★★★★★ 0/5

Hey Hey, Ad Nauseum.

Hey Hey's return was more of the same, this time with a lot more product placement. Or did we just not notice them in the old days?

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It had two hours allocated to its return but Hey Hey it’s Saturday still couldn’t manage to finish before 9:41pm.

For those who adore the show -and there are plenty- the overrun won’t be an issue. For those who don’t -and there are plenty of them too- it just validates one of their problems with the show. But they probably wouldn’t be happy even if it did finish on time.

Hey Hey‘s 2010 debut was more of the same from 2009, just without any of the surprises. Last year we were genuinely impressed with its ability to deliver a seamless show after a 10 year absence. Now the curiosity is out of the way, it could be a short honeymoon period for Daryl Somers and co.

The show rolled out its regular segments, Red Faces, Plucka Duck, Phunny Fotos and even Ad Nauseum. The latter segment couldn’t help but include two clients that had ads during the show’s run: Hungry Jacks and AAMI. In fact the show even opened with Jet playing a song that featured in a Hungry Jacks commercial after the first segment. Together with frequent reminders about a Crown-sponsored VIP lounge, there was too much product placement in the 2010 version.

Or did we just not notice them in the old days?

Somers was clearly in his element, while Ernie Carroll (god bless him) showed he still had the witty timing, even if Ossie’s mouth wasn’t moving enough. Livinia Nixon again showed she has comic repartee.

And the Humdrum segment was a letdown, as Somers let cheeky vintage footage of Meldrum be used with John Blackman rattling off the latest CDs. It felt like a last minute filler idea.

No doubt the show will draw big figures in today’s ratings, giving the show and the network the last laugh.

The show’s Crown-sponsored website wasn’t working last night either, no doubt with traffic overload -a testament to its popularity? Like they said in The Castle, “The only thing better than Hey Hey it’s Saturday is The Best of Hey Hey It’s Saturday.”

What do critics know anyway?

43 Responses

  1. I enjoyed it. It was refreshing to see a show that wasn’t based on some sort of competition.sytycd master chef, biggest loser = boring. hey hey came in second. Only losing to the much hype much waited for pacific by 72,000 people. What i find funny is. How many people here are saying things like. “this show is boring, filled with old jokes etc.” Then say ” it should go back to the 80’s” Talked about a old pun” Here is a hint. don’t comment on a shows originality by using lines or references that have been done to death. I think the only damage done by hey hey’s return and success. Is to the ego’s of all the “experts” on here. I guess we now know why, the detractors here are only arm chair (or should i say computer chair) critics.

  2. The pacing last night was awful. Really slow and lots of filler – just what was missing from the reunion shows. There was no excuse for it to run over when so often I was watching what seemed to be old people standing in front of a camera with nothing but stale gags to tell.
    I know rabids will disagree, but I feel like if the show wants to stick around it needs some new faces stat. The iphone jokes were lame – like your boring uncles doing “dot com” jokes and thinking they’re young and hip.
    I’m not a Hey Hey hater, I’m just a realist. If they want to ride this thing out they need things to be happening all the time. If they find themselves in the sixth minute of a segment, it’s time to move along quickly.

  3. Was great… really looking forward to this as a fun regular show and seeing it as the place to be for overseas and australian guests/artists/whatever once again!

  4. I think maybe what people forget is when it used to be on back in the day, people very rarely would sit and watch the whole show anyway. You would have it on in the background and pop in and out when things interested you. Its the perfect type of show to have on a Saturday night. However on a Wednesday night, you want to sit down, relax and actually watch a show in its entirety. That is where Hey Hey’s shortcomings become very apparent. Perhaps people didn’t notice them that much during the specials because it had been 10 years since we had seen these people and the segments and it was a novelty. Week in and week out though, I think the show will struggle on a Wednesday. It just doesn’t seem like a good fit. A bit like how I feel about SYTYCD on a Wednesday night.

  6. I didn’t watch either Hey Hey or the Pacific. Why watch what They want you to watch? No matter how much they advertise I will only watch What I want to watch, so last night it was neither 🙂

  7. I enjoyed it but will admit it wasn’t anything special but being back to a weekly format that’s expected. It is a nice bit of light entertainment though. You can just put it on and switch your brain off and relax. I appreciate the attempt to modernise the show without killing the familiarity that draws people in but I hope Darryl does realise that someday he will have to hand the reigns over to someone else if he want the show to continue after the comeback has run it’s course and not just take his ball and go home again. I agree with whoever said Vanessa Amorosi’s song and performance were terrible. She really didn’t seem into it at all. The song doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve heard her do (I’m not a fan though so what do i know) and reminded me of Lady Gaga. Also, how do backup singers sing through masks? Where do I go to learn that?

    Anyway, it is what it is. Light entertainment and something that has been sorely missing from Australian TV.

  8. To all you complaning about hey heys return need to get a life. I watch a hour of the pacific and found it boring & full of american propaganda.Have us as aussies lost our sense of humour to watch american dribble, i’ve have watched hey hey for many years and it has’nt changed its format and why should they. We need shows like this to showcase aussie talent. Go Hey Hey.

  12. Sounds like I didn’t miss too much last night – preferred to watch the recorded Top Gear from previous night, much better entertainment. Loved the ‘specials’ last year, but was happy to leave it where it was. A bit of overkill

  13. I’m adding my support, Hey Hey was great, definately missing from our screens for a long time, though I’d like to see some new segments, but it was 100% welcome back and will become a permanant Wednesday night date for me!

    True regarding Ozzies mouth not moving, and also notice that John Blackman didn’t say goodnight to Ozzie during the closing credits. None the less… Awesome night and welcome back to the team!

  16. Utter dross.
    The single good thing about HHIS is that it collects Australia’s least entertaining and most lowbrow ‘celebrities’ in the one timeslot so we can be sure of avoiding them. If Nine could somehow draft Kyle Sandilands, Koshi & Grant Denyer to the show it would be perfect.

  17. I really don’t see how this can last on Wednesday nights. It became a hit because there was nothing on on a Saturday and you could flick around it while you were doing something else, but on Wednesday? You really want people to hand over two plus hours of their primetime schedule to a show about Daryl Sommers wasting time with bad puns?

  18. What can I say – where was the energy???? Van Am slept walked through her performance – is anyone actually checking these acts before booking them? Or do we just take the cheques from the record company – what a fricking ordinary song…. Mr Mysterious, the mystery is how the hell this will get any airplay.

    The Ipod segment was just terrible – Its like Daryl seems intent on reminding us the show is up to date – ok we get it, move on!

    Red Faces – I am sure I saw that Tina Turner Ba Ba Black Sheep elsewhere….. who did it? was it those Music Men or Hale and Pace? was even on Hey Hey if i’m not mistaken – yet everyone carried on like this guy was some sort of Jerry Seinfeld… gimme a break!

    Pace it up, for gods sake – just a lazy effort last night, very disappointed I actually flicked over to Dance and stayed with it suprisingly.7 have billboards up everywhere in Melbourne and it looks like it paid off – credit to 7 they deserve to have a huge party. 9 just sort of expected to sail ahead with Hey Hey, a very lazy effort in terms of advertising too.Its going to be a long 10 weeks it seems and with MasterChef back next week it looks like its game on.

    Just disappointing all round!

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