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SW
Steve Williams
Here is a Christmas Special episode of The Moment of Truth with the revamped set which was used for second series. The reason the show wasn't successful was because it wasn't a suitable format for Cilla Black. Had it got a right host it might had been a success but importing Moment of Truth was born out of LWT looking for the new format for Cilla after Surprise Surprise ran its course and Blind Date going off the boil.


Of course, they did later do it with another presenter, because the entire format was later remade as Celebrities Under Pressure, and they got three series out of it - http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Celebrities_Under_Pressure Although all anyone remembers about that now was it being used for John Fashanu's Undercover on Saturday Night Takeaway.

But yes, it was deliberately launched to find a new format for Cilla. Up until 1998, Blind Date had always returned in September, but that year it was shoved back to November so they could show Moment of Truth in its place, clearly an attempt to eventually replace it. But it never caught on even though they did it for four years, it felt like it wasn't the done thing to axe Cilla, much like how when Surprise Surprise ended as a regular series they kept bringing it back as specials.

Xilla posted:
I remember someone taping that episode and me watching it over and over again because I thought it was the funniest show ever made (I was 4...).


I was a bit older at the time, but I too remember laughing hysterically at the first ever You've Been Framed and our whole family thinking it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen. I know it sounds idiotic these days. They did two specials before the first series proper, you may recall.

Seems crazy now that a programme like You've Been Framed had a studio. It adds so little to the programme.


Initially there was a need to have a studio, though, because there wasn't enough content to fill out an entire show otherwise. Also it didn't seem the done thing just to string clips together, like Alright on the Night.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
IIRC Cilla insisted on tweaking the format for Moment of Truth as in the original version if you lost your task everybody (including the kids) lost their chosen prizes. Being cruel towards the kids on Japanese TV may/has been the norm but I'd like to think we're better than that for our TV...

There is an episode of the original Japanese show on YouTube, complete with burnt in English subtitles, here's Part 1, rest of this is on the same channel:
IS
Inspector Sands

I was a bit older at the time, but I too remember laughing hysterically at the first ever You've Been Framed and our whole family thinking it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen. I know it sounds idiotic these days. They did two specials before the first series proper, you may recall.

I'm pretty sure that Sky had their version - The Secret Video Show - on before You've Been Framed. Chris Tarrant appeared on Comic Relief one year doing a mini version of it. I remember that wowing us in the same way.

The BBC tried a home video how too, but made it so convoluted and intentionally different that there was barely any time for the clips. Mind you the early YBFs were a competition format and you ended up seeing the clip with the two drainage workers and the broken carabiner what seemed like hundreds of times over the series
XI
Xilla

I was a bit older at the time, but I too remember laughing hysterically at the first ever You've Been Framed and our whole family thinking it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen. I know it sounds idiotic these days. They did two specials before the first series proper, you may recall.

I'm pretty sure that Sky had their version - The Secret Video Show - on before You've Been Framed. Chris Tarrant appeared on Comic Relief one year doing a mini version of it. I remember that wowing us in the same way.

The BBC tried a home video how too, but made it so convoluted and intentionally different that there was barely any time for the clips. Mind you the early YBFs were a competition format and you ended up seeing the clip with the two drainage workers and the broken carabiner what seemed like hundreds of times over the series


I remember the Tarrant one showing the "funniest" clips again at the end of the show as an "Instant Replay", and that's about it! Smile

The BBC one was Caught in the Act. I can see what you mean, barely any clips at all in the first 4 minutes! Loads of slapstick sound effects added to the clips too.

IS
Inspector Sands
I'm pretty sure that the Tarrant one had comedy sound effects too, but just more subtle and sparing
SW
Steve Williams
I'm pretty sure that Sky had their version - The Secret Video Show - on before You've Been Framed. Chris Tarrant appeared on Comic Relief one year doing a mini version of it. I remember that wowing us in the same way.


That's right, they showed a mini-episode of it as part of Red Nose Day 1991 which was the first and only time anyone ever really saw it. I remember Tarrant saying "Never mind Beadle, we've been doing this for ages!", although I think that You've Been Framed had started first but The Secret Video Show was the first to actually get a series on air rather than occasional specials. I never saw the series itself, and neither did anyone else, but I remember reading Peter Simon was Tarrant's co-host so presumably there was a substantial amount of arsing around between the clips.

Caught In The Act was such a notorious critical flop, everyone slagged it off because Shane's Brian-Conley's-little-brother-esque presentation was a bit of an acquired taste, and the clips were pretty crap, and the format was so contrived with loads of rubbish chat. But it was a huge, huge hit, the first episode got an enormous audience and I don't think it ever dropped below ten million viewers, even though nobody liked it, such was the clamour for that kind of thing in those days. I remember the papers all speculating about whether there was going to be another series because the ratings were so good but the reviews were so crap, but what with charter renewal coming up they decided it wasn't the kind of thing they wanted on BBC1 and that was the end of that.

I remember they reused some of the clips on a crappy Wogan-fronted comedy clips show about eighteen months later, with Caught In The Act sound effects intact.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
The fabulous Mousetrap gameshow from Motormouth, 1990, based on the board game of the same name:
BH
BillyH Founding member
Funny what sticks in the mind, as early YBF and Caught In The Act are two of my earliest TV memories - along with various preschool programmes that didn't survive the '93 franchise change (Geoffrey-era Rainbow, Playbox, Victor & Hugo etc) and of all things Channel 4's 'Remote Control'! Must have both been popular in my household.
RD
RDJ
The full first episode of The Moment of Truth from 1998 with our Cilla.

Strangely their seems to be an LWT frontcap from this off-air copy.

LL
Larry the Loafer
Did anything ever come from the stark similarity between the theme tune and La Primavera by Sash?

RD
RDJ
I think it's been mentioned before of its similarity. Eitherway it's a fab theme tune... always one that sticks in my head.

This was the original format of three families taking on the challenges before it got tinkered with a few series in with members of the public undertaking challenges. Clips of which have been posted on the forum as of a few weeks ago.

To me this was the best format and the simplest. The series got flack and how Cilla didn't really suit it. I don't think it was that bad and I think Cilla done the best she could with it. This was more of a family friendly 'You Bet!' which finished the year before.
LL
Larry the Loafer
It might the rose-tinted glasses of my childhood but I thought it was amazing back in the day. I suppose you could criticise it for the fact that its tasks were quite menial. But I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as Splash where the entertaining bits only lasted a couple of seconds, or Ninja Warrior where you watch people run the same course over and over and over again.
bilky asko and fanoftv gave kudos

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