More TV Memories – 8 Simple Rules…

8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter (ABC, 2002-2005)

This is an American sitcom that started off fairly quietly, but is best remembered for going through a rather traumatic period. 8 Simple Rules… is a sitcom that was based on the book 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter by W Bruce Cameron, and centres around the Hennessy family. The parents are Paul, who is a writer, and Cate, who is a nurse. Their three children are Bridget, Kerry, and Rory.

Paul was played by John Ritter, and Cate by Katey Sagal, who of course had starred in sitcom Married… With Children for a decade (it was odd to think that the children in this sitcom were younger at the start than they were in Married… With Children which had launched 15 years earlier), and this was a character who was far removed from the bawdiness of Peggy. And Bridget was played by Kaley Cuoco, who would find fame by starring in the long-running sitcom The Big Bang Theory.

Most of the early episodes were based around the children becoming teenagers, and the rather strict rules that Paul had for anybody who wanted to date them. 8 Simple Rules… looked like it was going to settle down into becoming a rather straightforward domestic sitcom, with nothing too spectacular happening, but still containing enough amusing situations to keep going for a while. But then, something rather unexpected happened.

Shortly after work had began on the second series, John Ritter, who was best-known to viewers for starring in the sitcom Three’s Company and its sequel Three’s A Crowd (the American versions of the British sitcoms Man About The House and Robin’s Nest) died suddenly, and this show’s future was now in doubt. After a short break though, the decision was made to continue, with the character of Paul being written out.

There were some special episodes made without a studio audience, where the family were shown trying to cope with their loss. These were a rather tough watch though, as it was clear that a lot of the cast’s emotion was genuine, and this once cosy sitcom had suddenly turned rather bleak. It’s a long way from Married… With Children, put it that way. The role of Paul was not recast, but some new characters were added to fill the gap.

These were Jim, Cate’s dad (James Garner), and also her nephew CJ (David Spader). They struggled on until the end of the third series, but many people felt that without the father character, the idea was rather redundant really, and the ratings dropped off. There were 76 episodes of 8 Simple Rules… and they have been shown on various channels in this country, including Five, 5USA, ABC1, and Comedy Central.

Game Show Memories – Going For Gold the revival.

Going For Gold (Five, 2008-2009)

Today is the 35th anniversary of the launch of Going For Gold, the BBC1 game show which ran in a daytime slot for almost a decade, and was rather popular, going on to have several repeat runs on Challenge. There were two revivals, both on Channel 5. The first was renamed One To Win, but the second used the Going For Gold name again.

There were a lot of differences between this second revival, and the original version though. The rather inferior version of the famous theme music gave us a clue about what this was going to be like. This was shown live and was an hour long, meaning that any fluffs would have to be left in, and the new host was John Suchet. This was someone who was known as a news host on ITV for many years, and this was his first game show.

And the contestants did not come from across Europe, but only from the UK and Ireland. There was no preliminary round either, we went straight into the first round, with four contestants. This was the same as the original, but nine points were needed to progress to the next round. This was also played as usual, with four in a row required, and the two highest scorers going into the final.

There was a difference with this though, as there was no fixed score to win, and they played on until time ran out. The daily winner received a prize, and was invited to play again in the next edition. But the real reason that this version was live and an hour long was because there was a phone-in competition for viewers to promote, after rounds, and seemingly during them too.

At the end of the show, a caller was taken to air and could win a cash prize, but unfortunately more often than not they didn’t succeed. Suchet looked a little flustered by all of this, so his role was soon changed to only ask the contestants questions, and Alex Kramer, who used to host on a lot of late-night phone-in channels, was brought in to host the game for the viewers.

Also around this time, other Channel 5 game shows including BrainTeaser were known for doing this, but it didn’t really seem right here. There were also some international editions, that did feature some foreign contestants, and there was also a knockout stage at the end of the series to determine the overall champion who would receive a cash prize. But viewers were rather frustrated by this awkward mix, and there was only one series.

Game Show Memories – Demolition.

Demolition (Five, 2002-2003)

This is a game show that was on Five around the same time as Swapheads and Topranko!, when there had recently been a relaunch, and they were trying out a few new quirky ideas. One of the things that attracted me to Demolition was that the host was Emily Booth. This was about a year or two after Bits had ended, which was the computer games show that she co-hosted on Channel 4, and I was pleased to see her on TV again.

She only really appeared at the beginning and end though, as the game was the main focus. Demolition was made on location in Australia, and was described as “the show that brings you crazed destruction on a grand scale”. Two teams of three took part, with names like The Blue Panthers and The Barroom Brits. They had to take an item, and break it all down, so it managed to fit in a much smaller area, against the clock.

One example was having to take the contents of a barroom and condense this into as small pieces as possible so all of this could fit into three barrels. I also remember one game where the pieces had to be small enough to be pushed through the door of a letterbox. There were various tools available to do this, including saws and hammers.

There were also some referees who looked out for health and safety, so if someone was using the wrong equipment, had forgotten to put protective things like goggles or gloves on, or held their hammer the wrong way up, they would be penalised by rather theatrically having a red card shown to them, and they would have to sit out ten minutes.

And there were also some hard hat-wearing women who would occasionally check the progress of the teams. Whoever was determined to be ahead would receive some bonus tools. All of this was accompanied by some breathless commentary that seemed more suitable for wrestling coverage or something like that. At least nobody accidentally sliced their head off.

I’m pretty sure that the team that demolished the most won a trophy, and I don’t think this was a knockout tournament. There was only one series of Demolition, which didn’t seem to get that much of a positive response from critics, who seemed to think that this was all rather noisy and absurd. This was shown on Five in primetime, but in the quiet post-Christmas/pre-New Year slot. I think that some editions might have also been shown on satellite channel Bravo too.

More TV Memories – Danger! 50,000 Volts/Danger! Incoming Attack.

Danger! 50,000 Volts (Channel 5, 2002)/Danger! Incoming Attack (Five, 2003)

This is yet another show that had a rather quirky idea. Danger! 50,000 Volts was a half-comedy half-documentary, and it was up to viewers to determine how seriously they should take everything that was featured. This was something of a parody of those outdoor survival series, where slicing your own arm off, or eating some maggots, may be the only thing that you can do if you end up in some trouble.

The host was Nick Frost, who was best-known at the time for being among the cast of sitcom Spaced. Nick seemed to be rather fearless, throwing himself into several sticky situations, and revealing how to get out of them. If you were ever going to fall into some icy water, be struck by lightning, or pierce your foot on a spike, then advice was available, including “if you suffer a direct lightning hit, expect to suffer external burns, hair loss, memory loss, loss of libido, and death”.

There were also several survival experts who appeared to help Nick, who were introduced with some odd facts. Along with their occupation, we would also discover other things about them, like their favourite singer. Words also randomly appeared on the screen to emphasise ideas, and features were usually concluded with an amusing animated sequence (similar to those in scary Public Information Films) that went over the basic points again.

It seems that Danger! 50,000 Volts actually was released on DVD, accompanied by a bonus edition that wasn’t shown on TV called Danger! 50,000 Zombies, where Nick, along with his old mate Simon “bid again, Simon” Pegg revealed what you should do in the event of a zombie apocalypse (this seems to be somewhat similar to their Shaun Of The Dead film). Put it this way, it probably wasn’t to duck and cover.

There was much praise for this show from critics, which was one of the more ambitious comedy shows that was around at the time, and it was felt that some awards were deserved. A hit show for Channel 5! A year later, Nick returned for a second series, which was retitled Danger! Incoming Attack, and carried on in a similar style. After watching this, you really will be ready for anything that comes your way.