Hey Hey It’s Saturday

1 9 7 1 – 1 9 9 9 (Australia)
Millions of episodes (seems like)

This Australian variety show began life on 6 October 1971 as an early Saturday-morning show for kids, hosted by Daryl Somers and a life-sized pink ostrich puppet called Ossie (operated and voiced by puppeteer Ernie Carroll).

It became an adult-oriented Saturday night show (initially retitled Hey Hey It’s Saturday Night), moving to the 9.30 pm timeslot in February 1984, where it was a ratings winner for the Nine Network.

Hey Hey used all the technical and audiovisual resources of television itself to make everyone and everything in the show part of the comedy.

For example, viewers rarely saw John Blackman, but he was a regular voice off-screen, doing impersonations, being sarcastic about guest acts and cast members, or making dry jokes and performing “insult comedy”, interjecting at his own discretion.

This visual “absence” was countered by the highly visual cartoon jokes that flashed on the screen at any moment, courtesy of quick-sketch cartoonist Andrew Fyfe. Meanwhile, sound effects man Murray Tregonning injected his noises live into the show when so inspired.

Puppet Ossie Ostrich would comment on everything drily and ironically. The other puppet, Dickie Knee (a “head on a stick”, with a raspy voice provided by John Blackman), might suddenly rush forward and be rude about someone or something.

Band members Red Symons (ex-Skyhooks) and Wilbur Wilde (from Ol’ 55) also had licence to slip in one-liners as they saw fit.

All the time, a guy in a duck suit called Plucka was prone to run on set without much provocation, as was warm-up guy Russell Gilbert, who was very fond of ad-lib participation.

Sadly, the format gradually grew old, predictable and tedious.

The “Media Watch” segment always presented the same old funny items taken from the provincial press.

“Red Faces” offered mediocre amateur acts, but everyone was really just waiting for Red Symons to hit the gong.

“Ad nauseam” was just a quiz show about TV ads; “What Cheeses Me Off” was just a forum for (very) petty complaints, and “Beat It” was just a music quiz.

Hey Hey eventually became the graveyard of Australian talent (at least the Ostrich was smart enough to quit in the 80s) and finally finished in November 1999.

If you had nothing to do on a Saturday night, it was OK to watch to see which international guests were on the show, but you had to keep the remote control handy and get ready to flick channels if you saw Daryl Somers so much as go near a drum kit!

Hey Hey continued to trudge on for 27 years, and frankly, it really started to show.

The same old segments (Chook Lotto, Red Faces, Celebrity Head), the same old people (Plucka, Red, Molly), and Daryl trying to bond with the “younger generation” was always embarrassing.

Typical quote: “Do we have enough time? We don’t have enough time? I think . . . yes? . . . no, I’m afraid we’re out of time.” It happened every week.

In retrospect, the show’s outlook and many of its jokes are considered by some commentators to be racist, sexist, and homophobic.

An episode of “Red Faces” on a reunion special on 7 October 2009 drew international criticism when an act called “the Jackson Jive” (a group of men dressed as The Jackson 5 in matching blackface outfits and wearing large afro wigs) sang the group’s hit Can You Feel It? in a jive style.

Harry Connick Jr. was serving as a guest judge on the show and strongly expressed his disapproval of the skit when asked to give a score.

He gave the performers a score of zero, appeared visibly uncomfortable throughout and said, “If they turned up like that in the United States, it’d be like Hey Hey There’s No More Show.”

He later said that he would not have agreed to be on the show had he known about the sketch beforehand. Host Daryl Somers apologised to Connick on-air after a brief station break.

Ernie Carroll died on 30 March 2022, aged 92,

John Blackman died from a heart attack on 4 June 2024, at the age of 76.

Daryl Somers
John Blackman
Ossie Ostrich (Ernie Carroll)
Red Symonds
Wilbur Wilde
Jackie McDonald
Ian “Molly” Meldrum
Russell Gilbert
Plucka Duck
Dickie Knee
Jo-Beth Taylor
Livinia Nixon