By Bella Major
Daryl Somers may have hosted and John Blackman been the voice of Hey Hey It’s Saturday but there was a squad of behind-the-scenes workers making sure the iconic TV show went to air.
In the 90s, Allison Major worked as an assistant lighting technician for Channel 9 on shows like The Price is Right, Sale of the Century, In Melbourne Tonight, and most famously, Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
Her role consisted of setting up the lights, changing lightbulbs and gels, and assisting the lighting technicians.
“A typical day would depend on if I did a ‘bump-in’ shift or if I came in later in the day to work on the rehearsal and when the show was live (or pre-recorded),” Major said.
“The show was not always live on a Saturday night as approximately there was about 12 shows a year that was pre-recorded on a Friday due to the host, Daryl Somers, had other commitments.”
She would start early in the morning and could finish as late as 11pm at night.
Hey Hey It’s Saturday has many iconic and unique segments that can be easily recognisable.
“Viewers sent in their finds to the various segments such as Media Watch Press, Plucka Duck, Phunny Photos, etc,” said Major. “It was the production company (Somers Carrol) who organised their own segments not Channel 9. Which was often the public misconception. People would think ‘Oh yeah, it’s channel 9’ which it’s not.”
Media Watch Press was a segment where viewers would send in sections of the newspapers where if there were any mistakes in there it would make it on to the show.
Plucka Duck was a competition-based segment where the viewers had the chance to win various prizes such as cars, vouchers and home goods (furniture, barbecues, etc).
Red Faces was the talent portion of the show, where various people would show off their skills (often bizarre and obscure).
Phunny Photos was another iconic segment where people would send in any funny photos they have taken, which could range from home photos to billboards.
The content we consume is vastly different compared to the 90s.
“Hey Hey could not work with today’s technology and modern society,” said Major, pointing out segments such as Phunny Photos and Media Watch Press can easily be manipulated by Photoshop and AI.
“The Australian sense of humour has also changed. What was deemed to be funny in the 80s and 90s is no longer acceptable.
“The Australian television landscape has changed. These days, our television shows in prime time now consists of reality shows as they are a low-budget production to make.”
Featured image: Jacki McDonald, Daryl Somers and Ossie the Ostrich. Photo: MurrayJoe/CC/flickr
