I've certainly got dim recollections of the "Wait Til I Get You Home" stuff being a pre-rec too.
Wait till I get you home was very much a pre-rec. You only have to see the cue in to the feature to see that. No way could Noel have descended down the spiral staircase he was supposed to go down to do the feature in, and then turn up after the short VT sting of about 10 seconds later, without gasping for air.
Given the age of the children taking part, it wouldn't surprise me if they were all recorded en-bloc at some point during the main 6 week summer school holidays. That would have given them enough time to edit the feature down before the main series started in the late Autumn.
Then in later series they ruined the set completely as well as the show, ditching the iconic theme tune for House of Fun IIRC.
The theme tune changed twice, for a few years they used that anonymous dancy theme with the shots of the "real" house and the little sketches of all the guests arriving in their cars. I never liked that because surely the whole point of it is that it was a fantasy world so showing a real house seemed all wrong. I seem to remember that change happened mid-series as well, in 1995/96?
I quite liked the 96 theme, but nothing was ever going to beat the original.
I understand the the Saturday Roadshow was created following the cancellation of the late late breakfast show, but why did they rebrand it into the House Party? As I was too young to remember the roadshow i'm amazed now at how many features of the House Party were simply carried over.
The Roadshow needed a new set every week, and needed a new "location" every week. House Party used the same set and same situation every week, so it was probably easier and cheaper to make.
They were also probably running out of ideas for locations for the Roadshow to "visit".
The sets for the Roadshow were a bit cheap looking as they were only going to be used once, it was obvious it was a studio, whereas the House Party set was a lot more convincing.
Last edited by Steve in Pudsey on 28 June 2015 8:29pm
The (amazing) behind the scenes photo is from the end of series 6 in March 1997 - the first series to come out of TC1 (which also coincided with the theme tune change and the real house titles). It was indeed a sub-plot revolving around Roger Moore taking over or something or other - in fact you can see the first frame of the Bond-esque end credits on the screen. It ended with the house being "blown up" which led into the ghastly design they adopted the following series (an identical trick to the lead-in to the series 4 redesign), which was of course the year Noel walked out - one of his complaints apparently being the quality of the set. So that episode is the last to remotely resemble the original set, even though it had been scaled up hugely from the S1-5 design.
The photo doesn't show some other areas hidden away in that set - there was a dark room roughly to the left of the door where they'd play Cash for Questions (you can just about see the handle of the door where they'd emerge) and an area to the left of the left-hand wall where they did a physical game called The Hot House. I think both of these, along with the circular qualifier area on the right, had been scrapped by the end of the run so they were just messing about with the space for various other features, which says a lot about where the series had got to by that point. I do recall for the edition broadcast the day after Children In Need 1996 they ended up having both of these features in other areas or on location, presumably having crammed the set into a smaller studio!
The Roadshow needed a new set every week, and needed a new "location" every week. House Party used the same set and same situation every week, so it was probably easier and cheaper and meant.
They were also probably running out of ideas for locations for the Roadshow to "visit".
The sets for the Roadshow were a bit cheap looking as they were only going to be used once, it was obvious it was a studio, whereas the House Party set was a lot more convincing.
Ah I see! A clever idea for a programme, but like you say Steve, a very costly one to produce.
Were there a lot of disagreements between Noel and the BBC in the later years of the programme?
There were two versions of the original NHP theme, the first few series using one that had more of a rock sound, and a second (used with a cartoon opening sequence) which was a bit more glossy and Saturday nighty.
Incidentally, I had thought that it was 94 that they moved to TC1 but I may be wrong!
One thing I liked about the early series was some of the sketches, some of which featured in this best of edition (which incidentally I think I've still got on VHS somewhere)...
https://youtu.be/H-UZA5Nz6HQ
I guess in the earlier series Noel reading the Crinkley Bottom Observer was a way to fill time, as well as tell a few jokes. Having watched a few clips today the sets until the final couple of series were fairly impressive. Also worth noting that the show didn't use autocue, though there was a script for at least some parts.
One thing I liked about the early series was some of the sketches, some of which featured in this best of edition (which incidentally I think I've still got on VHS somewhere)...
https://youtu.be/H-UZA5Nz6HQ
Those Sketches were chessy but good, its a shame there were never kept for later series. Im sure SMTV pick up on the ideas
