Boggenstrovia 4th Bit of Christmas... Hulk do sudoku?

In television land for a long time there have been Christmas specials, but some time the festive season pulls up a gem occasionally. After @ThatBenBaker tweeted earlier today that on the 26th of December 1983 at 4.35pm there was a Keith Harris Christmas Special including the likes of Stu 'Oooh, I could...' Francis starring with the Orville handler. Though that put me on a trail of thought, hard I know... But thanks to Charlie Brooker and his Screenwipe programme, Johnny Ball did a gameshow... Johnny Ball Games

"I really hope no-one puts this up on YouTube in 32 years time..."

What, what, what?! I hear you call, but the master of Think of a Number had families competing in Christmas 1979 for a one-off show. His brain teasers were much like the usual thing which he would do for children on his show. He even had back singers to sing the theme tune, classy! But being suited and also booted, it seems strange for Johnny to be presenting a quiz. One end of the day, he would asking questions of Big Ted and at the other asking what the square root of 56 was to children. Its almost as mad as Roy Castle doing the Generation Game... Which he did once for Bruce Forysth when he couldn't do that week's edition, so there you go!


One event which spreads itself over Christmas is The World's Strongest Man, this annual event has been viewing with the Quality Street and Nectarines for over 30 years now. From pulling trucks, lifting cars and flipping tyres. During these events the big men try themselves with feats of strength, usually Hulks of men, there actually was one in 1977 which competed. Lou Ferrigno, of course better known as the Incredible Hulk competed in the first ever one. Though coming in fourth place in the contestant competing in his first ever strongman contest would have a bit of luck attached to it, when CBS made the pilot for The Incredible Hulk, originally the jolly green giant in the pilot was Richard Kiel but when Kiel didn't seem right for the role, the producers had a problem, who was big enough to play the Hulk. First of all they went to Schwarzenegger, but his accent was a problem to understand... OK, so who do you go to next? Ferrigno was the natural choice as he like Schwarzenegger has already been a Mr Universe himself, although with some slight deafness himself, this didn't prove to be a problem to the producers.

"Rrrrr-ip!" 

"Anyone got a needle and thread?"

"Anyone?"

For many years until his death, this was the domain of Donny MacLeod of Pebble Mill at One fame, with his Scottishness proceeding over the commentary until his death in 1984. Never with anything ironic with his delivery, he treated the competitors with as much respect they deserved. The height of its popularity came with ex-shot putter Geoff Capes winning the event in 1983, but its place across the Christmas is set in stone nowadays with Five buying up the rights to it in the early 2000's.

And for the last little bit... Eric and Ernie promoting their show and also Superman III as well. As I bid you fairwell until Friday for more fun, fun, fun!

Jack's Bean and gone...

So here we are, the first of my 12 bits leading up to Christmas. Taking the festive season and making it drink so much Egg Nog and Absinthe, that come Boxing Day it'll be wondering about a recipe for scrambled eggs...

Starting off with...

1. Pantomines...

"He's behind you!" The regular call heard at theatres up and down the country over December and Early January, usually when someone's drink is split... Either that the refrain of children excited by sweets and also a character searching for someone. The panto has developed over the years from the early Harlequinade to today's sophisticated lights and music shows, in modern times the attraction is the stars who are in the panto itself. Taking its lead from Music Hall, the great entertainers have always appeared. From Pop stars to comedians and sports stars, they have each done their turns. Each story in turn has been adapted for the major star to show off their talent, for instance Rolf Harris would do his Jake the Peg act in the middle of Cinderella. Which bears no relationship to the plot itself, but it gave the chance to for others to shine. 


The dame is a key role in any pantomine, acting as a foil for the comical turn such as Buttons but also entertaining the audience in themself. The role has been filled with performers with the magnitude of  Chris Harris famous in the South for his time presenting 'Hey Look That's Me!' but also the quality of Les Dawson, Dawson is the master of the dame. His style, the demeanour and also the way he sells the role to the audience.... A true pro...

In myself, my experiences of panto are sort of mixed really from the Kings Theatre in Portsmouth seeing the great stars performing and getting up on stage with Brian Cant to tell an awful joke. But in meeting the great man was enough, but in that same performance... Major embarassment... When Lorraine Chase was playing Aladdin and was at a crucial scene when she finds the lamp originally, guess who shouted at the top of his voice as the lone voice "Rub the Lamp!" Which she replied "Thanks..." I could have nearly died, thinking back on it... Not the best move at all... Thinking over all the stars I saw in panto, it encouraged my love of Light Entertainment...

"Its Bobby Davro... Who?"

This gem comes from 2009 when Bobby Davro, and Mickey Rooney starred in panto in Milton Keynes... Milton Keynes isn't funny in itself, but it comes from the tradition of the stars being put into the panto who maybe don't fit as such... When Frank Bruno went into panto, it was because he was famous for his boxing but with the trend for reality stars now it seems that panto has changed into a vehicle for people who may have been on the television soon enough. The nature of this has been shown in the previous year when Britt Ekland came out of the jungle and to the Kings Theatre, it might be good publicity for the show itself. But with the currency of this, it leads to more people coming to the theatre and also something as such with their effect. 

So what else is there? Maybe a bit of festive time ads, involving panto... This from 1987 with Children's ITV , in which it feels right to be involved with panto time...

More fun here on Saturday... Enjoy people!

A quizzical situation...

In these times of the credit crunch everyone is feeling the pinch, especially the television industry. So it comes down to what ideas are cost effective and usually the solution lies in mass producible programmes such as Deal or No Deal and Countdown leading to monster runs of each basically spanning the whole year.
The phenomenal success of Pointless shows that a stranded show in the schedule puts the channel into a position where they can control what they want to do.  In the re-runs of early Pointless on Challenge, the seed is sewed as far the game is so addictive and being able to play along at home, which any quiz is giving its back teeth for.

ITV have experimented somewhat more then the BBC by re-introducing The Price Is Right with Joe Pasquale some time ago. But everyone knows about Golden Balls and Weakest Links of this world, though if it gets worse what shows will be brought back?

Here we ponder at the lesser lights which could fill up a wet Wednesday afternoon against Dickinson’s Real Deal...


Takeover Bid (BBC 1)
The Brucie lead vehicle of the late 80’s and early 90’s when he came back to the BBC, encouraging players to steal prizes off their opponents. Quite right for these times when it seems like every other company is taking over everyone else, so why not have that business-like jolly uncle turned entertainment host Gerry Robinson takes over the role of quizmaster plus with the added bonus of Adam ‘Shaw’s Shares’ Shaw as the glamorous assistant. “Your prizes value may go up or down owing to market conditions….”


Talkabout (ITV 1)
Verbally adept game show once introduced by future Peep Show executive producer Andrew O’Connor is brought up by Simon Cowell’s Syco TV in which the self appointed entertainment guru ditches the game and makes up the rules as he goes along. Contestants are punished if they don’t talk about The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent or any show presented by Ant’n’Dec, the show is given a trillion week monster run by ITV as they see the potential to use a phone vote to get rid of the contestants one by one…

  Lucky Ladders (ITV 1)
Presented by the woman from the accident claim line adverts. As contestants come on and claim for such things as a loose fitting pen lid to a violent sneezing fit because the waitress in a Little Chef dropped the pepper. If their claim is suitable enough they are given thousands which they have to pay back eventually at double the rate of inflation…

"Gordon Bennett! No it's actually Lennie in fact..."

The Travel Quiz (BBC 1)
Contestants are giving the chance to win pictures of all the destinations that they cannot travel, all to due to the rising costs of air fuel. Due to copyright restriction, only pictures of British seaside resorts maybe used thanks to a dusty box of photos left over from Holiday ’78 found in a cupboard at the back of BBC canteen behind tins of semolina and prunes. (Andi “Ow, that’s rather hot isn’t it?” Peters not included…)




That’s My Dog (ITV 1)
Ironic twist gameshow, where half the staff of Heat Magazine are charged with
trying to control certain nightclub *ahem* beauties and keep them from getting
too merry before filming whilst Derek Hobson tries to reflect where his career has
gone and why they have turned the South-West’s number one produced gameshow
into a scene from Footballer’s Wives…



If that the case of being funny, by suggesting them its a serious business that people will tell you in the number of quiz shows have been piloted for BBC and ITV, with The Weakest Link leaving us soon, it brings into focus that when a format finishes, the next idea has to be ready to go....

So when they've started I'll finish and hopefully it'll be a starter for ten...

Shame about the show...

What makes a show real? Realism or a mixture of stories with something to say? Now Shameless has reached 100 shows, it has changed drama and made a debate about how it should be. Some people may see it as chavs and naer-do-wells upto no good while other may see it as the best drama in a long time. In terms of kitchen sink drama it has pushed the boundaries to the edge, learning that the basis for its drama should be what people see everyday. Of course people don't always live on a council estate, they may live in the country or in a town, but they can recognise characters they know in a show.

But these types of dramas have always tried to hold a mirror upto the nation at various time and said "Have a good look at yourself and see what you see.." Now people may not like what they see, other may see themselves and others may start to see what they are becoming. Through films such as Kes and also Saturday Night and Sunday Morning which reflected a realism which people were crying out for in the 1960's and 1970's came through a spirit, almost akin to their own properties. As we look at the 80's for example with Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff, showing the situation with employment as people got laid off from jobs and had to fight to survive in the atmosphere which had been created at that time. The mantra of Yosser Hughes being 'Gissa Job' was never so true at those times.

Fast forwarding to today, Shameless fills the gap where once costume drama would have filled and the characters are as compelling as any in Dallas. For Frank Gallacher, has become an idol to some but also a clarion call to others. Through the riots recently, people were screaming about this, that and everything. It is convient to show people reclaiming their cities when they think its appropriate, but for the small person it doesn't hold much truck to them. I wouldn't say that it could be claimed that I was a chav myself but in Shameless its the need for something which exists in our minds only. The need for putting everyone in the same box, there are good and bad people out there, never I could say that in judgement I could pick everyone on either side. I might be right, I might be wrong... It might be Shameless to say, that Shameless has pushed the boundaries again...

Ever feel like you've been ad?

Over time, I've been noticing that adverts and the actual programmes have been merging into one. I don't mind product placement as that's been going on in America for years now, plus also teleshopping because that was a key part of ITV making money at the start.

But slowly there has been a fog of confusion creeping in, such as the Philadelphia commercial with chef Ed Baines and a member of the public. Handily they put 'Advertisement' in small writing so you can just about see it. But switch over quickly from a channel and that's on, you don't know if its a programme or not! With so many channels including Food Network on Freeview now, you'd have a job trying to remember your place on there.

"Are you sure you're not from the Blue Man Group?"

Adverts were a chance to get up and make a cup of tea once, but now they serve as another thing to keep us in our seats and have a moan at the telly. So they've caught us lock, stock and barrel. But they do push their luck a bit now, for example the Gillette Pro Duraglide Challenge Man...

.

Too horrific to even show...

This man stalks changing rooms through out the land looking for innocent young men to thrust his shiny new thing on them with his call "Whoo buddy!" Never in my life have I ever said 'Whoo'

I've said Nrrrggghh and Grrrrr, mostly at this ad... Plus all the men in the advert are happy to see him! The first words usually used in that situation are "Where the f**k did you come from? If you don't move away I'm calling the police!" Are we meant to feel kinship with this man?

Advertisers try to make us feel like these people are our mates, but it wasn't that long ago when some like Robert Dougal would be selling us Reader's Digest or Rodney Bewes would greet us with the cheery refrain "Hello Faggot lovers.." It seems like we have come to situation that we cannot even believe the celebrities we see nowadays because they might be telling us half truths. In gameshows we need Celebrities to entertain us and members of the public during the ad breaks to sell us stuff that we don't need...

Doctor News and the Daleks?

But as Rice Krispies says nowdays in its little song... "Snap, Crackle, Pop... Its a crazy, crazy world we live in..."

Maybe that's what we can only believe in, cartoons and also a monkey flogging tea... Oh how times have changed...