Tiswas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tiswas was an anarchic Saturday morning children's British TV show which ran from January 5, 1974 to April 3, 1982. It also had a fanatical following among students and parents. The name stood for 'Today Is Saturday, Watch And Smile'. Alternative sources believe it to be 'Today it's Saturday, We're all Sleepy' relating to its early morning slot.
The original logo features the word "TISWAS" in chunky letters.
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[edit] Overview
Tiswas took the children's Saturday morning television mould and smashed it to bits, with its anarchic nature, although it began life as a 'links' strand between many 'filler' programmes, such as cartoons and old movies. The popularity of the presenters' links soon eclipsed the staple diet of filler.
It was originally produced as a Midlands region programme by ATV and was first shown on 5th January 1974. Within a couple of years it had been taken up by some other ITV regional companies, and eventually nearly every region broadcast the show, with Channel Television being a notable exception. Most famously hosted by Chris Tarrant between 1974 and 1981, and later Sally James, it also featured the young Lenny Henry and occasionally Jim Davidson together with Bob Carolgees and his puppet, Spit the Dog. John Gorman, former member of 1960s cult band The Scaffold - was also in regular attendance. On the show, Birmingham folk-singer and comedian Jasper Carrott was to introduce the nation to the Dying Fly Dance and also to many local hospital casualty wards as the dance at one point soared high in the RoSPA list of common causes of household injury.
The show was a stitch-together of competitions, film clips and pop promos, just about held together by sketches from the cast. The show regularly featured spoofs of BBC Children's programming.
A feature of the show was The Cage wherein initially the child audience, and later their fathers, were confined and periodically doused in water (one spin-off of the show was the hit The Bucket of Water Song, performed by the Four Bucketeers), whilst the show was also frequently visited by the Phantom Flan Flinger, who would throw flans around the studio at all and sundry.
[edit] Series
[edit] Series 1
The first series was intended to be eleven shows, purely acting as links between the usual staple fillers of old movies and cartoons that ATV would transmit on Saturday mornings. Presented by Chris Tarrant and John Asher from just a desk in an empty studio, the pair had to rely on ad-libs and jokes sent in by viewers.
Due to an industrial dispute by technicians at ATV, this initial run was only nine programmes in all, but was so well received that a second series was commissioned.
Billed in TV Times as "Today Is Saturday or the Tis-was Show", the title sequence features both "Today Is Saturday" and the original "Tiswas" chunky letters logo, shown over a background very similar to that of "The Golden Shot". The sequence featured clips from various films and Disney cartoons, backed by a funky jazz number known as "Atomic Butterfly" (which also seems to have been used for an HTV Sports Programme in the early 70s).
[edit] Series 2
Series 2 of Tiswas began from late 1974, and spanned almost every Saturday in 1975, finishing in early 1976. The presenting team was doubled to four presenters, and these were usually culled from ATV's announcing department. Chris Tarrant and John Asher retained their roles as the main presenters, although John would leave during this series. From the ranks at ATV, other regular presenters were established, notably sports reporter Trevor East (now director of sport at Setanta) and announcer Peter Tomlinson, who later became the voice-over man on Blockbusters.
Producer Peter Harris would leave the show in the summer to help produce another cult TV success - The Muppet Show, at ATV's London-orientated operation in Elstree.
[edit] Series 3
Running from late 1976 to early 1977, Chris Tarrant, Peter Tomlinson and Trevor East were the main presenters. Almost all these shows were produced by Sid Kilbey. The 2nd Apr 1977 show was a landmark edition, as part of it was broadcast outside the ATV region for the first time, on ITV's Wales and west-of-England region HTV, filling up their 'round-the-regions' compilation of Saturday morning shows 'Ten On Saturday'.
[edit] Series 4
This series, running from late 1977 to early 1978, marked an end to the provincial macro-budget shows of the previous shows, as the initial edition of this series began with some significant changes. Sally James was drafted in as the show's first regular female presenter. She had been a Saturday morning show presenter over on Saturday Scene, made by ITV's London weekend region LWT. Comedian Jim Davidson was intended to be a regular presenter, but left after a few shows, although he would return for cameo appearances. Peter Tomlinson was axed as a regular, which came as a surprise to him.
Chris Tarrant was still retained as the anchor presenter, and behind the scenes was annoyed with the changes, particularly the inclusion of a woman as presenter. However, later on he retracted this viewpoint, having witnessed the progress Tiswas made with Sally's contribution.
One significant change never happened thankfully. ATV management were displeased with the visual slapstick element - the hurling of custard pies and water. They believed this was setting a bad example to the young viewers. Newly-drafted producer Glyn Edwards managed to retain this vital, messy element by drawing on his experience as a puppeteer to create a 'villain' character called 'The Phantom Flan Flinger', who would be the black-clad masked nemesis of the presenting team, and the main instigator of pie-throwing chaos.
John Gorman made his debut in this series, but with just four appearances, it would not be until series 5 that he became a regular visitor to the Tiswas studios. Likewise, child performer Paul Hardin would make sporadic appearances.
The show expanded its footprint further outside the midlands. Not only was part of it was regularly shown on HTV's Saturday morning compendium 'Ten On Saturday', but later on in 1977 Anglia and Border would show Tiswas as a full programme. This wouldn't last for long, as Anglia did drop the show a number of times to pick up other regions' Saturday morning shows throughout Tiswas' history. However, other regions would soon latch onto the Tiswas bug.
[edit] Series 5
This series ran from late 1978 to early 1979. John Gorman became a regular performer from November onwards.
Bob Carolgees made his debut in early 1979, having been told to go on the show by Irish comic Frank Carson. Bob appeared again two weeks later, and Chris was so pleased with his contribution that he decided to make a regular fixture out of Bob.
Lenny Henry made sporadic appearances throughout this series, but was not established as a regular. Child performer Paul Hardin increased his visits to the studios, and could well be considered as a series 5 team member, likewise Sylvester McCoy who performed surreal comic interludes.
[edit] Series 6
Tiswas returned to the screens in November 1979 for its sixth series, as part of ITV's comeback. (ITV had been off the air across the nation since August due to a massive strike by technicians.) The show was strongly established in many regions for this series, including the London area, which brought its own problems as London-based viewers tended to complain to the Independent Broadcasting Authority about some of the more edgier moments the show had.
With an almost national audience, the show became inclusive of its increased viewership by making a bigger role out of specially invited viewer performances. Many of these were children who sang songs or performed dance routines. Chris Tarrant, now producer as well as presenter, found most of these contributions to be of little value, until he came across a unique act by a five year old boy called Matthew Butler. Encouraged by his Tiswas-obsessed mother, Matthew auditioned for the show wearing a rabbit costume and sang the song 'Bright Eyes' made famous by the animated movie Watership Down, although his own singing ability was rather poor. Chris found this so amusing that he green-lighted him to appear on the following Tiswas, as well as many subsequent editions.
Also appearing a number of times in this series was Norman Collier, the Yorkshire comedian best known for his broken microphone routine and chicken impressions.
Another by-product of Tiswas' increased audience was the merchandise bandwagon - an annual book was established, and there was a tour of universities (recognising their adult and teenaged audience) by the Tiswas team, under the name of The Four Bucketeers, which tied in with their spin-off album on CBS Records. This all was born out of one feature of the sixth series - 'The Bucket Of Water Song', which was such a hit with the viewers that it evolved from an intended one-off to an almost regular part of Tiswas.
[edit] Series 7
By now, the budget for Tiswas was increased by ATV, and Chris Tarrant had more of a role in the show's production than ever before. A proper theme tune was created for the show, and the set was based around ATV cartoonist Chris Wroe's caricatures of the presenting team.
This series can be considered as the definitive series, due to the material drawn from this era that usually gets an airing on documentaries and clips shows when Tiswas is the subject. In addition, the three video compilations that have been released commercially, have been packaged around a seventh series theme, with the bulk of the clips also being from this age.
Midway through this series, Chris Tarrant decided to go out on a high, and make it his final Tiswas series. Also leaving him, on the final edition of series 7, were Bob Carolgees, Lenny Henry and John Gorman. They had decamped to start work on a late night version of Tiswas, to air in 1982, intended for an adult audience. The only regular Tiswas presenter left was Sally James, who stayed on for series 8.
[edit] Series 8
The last series of Tiswas, beginning in September 1981, and ending in April 1982, had its format tinkered with by ATV management. They believed that the adult audience should be avid viewers of Chris' 'late-night Tiswas', and that Tiswas itself should focus on its child audience. With this well-intended alteration, the magic of Tiswas, with its innuendo and knowing winks to older viewers, was lost.
The new presenting team consisted of Midlands DJ Gordon Astley, former Darts frontman Den Hegarty and comic impressionist Fogwell Flax. Veteran Tiswas presenter Sally James stayed on, but decided to quit towards the series' end. This was likely to be one of the main factors in Central Television's decision not to bring the show back for a ninth series.
Semi-regulars were midget actor David Rappaport who played characters such as 'Green Nigel' (in a pastiche of BBC programme Blue Peter) and the Fonz-like 'Shades', Emil Wolk and puppeteer Trevor James with a giant parrot, presumably in a way to fill the void left by Bob Carolgees.
At the end of 1981, there was a restructure of ITV's broadcast franchises and ATV was replaced by Central Television although ATV and Central were, in practice, the same company employing the same people within the same studio building. The first part of the final series was produced by ATV; the second part by Central.
[edit] After Tiswas
[edit] The replacement
Central's management brought in a new morning show, Big Daddy's Saturday Show (shortened to The Saturday Show on transmission, after Big Daddy was unable to appear - although he did appear in the unscreened pilot). It was fronted by Isla St Clair, folksinger and former co-host of The Generation Game on BBC TV and Tommy Boyd, former co-presenter of ITV's Magpie.
[edit] O.T.T.
In 1982 Tarrant, Carolgees, Gorman and Henry hosted a late-night show - with the up and coming comics Alexei Sayle and Helen Atkinson-Wood called O.T.T. (standing for "Over the Top") which was effectively an "adult" version of Tiswas - in other words, it attempted to be just as anarchic, but with swearing and occasional topless women. It was not such a success and is today chiefly remembered for the naked 'Balloon Dance' performed by The Greatest Show on Legs, including comedian Malcolm Hardee. A second attempt at the "O.T.T." format a year later, 'Saturday Stayback', was also unsuccessful.
[edit] Saturday Stayback
Saturday Stayback was a late night comedy show based in a pub. Although intended as some sort of sequel to 'O.T.T.', this differed quite a lot as it was all recorded rather than the live chaos of its predecessor. It was mainly comedy sketches, with some live music acts - usually Thin Lizzy and Roy Wood. This had a lot less controversy than 'O.T.T.', and introduced new talent such as Phil Cool and Tony Slattery.It's a shame it only lasted six episodes. Chris Tarrant and Bob Carolgees were the only ex-Tiswas personnel regularly seen on screen, and John Gorman helped out on writing duty.
[edit] Tiswas reunion
A definitive line-up of Tiswas presenters regrouped for a resurrection of Tiswas on the ITV Telethon of 1988. This took place in LWT's South Bank studios in London, culminating in an outside performance of The Bucket Of Water Song.
[edit] Ministry Of Mayhem
In late 2005, ITV's Saturday morning show 'Ministry of Mayhem' had a special edition featuring presenters from past Saturday morning shows, including Tiswas. Representing Tiswas was Sally James, although Chris Tarrant did a video link-up for a brief interview of the show. Out of the cult Saturday morning shows that were focused on, Tiswas was significantly the most prominent, with many clips shown from it, and even a re-enactment of two Tiswas staples - the Cage and the 'Pass The Pie' game.
[edit] Tiswas on Dick And Dom In Da Bungalow
In December 2005, BBC Saturday morning show 'Dick And Dom In Da Bungalow' featured a thirty year old man singing 'Bright Eyes' with his friends as part of a talent spot. This person was Matthew Lewis, formerly known as Matthew Butler, who performed his unique rendition of the song back in 1980 on Tiswas when he was aged five. Presenters Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood took the opportunity to praise Matthew, as they are fans of Tiswas, and also to dispel recent tabloid rumours of Dick and Dom resurrecting Tiswas on ITV. However, Wood did present one episode of 'Dick And Dom In Da Bungalow' wearing a Tiswas T-shirt.
[edit] Merchandise
Tiswas was a pioneer for children's television, making its way to shop shelves. Books, t-shirts, a regular magazine, an album, various singles and even a ceramic money box have all been daubed with the Tiswas logo.
[edit] Magazine
A magazine counterpart was produced with interviews with cast, quizzes and letters. This appeared initially as "Tiswas Family Fun Book" at the beginning of 1981 and developed into "Tiswas Magazine" from September 1981 to co-incide with the final series.
[edit] Annuals
Four annual hardbook books were produced in Tiswas' later years. Presenter/performer John Gorman wrote the first three (Published in the Autumn of 1979, 1980, 1981), with Ollie Spencer writing the 1983 edition (prepared Spring 1982 and published Autumn 1982 featuring presenters and characters from the final 1981-82 series).
[edit] Video compilations
In the early 1990s, three VHS compilations were made available. The majority of Tiswas never survived as recordings, but among collectors, some with the earliest domestic VCRs, and some studio copies of later editions.
These compilations were not like ordinary editions of Tiswas, in that 'non-original' content such as music videos, film clips and cartoons were stripped out. Original features like competition spots and pop interviews were also excluded, in favour of highlighting the show's legacy to comedy and visual slapstick. The issue of royalty fees may have been a factor in this decision.
[edit] Best Of The Best Bits
The first compilation, lasting about an hour, and purely full of comedy sketches from the show. Some of the most repeated clips from the show have made the grade for this compilation - notably some News Flash sketches with Lenny Henry as 'Trevor McDoughnut' (including one where the target of the spoof - Trevor McDonald - takes over as a surprise) and the 'viewer's letters' clip where Sally James is pied and drenched in semolina, baked beans and custard. Moving slightly away from comedy, the music video for The Four Bucketeers' Bucket Of Water song is included.
[edit] More Of The Best Bits
The second compilation continued in the same vein as the first. Frank Carson being soaked unexpectedly is a running gag, and there is a full rendition of 'Bright Eyes' from Matthew Butler. A music video for The Four Bucketeers' Water Is Wonderful ends the compilation.
[edit] Comedy Capers
This was targeted at the stand-up comedy VHS market at the time, and the inlay cover made great mention of comic legends' appearances, such as Spike Milligan, Michael Palin and Bernard Manning. Content-wise, it is very similar to the previous two compilations, with many sketches being performed by the Tiswas team. However, this compilation has no contribution from The Four Bucketeers.
[edit] DVD
The only Tiswas DVD so far is The Best Of Tiswas. Plans for a second volume are pending, based on sales of the first DVD.
Issued in October 2005 by Network DVD, The Best Of Tiswas was a straight DVD issuing of the three VHS compilations - 'Best Of The Best Bits', 'More Of The Best Bits' and 'Comedy Capers'. Being on DVD format, the incentive over the VHS version is one of picture quality. However due to the rarity of some Tiswas material, there is some rough-looking footage here and there, and for some reason, the 'More Of The Best Bits' compilation is entirely sourced from a VHS copy, which seems unnecessary.
[edit] External links
- Tiswas Online
- A regularly and currently updated website.
- TV Cream - Tiswas
- A brief history and glossary of Tiswas.
- British Film Institute Screen Online
