Hey Hey the Reunion
'Dags', as he was once affectionately dubbed by Jacki MacDonald, lived up to his nickname and the audience loved him for it. Hey Hey's reunion reminds us of simpler times.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Programming, Reviews
“Before we were rudely interrupted in November 1999 I was saying….” said Daryl Somers….
And with that Hey Hey it’s Saturday was back on the air.
After ten years in the wilderness the show that epitomised a golden era of Nine television was back before an adoring audience of fans who had missed it almost as much as its host.
Within minutes of returning, the hallmarks of the show were evidnt. Somers’ banter with his off-camera crew, Blackman’s one-liners inserted for a comic rise, whimsical sound effects, cheeky subtitles, cartoon gags and only a passing determination to stick to the running sheet. ‘Dags’, as he was once affectionately dubbed by Jacki MacDonald, lived up to his nickname and the audience loved him for it.
As a reunion the show was deternmined to live in the present with just enough time to acknowledge the past. Few nostalgic clips surfaced, with the show preferring to prove its value in a modern era. Livina Nixon sat behind a laptop reading emails. Somers was grateful to Facebook’s 200,000+ followers, and the live show was the #1 subject on Twitter while it was on air.
Ironically the show couldn’t quite sync its audio during a live cross to a John Farnham concert (where Farnsy was doing gags nearly as old as those in the GTV studio), but it mattered little. It was enough to have old faces back on the telly, and Hey Hey has always celebrated being a little rough around the edges anyway.
The show’s biggest success was its return to variety and live television. Since the show disappeared it has been up to the Footy Show to keep live variety at Nine from dying. Flimsy segments including “Celebrity Head” and a MasterChef parody by Russell Gilbert weren’t particularly sophisticated, but they took us back to simpler times. Even on a weeknight Hey Hey managed to make us forget about our worries for three hours (yes, it ran overtime).
Smartly, the show was also bursting with colour. On its vivid hybrid set Hey Hey even had a kid smearing himself with Vegemite (does it get anymore Australian?), and Molly Meldrum’s dog about to attack the irascible, faceless stick that is Dickie Knee. That’s colour, movement, kids and animals. Check, check, check, check,
Its most nostalgic moment was a fondly edited split screen allowing the late Maurie Fields and his son Marty to share a gag in The Great Aussie Joke. Seeing Raymond J. Bartholomeuz (Brian Nankervis) meeting his grown up protege was also nostalgic fun.
But there were some signs of its longevity. Most of the punchlines were older than some of the audience. Several of the subtitled gags were straight out of the 1970s, with insults directed at people’s weight and appearance (they could probably fit some of the cast). Whether the show works as an on-going entity is questionable. With several of the cast committed elsewhere it seems unlikely. But such post-mortems rain on Hey Hey‘s parade. It deserves to be acknowledged for its present before bigger questions about its future. Just getting the thing on and doing it so well is an achievement in itself.
Hey Hey kept several cards up its sleeve for its second reunion: Ossie Ostrich and a still-unconfirmed return by Jacki MacDonald, as well as favourite segments including What Cheezes Me Off and Chooklotto.
For Somers the night was a validation, as much as it was for the audience who have kept the faith. Nine started the week by ‘welcoming home’ its viewers. Here it has a prodigal audience which has returned, if it chooses to keep them.
Hey Hey the Reunion returns 7:30pm Wednesday October 7th on Nine.
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- Tagged with Hey Hey its Saturday, Masterchef, The Footy Show
61 Responses
I enjoyed it very much. It was well-produced and brought back the quality of wholesome, live variety family television with a great gang of people and they didn’t dwell on anything and didn’t try to be anything else. Probably the highlight of 2009 television for me! Looking forward to next week’s show.
My favourite segment was easily disastrous chef.
LOL!
“The love being displayed for this merely serves to evidence the gulf between artistic merit and popularity.”
Exactly, quality TV lags behind what the masses watch mindlessly. Hey Hey looked plain embarrassing. From outdated gags, to an ugly set, to poor SD quality, and “we’re doing it for the paycheck” jokes, I was glad no American celebrities were in town to see how low we can go.
Now wonder people watched it in droves, they simply wanted the nostalgic feel. Let’s see what effect time will have on the ratings once the honeymoon period is over.
Hey Hey was cancelled in the 90s for a reason. Let’s leave it there.
I am Australia’s Number one Hey Hey fan..!! and I and all the other fans knew it would work !! What a wonderful night and channel nine will be back as Number one if they listen and give us back our show in 2010 !!!
Daryl was professional and humble and just plain Great!!
Welcome back Hey Hey- My god I’ve missed you guys !!
Love it! Laughed harder than I have for a while. I must admit, I have a weird sense of humour, and this show fits the bill for me.
After years of the same rehashed ‘reality show’s’ it was like a breath of fresh air.
Looking forward to the next one.
wow I guess i’m in the minority by saying I think the show should have been left back in 1999. I was a great fan of the show dating back to the Saturday morning days and have great memories of those shows, but last night (admittedly I only saw the last hour-ish) apart from a tinge of nostalgia, I felt a bit embarassed to be watching it last night.
Loved it – thank you Channel 9 for bringing it back and the team for returning back as it was (not trying to reinvent the wheel). I haven’t laughed so much in years!
Loved it so much! And you’re totally right, I completely forgot that it was a Wednesday. Hopefully this will return next year. Who knows, maybe Saturday 7:30, because AFHVS and this would be powerhouse.
On Gold 104.3 radio, Grubby and DeeDee were talking about this show and said it peaked at 2.5M, and had an average over the three hours of around 2.15M, and that MasterChef got 1.3M for the 7.30pm-8.30pm timeslot …. don’t know how accurate that is, but sounds about right.
Was funny reading Twitter (my first time on!) after the show when the US woke up and were completely clueless why “Hey Hey” was a “Trending Topic”, and the Twitterlings (or whatever you call them!( started using it in their Tweets as if it were an expression or something, which I guess it is 🙂
Loved every minute. 9 please bring it back and dump the tired home video show. Daryl and the team are to be congratulated for last night. Dicki and molly (molly’s dog) was so funny, i wonder if it was planed or not. And we should all thank the person who started the facebook without that last nights show would not have happened.
i didn’t watch it yesterday but do remember it from my childhood because dad always watched it and therefore i did too (at least in the background and occaisionally paying attention). i think i might give the saturday replay a watch though.
I think that if it came back for two short runs of say 10-12 weeks each, it could work better than 40 continual episodes.
The love being displayed for this merely serves to evidence the gulf between artistic merit and popularity.
Loved the show last night! Having grown up watching it on Saturday nights it went off air when I was 19. But watching it last night it felt like sitting down again in a comfy chair that I had been missing for a long time.
That is the longest I have had the TV on Channel 9 in years, and I hope they take note that this type of TV is something they have been sorely missing from their channel.
Would love to see the show come back next year with a mix of old and new to make it fresh, new, relevant, and fun!
Well done guys! Looking forward to next week! 🙂
Michael Idato wasn’t the only pooper. I read a rather scathing attack in The Age by Catherine Deveny who resorted to some lovely language attempting to compare HHiS to misogynist heaven. To her, and similar poopers, a raspberry is blown in their general direction. Family entertainment, which I’m happy to let my kids watch, and watch with them. My 8 year old has been raving about Plucka all morning (I found my Plucka Duck doll for him), and I’ve hidden the Vegemite from Master 5.
I timeshifted last night, watched Masterchef, then progressively watched HHiS. Fast forwarded through the musical acts (was the blonde miming?). Loved the “return” of Maurie Fields, which made me realise that as well losing something of our cultural identity by losing HHiS, we’ve really lost the art of the storyteller.
And if the Y Generation didn’t understand or appreciate, then why was it such a huge Twitter topic last night?
Karl just mentioned on the today show, that the show got 2.2million. Not certain whether that is the peak or average. Either way, great show. Well done to Nine. Australia has come home.
If Jackie is back I will tune in next time.
Absoulte brilliance! These guys do really good TV and would love to see it back.
Much better family viewing than Rove and his lame sidekicks!
Ahhh, memory lane. Nice to visit, but you’d go batty if you stayed there. Put the Hey Hey memories in the toy box with He-Man action figures, Astro Boy Videos, and the Blue Lion you got to start your incomplete Voltron set.
For all the party poopers out there that said this show could not work (Michael Idato from SMH! in particular), Hey Hey showed it can still be relevant today. Hopefully, Nine will look at a new season on Saturday’s back in 2010.
loved it. loved it. loved it. loved it !!!… it seems like the past 10 years never happened and besides the modern day references regarding email etc it felt exactly the same as i remembered it… daryl has lost none of his touch and felt more at home doing this than his entire hosting stint on dwts and puts the 10 years of rove to shame…everything that david mentioned in the article were all highlights – all killer and no filler !!
Love the show,could have watch it for 4 hours.We need more shows like ha ha .So the whole family can sit down together and have a good laugh.Good on ya channel nine.
i loved it – it instantly took me back to the 90s and everything worked so well – i was so happy that they effectively just did a standard episode and didn’t make it a clip show – clips shows are awful. this was wonderful. it really was like they had never left.
Was great to have it back last night. They seemed to begin where they had left off seamlessly as if there hadn’t been a 10 year break. It reminded me of the good old days of school recitals and Variety Nights held in the local community hall. It reminded me of the Saturday nights of my childhood.
An enjoyable comeback.
A reknowned cynic, I loved every minute of the show (and there were so very many minutes of it).
But iy really showed that if Hey Hey is to come back on a regular basis it is going to need new faces and new ideas, it can’t plod along with the aging dinosaurs with aging jokes (which is why it went in the first place).
I know last night was a reunion show and the old faces and jokes is exactly what everybody (including me) wanted to see, but I think it will be a tricky transition to make.