Britishers -- Tell Me More About Your Game Show "Bullseye"

grr! bullseye on wikipedia

As a gameshow concept I don't think it's any more dumbass than dozens of others - who wants to watch a game show about people playing Tic Tac Toe? What pushes Bullseye into the land of kitsch is the shitty prizes and the defiantly working class demographic of the contestants. And the Bendy Bully, obv.

But when I was a kid, eating tea in the lounge in front of Bullseye was the absolute high spot of Sunday. Until Albion Market came on.

Greatest gameshow of all time with Catchphrase and Blind Date following closely behind.

"Iiiiiiiin 1 - You'll be the toast of your street if you win this prize. It's a Breville sandwich toaster."

My Dad used to get outraged if they had a woman player throwing for charity, because they were always shit.

The old Jim Bowen shows are repeated on FTN (I think) every day at about 7 o'clock, and very often they're the best thing on TV.

In fact, I seem to be watching FTN more than any other channel, what with their repeats of the Krypton Factor and the Crystal Maze.

There was an air of sadness/desperation to the whole show. It was slow-moving, awkward & nervy.
The final round, in which the winning couple gambled what they had already won against Bully's star prize, actually demanded a damn sight more skill than most gameshows & usually ended in disappointment, which meant the show finished amid gloom & despond - not helped by the way in which they always brought the prize on to show them what they would have won.
Also not helped by the host, Jim Bowen, an old-school, not-very-succesful club comedian, who reeked of failure, drank steadily off-camera throughout recordings & became bitterly depressed when contestants didn't win.

kafkaesque.

In some ways I think this is the most British show on television. Everything you need to know about this soggy little island can be learnt from watching Bullseye.

It kicked Big Break's arse, that's for sure.

(Note to non-Britishes, Big Break was the lame BBC copycat that did a similar thing but with snooker).

and of course Dave Lee Travis did a similar thing with darts *and* snooker on the radio (Double Top and Give Us A Break, respectively).

And Jimmy Tarbuck did one with golf as well.

American readers may be interested to know that Jim Bowen's post-Bullseye career as a radio DJ ended abruptly in 2002 when he called a black female caller to his "Happy Daft Farm" show a "nignog".

Jim Bowen, an old-school, not-very-succesful club comedian

I'd have thought a lot of club comedians would be a bit surprised at this statement!

The last time I watched Bullseye on FTN one of the prizes was, in Jim's words, "an all-expenses paid holiday in peaceful Mexico"

i sat in the audience for Big Break once. first TV appearance from Rocket Ronnie aged 16.

Doing visual stuff on the radio is always classic.

Eisbaer needs to check Indoor League.

http://tv.cream.org/images2/wheeltap.jpg

From the right hand part of that postcard, you'd think it was Tiswas!

(Note to non-Britishes, Big Break was the lame BBC copycat that did a similar thing but with snooker).

hahaha, now i remember hearing about that show -- i think that big break came up when i mentioned how ridiculous i thought bullseye was to some british dudes i met in germany. (they were all like, "if you think watching people throw darts on TV is daft, there's a TV game show with people playing snooker.")

Eisbaer needs to check Indoor League.

never heard about this one -- what was it about?!?

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CNqb3bwFL._SS500_.jpg

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
I'll See Thee ...., 9 Feb 2006
By "admiralhanson" - See all my reviews
Just got hold of a copy of the greatest DVD release of the year so far .... Yorkshire TV's Indoor League.

Forget Skinner & Baddiel taking the mickey out of it on 'Fantasy Football', this was the dogs wot-sits of telly in the early 70s.

Fronted by sporting hero Fred Trueman and live 'from the Queens Hotel in Leeds', contestants from all across christendom (well, the Yorkshire TV area) battled it out for the top prize of £100 per sport.

Trueman was clad in what became almost a uniform in Northern England at the time, consisting of kipper tie, brown cardigan and complete with the standard tap room pint & pipe. All topped off with Fred's fantastic hair do and at last you might guess what he did with that Brylcream endorsement after he packed in test match cricket.

Contests included darts (on a Yorkshire board mind, none of this Southern 'trebles' rubbish), Shove Ha'penny, Bar Billiards, Table Football and even (Cheese) Skittles .... The programme gave gainful employment to commentating greats, the likes of Keith Macklin and Dave Lanning during the three day week and between stints of World Of Sport.

Ladies and Gentlemen .... This is the sort of thing that the public want. It got great viewing figures in the region (providing there wasn't a power cut on) Forget Celebrity Islands or which soap star can sing, this was proper telly.

So, let us salute another great Sid Wadell idea (well before he started his 'panto' act on the Darts or even Jossy's Giants) and get your copy of Indoor League made in the days when 'goodness me, you made the best of it ...'

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* Chill Out ~ KLF

i believe it to be grim up north

I remember someone (maybe my brother?) telling me that he had gone to college with Jim Bowen's niece or grand-niece, and that she received a Bully for every birthday and Christmas. He handed them around to everyone.

I didn't know a Yorkshire dartboard lacked trebles. Maybe it's a superstitious thing (no Devil).

the thing i liked about Bullseye was that there were two different versions of the same tune over the closing credits, one in a major key if they won the big prize, and one in a minor key if they fucked up the chance to win that super smashing speedboat.

I never noticed that!

you just don't get that attention to detail today

There should be more game shows based on pub games, possibly Shove Ha'penny

Or "last one to go for a piss wins"

skittles

table skittles

Aunt Sally (this would have to be on Thames Valley News as it's only played in Oxfordshire)

televised pub quiz

Or "last one to go for a piss wins"

yes, yes they did. if we give dom another five years he might invent the friday night project.

They had a weekly competition where if one audience member could do "something", they won a prize. One week it was drink three pints of water and not piss for an hour, which isn't that hard. So it wasn't a contest against others, but rather one man's battle against his own bladder.

xp

the 'televised pub quiz' thing isn't bad - esp. if you can amalgamate elements of Deal Or No Deal into it.

It could be hosted by Al Murray! He's a funny guy!

let's have a Best TV Landlord poll

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/onlyfools/uncovered/images/mike_id.gif

Les from Men Behaving Badly (whaddya mean you don't remember him)

Les: There's a that describes me perfectly..

Gary: What's that Les, "Dancing Queen"?

Les: Nah... "Young Gifted and Black". It's not a perfect fit.

*song that

Dude who plays Steve Mcdonald on Corrie does the best reaction shots of anyone (apart from possibly Harry Hill but his are a bit slapstick y know) on British television in the last decade. I mention this for he is the landlord of the Rovers as of now. He's really grown into his face. It's a great comedy face.

Steve Mcdonald owns the Rovers? end times

Eddie Royle RIP

World of Pub!

John Sparkes did a show called Pub Quiz that was only shown in Wales. He did it as a character called Frank Hovis and it was very very funny and filthy. I was constantly amazed that some of the jokes made it on screen.

Mid 90s video game "You Don't Know Jack", a faux game show hosted by Paul "Dennis Pennis" Kaye, had a mock pub quiz round where Kaye would play the landlords of a number of different types of drinking establishment (rural area bigot, winebar owner, internet cafe, real ale twat, etc). Maybe he should do that on TV. Maybe he shouldn't.

Last week on Corrie Steve got off with a transvestite and Lister off Red Dwarf was all "jokes, bruv". They've still got it, man.

Doesn't Paul Kaye do something on MTV now? Something that I saw once and was really, really shit. He was doing this character that was kind of a bad impression of Joe Pesci... am I making this up?

No, I saw that and it was shit. More like Sean Penn in Carlito's Way though, I thought.

It's called Strutter, it's like half-Pesci, half Peter Cook's punk nightclub owner dude. It's basically a Bravo-style "look at the skateboarder falling over lol" clips show, except Kaye adds some funny swears over the top of it, in the style of an eight-year-old who just watched a 15 certificate movie for the first time.

xp

He should do another series of 100 Acres of Sky.

AS Dennis Pennis

Paul Kaye: Classic or Dud?

My sister always goes on about the time Bowen instinctively said "smashing" in response to a contestant saying he was unemployed, and the contestant then saying "you fookin' bastard".

tis a lie. Snopes.