Hey Hey It's Saturday


Hey Hey It's Saturday is a long-running variety television program on Australian television. It initially ran for 28 years on the Nine Network from 9 October 1971 to 20 November 1999, with a recess in 1978. Its host throughout its entire run was Daryl Somers, who later also became executive producer of the program. The original producer, Gavan Disney, left the program in December 1990, and Somers then formed a production company, Somers Carroll Productions, with comedy writer and on-screen partner Ernie Carroll, the performer of Somers' pink ostrich puppet sidekick Ossie Ostrich. Carroll retired in 1994, and Ossie was no longer featured in the show.
On 25 July 2009, the Nine Network announced the show would return for two reunion specials in late 2009 and hinted if they rated strongly, the show could return full-time. The first reunion show aired on 30 September 2009, and the second on 7 October, and both won the ratings on their respective nights. However, the reunion also received negative international attention for [|a segment] featuring performers in blackface.
On 7 December 2009, it was announced that the show was planned to return in 2010 with 20 episodes. Broadcast of the 20 episodes were split into two groups with a break between them, with the revival premiering on Wednesday 14 April 2010. The second group was broadcast on Saturday nights from 16 October 2010 with the season finale on 27 November 2010. Due to falling ratings and high production costs, the show was not renewed for a new season in 2011.
A 50th anniversary special, Hey Hey It's 50 Years, aired on the Seven Network on 10 October 2021, which is 50 years and one day after the show debuted.
The show's website has since been turned into a paid streaming service where people can get access to full episodes and clips from the show for a monthly fee.

History

Origins

Premiering on 9 October 1971, Hey Hey It's Saturday was a Saturday morning children's program in which Somers and Carroll provided "top and tail" segments between cartoon episodes. Due to the freedom afforded by its low-priority timeslot, the team was able to develop the comedic aspects of the show and the cartoon segments were eventually phased-out in favour of the live performances.
The constant ad-libbing of the presenters, including voice-over man John Blackman, soon attracted a cult following among younger and older viewers alike. The show's style was variously influenced by vaudeville, the American Tonight Show format, the Marx Brothers, The Goon Show and Monty Python. Somers was also strongly influenced by comedy duo Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton, and it is significant that Carroll wrote for In Melbourne Tonight for many years.
Through the early 1970s, as its ratings grew and its meagre budget was increased, Hey Hey evolved into a freewheeling live light entertainment / comedy variety program. Regular segments included "What Cheeses Me Off", "Media Watch Press", "Red Faces" and "Chook Lotto", a parody of variety show barrel competitions, in which the numbers in a farcical lotto game were chosen using numbered frozen chickens spun in a large wire cage. The team also performed live revue-style send-ups of current TV shows such as The Sullivans, or chaotic parodies of soap operas, police shows and other popular TV genres. Like Kennedy's, the humour was of the wink-wink, nudge-nudge variety—viewers became accustomed to Blackman's voice-over snigger—and the satire was broad and skit-level rather than sharp and disturbing.
Like IMT, 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 device that Graham Kennedy had first made famous on his radio show. Hey Hey also broke the "fourth wall", frequently turning the cameras around, taking viewers behind the scenes into every area of the studio, out to the studio pool and even beyond the building. Many of the crew effectively became the de facto supporting cast, either as themselves or as occasional extras in regular segments. During this formative period there was no studio audience, although this later became an integral part of the show. Carroll also occasionally stepped out from behind Ozzie to perform in sketches or as a character, although he usually disguised his voice and/or appearance.
The rapid-fire comedic interplay between Somers, Carroll, Blackman and audio operator Murray Tregonning was central to the show's success. Blackman kept up a near-constant stream of jokes and remarks, and he also provided the voice of the show's many invented characters; some were merely voiced, while others were seen in various forms, including "Mrs McGillicuddy" ; "Angel" ; "Norman Neumann", a talking Neumann boom microphone; "The Man From Jupiter"; and the character that became an icon of the show, cheeky "schoolboy" Dickie Knee, who would pop up in front of Daryl and make rude remarks. Meanwhile, Tregonning was renowned for his remarkable ability to select and play appropriate sound effects at a second's notice, and his humorous audio punctuations became another trademark of the series. This was long before the introduction of digital sound recording and digital samplers, and all Tregonning's sound effects were played from a huge collection of tape cartridges.
The program went into recess in 1978 when Daryl and Ossie took the bold step of leaving the Nine Network for the rival 0–10 Network to present a primetime show featuring 'comedy, audience participation and novelty games', simply titled The Daryl and Ossie Show. Betty Bobbitt and Monique Daams were co-hosts. Only forty episodes were aired between September and November 1978. Daryl and Ossie then went back to Nine, and Hey Hey It's Saturday returned to air in 1979. The show continued its evolution, beginning with recruitment of popular Queensland TV presenter Jacki MacDonald as a co-host on its return to Nine in 1979.

Move to primetime

In 1984, the Nine Network moved 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 original name. During this time, Hey Hey also became one of the most important TV venues for both local and international music, film and TV stars. Many visiting overseas stars including actor Sylvester Stallone, singer Tom Jones, musician Stevie Ray Vaughan, and professional wrestler André the Giant were impressed by the program's zany style and made return appearances on subsequent visits. During its peak years, backed by the full resources of Nine and assisted by the rapid improvement in satellite communication, Hey Hey regularly travelled to locations all over Australia and even overseas for live broadcasts.
In October 1984, in a world first, reformed Aussie 1970s rock band Skyhooks appeared on the same night live from their concert at Melbourne's Olympic Park, where they were performing 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. 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 a generation of viewers, with its popularity augmented by the stellar guest lineup and regular musical performances. 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. Another noted Australian rock 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. The regular cast was further expanded by the addition of former Countdown host Ian "Molly" Meldrum, comedian and ex-The Comedy Company star Russell Gilbert, actor and comedian Maurie Fields, and ex-The Curiosity Show presenter, Dr Deane Hutton.
Hey Hey retained its loyal following well into the 1990s—at one point between 1992 and 1994 also screening on TVNZ in primetime, before later being moved to late Saturday nights due to low ratings and eventually being cancelled—but Ernie Carroll decided to retire in 1994, taking Ossie Ostrich with him. Other characters, including "Plucka Duck", were brought in prior to his retirement to partially fill the void left by Carroll's departure. In the late 1980s, a cartoonist, Andrew Fyfe, was added to the team, offering visual gags similar to Blackman and Tregonning's audio contributions. In 1992, Fyfe started his own children's game show on Nine called GuessWhat?. On this show, 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 also had 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.

First cancellation

Nine Network executives decided toward the end of 1999 to cancel Hey Hey It's Saturday. Nine cited various reasons for the axing, including a dip in ratings, an ageing audience and a need to cut costs at the network; however, the program still attracted an average of 1.2 million viewers. Somers had also claimed that he wanted to take the program into a new direction after the departure of Carroll, but the budget to redevelop the show was deemed excessive. The final episode ran for 240 minutes, an hour longer than was scheduled. After a break of a few years, Somers moved on to host Dancing with the Stars on the Seven Network in 2004.
Nine re-aired the Hey Hey By Request specials in 2005 and June 2006. Also, on Nine's quiz show Temptation, Hey Hey's Wilbur Wilde and John Blackman appeared in May 2006 as part of Temptation's Logies Superchallenge, and both represented the show. Dickie Knee also made a brief appearance.
In October 2006, the Seven Network began 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.
During the 2008 Logies ceremony, Daryl Somers presented an award for the "Most Outstanding Children's Program". Prior to announcing the winner of the award, Somers did a skit with Dickie Knee and Plucka Duck.