable contributor to the writing and creative elements of the show was Steve Bedwell, who occasionally appeared on the show and since has become a noted media personality in his own right.
[edit] Notable features of the show
- The show was often pretaped, and became the subject of complaints (similar claims about a broadcast being 'live' despite being taped and broadcast hours later are often made on Australian television, in the context of sports events and so on). At one point the show's broadcast carried a message disclaiming that the show was 'live'.
- Agro, a puppet who frequently uses sexual innuendo and adult humour, was one of the most popular guests and guest hosts with both the audience and Vizard himself.
- When guest hosts appeared, Vizard's voice would announce that they would be 'playing the role of Mister Steven Vizard', reinforcing a concept that he had mentioned at the time, that he saw his on-screen persona as a character.
- In his final season he dropped the traditional tonight show elements from the show altogether and became much more casual on camera.
- One night the show consisted entirely of footage that had obviously been recorded during a rehearsal. This resulted in many unrefined moments being put to air, including liberal use of the word 'fuck'. The broadcast ended with the countdown that would normally herald the moments immediately preceding a live broadcast.
- One night, Steve Vizard fell asleep while interviewing a guest.
- The set from Tonight Live was donated to RMITV with which to produce television shows for Channel 31. Owing to a critical lack of resources at C31, the set elements have been reused and repainted for many shows over many years and are still in high use many years after Tonight Live went off the air.
