America Goes Bananaz

Last updated
America Goes Bananaz
Michael Young on Columbus Goes Bananaz.png
Michael Young hosting the show.
Also known asColumbus Goes Bananaz
Genre Variety show
Created byBurt Dubrow
Developed by
  • Burt Dubrow
  • Nyhl Henson
Presented by
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerBurt Dubrow
Production locations
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time45 minutes
Production company Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Original release
Network
ReleaseDecember 1, 1977 (1977-12-01) –
1980 (1980)

America Goes Bananaz is a teenager-oriented variety show presented by Michael Young and Randy Hamilton. It premiered locally on QUBE's C-1 channel in 1977, with the title Columbus Goes Bananaz. The series was renamed America Goes Bananaz in preparation for a move to then-upcoming youth-oriented national network Nickelodeon; all episodes aired from January 19, 1979, onward used this title. [1] [2]

Contents

Early episodes of the show were broadcast live from the Westland Mall in Columbus, Ohio. [3] Some episodes incorporated the QUBE system's interactivity, having viewers decide which events they would like to see. [4] The series' interactive element was discontinued as the show went national, and episodes were taped in advance from 1979 until the show ended. Notable guest stars included Arnold Schwarzenegger, [5] Chuck Jones, Todd Rundgren, [5] the Sanford-Townsend Band, [5] Andy Kaufman, [6] and Bob Zmuda. [6]

Format

The format of America Goes Bananaz was modeled after the structure of The Mike Douglas Show , which producer Burt Dubrow worked on. [7] The concept was adjusted for a slightly younger audience, and the program was billed as having been "designed for the American adolescent." [8] Recurring segments on America Goes Bananaz included a karate feature hosted by Jay T. Will, [2] audience polls, [9] and advice columns allowing viewers to send the host requests for guidance. [10] Discussions focusing on mature subjects, such as drugs and birth control, were also regularly shown in an effort to interest and educate a teenage target audience. [11] Guest speaker John Steinberg, a "consumer gadfly" notifying viewers of negative purchases like "record album rip-offs," often appeared. [10]

History

According to an interview with Philadelphia Daily News , original host Michael Young first learned of Columbus Goes Bananaz while in his lawyer's office in 1977. He had reportedly just discovered that he was being sued for a play he had co-produced with Herschel Bernardi. [12] Over the telephone, Young's agent informed him that Warner-Amex was holding auditions for a talk show host. Due to his lack of offers at the time, Young decided to try out for the job. [13] Among others auditioning to be the show's host was Tony Dow, whose well-known role as Wally Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver initially made Young believe that Dow would be chosen. [14] According to Young, Dow ultimately stated that Young deserved the role. [14]

The set of America Goes Bananaz during a 1979 taping. America Goes Bananaz set, 1979.jpg
The set of America Goes Bananaz during a 1979 taping.

Michael Young was selected and hosted the show for two years, until he moved to ABC's Kids Are People Too in 1979. [15] After Young's departure, actor Randy Hamilton was picked to take over as host. [16] Episodes with Hamilton were taped from January until September 1979. [17] In an event Randy Hamilton termed "an unusual coincidence", Hamilton was chosen as the new host of Kids Are People Too in 1981, after Michael Young quit. Hamilton was selected based on clips of his time as the Bananaz host, provided to ABC by producer Burt Dubrow. [16]

At the time of the program's debut, the preschool-oriented Pinwheel was the flagship property of QUBE's C-3 channel. When the C-3 channel was expanded and renamed Nickelodeon in 1979, Bananaz was broadcast on Nickelodeon as part of an initiative to create programming for all child age groups. Bananaz was integral to the formation of Nickelodeon, described by The Times as part of the channel's "nucleus" in 1980. [18]

Lew Anderson, portrayer of Clarabell the Clown on Howdy Doody from 1954 to 1960, appeared in character as Clarabell on a 1978 episode. He broke a 25-year tradition by removing his face paint for teenagers in the audience who had watched Howdy Doody reruns as children. After the episode aired, Anderson stated that he "wouldn't have done it" if the audience had been young children as opposed to teenagers. [19]

Awards and nominations

In 1980, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment and program creator Burt Dubrow received an "Excellence in Entertainment" award from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association for America Goes Bananaz. [20] Later the same year, the series received the ACE Award for "Best Entertainment Program." [21]

YearPresenterAward/CategoryNomineeStatusRef.
1980 NCTA Awards Excellence in Entertainment Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Won [20]
ACE Awards Best Entertainment Program Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Burt Dubrow		Won [21]

Related Research Articles

<i>You Cant Do That on Television</i> Canadian sketch comedy television series

You Can't Do That on Television is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that aired locally in 1979 before airing in the United States in 1981. It featured adolescent and teenage actors performing in a sketch comedy format similar to America's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and Canada's Second City Television. Each episode had a specific theme, typically relating to the popular culture of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nickelodeon</span> American childrens pay television channel

Nickelodeon, occasionally shortened to Nick, is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through Paramount Media Networks’ subdivision, Nickelodeon Group. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children, the channel is primarily aimed at children and adolescents aged 2 to 17, along with a broader family audience through its program blocks.

<i>Watch Mr. Wizard</i> Television series

Watch Mr. Wizard was an American television program for children that demonstrates the science behind ordinary things. The show's creator and on-air host was Don Herbert. Author Marcel LaFollette says of the program, "It enjoyed consistent praise, awards, and high ratings throughout its history. At its peak, Watch Mr. Wizard drew audiences in the millions, but its impact was far wider. By 1956, it had prompted the establishment of more than five thousand Mr. Wizard science clubs, with an estimated membership greater than one hundred thousand."

Paramount Media Networks is an American mass media division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of many of its television channels and online brands. Its related international division is Paramount International Networks.

<i>Blues Clues</i> American childrens television show

Blue's Clues is an American live-action/animated interactive educational children's television series, created by Angela C. Santomero, Todd Kessler, and Traci Paige Johnson, that premiered on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block on September 8, 1996, and concluded its run on August 6, 2006, with a total of six seasons and 143 episodes. The original host of the show was Steve Burns, who left in 2002 and was replaced by Donovan Patton for the rest of the series. The show follows an animated blue-spotted dog named Blue as she leaves a trail of clues/paw prints for the host and the viewers to figure out her plans for the day.

Pinwheel is an American children's television series that was the first show to air on the then-rebranded Nickelodeon, as well as the first to appear on its Nick Jr. block along reruns until 1990. The show was aimed at preschoolers aged 3–5. It was created by Vivian Horner, an educator who spent her earlier career at the Children's Television Workshop, the company behind PBS's Sesame Street. The show was geared to the "short attention span of preschoolers," with each episode divided into short, self-contained segments including songs, skits, and animations from all over the world.

In Demand is an American cable television service which provides video on demand services, including pay-per-view. Comcast, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications jointly own In Demand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SNICK</span> US television programming block

SNICK was a two-hour programming block on the American cable television network Nickelodeon, geared toward older audiences, that ran from August 15, 1992, until January 29, 2005. It was aired on Saturdays starting at 8 p.m and ending at 10 p.m. ET, with a replay on Sundays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. In 2005, SNICK was revamped as the Saturday night edition of TEENick. Nickelodeon continues to run a Saturday night programming block today, though since the TEENick name was removed from the lineup in February 2009, the block no longer goes by any name.

<i>Nick Rocks</i> American TV series or program

Nick Rocks: Video to Go, usually shortened to Nick Rocks, was a music video television series that aired on American cable channel Nickelodeon from 1984 to 1989. It featured pop and rock music videos over a 30-minute timeframe, presented in a countdown format. The show was typically hosted by a man identified on-air as "Joe from Chicago". Most episodes feature Joe traveling to various locations to hear viewers request specific music videos. Several guest hosts were featured over the program's run, such as The Monkees and They Might Be Giants.

<i>SpongeBob SquarePants</i> (season 7) Season of television series

The seventh season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, began airing on Nickelodeon in the United States on July 19, 2009, and ended on June 11, 2011. It contained 26 half-hour episodes, with a miniseries titled Legends of Bikini Bottom. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QUBE</span> American cable television service (1977-1984)

QUBE was a former experimental two-way, multi-programmed cable television system that played a significant role in the history of American interactive television. It was launched in Columbus, Ohio, on 1 December 1977. Highly publicized as a revolutionary advancement, the QUBE experiment introduced viewers to several concepts that became central to the future development of TV technology: pay-per-view programs, special-interest cable television networks, and interactive services. It went defunct in 1984.

<i>Kids Are People Too</i> American TV series or program

Kids Are People Too is an American television series that ran on Sunday mornings from 1978 to 1982 on ABC. The series was a variety/news magazine show oriented towards kids with the intention of recognizing them as people. During its four-year run, the series was nominated for five Emmy Awards and won the 1978 Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series. The series included celebrity interviews, cartoons, music, and other information that appealed to children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Nickelodeon</span> Historical timeline

Nickelodeon is an American basic cable and satellite television network that is part of the Nickelodeon Group, a unit of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, which focuses on programs for children and teenagers.

<i>You Gotta See This</i> American TV series or program

You Gotta See This is an American reality television series produced by Comcast Entertainment Group for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on July 21, 2012. It was hosted by Noah Crawford and Chris O'Neal.

<i>Nickel Flicks</i> American television series

Nickel Flicks is an American television series that premiered on Nickelodeon in 1979 as one of the network's inaugural programs, and the first original series created for the channel after its launch. It showcased "cliffhanger" serials from the 1920s–40s, in addition to early comic one-reelers and silent short films. It was hosted by producer John Moschitta, who later became famous as the "World's Fastest Talker" in commercials for FedEx. This was Moschitta's first on-camera television role. Nickel Flicks was notably the first Nickelodeon show to be cancelled and the shortest-lived out of Nickelodeon's inaugural series; according to Moschitta, it was cancelled due to complaints about the violent nature of many of the serials.

<i>First Row Features</i> American TV series or program

First Row Features is an American anthology series that premiered on the television network Nickelodeon in February 1980 and continued to air until January 1982. It mainly carried British television films for children and family audiences, most of which were filmed in the 1950s–60s. It featured a claymation title sequence created in-house at Nickelodeon's temporary headquarters in Buffalo, New York. First Row Features was a predecessor to the similarly formatted Special Delivery, which debuted later in the same year and eventually replaced it.

<i>Rated K: For Kids by Kids</i> American TV series or program

Rated K: For Kids by Kids is an American movie review television program that ran on the cable network Nickelodeon from 1986–1988.

Ronald D. Giles is an American television executive and author.

References

  1. ↑ Dutton, William H. (May 1, 1987). Blumler, Jay; Kraemer, Kenneth (eds.). Wired Cities: Shaping the Future of Communications. Boston, Massachusetts: G. K. Hall & Co. p. 83. ISBN   0816118515.
  2. 1 2 "Karate Goes Bananaz". Black Belt . Vol. 17, no. 6. Active Interest Media. June 1979.
  3. ↑ Alford, Bernard (1978). "Columbus Goes Bananaz: The QUBE Experiment in Ohio". The Great Lakes Review. Vol. 5. Northeastern Illinois University.
  4. ↑ "Warner Cable's Qube: Exploring the outer reaches of two-way TV" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable . Vol. 47. NewBay Media. July 31, 1978.
  5. 1 2 3 Young, Michael; Dubrow, Burt (2010). "Interview with Michael Young and Burt Dubrow about QUBE, pt. 3" (Interview).
  6. 1 2 "A Look Back at Andy Kaufman". Open Culture. January 29, 2013.
  7. ↑ Young, Michael; Dubrow, Burt (2010). "Interview with Michael Young and Burt Dubrow about QUBE, pt. 2" (Interview).
  8. ↑ "Next week on TV". The Pantagraph . Bloomington, Illinois: Lee Enterprises. September 13, 1980.
  9. ↑ Black, Jonathan (July 24, 1978). "Brave New World of Television: Columbus discovers QUBE". New Times . Village Voice Media.
  10. 1 2 Healon, James V. (May 19, 1979). Sheaffer, Liz (ed.). "Nickelodeon offers alternative TV fare". Medina County Gazette. Medina County, Ohio.
  11. ↑ "Cable TV: The Lure of Diversity". Time . Vol. 113. Time Inc. May 7, 1979.
  12. ↑ Bergman, Deborah (September 30, 1980). "TV Host: Kids Are Serious, Too". Philadelphia Daily News . Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Media Network.
  13. ↑ Bins, Chuck (March 1, 1980). "'Kids Are People, Too' host keeps show interesting". Oshkosh Northwestern . Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
  14. 1 2 Young, Michael; Dubrow, Burt (2010). "Interview with Michael Young and Burt Dubrow about QUBE, pt. 1" (Interview).
  15. ↑ United Press International (December 17, 1978). "New host named for children's show". Star Tribune . Minneapolis, Minnesota: Star Tribune Media Company LLC.
  16. 1 2 Wilkinson, Bud (July 26, 1981). "Split personality: Actor divides his time between two networks". The Arizona Republic . Phoenix, Arizona: Gannett Company.
  17. ↑ Roush, Matt (August 5, 1980). "'Texas' star knows town well". The Cincinnati Enquirer . Cincinnati, Ohio: Gannett Company.
  18. ↑ Krenis, Lee (February 24, 1980). "Viewers get to talk back to their television sets". The Times . Shreveport, Louisiana: Gannett Company.
  19. ↑ United Press International (April 5, 1978). "Clarabell removes his makeup". Defiance Crescent-News. Defiance, Ohio.
  20. 1 2 "NCTA Awards". Broadcasting & Cable . Vol. 49. NewBay Media. July 14, 1980.
  21. 1 2 "Nickelodeon wins awards from the toughest critics". Communications-Engineering Digest. Vol. 6. Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers. August 1980.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.