The 1991 Christmas Special of Bullseyse (with John McCririck, Frank Bruno and IIRC was it Linda Lusardi?) was quite blatantly fixed, especially when you consider McCririck was throwing the darts on the prize board in such a, for want of a better description, cack-handed way. But that didn't have the tacked on number on the scoreboard.
It may have been another Xmas special (they did them most years except 1985 for some reason) but I think it may have been a normal civilian episode of Bullseye where the "scoring over 1000" thing actually happened. Though if you think about it, you'd have to hit the bullseye three times, get your own questions right and then answer every other bugger's questions to get anywhere near £1k in the first place.
Nice to see Sky sparing a couple of minutes in the build up to the Premier League Darts in order to pay tribute, and Peter Wright has Bully painted on the side of his head.
re. the speedboats: Bowen always tried to put a positive spin on that. He had some contestants once from Bridport (one of whom said that he'd dreamt Bowen would talk to him in a very patronising way - sidenote: I once heard Stuart Maconie on 6Music do that thing you'd think nobody would do now which is to repeat the name of Somerset or Dorset with an exaggerated West Country accent when someone called in from there - Bowen did that a lot) who won a speedboat and Bowen said "it's on the coast, isn't it" (which it is, more or less) and then he had some contestants from Croydon (on that occasion the special prize on the prize board was a weekend in London, which Bowen sent up and which they understandably didn't really go for) who won a speedboat and Bowen said "you can cruise along on the Thames", which is just about possible although Croydon is quite a way further south. But then some contestants from Birmingham won the speedboat and they looked suitably grim. All the above incidents were in series 9 (1989/90) I think.
Soon afterwards the speedboats disappeared - certainly in the last few series it was usually a holiday, and on one occasion after the ill-fated move to Saturdays it was £5,000.
Soon afterwards the speedboats disappeared - certainly in the last few series it was usually a holiday, and
on one occasion after the ill-fated move to Saturdays it was £5,000.
Ah, Bully's Treasure Chest - which I assume had something to do with the then-recent abolition of the prize limit:
I can never decide whether I think those titles were a good idea, nor can I decide whether to praise the woman on the left when Bully runs down the steps for her enthusiasm or scold her for her overacting. So many questions.
Brilliant viewing. I know someone very well who worked on Bullseye for many of it's 14 year run in a relatively senior role and there was great camaraderie - the outtakes found on YouTube certainly summed it up and those were the outtakes that escaped (or were clean enough to be aired). The story on YouTube where Jim recounts about an alleged "unaired episode" is just a story he made up as part of his stand-up routine. The first two ATV episodes, as many will know, were appallingly poor and were destroyed.
The 1991 Christmas special with Frank Bruno, Linda Lusardi and John McCrirrick was unashamedly fixed and they were hamming it up to great effect. The earlier 1988 special with Roy Walker, Les Dennis and Bob Holness was better and Bob did do some pretty good dart throwing - I know he would not have resorted to fixing or creative editing even for charity. Marti Caine was a bit annoying in parts and frustrated Jocky Wilson, he would have scored higher if it wasn't for that.
It's quite ironic that moving it from a prized peaktime 7pm slot on a Monday evening to a Sunday teatime slot, with a bit of investment and tweaking, made it the huge success it became but moving it to Saturday teatime was the beginning of the end for the series plus it was up for renewal for the 1996 series but Carlton and the ITV Network Centre wanted to make some major changes to the format which Andrew Wood categorically refused to accept but he has never said, even to this day, what those changes were meant to be. Rumours suggested it was to increase the cash and prizes' values which may have detracted the show's success and appeal.
I can never decide whether I think those titles were a good idea, nor can I decide whether to praise the woman on the left when Bully runs down the steps for her enthusiasm or scold her for her overacting. So many questions.
I bet that audience had fun making them though. Would they have been recorded before or after a recording?
I can never decide whether I think those titles were a good idea, nor can I decide whether to praise the woman on the left when Bully runs down the steps for her enthusiasm or scold her for her overacting. So many questions.
I bet that audience had fun making them though. Would they have been recorded before or after a recording?
Most likely before recording, done as part of the warm-up.
