Hey Hey It's Saturday
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| Hey Hey It's Saturday | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Format | Light entertainment/ Comedy |
| Starring | Host Daryl Somers |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Production | |
| Running time | 120 minutes (including commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nine Network |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original run | October 1971 – November 1999 |
Hey Hey It's Saturday was a long running variety television program on Australian television. It ran for 27 years (there was a recess in 1978; see below), debuting on the Nine Network in October 1971 and broadcasting its last episode in November 1999. Its host throughout its entire run was Daryl Somers, who would later become executive producer of the program. Somers formed Somers Carroll Productions with Ernie Carroll, who was the puppeteer for Daryl's sidekick Ossie Ostrich.
NWS9 in Adelaide also ran a version of Hey Hey It's Saturday in 1972. Hosted by Dean Davis and a number of talented young musicians and singers, who also contributed with co-hosting segments, such as newsreels, interviews and record reviews. The young team were brothers Mike & Keith Webb, Lynette Pearson and In-Pack (band included Ruddy Boeff, Mark Simpkin).
Contents |
[edit] History
Chelsea originally started as an early Saturday morning children's program, but its freewheeling style, irreverent ad-libbing and subversive humour soon attracted a cult following among older viewers. Although the show bore the unmistakable traces of both The Goon Show and Monty Python, Somers was more strongly influenced by Australia's king of television comedy, Graham Kennedy, and it is significant that Carroll had been one of Kennedy's writers for many years.
Like Kennedy's famous variety show In Melbourne Tonight, the earliest years of Hey Hey were marked by a similar "anything can happen" attitude, with sketches and improvisations stretched to the point of absurdity or terminated without warning; sponsors were also laid open to some gentle ridicule, and live 'reads' of sponsor advertising often became part of the comedy -- a tactic that Kennedy had made famous.
Somers and his colleagues also frequently broke the fourth wall between audience and performer, regularly taking the cameras behind the scenes into every area of the studio and even beyond the building. The team also began to develop a series of regular segments, including "What Cheeses Me Off", "Red Faces", "Media Watch Press" and "Chook Lotto".
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As the show gained popularity, its budget was increased and it gradually changed format to a light entertainment/comedy variety program. Besides Daryl and Ossie, two other unseen personalities were pivotal to the show's success - voice-over man/announcer John Blackman and sound operator Murray Tregonning.
Blackman provided often satirical and sarcastic remarks, and also provided the voice of many invented characters including "Mrs McGillicuddy", "Angel" and another icon of the show, cheeky "schoolboy" Dickie Knee - in fact a hat and wig on a stick that would pop up in front of Daryl (operated by a stage hand) and which was voiced by Blackman.
Tregonning became renowned for his remarkable ability to select and play the appropriate sound effect at a second's notice and his audio punctuations became another trademark of the series. This was long before the introduction of digital sound recording and the digital samplers, and all Tregonning's sound effects were played from a huge collection of pre-recorded cartridges.
The program went into recess when Daryl and Ossie took a brave step in 1978 and departed the Nine Network to the rival 0-10 Network to present a prime time game show, simply titled The Daryl And Ossie Show. The program had a very short life and very soon Daryl and Ossie went back to Nine, a bit wiser if nothing else, and Hey Hey was returned to air in 1979.
The show evolved over the years, beginning with recruitment of Jacki MacDonald as a co-host of the show on its return in 1979.
Other personalities gradually came on board, including ex-Skyhooks guitarist Red Symons, who not only played in the show's house band, but was also infamous for his withering sarcasm and as a judge on the "talent" segment Red Faces. A fellow musician who became a long serving cast member was saxophonist Wilbur Wilde, who had previously played in Australian bands Ol' 55 and Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons.
Other personalities of note who came on board during the show's run included ex-Countdown host Ian "Molly" Meldrum, comedian and ex-The Comedy Company star Russell Gilbert, and ex-The Curiosity Show presenter, Dr Deane Hutton.
Following McDonald's departure, several well known Australian female TV personalities including Denise Drysdale, Jo Beth Taylor, Livinia Nixon and Penne Dennison took her place as co-host, although arguably none succeeded in recapturing the on-camera chemistry between McDonald and her colleagues.
In 1984 the Nine Network took the remarkable step of moving the show from its morning timeslot to a primetime slot on Saturday nights, and it was briefly renamed Hey Hey It's Saturday Night before reverting to its old name. During this time, Hey Hey also became one of the most important TV venues to see both local and international music, film and TV stars. Many overseas stars -- including Sylvester Stallone Tom Jones and Stevie Ray Vaughan -- fell in love with the program's loony satirical style and returned as guests on subsequent visits. In 1984, in a world first, reformed Aussie rock legends Skyhooks appeared on the same night live from their concert at Olympic Park in front of 26,000 people with Daryl and Ossie appearing with them on a giant screen above the stage. The band traded quips with the Hey Hey crew in between performing some of their biggest hits. It is said that Red Symons landed his Hey Hey gig as a result of the success of this appearance.
The show enjoyed strong ratings and maintained a dedicated following throughout the Eighties, and became a "must watch" program for many viewers, its popularity augmented by the stellar guest lineup and regular musical performances. It retained its loyal following well into the Nineties. Carroll decided to retire in 1994, taking Ossie Ostrich with him, although there were other characters including "Plucka Duck" to take on the role.
In the late eighties, a cartoonist, Andrew Fyfe was added to the team, offering visual gags similar to Blackman's audio ones. In 1992 Fyfe got his own children's game show, GuessWhat?, on Nine, where he drew picture puzzles in front of two teams of children. A number of Somers-Carroll produced "Red Faces" and "Best of Hey Hey" specials screened and were rescreened with high ratings for their timeslots. The show got a lane named after it near its studios.
In 1998, Russell Gilbert got his own Somers-Carroll sketch comedy show on Nine, The Russell Gilbert Show, which lasted a year. Also in that year Hey Hey went full circle and became a Saturday morning kids TV show again, in the form of a separate show called "Plucka's Place". This was hosted by Plucka Duck and Livinia Nixon. Livinia soon went on to co-host the main show. A wide range of Plucka merchandise was released to complement the new program.
[edit] Segments
The show became a showcase for comedy and music which was reflected in the show's segments;
[edit] Red Faces
Red Faces was a segment in which three amateur performers or groups would present their routine (which was usually singing, dancing, comedy or something utterly bizarre), before a panel of judges. The segment and its name were a parody of serious talent quest program New Faces. The panel was formed by the show's guitar player Red Symons, along with 2 guests to the show that week. The format was similar to that of The Gong Show.
Normally contestants would be gonged by cast member Red Symons before finishing their performance. Each contestant was then given a score out of 10 by each of the judges. Red would usually give low scores such as 2 (or 0 or 1, or even negative scores on occasion), and deliver scathing criticism of the performance. The winning contestant received a $500 cash prize, second received $250 and third received $100. In the final years, the prizes were doubled and were sponsored by McDonald's.
Some contestants found fame after appearing on Red Faces. One group of mates performed their own rendition of I Am The Music Man, and were later hired to perform in a beer commercial as a result. Jason Stephens, a now well-known comedian who appeared on The Late Show, had his start on Red Faces impersonating a penguin & the melbourne based comedy trio Tripod also performed a satirical medley of Oasis songs on the show in their very early years.
[edit] Chook Lotto
A longstanding gameshow segment, Chook Lotto (or Chooklotto) involved a large barrel of numbered frozen chickens. The contestant would draw a chicken from the barrel, and would win the prize corresponding to the number on the chicken. This segment was eventually replaced by Plucka Duck (Pluck-a-duck).
[edit] Plucka Duck
Plucka Duck, (at first Pluck-a-duck) was the replacement for Chook Lotto, and was responsible for creating the show's character of the same name. Contestants would spin a numbered wheel with each number corresponding to a prize. After the spin, the contestant was allowed to either elect to keep their prize, or have another go by "plucking a duck".
An important ingredient of the segment was Wilbur Wilde singing the Plucka Duck theme song to the tune of Roger Miller's Chug-a-Lug:
'Plucka Duck Plucka Duck, He's not a chicken or a cow, Plucka Duck, that's him right now!'
If the contestant elected to pluck a duck, the character Plucka Duck - a man in a duck costume - appeared and contestants plucked a feather from his tail. Each feather had a number concealed on it which corresponded to a prize, and that would be the prize won.
This was later changed. In the subsequent version of the contest a large mechanical contraption resemblant of a merry-go-round powered by a bicycle - usually ridden by Plucka himself - would be wheeled on. The contestant would have to pick a soft-toy duck (later created in Plucka's image) from the spinning wheel, which would have a number hidden under its vest. This number, as with the wheel, corresponded with a prize. (for more details on Plucka Duck, see Plucka Duck (character).
[edit] Molly's Melodrama
The former talent co-ordinator/interviewer of Australian Television's Countdown, Ian "Molly" Meldrum hosted a segment titled Molly's Melodrama. This segment was similar to Countdown's Humdrum segment where Molly would review local and international music as well as interview the famous and infamous faces of the musical scene. However, in true Hey Hey fashion, Molly's segment was often taken over by other cast members (Dickie Knee in particular) who often performed often cruel and painful pranks on Meldrum, who once fainted when he met John Lennon.
[edit] Ad Nauseum
A quiz where contestants, which usually were either studio audience members or Hey Hey guests, would answer questions based on television commercials.
[edit] Beat It
Similar to Ad Nauseum, this was a music quiz, in the style of Never Mind The Buzzcocks. The segment's title was taken from the Michael Jackson song of the same name, which was played by the house band at the beginning of each installment.
[edit] Lost for Words
A game show style segment where a number of celebrities would be asked to name a word that started with the last letter of the previous word.
[edit] Magic Word
An audience member would be brought onto the stage and presented with an unusual word. Various Hey Hey Crew members (usually Dickie, Red or Russell) would each give the member a possible meaning of the word, one of which was the word's actual meaning. If that person correctly guessed whose meaning was the right one, that person would win a prize.
[edit] Masterslime
A parody of Mastermind, where contestants were strapped to a chair and had to answer a maximum of 6 questions. If that contestant got three questions wrong, he or she got "slimed".
[edit] Media Watch Press
Not to be confused with the Australian ABC's program Media Watch, Media Watch Press would display humorous errors in newspapers and advertisements, again sent in by the viewers. The concept used in Media Watch Press and Phunny Fotos was replicated after the collapse of Hey Hey... in the What The? segment on Rove Live.
[edit] The Nixon Tapes
This segment, which appeared during Livinia Nixon's time on the show, featured footage from movies or TV shows sent in by viewers, which contained a mistake or blooper of some sort (such as a production error). Audience members had to guess what the mistake was.
[edit] Celebrity Heads
In this segment, three contestants would have the name of a celebrity placed on top of their heads where they could not see them. Using a series of questions which could only be answered with either "yes" or "no", the contestants had to try to guess who their celebrity was.
[edit] The End of Hey Hey...
The departure of Carroll created a gap in the show that fans said could never be filled, and coupled with the show's apparent decline in humour, its popularity would never again reach the peaks of the '80s. Although it did not rate poorly, Nine Network executives decided at the end of 1999 to cancel the program. Somers claimed that he wanted to take the program into a new direction, but the budget to redevelop the show seemed too much for Nine Network executives, who were on a cost-cutting exercise at the time. The final program was, needless to say, an emotionally charged affair but the moving last moments were handled with great dignity by Somers. It ran longer than the allocated 180 minutes running for just longer than 240 minutes.
1999 also saw the beginning of another variety show on Nine, "Rove" featuring Rove McManus. Newspapers reported Kerry Packer's relative closeness to Rove and distance from Daryl during the year. Surprisingly, Rove's show was also axed at the year's end, but it was quickly reborn in 2000 on Network Ten as Rove Live. Notably, Daryl was a major guest on the fourth episode of the reborn program - the only interview he gave for some time. Rove Live instantly became the talk show of choice for visiting celebrities, as Hey Hey had been before it. The program is in many ways similar, but is cheaper and targets young adults rather than families.
During the five years after the show's demise in November 1999, Daryl Somers rarely made public appearances, with the exception of a court appearance in 2001 to answer a drink driving charge (which Somers admitted he was "...a bloody idiot" - a reference to a famous anti drunk driving advertising campaign of that time), and his Rove Live guest appearance.
In 2004, Somers made his comeback to Australian television hosting the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars on the Seven Network, which was a surprise ratings success. (Immediately previous to this was his first major discussion of Hey Hey's axing with the press). At present, Somers has ended his stint on the show and is pursuing further projects.
[edit] Cultural significance in Australia
The impact of Hey Hey It's Saturday on Australia should not be underestimated. The Australian comedy movie The Castle famously made a reference to the show. saying that "the only thing better than Hey Hey It's Saturday is The Best of Hey Hey It's Saturday". Many other Australian sketch comedy programs have satirised the show at one point or another, perhaps most infamously on The Comedy Company when it was parodied as Ho Hum It's Saturday. Even today, it is still joked about, with the SBS sitcom Pizza recently parodying Ossie Ostrich as "Woggy Ostrich".
Hey Hey's impact on Australian culture was further cemented during a Test cricket match between Australia and South Africa in Melbourne in December 2005. Australian bowler Shane Warne referred to Bantu South African batsman Makhaya Ntini, who was batting with an injured knee, as "John Blackman". Warne was claiming that Ntini was controlling his "dicky knee" just like Blackman "controlled" Dickie Knee on the show. But Ntini, a Bantu, interpreted the remark as a racist jibe, and a minor controversy occurred. Eventually Australian captain Ricky Ponting explained the situation to South African captain Graeme Smith. Blackman himself had in fact visited the Australian team's dressing rooms not long before the incident occurred.
Some people have criticised the show for everything from Somers' ability as a host, to the so-called "live" performances of the show. But then again, it was a source of entertainment and light hearted relief for many Australians over its three decades on Australian television. Its segments, especially Red Faces, attracted their own following and in fact the Nine Network aired quite a few Best of Red Faces specials on primetime television.
Hey Hey can be credited with launching many careers through their different segments, specifically Red Faces, including the D Generation sketch show.
Hey Hey's most regular guest was John Farnham.
[edit] A new beginning?
Daryl made a return to Nine in late 2005, appearing in a segment of the Melbourne Carols by Candlelight telecast. Plucka Duck also featured. This combination, plus the recent finishing of Daryl's Dancing with the Stars contract caused some to speculate about a Hey Hey return.[citation needed] However given Nine's current profitability rather than ratings dominance focus, the old Hey Hey is unlikely to come back to Nine. (That said, in June 2006 Nine began to re-air the Hey Hey By Request specials.)
Also, on Nine's quiz show Temptation, Hey Hey's Wilbur Wilde and John Blackman appeared in May 2006 as part of Temptations Logies Superchallenge, and both represented the show. Dickie Knee also made a brief appearance on the show.
In October 2006, the Seven Network begun airing old Red Faces segments as a part of a show called The Best and Worst of Red Faces, which had originally screened on the Nine Network in the 1990s.
In June 2007, Daryl Somers received funding from the Seven Network to produce a pilot for a new Saturday Night format.[1]
It is worth noting, that Channel 9's Saturday Night programming has never recovered from the departure of 'Hey Hey It's Saturday'. It has been quite poor and is clearly lacking the long-running institution ever since it's final show back in November 1999.
[edit] Programming history
| Name | Dates | Day | Timeslot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hey Hey It's Saturday | October 1971-September 1973 | Saturday | 8:30am-11:30am |
| Hey Hey It's Saturday | October 1973-December 1977 | Saturday | 8:00am-11:00am |
| Hey Hey It's Saturday | March 1979-December 1983 | Saturday | 8:00am-11:00am |
| Hey Hey It's Saturday Night | March 1984-May 1985 | Saturday | 9:30pm-12:00am |
| Hey Hey It's Saturday | June 1985 - November 1999 | Saturday | 6:30pm-8:30pm |
[edit] Awards
Hey Hey It's Saturday won 18 Logies during its 28 year run. Awards the show has won include:
- Most Popular Light Entertainment Program 9 times (1987 - 88, 1993 - 95, 1997 - 2000)
- Most Popular Comedy Program twice (1985, 1999)
- Most Popular Personality (Gold Logie to Daryl Somers in 1983, 1986 and 1989
- Most Popular Light Entertainment Personality to Daryl Somers in 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997
The show and cast have been nominated for various Logies over its run.
Other cast to be nominated have included Russell Gilbert in 1996, and Plucka Duck in 1997 - both for the Most Popular Comedy Personality.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Hey Hey It's back again", Daily Telegraph, 2007-06-23, pp. 1. Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
