The Late Late Toy Show
The Late Late Toy Show is an annual, special edition of the Irish chat show The Late Late Show. Airing annually on RTÉ One near the end of November or early December to coincide with the holiday shopping season, the Toy Show showcases the popular toys of the year, as presented by the host and demonstrated by various children on-stage, along with appearances by celebrity guests.
Since its first presentation in 1975, the Toy Show has become a cultural institution in Ireland; it is often the most-watched programme of the year on Irish television, and being featured on the Toy Show has been said to have a major boost to sales of a product heading into the Christmas season. Commercial time during the Toy Show is also prestigious for advertisers; in 2009, a 30-second spot cost €17,000; in comparison, a 30-second spot during the 2010 UEFA Champions League Final cost €9,750. Tickets to its taping are also difficult to come by; in one year, a single ticket was auctioned for €1,500.
Most recently presented by Patrick Kielty, the show has previously been presented by Ryan Tubridy, Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny during their tenures as hosts of the Late Late Show. Dustin the Turkey, a high-profile entertainment figure in Ireland, made an annual appearance, usually bringing a gift for the presenter. These gifts when produced tended to have a comedic effect and in the past have included a miniature antique chair and a Pat Kenny clock, ominously presented to Kenny's predecessor Byrne.
Jumper
The Toy Show jumper attracts as much attention as the show itself, with viewers sending in their own versions to RTÉ ahead of the night in the hope that the presenter might wear them. Gay Byrne habitually wore a Christmas jumper each year. He also wore the jumper for People in Need Telethon, but Pat Kenny tended to wear a "naff" grey jumper when he was host. Ryan Tubridy also spoke in favour of the jumper when he took the helm. Byrne was noted for his "Bing Crosby sweater".Some of the sweaters we got in this year are so bad, the people who knitted them should be put on trial in The Hague for crimes against Christmas.Ryan Tubridy expressed his distaste for the selection of jumpers he received from fans in 2011.
Audience members also appear in Christmas wear such as hats, antlers and even jumpers.
History
In 1974, Pan Collins a senior researcher and script editor on The Late Late Show pitched the idea of a segment about children's toys to presenter Gay Byrne. Byrne initially turned down the idea but Collins turned to Byrne's assistant Maura Connolly who convinced him to go ahead with it.The first toy segment was to run for a half hour at the end of the programme on 7 December 7, 1974.
After the segment achieved high ratings, it was brought back the year after as full special and aired on 13 December 1975. Since then 1976 has been the only year that the Toy Show did not take place as the Late Late team were working on a birthday tribute to Maureen Potter.
In 1994, it was broadcast on 9 December and attracted an audience so high that it did not come close again until the 2010 edition.
In 1997, Dustin presented Gay Byrne with a miniature antique chair during the veteran presenter's penultimate Toy Show. The stunt alluded to a controversy that occurred when the winner of an antiques restoration competition run by the show claimed credit for a chair which had been worked on by another person.
Among the show's other memorable moments over the years are Junior Culchie of the Year Mark McSharry from County Cavan in his mini-motorised toy tractor, the little girl who said she did not like Justin Bieber "'cus he's so full of himself", Pat Kenny mispronouncing Jerry "Seinfield"'s name before presenting him with his very own cheap Superman toy, and - what is considered "the ultimate Toy Show moment" by many and "possibly the ultimate moment of all time", voted the number 1 moment in an RTÉ Player poll in 2014 -little John Joe Brennan's dissection of the collected works of Roald Dahl—"I find him very poetic" and "for children fantasy always comes first." And his ambition to be a horologist.
2000s
2002 edition
The 2002 edition was broadcast on 29 November 2002. The show's highlights included Pat Kenny making his entrance to the show at the beginning by riding on an elephant named Max. Entertainment was provided by British bands S Club 7 and Busted.2003 edition
The 2003 edition was broadcast on 28 November 2003. Amongst the highlights of the programme included girl group Girls Aloud surprising a young fan who sang a rendition of their song "Jump" while demonstrating a karaoke CD player toy. Amongst other guest appearances included TV presenter Brian Ormond, and his daughter Chloe, the cast of Après Match, who demonstrated toys while portraying broadcasters Gerry Ryan, Marian Finucane, and Joe Duffy respectively, and that year's Eurovision singer Mickey Joe Harte, who performed his follow-up single "There Must be Love". Among the toy testers and performers included Evanna Lynch, who would later go onto star in the Harry Potter film franchise, and dancer Laura Nolan who would later go onto become a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars2005 edition
The 2005 edition was broadcast on 2 December 2005, attracting 1.1 million viewers as the most watched programme on Irish television that year. It was also the most watched edition of The Late Late Show since Gay Byrne's final show in 1999.Irish comedian Dave McSavage, appeared in the opening segment of this Toy Show, playing a selfish scrooge.
2006 edition
The 2006 edition was broadcast on 1 December 2006. Six-year-old Millie Murray, who, along with her four-year-old brother Gavin Murray, had recently been burned out of her car in Limerick, left her hospital bed to make an appearance. She requested a doll to play with for the show. Her brother was too unwell to feature on the show after the incident that led to over twelve weeks of hospital treatment for the pair. Pat Kenny was later criticised in a study by the Equality Authority for his hosting of the show, in which he persistently reinforced stereotypes of gender roles. An example was a human skull shown to ooze slime, of which the presenter uttered the comment "made for boys, I think".2007 edition
The 2007 edition was broadcast on 30 November 2007, attracting over one million viewers or seven-tenths of the available audience, making it the most watched television programme in Ireland at that time of 2007. Broadcast over the traditional four parts, it contained a performance from James Blunt, the annual appearance of Dustin, book reviews and Miriam O'Shea who performed a rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".File:Pat Kenny's Jerry Seinfield incident.jpg|left|thumb|Jerry Seinfeld waves to the audience after being presented with his Superman on the 2007 Toy Show. Host Pat Kenny stands to the right clapping his hands together.
The 2007 Toy Show also played host to an interview with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Kenny expressed a lack of knowledge about his subject from the very beginning when he introduced him as "Jerry Seinfield". There was much uncomfortable chat on the topic of bees and Kenny then presented him with a cheap imitation of his favourite superhero, Superman. Seinfeld, who had previously lashed out at Larry King over his ignorance, remained tight-lipped and walked off without informing Kenny of his correct name.
The 2007 Toy Show was opened by the soprano Oisín Nolan who ascended a hanging crescent moon as Kenny entered the studio fresh from his visit to Santa in Lapland. Roisin Seoighe Conemara performed Sean Nos dancing wearing her trademark red dance shoes along with music played by the Castlemahon Buskers. She danced a reel and got a fantastic applause from the audience. The Castle Mahon Buskers came from Newcastle West, County Limerick, and have four members. Two bodhrán players performed, an accordion player and a spoons player. The show was closed by The Young Wexford Singers and Rowe Street Junior Choir.
Thus far, this was Dustin's last appearance on the Toy Show.
2008 edition
The 2008 edition was broadcast on 28 November 2008 and was Pat Kenny's tenth and final Toy Show. It achieved a total audience of 1,199,000 to become the most viewed television programme across all channels available in Ireland since 2001. It was the fourth consecutive year that the show cleared the one million viewers mark, with 275,000 of those watching being children and almost 800,000 watchers being adults.The highlight was the opening, which first showed Kenny standing on a railing outside the RTÉ studios in Donnybrook putting an extra light bulb on to the lights. A boy, Anthony Malone from Tullamore, then switched on the lights which went all over the country. Anthony then picked up a present and passed it to the other kids in a pass the parcel like fashion, while a little girl sang a rendition of Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You. The show then proceeded to the main studio where kids dressed as elves and Santa's sang the song and passed the parcel to the audience who passed it on to Kenny who was standing at the top of the audience before the piece ended and he welcomed the audience.
Afterwards Dustin's absence from the Toy Show was noted when Kenny opened the parcel and said with a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness it's not Dustin!". It was an Elmo toy.
A young people's show on RTÉ Two called Ice had snuck a teddy bear into the set which was spotted on camera during a performance on the show.
The programme proved controversial, with controversy beginning to generate one week before broadcast, when the current value of tickets was questioned. When a competition winner refused two tickets to the show as her prize at the end of the 21 November edition of The Late Late Show, visibly infuriated presenter Pat Kenny tore them up live on air. Kenny questioned why she had entered the competition if she had not wanted to attend the Toy Show. In the aftermath, the winner, identified as Barbara Heavey from Cork, explained to a newspaper that she had entered the competition "out of boredom", had "no interest in watching children play with toys for two hours" and had no children of her own. She did not see the actual tearing of the tickets as she had turned off the television "to prevent an echo on the line" and attempted to suggest that they either be raffled or donated to someone else only to be drowned out by Kenny and his audience's vocal disbelief. Despite numerous attempts by RTÉ to have her attend, she said she would be "bored stiff", wasn't interested in toys and, if she had to attend the show, would probably "set off the smoke alarms by chain-smoking in the toilets". Kenny did not let the matter rest however, opening his morning radio show the following Monday with a five-minute chat to his listeners in which he implied that the torn-up tickets were of more value than All Ireland final and Munster v. All Blacks tickets. Within minutes footage was uploaded onto the video hosting website YouTube, with spoofs of the incident also created. and Heavey was congratulated in numerous national newspapers.
Two and a half hours before the 2008 Toy Show got underway Kenny appeared on Aidan Power's The Cafe with alter-ego Oliver Callan.. Kenny revealed McFly would perform, the only guest he was willing to reveal to Power. Power then mimicked the torn ticket incident by teasing Kenny with two tickets before plucking them from his grasp and tearing them into pieces, after which Kenny engaged in some turkey dialogue with the rest of The Cafe. In an announcement aired before the Nine O'Clock News, Kenny let slip that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May from Top Gear would appear. During the show, Kenny once again referenced the ticket fiasco when, whilst promoting another competition with a prize of a car and €10,000, he said he would "tear up" the vehicle if the winner refused to take it. Nicky Byrne from Westlife appeared with his twin sons Rocco and Jay and met 10-year-old Shauna Byrne, a fan of his who was battling cystic fibrosis at the time but later died on 30 January 2009. Sarah Ferguson was present for the annual children's book section, where she listened to some of the children speak the Irish language. McFly, in their second Toy Show appearance, performed "Do Ya" from their Radioactive album. The closing act was RTÉ Cór na nÓg, singing "Jingle Bells".