SM:TV and CD:UK turn 20...

20 years this Wednesday, a new Saturday morning television show launched. Well, two if I'm being exact. A music show (which Ant and Dec were keen to present), and a magazine programme they were roped in to do. Not sure if you have read this, but below is an Ant and Dec interview printed on the Saturday it started.



SM:TV took a while to get going, but at its pomp, it was watched by a sizeable million that included adults and children alike. It got the better of the BBC around 18 months after its launch; I seem to remember Tim Vincent was (jokingly) peeved when a viewer sent in a letter on "Tim'll Fix It", seeking advice on how to woo Cat. This must've been the summer of 99 on Fully Booked.

It's a shame they won't be doing the reunion this year, but I suspect when Ant gives the all clear (in 2019) it may well mark his TV comeback.

It was the Sketches that really pushed the boat out: Like Fart attack, fartbeat, tagfart While the garden gnomes ,where in one sketch you had Ladys of the night, sorry council trolls.. and Dizzy water.. Captain Justice and that flaming will not good enough were gems to. I also remember robin williams showing of his bum just as there were going to the break once coming out from eat my goal.

The pair did actully Nick ideas from Fully booked, Original concept with the hotel..

Now I feel really old.

What started off as extended links and behind the scenes on cd:uk, small interviews and games soon developed in to one of the most fondly remembered Saturday morning programmes. Gradually building up sketches, characters and features through the summer of 99 really helped the programme. However let's not forget that summer 99 included 8 weeks where Ant, Dec & Cat weren't together, we had one very odd week where Cat presented with Billie Piper (in her popstar days), but they were more entertaining than CBBC's Planet Saturday links.

The show for me hit its stride from September 1999, introducing iconic sketches such as chums, Dec says and all of the Pokémon inspired sketches coupled with Pokémon as one of the most popular kids shows of that time and Sabrina the Teenage Witch really helped to cement the show.
Their use of pop stars in sketches helped to get more lined up, after early chums appearances from Tom Jones and Sting, everybody was queueing to ring that door bell.

To me one of the iconic episodes was the 100th from Andi Peters at the top of the show where the queen (or was it the queen mum) opened the show into a song, to the fondly remembered episode of Chums where Ant faked losing the ability to blink leading to the wonderful band aid inspired line up for the song:

Only just re-watching that and realising they made a dick joke! God those were innocent times.

There was a lot of innuendo that they got away with being on Saturday morning!

I like most people discovered SMTV during summer 1999 after Live and Kicking finished its run for the year, I think being all year round and having no BBC competition on Saturday morning helped SMTV be a success. (I think this was the era when there was a Sunday morning summer show.)

I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since it first aired, like most ITV Saturday morning shows of this era I thought it’d be gone within 12 months but how wrong I was. A bit of a turn around by ITV management by this point too, they had axed WOW the year before because it was too expensive, yet SMTV was hardy cheap but certainly worthwhile.

In hindsight Ant and Dec quit at the right time, whilst it was on a high, everyone has fond memories of SMTV, no one remembers afterwards.

I counted two...

I saw the first episode and watched a large chunk of that first year of the show, even if nobody else did!

I always preferred The Chart Show to CD:UK though. Can't believe the last episode of that is now also 20 years ago.

Piece in today's Independent:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/smtv-live-cduk-itv-childrens-show-nostalgia-90s-kids-tv-a8506156.html

Like The Big Breakfast's popular eras, SM:TV Live with Ant, Dec & Cat at the helm only lasted a relatively short time, from when everyone started watching to Ant & Dec leaving was only about 2 years.

A different era when things moved on fast compared to how slow TV and their popular shows hang around today.

I'm not sure the reason SM:TV Live and other shows on air today is quite why The Independent is suggesting, due to changes in the music industry. I could see one of today's bands appearing in just the same way a late 90s one did.

Agreed. If anything, shows like Jimmy Fallon's 'Tonight Show' and James Corden's 'The Late Late Show' are the natural successors to shows like SM:TV. Now famous Hollywood actors play the kind of silly games you used to see on Saturday morning kids TV, just late at night instead.

I think part of its charm was that it was a grown up show disguised as a kids show. It was easy to watch for the hungover adults out there with childish humour but with enough innuendo to satisfy and to bypass the kids unaware. The thing that gave them the edge was what they could get away with at 9.25 in the morning.

I'm sure that if there was free reign and SMTV was in the evening then the jokes and the humour would not be as humorous. Drawing boobs or implying sexual acts wouldn't quite have the same impact at that time.

Just look at OTT. And Slap Bang as well, Ant & Dec's first primetime vehicle. Both bombed pretty much by replicating elements of their Saturday morning counterparts in the evening.