Jim Bowen dies age 80

Pretty sure they gave away the Treasure Chest more than once after it was introduced, or at least waved it under the noses of those who didn't win the end game. Long before Chris Tarrant was doing it on Millionaire




The idea was probably sound (on paper anyway) and it was the most obvious thing to refresh since Bully had been driving the bus for the previous eight years. Whether the post 1993 titles were a suitable replacement for the bus titles is a YMMV thing I feel, much like whether you thought the bus titles were suitable for replacing the original "Bully jumps out of a sign" titles.

At least the set design stood up well over the years. The pre 1985 sets (with the orange targets and what not) look really dated now. When they introduced the later set with the neon lighting strips, the only real clues that the episodes date from the 1980s is some of the fashions and the prizes on offer. The rest of it is relatively timeless and still looks really good thirty odd years later.

The question area always looked dated and it looked like a different programme. At least they rectified that in the Dave Spikey version.

They did modernise it slightly in 1990 (well, the score displays, anyway). Quite likely this coincided with the show's move from Broad Street to Lenton Lane.

An anicient one from 1982 on now, Tony only appears in voiceover, bully’s prize board is read out by in a very plain way, no “in one” also the star prize is revealed right at the back of the studio, there aren’t the blokes bringing it forward to get the money shot.

Also featured some players from “Ulster” who Jim couldn’t understand what they were saying!

Looks like the 24hr marathon started from the first ATV episode and they're going out in order so by 6am tomorrow we'll only be up to series 4 if that's the case.

I'd have personally thought it would have been better to air episodes from the later years as that's where all the gimmicks we all remember came from. The show took years to come what we now remember as Bullseye. Heck, they only changed the "lose a contestant after game 1" rule in '87 and the "bus fare home" gag didn't appear until 1991!

Indeed, I'd assumed they were in order but a few from each year.

At this stage, there is none of the 'settle in, listen to Tony', none of the 'innnnn one', no bendy bullys etc

The Bronze Bully was only introduced in 1985, too.

The all-time highest charity score, of course, was Alan Evans' 401 in 1984:



Several players scored 380 after the Bronze Bully was introduced, including Eric Bristow, Bob Anderson and Mike Gregory. Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon in 2005 claimed that Bristow's score was the all-time highest, overlooking Evans' score (and presumably all the other pre-Bronze Bully scores too) as well as the other 380s.

I think it was overlooked because the 401 predated the Bronze Bully so it technically wasn't the same thing. Prior to Bronze Bully it was just somebody comes on, chucks some darts and end of matter. Later somebody had the idea to convert it into the leaderboard format that, again, we all knew and loved.

Looks like the 3pm episode was the first of 1983 series 3

Nick Owen has disappeared now replaced by Tony reading out the prizes but still in a straight forward way.

The Virgin EPG says they're going in pretty much chronological order starting with Series 1, Episode 1 today at 6am and finishing with Series 4, Episode 7 tomorrow at 5.30am. I would have thought a selection of episodes, perhaps from the more recognisable later era, would have been better.

Would have made more sense. Guess it's possible airing the earlier episodes cost them less, either because they are cheaper or with the rights they have it is more cost effective to air them now and air the later editions in the more regular slots.

Did pre 1985 Bullseye air on Challenge before Sky bought the channel? I know when UK Gold had the series they showed them (some YouTube clips are from these showings as they have the UK Gold DOG of the time bottom left).