BBC Saturday Morning Kids shows

[CCFG]

The original Swap Shop was way before my time (My go-to Saturday morning show as a child was Live and Kicking, though I was also a big fan of Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow.) But wasn't there a reboot of Swap Shop with Basil Brush circa late noughties?

[TVNerd]

But wasn't there a reboot of Swap Shop with Basil Brush circa late noughties?

Yes there was, with Basil and Barney Harwood, and it aired between 2008 and 2010. It was made by Foundation TV, who co-produced Ministry of Mayhem on ITV, and was broadcast from the Maidstone Studios, previously home to many ITV Saturday morning shows.

[Gary_S]

Also when Phillip and Sarah "unveiled" the 1991-97 globe.

Which was, of course, during the Gulf War.

Quite right - I'd forgotten that.

[Steve Williams]

I think that is the mistake we make when looking back on them - they had an appeal far beyond children. Of course though for many it was a choice between the shows on BBC1 and ITV, Open University on BBC2 and in the early 90s at least usually random sports shows on C4, which is probably why Gazetta Football Italia soon found quite a loyal audience.

Well, indeed, and this was the case for a very long time. Even as late of 1998, you had the Open University on BBC2 and various shows, often sport-related but also some for minority audiences like deaf people or Asian viewers, on Channel Four. Hence why during the 1998 Winter Olympics, Live and Kicking had to start at 10.40 because of the irremovable OU programmes on BBC2. I remember David Frost saying one programme he always watched was Trans World Sport, but that was because he always went on his running machine on a Saturday morning and it was the only programme aimed at adults on TV at that time.

So that meant that loads of adults watched it as well, because there were very few other places to go. When I was a student in the nineties we all watched it in our house every week, and it's been mentioned here before that on the last Going Live, they do an OB to surprise a group of firemen who watched it every week. And everyone did that, kids and adults. Of course, that meant it had a profile and a credibility far removed from that of your average kids' show.

Of course, when the OU stopped broadcasting on Saturday mornings for hours on end, which freed up space on BBC2 for things like Saturday Kitchen, and C4 were also freed of some of its more onerous PSB obligations, and multichannel became more common, that massive advantage was lost, SMTV was the last show to benefit from it. So you can say it would be good to have a show like the Saturday morning programmes again, but it would only have the profile and audience among adults that the famous shows did if all the other channels stopped broadcasting at the same time. Otherwise it would be just another kids' show.

[CCFG]

Recently found out about something - apparently, for a brief time, The Simpsons was shown during Live and Kicking!
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/427340bff6da...e91947799a

The episode they showed here was "Deep Space Homer" and apparently, the "Let's have sex!" line was broadcast intact. At 10 in the morning.

[nwtv2003]

Recently found out about something - apparently, for a brief time, The Simpsons was shown during Live and Kicking!
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/427340bff6da...e91947799a

The episode they showed here was "Deep Space Homer" and apparently, the "Let's have sex!" line was broadcast intact. At 10 in the morning.

Showing The Simpsons during Live & Kicking was an idea to boost ratings for that series run. This being the first year that it was getting absolutely thrashed by SMTV Live, and the Emma and Steve pairing simply didn’t work. The Beeb thought putting The Simpsons in during L&K would work, but it made no difference.