CiTV & Ministry of Mayhem thread

I've noticed with Sabrina (the early series anyway) that on CITV the characters have lower voices than on Nick. My only explanation for this is that the show is shot on 24fps film and that CITV have a transfer fromt he US 3:2 pulldown tapes, and Nick have versions speeded up to 25fps.

Those episodes have always, on CiTV, looked and felt as if they're running slower than they do when you see them on Nick. And of course if you see the episode first on CiTV then find it again on Nick, it feels like its running too fast.

I keep being reminded of a sketch on an early episode of SM:TV. It was shown on the first edition of 1999- after Tiffany was Killed in EastEnders (which is what the sketch was based around). It had Ant & Dec dressed up as the Mitchell brothers (can't remember who was Phil and who was Grant). It was something like Flower Arranging with The Mitchells (it involved a Vase anyway) and the one that was Phil Kept saying things like "Don't get in a Tiff" and making coment on Family and the one that was Grant went mad and smashed the vase on the table. Not sure why I can remember that sketch, but it's one of the few that's stuck in my mind over the last 5 years. It's little skits like that from the early days I'd like to see more of on SM:TV Gold (or any early sketches as SM:TV Gold don't seem to show any sketches Pre-Chums era, just a few clips). They weren't as good as the later sketches, but they were still funny.

Oh I don't know, some of the pre 1999 relaunch stuff was excellent. Like Red Ant, the one of micky take of Blue Peter. And the best sketch with the two anne robinsons (that didn't make it through the relaunch) 'It's Not Flamin' Good Enough!'

Yes, I remember than Anne Robinson thing as well. I laughed a lot at that. They actually showed a clip of it on Watchdog. Shame the real Anne Robinson never turned up on it though. They should have more 1998/99 stuff up to vote for on SM:TV gold, it's a shame they're dismising most stuff pre-1999 relaunch. It's not like the show was bad back then. That's a good reason for a repeat run as there's so much stuff we'll be able to see again. After all, there's only so much they can show on Gold, especially now there's only 4 shows left (I'd like to see the last show expanded to run to about 1PM though) .

Wouldn't mind seeing some of the old stuff. WHen they knew that they couldn't beat Live & Kicking with Zoe & Jamie in 1999 they just did anything for a laugh themselves, which ended up doing the show a lot of good. And the sketches were funny as sometimes they didn't even know what they were doing. Take sproat ranger and jam woman for example, hilarious though!

The early show was so cheap too. No sketches had sets of their own. They all used to work around the current set. Take the first carnation of Challenge Ant, where they worked on the circle stage next to the tower with no theme tune, and the scream for the killer question.

And the first carnation of What's Ant Whistling, on the same stage, where ant had a phone, and a number, and people just picked up and phoned. It was rather dangerous as any drunk student could have phoned up!

I've noticed the same thing with Friends, On Channel 4 the theme song and the voices are a lot slower then they are on the video, why do tv channel's do this?

I doubt it's the channels, chances are its the tapes they are supplied with.

I think the cheapness gave the show a charm in a way. I can't actually remember a massive amount about the early show (which is a shame- and odd as I watched it all the time), but the odd bits I can remember (I ghave been reminded of a lot of it just from reading comments here- are actually quite good. It's probabaly one of those things though, you need to see it to be reminded of it. I think the early show did work though. It wasn't as good as Live & Kicking was at the time (though I still preffered it over L&K though), but it was still worth getting up for. I did resent CD:UK for a few months though for the simple fact that it killed The Chart Show, I had to forgive them though.

I have to say that Anty & Decky was probabally one of the funniest things they ever did, that got us talking at school on Monday- bear in mind we were 15 & 16 year olds by that point! Even our English teacher discussed it as well, and she's in her 40s! Shows how wide appeal the show once had. "Dizzy Water, Dizzy water!" LOL. Shame that all went after Ant & Dec left- though I have to say Tess & Brian held it together very well for most of the time they were there. Sadly after they went we were left with Des & Stephen, who never really IMO worked on SM:TV. Still, even after it's gone we'll all remember it fondly, and no doubt we'll still be talking about it and seeing clips of it in 20 years time, just like Tiswas & Swap Shop.

I hope Minsitry of Mayhem works out though. I'd hate to think that Dick & Dom were beating them, as IMO they aren't really that good. Maybe it's a cult with students, but as Saturday Morning TV, it isn't really much good. One thing though- let's see how long it takes for MoM to become SM:TV. It didn't take The Saturday Show long to become Live & Kicking.

Of course, no one could have guessed then that The Chart Show would eventually get its own channel!

The earliest memory I have of SMTV is when Mashed! went live to Ant & Dec for a preview of what we could look forward to on the new saturday morning show.

I never resented cd:uk as I thought that it was different to cd:uk and a very good music show, that in the early days foccused around the charts aswell as the music and the audience, the majority of people then performed live on a saturday morning so that the presenters could talk to them, and you could see that they were there. And the show contained the countdown and numbers instead of being a top 10 at the end of a music show filled with recorded performances, and mimed artists.

I still watch, but I still prefered the three presenter format, especially when ant & cat did the competition over behind the sofa (sept 99 +).

Though I seem to remember that a lot of people I knew were angry when they took off (as what I called it as) The ITV Chart Show, and to be honest it was a very good programme, back to back videos and really cool graphics in between them. Though no one was happy with CD:UK (and SM:tv) when it started as we all knew that it was a load of crap, but after a year or two people did start to prefer it, plus they started getting some decent acts on too, god knows over the late 90's early 00's how many times we saw Steps and Westlife on SM:tv and CD:UK. Though since Ant and Dec left I have to say that Cat has made the show her own and it is something that she is good at, but this would be the best time if they wanted to change CD:UK, ie move the timeslot out of 11.30am, as it really isn't a kids show anymore, it's something for the older kids. Though the format of CD:UK is a good one and to be honest over the past few years I have watched more CD:UK than TOTP. The difference being that TOTP Saturday is aimed for kids, where as CD:UK is on mainstream ITV1 and not in a kids zone. Plus CD:UK is Live, most of the time, compare it to TOTPS which looks like it is obviously taped. The spin-off, Hotshots is a very good idea, but why at 2am usually? They should really show it at something better at 11.30pm.