ITV in London on this Saturday 7 October 1978 offered: 6.00 The Incredible Hulk. 6.55 Mind your Language. 7.25 Bruce's Big Night. 9.00 The Professionals. 10.00 ITN News. 10.15 The Big Film - Deliverance starring Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds.
I actually really liked this programme. I was very young, but at the time ITV and LWT seemed more exciting than the BBC. The BBC was great for sitcom's and serious drama, but ITV had more action, like the professionals and fast moving game shows. Loved it when ITV handled over to LWT
For perspective here is what BBC 1 were offering on Saturday 7 October 1978 up against ITV when this aired: 6.20 Dr Who. 6.45 Larry Grayson's Generation Game. 7.40 All Creatures Great & Small. 8.30 Little & Large Show. 9.05 International Show Jumping. 10.20 News. 10.30 Match of the Day. 11.15 until 12.15 Parkinson.
3:00 - Little note here about what Bruce said - it was common place in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s that the ITV network schedule was never fully networked at the same time slots on a Saturday. Each region went their own way, and mixed shows around. A show seen in London at 7.00pm might not air (if at all) until 10.00pm in say Granada region. This all changed by the late 1980s, certainly by 1st January 1993 under the new franchise arrangements.
Whatever else was said about the show, just listen to that great band that Alan Ainsworth had - some of the best musicians around during that period, and the sound engineers at LWT captured them beautifully.
That first episode needed a much more spectacular opening. It would have been a good idea to get 32 Feet - the resident dance troupe - to form a kind of 'pyramid' representing the 16 ITV companies (counting HTV West and HTV Wales as 2). They could have performed a sparkling tap or jazz routine to Sir Bruce's song 'Let's Get The Network Together', with "Grampian" jumping onto the back of "STV" and "CTV" (Channel Islands) doing the splits on the final note.
That's a shame the rest on here aren't full shows, as our Redcoat at the time we were on Hol was taking part in the Comedy joke section at the start of the show. His name i think was called Richard Beanall? Had a beard etc, would love to have seen him again! Dave.
Before 1994 ITV always had ONE problem with Saturday night entertainment - Advertisers. The advertisers weren't keen on Saturday nights, as yes there was HUGE audiences, but no shops opened on Sundays until 1994. So they felt they were wasting their money, thus giving the BBC an edge to produce spectacular shows, big budgets, big ratings as they didn't worry about ads. ITV went for the cheap and cheerful route which didn't go well on many occasions.
"Don't you dare ad-lib with genius!" Brucie used that line on Ian Hislop when he guest-hosted Have I Got News For You in the studio next door 32 years later. (literally - this would have been made in Studio 1, HIGNFY is made in Studio 2)
Andrew Scott So it does! How'd they get a big audience that a light entertainment show like this required down there? (It's the Good Morning Britain studios down there now!)
This was filmed in Studio 1, which is over 8,300 Sq Ft in size with a built in audience rostra for 600. Studio 5 was only used from 1993 on for GMTV, later Daybreak and GMB. Studio 5 is just around 2,200 Sq Ft, no where large enough for this type of show
Fascinating. Not half as bad as legend has it. You'd need stamina to sit purposefully through the entire thing, I've seen shorter telefon's. But in that same spirit, it looked ideal to stick on the telly as the atmosphere to a family night in, letting your attention drift to and from it whenever something caught your interest. If not for strong opposition in the revamped Gen Game, and the kind of pre-hype that kills most BBC defections to this day, I reckon it could have grew into a ratings success. I might have seen better, but I've certainly seen worse.
After Saturday's World of Sport on ITV after Bruce Forsyth and Russell Harty there was boxing live and exclusive and football too both introduced by Dick Davies.
This would probably be classed as good if it was on today something different but back then it was to miss mash compared to what was on back then (didnt he do well) he always entertained us at the hight of his career ill give him that :-)
Jay Nuttall didn't help that he was up against Larry Grayson's Generation Game. Larry was absolutely thrashing Bruce ratings wise, getting up to 25m viewers.
"We are the channel you get for free", oh how times change. 1978, when the UK only had three television channels. I can not believe how different it was back then. No breakfast television, no 24 hour television, three television channels, and only one was "free".
Big Night was not broadcast live, as we see here it was taped on Saturday 23rd September 1978, with it airing on Saturday 7th October 1978, so it seems the show was recorded two weeks in advance.
I love how Bruce handled Bet Midler and proceeded to do the interview on the floor, I wonder if that was staged, if it was the only thing that gave it away was the tea.
this is so brilliant and spectacular! however I'm disappointed that RU-vid has taken down the full programme of Bruce Forsyth and Sammy Davis Jr. does anyone have the link to that?
I know about Sábado Gigante, and yep, this seems to be the closest British equivalent to it (or similar 3-hour long "variety hotpotch" shows that are percieved to be common on European and Latin American TV).
Hi, random question but do you have season 1 episode 6 of this show? My Grandad was on it and I tried to look for the video when he died but I couldn't find it anywhere. Would mean a lot to my Dad! Thanks x
Only 3 channels to choose from so tv ratings were higher. The truth was we had no choice, no Internet alternative or sky multi channels no video recording unless you were a celeb like bruce. 10-15m would have watched anything Saturday evenings. The 1970s should be put on Trial for crimes against humanity, the dire output, most of it was 1930s style vaudeville but on the tv
Hello - do you have access to the second / third episodes - am interested in footage of the Disco Dancing Competition (I was in it!) ? I would be interested to see if you do - or if you could direct me to where I can find it. Thank-you.
Bruce was lured away from BBC by Michael Grade with a weekly fee of £15,000 to present this series of shows. He was such a talented performer but it was a mistake to think that he could shoulder the whole extravaganza on his own.
The whole thing was a fairly strange concept. The production seemed to suffer an identity crisis. It opens with a big flashy disco number with all the trimmings, then plunders on to a sort of cheesy game show and then a madcap interview with an 'up and coming Bette Middler' and finally finishing with an almost sentimental Christmas like 'outroduction' with Bruce - then finally closing off with (yet) another entirely incongruous disco number.
3:15 worst song in history 5:40 mmmmm Anthea! 6:38 that's enough Anthea 8:15 segment that might not make it through this episode, let alone the production run
Again, the Pyramid Game is so lenient as compared to the US version. Parts of the Head: hair, scalp, eyes, face, mouth.... What Eric Morcambe Might Say: I'm partnered with Wise, I have my own show on Thames,.....
Bruce's Big Night would turn into his Big Flop. Episode One gained huge ratings and beat the BBC, episode two they had lost 1/3 of the audience, episode three they had lost 50% of the audience. Once people saw the mess of genres mixed into this show they switched over to the BBC as Bruce wandered from one genre to another to show how great he was at everything. The Generation Game with its new host Larry Grayson beat this show each week.
As the Sun Newspaper said at the time Bruce"s Big Night turned in to a Small Evening. It would have worked well on German T.V. but even in the 1970"s 45 minutes for a taped entertainment show was enough. RIP Larry Keep well Brucie!
Bruce Forsyth, Morecambe and Wise and Mike Yarwood all defected from the BBC who made them stars and gave them the best shows ever, moved to ITV and they all failed. As Ronnie Barker said, "why move", if you are doing great on the BBC then stay, and vice versa.
Ronnie Barker did it the other way - if he didn't start on ITV (London Weekend), some of his early stuff - certainly before 'The Two Ronnies' - was on ITV, wasn't it?
Looking back (I saw this live back in the day) it doesn't stink as much as history repeatedly states. High production values, big build up and an air of excitement... But never seen Brucie so nervous and clearly hamstrung by such a wooden script. It was a long show, but suffered from slow pace. Ah well, I suppose ITV had to dispense with as much of The Generation Game as they could - but this led to too much self indulgence which meant Brucie came across as a grand old patronising saviour of TV.....rather than a quirky entertainer who wanted to get among the laughs. Expectation was replaced by desperation; live tv in its rawest form as it reached out to grasp the audience, only to let them slip through the fingers of Saturday night misjudgement
Bruce Forsyth was paid £15,000 per show for this mess. In 2016 that is £78,000. They made 12 episodes, so Bruce earned £180,000 (in 2016 money that is £935,000).
Was this a big deal? Well, they start this prog with a HYMN ffs!! Also of note that Bruce doesn’t do his Gen Game ‘The Thinker’ pose and tries a new one. Not sure when he realised he couldn’t better it, and restored it
Yes, especially for ITV, for for the whole of the 1970s had been hammered in the Saturday night ratings by BBC One. Only a few programmes on Saturday ITV beat BBC such as Upstairs Downstairs from 1972-1975.
Have seen numerous clips of Anthea Redfearn (as slightly too young to remember her), and I just don’t get her at all. Very attractive but zero affinity with the TV camera
This show should have been the spectacular it deserved to be. Sadly LWT and ITV overhyped the show to be akin to the Second Coming of Christ and the critics panned it! It was a couple of years before its time and not exactly Michael Grade's finest business decision!
