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Airdate: 30 Years of the Footy Show

Retrospective special includes never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes vision and interviews with key crew members and production team.

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The first of a two-part special, 30 Years of the Footy Show, looking back on the AFL show which commenced in 1994, will screen next week on Nine.

Part two will follow a week later.

This must-watch special will look back at the most famous moments from the Footy Show, with never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes vision and interviews with the program’s original host, Eddie McGuire, and a massive lineup of Footy Show faces.

They include Garry Lyon, Sam Newman, Shane Crawford, Brendan Fevola, James Hird, Billy Brownless, Craig Hutchison, Jason Dunstall, Dermott Brereton, Jonathan Brown, Nathan Brown, Matthew Lloyd, Doug Hawkins, Campbell Brown, David Schwarz, Justin Madden, Damian Barrett, Craig Kelly and Roland Rocchiccioli.

For the first time, we hear from the key crew members and production team that made the show so successful for such a long time, including Gary Newnham, Director of every episode of the Footy Show, Original Executive Producer Harvey Silver, Head of Wardrobe Katrina Henley and Cartoonist Andrew Fyfe.

After 23 years, Sam Newman and David Schwarz face off over the infamous “pie in the face” incident, and we look back at the period in which one of Nine’s competitors poached talent from the Footy Show stable.

Savour memorable highlights of the program including fan favourite segments like Street Talk, Sam’s Mail Bag and Billy’s Wheel, as well as The House of Bulger, which saw Shane Crawford play Hank Bulger, Billy Brownless play Hank’s mother, Joybell Bulger, and Garry Lyon play the villain Hueston Crabbe. The skit also featured Dermott Brereton and Roland Rocchiccioli.

And we revisit the unforgettable moments when Shane Crawford walked from Adelaide to Melbourne in 2010 and cycled from Melbourne to Perth in 2013 to raise funds for Breast Cancer Network Australia, leaving the nation moved by his courage.

Tuesday August 20, 8:40pm Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth / 11:10pm Sydney & Brisbane on Nine.

(Part II is Tuesday, August 27).

4 Responses

  1. The Footy Show was created during an era Nine still wanted to have a profile in variety television. Even by 1993/94, Nine probably knew that Hey Hey It’s Saturday and The Midday Show (probably Australian TV’s two main variety shows of note still running by then) were realistically, unlikely to still be in production during the year 2000.

    Although The Footy Show was popular for maybe a decade or so, the format had obviously become stale overtime (the NRL version/s Nine have wisely opted not to do equivalent anniversary specials for, probably even moreso than the AFL one!) and towards the end you knew they were becoming desperate for attention when they had to make cheap shots at higher rating programs with things like their “Footybox” segments!

    Sponsorship deals probably gave The Footy Show(s) a longer life than it otherwise may have had or deserved.

    2. Totally agree – heavily edited to lose a lot of that.

      It feels like that era really suited Eddie, he and people like Darryl Somers were loved – but now their is a really stale faux gravitas and exaggerated delivery that just comes across a little too much. He had his time, now move on

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