Hey Hey It's Saturday

TV History Nine
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Happy 91st

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Looking up some articles on Trove and the SMH, and I’d forgotten that Hey Hey It’s Saturday began on TCN-9 in Sydney on 8 September 1973, which was two years after it started in 1971 on GTV-9 in Melbourne.

At the time in 1973, Somers was hosting GTV’s Cartoon Corner each afternoon, but on TCN Cartoon Corner was fronted by Skeeter the paper boy. Marty and Emu hosted on TCN in 1974, then Somers and Ossie got the Cartoon Corner gig on TCN in 1975.

During the NSW August school holidays in 1974 Hey Hey went to six days a week with Hey! Hey! It’s The Holidays with Daryl and Ossie, 10:00 - 11:30am Monday to Friday. During the May 1975 NSW school holidays, the television guide shows Sydney’s Marilyn Mayo as the host, so it seems that TCN made their own version. (?) It appears the weekday holiday show didn’t return after that.

There was a one hour prime time Daryl and Ossie Special that was shown on GTV on May 9 and on TCN on Wednesday 24 May 1978 at 7:30pm. It appears it was really Hey Hey as it had all the regular characters of the time. From what I can see it was their only appearance on TCN that year as Somers and Carroll had defected to ATV-0. Their short-lived The Daryl and Ossie Show started in Sydney on TEN-10 at 5:30pm on 11 September 1978.

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So TCN had their own version of HHIS?

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Only on weekday mornings for a couple of weeks in 1975, it appears.

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The show didn’t last beyond its first 40 episodes. ATV0 slotted it in at 7.00pm to replace Blankety Blanks which it had buried in a midday timeslot after Graham Kennedy chucked a tanty with the channel.

Surprising that Nine let Daryl & Ossie back in the building after their little break to Nunawading!

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Someone at TEN was quoted as saying they were hoping it would replace Blankety Blanks at 7:00pm the next year!

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The Reasons why Saturday Night has been a Ratings Dumping Ground since Hey, Hey’s Original Run ended in 1999?

  1. The Rise of Pay TV and Streaming Services

  2. Young People go out a lot

  3. Full of Movies and Reality Show Re-Runs

  4. Cinemas are Popular

  5. Live Sporting Events

  6. Wedding Receptions and Other Events.

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I was in my “going out” years when Hey Hey was at its peak. We used to wait until after Red Faces before we even thought about getting ready to go out.

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  • Ratings had been on the decline for several years. Even as far back as the mid-90s, programs on Seven such as Man O Man and Gladiators were proving to be serious challengers for Hey Hey’s dominance.

  • As we headed into the new millennium, Nine like all the other networks needed to cut costs and come up with new ideas.

I think this phenomenon has been a thing for many decades.

…and they weren’t before the 1990s?

Again, I’m fairly sure wedding receptions and “other events” on Saturday nights were a thing well before the 1990s.

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I agree. The great thing about Hey Hey is that it aired at 6.30pm on a Saturday night. You could shower, talk to a friend, organise your night out and watch it in between.

You did not need to commit to the whole two hours and that’s what made it work.

Hey Hey started its decline when Jackie left the show. They tried to replace her with models instead of comedians (Denise Drysdale excluded).

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The show further declined when Ossie left at the end of '94.

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Newsflash. All existed before Hey Hey.

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Saturday night was a TV graveyard well before the 1990s.

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I remember some good Saturday night shows over the decades including The Big Gig, The Late Show, The Channel Nine Show with Roy & H.G., and The Memphis Trousers Half Hour.

I watched Hey Hey from the near the start on TCN on Saturday morning, through the 9:30pm Hey Hey It’s Saturday Night, then the move to 6:30pm. It’s a pity Somers gradually lost his easy going nature along the way, and came to seemingly become jealous of any co-star who was getting bigger laughs than he was - evidenced by Denise Drysdale leaving the show. But it was a great show for many years.

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That was just a rumour though surely?

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there were some exceptions like Hey Hey, The Late Show and to some extent Young Talent Time back in the day (although that was not a Saturday night show everywhere AFAIK).

But for each of those there was a lot of dud movies, b-grade re-runs and Bill Collins’ old Hollywood films.

The ABC as you noted at least put some investment into Saturday nights but everywhere else there wasn’t much to rave about.

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Denise Drysdale eventually confirmed that not all was well with Somers and herself.

And Jo Beth Taylor fessed up I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

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Saturday nights have always been a low viewing night for television in this country. But the networks did provide new content throughout the 80/90/00s. Some more examples;

Seven - Gladiators / The World Around Us
Ten - Hercules / Xena / Before The Game
Nine - Australia’s Funniest Home Videos / The Pretender

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And in the 1800s, way before TV ! :stuck_out_tongue: It was the social event of the decade! Booze and all! :stuck_out_tongue:

I do miss hey hey, so its good to see this thread get some lively action. :stuck_out_tongue: Is that hey hey archive subscription service still around?