The Saturday Show (2001 TV series)

Last updated

The Saturday Show
The Saturday show.png
Genre Children's
Presented by Dani Behr (2001–02)
Joe Mace (2001–02)
Fearne Cotton (2002–03)
Simon Grant (2002–05)
Angellica Bell (2004–05)
Jake Humphrey (2004–05)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes149
Production
Production location BBC Television Centre [1]
Running time180 minutes (2001–03)
90 minutes (2004–05)
Original release
Network BBC One
Release22 September 2001 (2001-09-22) 
3 September 2005 (2005-09-03)

The Saturday Show is a British children's television series that aired on BBC One from 22 September 2001 to 3 September 2005. It was the replacement for Live & Kicking and contained a mix of audience participation, cartoons, games and gunge. The initial presenters were Dani Behr and Joe Mace, who were replaced in 2002 and by Fearne Cotton and Simon Grant. In 2004, Cotton left and Grant was joined by Angellica Bell and Jake Humphrey, who made up the final team of presenters until the programme finished in September 2005.

Contents

Early Days

In 2001, it was announced that Live & Kicking would be axed after eight series, and instead, a brand new show fronted by Dani Behr and Joe Mace would be aired. It would be a radical departure from standard and conventional Saturday Morning TV. The new show was billed to be tough competition for SMTV Live . The show was confined to the studio, which was designed in an unconventional format – it was based on tiered seating and three stages at the bottom: one with a presenters' couch, one for performances and one for The Saturday Show house band, Stamford Amp. The show included a series of different karaokes, including Sugababes week. This allowed the children to sing along to the official instrumentals. The show also featured a puppet duo, "Tiny and Mr Duk" performed by Dave Chapman and Damian Farrell. Stamford Amp also had a top 40 hit single in the UK with "Anything For You".

In February 2002, with the CBBC Channel having just launched, Nihal and Sarra Elgan were presenting The Saturday Show Extra, which ran parallel to the main programme. It had a new studio and new graphics. The new set consisted of a couch underneath a balcony. There was a stage on the other side of the studio, in standard SMTV Live convention. The relaunch also saw more audience participation at home.

In July 2002, Joe Mace chose to not renew his contract, and Behr left the show with him. The Saturday Show was about to be axed but the much younger and child-friendlier pairing of Fearne Cotton and Simon Grant agreed to take the slot.

Tiny and Mr Duk remained on the show with the new presenters, until Dave Chapman and Damian Farrell left the show in December 2002.

2002 to 2004

The show was rebranded to The All New Saturday Show from September 2002. At the start of the show, the presenters acted in a manner focussed on a younger audience, with the content and the behaviour of the presenters maturing as the morning progressed, in order to accommodate a teenage audience. With the new show, the Top of the Pops spin-off series TOTP Saturday was created. The original concept was a 45-minute version of the Friday night Show with that week's number one single played halfway through. A new feature called Singles Out dominated part of the show and became part of the format for the 2003 series. In May 2003, the show began Celebrity Fastermind which began to dominate the first hour of the show. Since then, the show began to drop its opening titles and got stuck in with a format of games, gunge and celebrities. Finally in September 2003, Dick and Dom in da Bungalow was to premiere on BBC One. Overall, the new show was a ratings success, taking over SMTV Live for many weeks. The Saturday Show Extra was moved to 12 pm on the CBBC Channel, but was eventually dropped.

After a successful run, the show returned in April 2004 with another new look. Angelica Bell and Jake Humphrey joined Simon Grant. The show was once again not set in a traditional studio. The audience sat on couches whereas the presenters had nowhere to sit, instead being on their feet for the majority of the show. With only 90 minutes to air, the show began at 8:30am, finishing at 10am followed by The Mysti Show . Many features were aired in this series – the finale to the show was Gunge GBH.

2004 to End

Now a celebrity-free environment, the BBC revamped the show, hoping to make it more interactive. Throughout the morning, the audience would take part in games such as Scary Buckets, Stick and Twist and Blushing Roulette, amongst others. This series saw a continuous run of out-of-studio reporters such as Ortis and Sophie McDonnell introduced, with McDonnell filling in for Bell on occasion. The show also featured a sketch called Dr Loo, a parody of Doctor Who . The series as a whole was not a success and was axed in 2005. Realising that they would not be on the air at Christmas, the last episode, aired on 3 September, was a Christmas special.

Features

One newer feature of the show was Gunge GBH (GBH standing for Grant, Bell or Humphrey), during which a child was given the chance to gunge a presenter. A segment of the 2005 summer run of The Saturday Show, it started the previous year as just "Gunge Grant" when presenter Simon Grant went head to head with a child in a quiz. Both contestants sat in adjacent gunge tanks and were asked questions sent in by viewers. Question master Jake Humphrey asked each player a question in turn (before which they were given the option to play or pass the question to the other player). Each player had five lives and for each life lost their tank was "topped up" with gunge by Bell. The first contestant to lose all five of their lives was "gunged". If the child won they would also take home prizes but if they lost would instead take home an "I've Been Gunged On The Saturday Show" certificate.

The format was changed the following year allowing all three presenters to rotate turns in the tank. The input of gunge was now controlled by "The God of Gunge." Initially the rules were that if a presenter lost they would remain in the tank the following week, but this was eventually changed to the child choosing which presenter they wished to play against, and subsequently changed again to the drawing of straws. Another change to the game occurred towards the end of the series when the previous five lives became three. Jake Humphrey particularly disliked going in the tank and usually tried to find an excuse not to be gunged - this tended to fail, and he had to play the game.

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
122 September 2001 [2] 13 September 2003 [3] 104
217 April 2004 [4] 4 September 2004 [5] 21
326 March 2005 [6] 3 September 2005 [7] 24

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ant & Dec</span> British television presenting duo

Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo consisting of Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly from Newcastle upon Tyne. Formed after them meeting as child actors on CBBC's drama Byker Grove, they performed together as pop musicians PJ & Duncan, the names of their characters from the series. For their earliest TV presenting roles they used the aliases Tony & Lan.

<i>CBBC Newsround</i> BBC childrens news programme

CBBC Newsround is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first television news magazines aimed specifically at children. Initially commissioned as a short series by BBC Children's Department, who held editorial control, its facilities were provided by BBC News. The programme is aimed at 5 to 15-year-olds.

<i>Noels House Party</i> British light entertainment TV series

Noel's House Party is a BBC light entertainment series that was hosted by Noel Edmonds. Set in a large house in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom, leading to much innuendo, it ran from 23 November 1991 to 20 March 1999 on BBC One, and for eight series was broadcast live on Saturday evenings. The show, once described by a senior corporation executive as "the most important show on the BBC", was cancelled in February 1999 due to declining ratings, although two further compilation specials were shown in March 2000.

<i>Live & Kicking</i> BBC childrens TV series, from 1993

Live & Kicking is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for Going Live!, and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, comedy, competitions and the showing of cartoons. Once Live & Kicking had become established in series two, it reached its height in popularity during series four, when it was presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston; their final edition won a BAFTA award. After this the programme's ratings dropped with the launch of SMTV Live on ITV and the show ended in 2001.

<i>Holly & Stephens Saturday Showdown</i> British childrens programme

Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown was a British children's entertainment programme, which was broadcast on ITV from 10 January 2004 to 1 July 2006.

<i>CD:UK</i> British TV series or programme

CD:UK, stylised as cd:uk, was a music television programme that ran in the United Kingdom from 29 August 1998 to 1 April 2006. Originally run in conjunction with SMTV Live, the programme aired on ITV as a rival to the BBC's Live & Kicking and was the replacement for The Chart Show, which had been airing on the network for nine years.

<i>SMTV Live</i> Saturday Morning Kids Programme

SMTV Live was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, produced by Blaze Television for ITV. Operating on a similar format to other Saturday morning programmes for children, such as BBC's Live & Kicking, the programme premiered on 29 August 1998 and ran for over 270 episodes across five years, before its conclusion on 27 December 2003.

<i>Wogan</i> 1982–1992 British television chat show

Wogan is a British television talk show which was broadcast on BBC1 from 1982 to 1992 and presented by Terry Wogan. It was usually broadcast live from the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd's Bush, London, until 1991. It was then broadcast from the BBC Television Centre (TVC). Some shows were pre-recorded and then broadcast unedited "as live". Wogan ended its run in July 1992 and was replaced in the schedule by the soap opera Eldorado.

<i>Going Live!</i> British childrens television series (1987–1993)

Going Live! is a British children's television series that aired on BBC One from 26 September 1987 to 17 April 1993. It was presented by Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene. Other presenters included Trevor and Simon, Annabel Giles, Phillip Hodson, Emma Forbes, Nick Ball, James Hickish and Mark Chase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunge</span> Gooey, yet runny, substance used in childrens shows

Gunge as it is known in the United Kingdom, or slime as it is known in the United States and most English-speaking areas of the world, is a thick, gooey, yet runny substance with a consistency somewhere between that of paint and custard. It has been a feature on many children's programs for many years around the world and has made appearances in game shows as well as other programming. While gunge mostly appears on television, it can also be used as a fundraising tool for charities, youth and religious groups. Gunge tanks have appeared at nightclubs and Fun Days. The British charities Comic Relief and Children in Need, supported by the BBC, have used gunge for fundraising in the past. In the U.S., slime is sometimes associated with Nickelodeon, even having several game shows revolving around it, such as Slime Time Live.

Get Your Own Back is a British children's television game show created by Brian Marshall. Each episode staged a contest between teams of children – attempting to score as many points as possible – and their respective adults – attempting to make tasks as difficult as possible for their child contestants – playing a variety of games. The winning child earns a right to get revenge on the adult by ejecting them into a tank of gunge; adult contestants in the show are somewhat embarrassing, for a variety of reasons, to their child counterparts.

Andrew Hayden-Smith is an English actor and voiceover artist and former television presenter.

The 8:15 from Manchester is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 on Saturday mornings from 21 April 1990 to 14 September 1991. The show took its name from the train departing from Manchester Piccadilly station for London Euston, which was, and still is at 08:15. It was presented by Ross King and Charlotte Hindle. BBC Radio 1 and subsequently BBC North West weather presenter Dianne Oxberry joined for the second series.

<i>Top of the Pops Reloaded</i> British TV series or programme

Top of the Pops Reloaded, originally known as Top of the Pops Saturday (2002–2005), is a weekly children's music show that was broadcast as part of the Saturday morning CBBC schedule on BBC One and later BBC Two. It ran from 2002 to 2006. It was based on the programme Top of the Pops.

Run the Risk is a British children's game show, which ran from 26 September 1992 to 28 December 1996. It was aired as part of the Saturday morning shows Going Live! and Live & Kicking. It is presented by Peter Simon for the entire run alongside Shane Richie, John Eccleston and Bobby Davro. The games the teams had to do involved gunge and were similar to those performed on It's a Knockout. Run the Risk borrowed much from its predecessor, Double Dare, which was also hosted by Simon.

The Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow is a BBC television light entertainment show which was broadcast on Saturday evenings from 3 September 1988 to 15 December 1990. It was presented by Noel Edmonds, his first major TV project since the demise of The Late, Late Breakfast Show in 1986. The pre-recorded programme contained several elements which had been found in its predecessor, such as phone-in quizzes, celebrity interviews and bands performing in the studio.

<i>Basil and Barneys Swap Shop</i> British TV series or programme

Basil and Barney's Swap Shop is a British children's television series that was produced for CBBC and ran on Saturday mornings on BBC Two and CBBC Channel from 5 January 2008 to 25 September 2010. Based on the original BBC children's Saturday morning show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, which ran on BBC One from 1976 to 1982, it was hosted by Barney Harwood, along with veteran puppet character Basil Brush, from whom the show takes its title.

This is a list of British television related events from 2002.

This is a list of British television related events from 2001.

<i>Saturday Mash-Up!</i> British TV series or programme

Saturday Mash-Up! is a live British Saturday morning children's magazine entertainment programme on CBBC and BBC Two, first broadcast on 30 September 2017. It is currently presented by Joe Tasker, Shereen Cutkelvin and a puppet monster called Stanley performed by Dave Chapman,

References

  1. "BBC TV Centre" . Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  2. "The Saturday Show – BBC One London – 22 September 2001". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  3. "The Saturday Show – BBC One London – 13 September 2003". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  4. "The Saturday Show – BBC One London – 17 April 2004". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  5. "The Saturday Show – BBC Two England – 4 September 2004". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  6. "The Saturday Show – BBC One London – 26 March 2005". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  7. "The Saturday Show – BBC One London – 3 September 2005". BBC Genome Project . Retrieved 16 March 2021.