★★★★★ 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 was so looking forward to last nights show-but alas disppointment! I concur with David Knox”s comments -so spot on- Please take note that the show was way toooooooooooooooooo long so got boring. One hour was all that is required and then could be entertaining. Let’s hope so, as “entertainment” is so badly lacking on chnl.9

  2. I was hoping that it ran at least a few minutes over so I could watch Fringe at 8:30 and not miss Big Bang at 9:30. If nine continue this idiotic idea of showing new Bang at 9:30 then let hey hey run over by a few minutes.

  3. Yawn this show belongs in the 90’s; when I was a kid I used to watch it all the time. Now I’ve grown up I really don’t give a rats about it; Daryl is smug and stupid and the show is just so dated.

  5. I actually flicked on to hey hey for a bit – and I agree re: product placement… There was a bit too much. Panasonic TVs, Ad Nauseum, Apple computer sitting on the desk, whole segment about iPhones…

    It was about as subtle as the product placement in Lady GaGa’s Telephone video clip!

  6. Why can’t 9 broadcast the “compressed’ version of this crud, instead of Survivors?

    The main product placement on HHIS is Daryl himself. Isn’t it illegal to advertise outdated use-by-date products?

  7. It just doesn’t feel right having the show on a Wednesday because on the weekend, people are relaxed. I hope they will move it to Saturday when they establish a viewer base because if it’s worth watching, people will watch it anyway. Also, the show I thought was hit and miss, the iphone apps jokes and ad nauseum fell flat while other parts worked quite well. It’s still probably early to judge and we’ll see how it goes in the long run.

  9. I seem to remember they used to do actual IMT style ad breaks for Solo and Solo man search in the early 80s when it was on at 9:30pm. McDonald’s had their logo on the Red Faces gong, Jackie Mac used to bring in products that had just came out, specifically from What’s New or Granny Mays – although not a big sponsor by today’s standards, but still back then it would have generated some cash. I don’t think things have changed in that regard. Don’t forget the countless and shameless plugs and brand names the footy show panelists drop throughout both thursday and sundays shows. One of the rumored reasons it got axed in the first place was the production costs where too high, so this may be a way of keeping it on air in this day and age, having it back surely is good for all of us, and Australian music. I must admit, crown could throw a bit of cash towards the website, I spotted it before it went down and honestly it looked like it was done in 1996. And on the contrary, the Hungry Jacks commercial doesn’t use JET’s song, it’s a rip off version if you listen carefully, which you will find is quite common in advertising.

  10. The gratuitous and constant product placement for Apple was terrible.

    I quite enjoyed the first of the reunion shows but last night felt quite flat.

    Daryl was as self-indulgent as ever (which is largely the reason why they ran overtime), John Blackman seemed to be off his game and segments like ‘Phunny Fotos’ just don’t work in today’s environment given how easy it is to find such photos at the click of a mouse.

    On the plus side, the delightful Livinia Nixon showed some decent comedic ability, something she’s not done previously.

    I’ll IQ it again next week (Spicks & Spicks still takes priority) and hope it improves.

  11. Hey Hey was definatley more of the same, although it was nice to see what a trooper Ernie Carroll was with Ossie.

    Hopefully Ossie’s mouth can be fixed though – it’s certainly not as animated as it was back in the old days – maybe the material used needs softening??

    Will be interesting to see how the show goes over the coming weeks.

  12. Watched the entire show last night and loved it. The best thing to return to tv.

    I am glad it was on and much better than that boring Pacific show on that other network.

    This was funny, witty and just what i needed to pick me up on a wedneday night. Great show and keep them coming

  13. Thank God I didn’t watch it, otherwise it would have been two hours of my life I would not have got back!
    It was axed 10 years ago for a reason and should have stayed that way. Daryl really you need to let it go and move on.

  14. The blatant product placements were definitely more noticeable last night. There was also a lot of Daryl Somers explaining how ‘great’ something was in the past and how ‘old’ that joke was. Nothing proved how out of touch the oldies are as when John Blackman announced the top 5 singles and albums and mispronounced about half of the names of the artists. 😛

  15. The product placement was in it a lot in the 80s, about as much as it was last night. It’s just nowadays that people now have a ‘voice’ about it. In the past, it was ‘whinge to your neighbour over the fence’. Now, it’s to ‘twitter / blog it, and the world can read’.

  16. ..what about on Ch9 (sydney) overflogging promo’s of shows coming on Ch9?

    Every single time they came back from a break there was a small promo for a Ch9 show, they have about 2mins 30seconds to do that during normal ad break time.. They should stop interfering with normal flow of programming!

  17. Didn’t watch, just checked it out between ads and might as well have just popped in a VHS recording from 10 years ago!

    That said the ratings will be interesting, I think north of 1.5mil for Hey Hey with The Pacific coming close behind and TEN pulling a weak 3rd.

  18. Did we not notice the product placement in the old days? Hell yes we did.

    It wasn’t just randomly known amongst my circle of friends as “Hey Hey It’s Product Placement”.

    The degeneration of the show in the ’90s from entertainment to pretty much blanket paid-advertising-with-schtick was the exact reason why so many celebrated the death of the show and danced on its grave.

  19. I think they’re trying to prove that they’re still commercially viable and also happy to play the network game (ie. Sigrid Thornton and Lisa McCune). Still a great piece of television last night. I feel sorry for people who wrote it off.

  20. I enjoyed it overall, but it was a little flat, dont know if I will be as keen to watch in 3 weeks. The iphone app thing was awkward to watch and what was with the vanessa amorosi set? Everything else was awesome, well done.

  21. Critics, what do they know. Liitle… LOL… It was fun, my family loved it. No blood, gore, guts, just something the whole family could watch.

  22. I really enjoyed the show. Yes it was full of product placements, and it’s still not on Saturday, but it was great light entertainment for the middle of the week. I guess it’s the same reason that 2½ men rates so well (although I don’t watch that).

    Like with all other shows this week, the proof in the pudding will be next weeks ratings.

  23. Eh!. I watched it and recorded the pacific. Not again. It is so last year. It wasnt a bad show by any means, it just wasnt great.

    I just didnt feel the vibe I suppose. I wont go out of my way to watch it again. I think I will stick with the Pacific for now on.

  24. I had the idiot box on in the background whilst i was working and can’t say that anything other than the Crown plugs really got my attention. I also got a little bored with the “were back, were back” pat on the back festival that seemed to be happening. Ok we get it, your back now do something with it. I moved on after an hour to Lost and Beautiful People.

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