CiTV & Ministry of Mayhem thread

Finally, this threads getting interesting again!

I doubt the show will end in June. If it's like SM:tv itv will have commissioned it for 52 weeks (as they before SM:tv went on air, and then they started to regret it until it got better!). So we may see it on the air till December at least.

In reality, the show could easily be fixed and have the ratings boosted. That's if it was Mayhem! It's too well planned. I understand that they have to get breaks in and programmes in and everything rightly timed. But it's the fact that they seem to just sit around or play a game, then go to a programme or a break.

What should happen is that no one stops moving, and 3 hours worth of TV is crammed into 90 minutes (with breaks removed).

If there was more mess, more sketches, more moments where no one has a clue what's going on, then it could truely be mayhem.

I could produce a better show than what they have now!

I think going back to old ideas is a bad move. It never worked for SM:tv constantly going back to wonkey donkey, and wonkey donkey was a strong game.
I thought with the Saturday Show and the Mysti show on BBC One next saturday that they would have introduced a load of new features like SM:tv did every time BBC One started something new.

What could be the problem is if MoM is like the new Saturday Show, it could mean that current MoM viewers may move over to TSS.
Or old D&D fans may move over to MoM.
What they've got to do is to create a happy medium between the two, so that they can get the viewers all year round.

MoM does have some good points. Like the Doctor. And some of the things with Ray can be good, but it could be so much better, and i don't understand why it isn't!

it definatly should be spontaneous to a certain extent, MoM is too scripted. SM:Tv was alays improvised toa certain extent, and someone tell me an episode of Chums where there wasn't a couple of line fluffs at least, there was quite other istakes, and they were always left in even if portions were pre-recorded (MoM would probabally edit them out), it was part of the show, which always made it seem funnier and more entertaining. MoM is too confined & scripted, there needs to be more freedom and spontaneous moments. Another thing is that MoM is too fictional with the "ministry", agents, characters etc.. Where SM:TV was 100% real. MoM need to break free more- less script, more spontaneous and less fiction.

And a quick message to fanoftv to ask how you're getting on with the videos. Still not really got much to exchange, but I do have 10 CD:UKs- 3 from 2003 and 7 from this year. Not totally sure why I tape them, but it will be funny to watch in a few years time and to show to my kids (if I ever have any), not that you're able to convice them that music in our day was better than the racket they listen to . Though IMO (and I think I'm sounding old), the best music was from 1996-2001.

And finally, a quick advertisment- please read my MoM guide! I think I'm the only one who's actually seen it! http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-24452/

MoM does have some good items like the doctor, im always laughing at him whether its the german accent or him in general i dont know but i like the lab section of the show. Cakey skate is good to watch, though i think the caking is scripted sometimes.

It has certainly improved from the start. They've replaced Tutenstien and Angry Beavers, with All Grown Up, Spongebob Squarepants, Teen Angel.

Features such as the doctors lab are certainly interesting and Ray is quite good (especially the link he does going up the stairs to Tina & Gina.

The 'Tuten-shrine' has become the MoM archive room if I am correct, and the are using the initals to make the catchphrase 'MoM's the word'.

Close. The Tuten-Shrine has become the post room. Which is a bit silly for me. One of the things which was good within the SM:tv postbag and when MoM just read letters out around the general studio was the audiences response or shouts for things, if you understand what I mean. A bit like the 'Eat It' on SM:tv Live and when on MoM they asked people if they thought the fish would be bigger or smaller in that's my fish. When they go into the post room you can hear the audience laughing and having fun outside.

The show is too scripted. Sometimes they escape from the script slightly. Stephen tends to do it with the Doctor, and Holly has done it on occassions.
The only reason MoM don't escape and fluff lines like on chums is because they have no live studio sketches.

I quite like the fictional element of it. It's a kids show, it can be as backwards as it likes!

Though I think that's one of the problems- too much in the way of programmes and not enough in the studio. on the first week they had one Spongebob & Tutenstein, they should have stuck at that idea (All Grown up has been worn to death by CITV already, I don't see why they're running it again). Admittadly though, SM:TV were worse in the early days- Cow & Chicken, I Am Weasel, Angry Beavers & Sabrina in the show around half the show was programmes. Possibly this influx of shows is because the producers aren't really sure where the show is meant to be going so are keepng the studio footage low until they do. SM:TV took around a year to find its feet, it could take MoM just as long- the producers can't and shouldn't expect instant sucess.

I dont see why ITV's morning shows have to rely spongebob & all growen up type of programmes all the time though.

It's because they are popular that they are shown. It can quite often be the programmes they show that drew a lot of viewers to Saturdaymorning shos. It was theprogramems SM:Tv were showing in 1998 that attracted me to it, and it's obvious that Pokemon gained a lot of viewers for SM:TV as well, seeing as it was the massive craze at the time. Though I'm not convinced that MoM have made the right desisions though. TutenStein was a massive flop, both All Grown Up & Spongebob are tired. The utimae question is why aren't they showing the rest of Sabrina? People who watched where SM:TV left off will be wondering what happens next. Even though the series went massivly downhill after the SM:Tv cut-off (mainly because the magazine was writen out), peopelwould still like to see it.

Still, it's worth seeing what the relaunch has instore for MoM, though I won't be suprised to get a clone of SM:TV. Still, I think it's ITV being too quick to react again. A show needs time to find it's feet and build an audience, they can't expect sucess overnight. I think some tweaks do need to be made but a reformatting is not nececerry at all. One thing though, can't they get Des Clarke? He wasn't really right for SM:TV, but I think he would be perfect in the ministry. Why are they bringing back the spellmanator though? that was one of the most rediculous aspects IMO and I can see why the Dick & Dom fans were laughing at it.

And a quick question to fanoftv, just noticed that you didn't answer my question on the SM:TV vids. Though I do understand that me asking is proababally making me sound extremly persistant and starting to get to you. For whatever reason, I always seem to send out those sort of messages and come accross like that, even though I don't intend to, ask anyone who knows me. I think I get it from my dad who is one of those people who doesn't shut up till he gets what he wants (even then he isn't happy). Thankfully I havent taken on that attitude (yet, fingers crossed).

MoM's getting a relaunch?!
Lets hope they keep the gunging at the end of the show cos thats one if the items i enjoy watching at the end.

I hope they're not going for a full relaunch. Not yet anyway. What was the point in wasting all of the money on this one?
What they need to do is look at the show, and basically put things into it that would make them laugh and enjoy it, in hope that viewers will too.

This is what SM:tv did during the first year. They didn't have that many viewers so they just added in things that they wanted to, random sketches, little cheeky competitions and viewers started to come along.

Des would be good on it. Towards the end of SM:tv live he was getting quite good at it, and he certainly had a flare for characters and sketches. They could use him as a roving reporter, or maybe put Michael out on the road.

The concept that MoM should take on is as Jake wants the Saturday Show to take in his web interview with BBC Norfolk, the show should be 'structured' but 'not scripted'.

Even little changes like having one of them kicking into a random song after they finished the main MoM title music dance. Or getting the extras to wander in with surprises, or whenever they wanted to.

Having a couple of sketches, ditching All Grown Up (as all of these have been shown, where as there are a few spongebobs and teen angels that haven't been), mix the games, change them, have a quiz show style thing in there, have gunge pipes leaking into the studio that just spurt out gunge (mostly used in the final MoM dance), have crazy items like 'How Smart's Your Teacher?' (where children's teachers would have to answer questions on the subject that they teach), or set up little post bag items like 'How butch is that doggy in the window' (where kids dress up their dogs and take a photo of them through a window, maybe not that one, but similar items).
They could employ the tiswas/mad for it idea of locking losers of competitions in a cage under a giant gunge pipe where they get gunged at the end.
With a bit of imagination and a bit of fun on the producers part, they could create a great show without it being a clone of anything else, and really put the Mayhem into the show!

BTW James. Just getting back to them, after my mums illness, and the theft of my car, hopefully things will get back to normal now, this is the worst year of our lives to date!

Fans of CiTV presentation will be interested to know that I have found a whole load of of archive CiTV presentation on one of my tapes It's all watchable but not very good quality, think my aerial was crap at the time

Who remembers Andrea? She left CiTV in mid 2000 and features on some of the footage I found which shows how old it is. Most of it seems to be the CiTV presentation wrapping around the first series of My Parents Are Aliens - back in the days when 4:3 programmes actually went out as 4:3, as was S1 of MPAA. Also found a copy of one of the episodes of the final series of Children's Ward too

I might dig it out and do some screengrabs for the thread

Wasn't Michael meant to be on the road in the first place? That's what he said when he was interviewed before the show started, but he never was.



Yes, most saturday mornings in the show aren't usually scripted, but do have a structure to them, or if they do have a script, it's loosely stuck too. But it's clear to anyone who watches MoM that is is scripted and they are following it, there is little improvisation and little of the unexpected, which is what Saturday Mornings need. it's clear that most of the things on the show which the presenters aren't meant to be expecting (like when Ray runs up the stairs) are scripted. they need to actually NOT be expecting these things.



Sorry to hear about your car, my sister had her car nicked a few weeks ago as well. She can live wihout it at the moment, but she's getting a new job where she needs a car, all she has at the moment is a shared car with her partner- who also needs it for his job! They're not really in the best financial position at the moment to buy another car. These things always happen when you least need & expect them.