Saturday Morning TV

Who can forget the TV viewing on a Saturday morning when they were kids. To most this was what the week was made for. A long week at school with very early mornings, but come Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn to tune into the morning's TV shows that was popular at the time.

This was essential viewing as the "magazine" format ticked all the boxes - live music, interviews, competitions, cartoons plus much more.

However it all started in 1976, when the BBC launched SWAP SHOP. Originally planned for six shows, it aired for 6 years!!! It paved the way for other shows (and channels) to revamp the trusted format and make it their own. Making their hosts (Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin, John Craven & Maggie Philbin) household names, whilst introducing new stars in the making from the World of TV, film and music.

After SWAP SHOP finished the BBC upgraded the show and SATURDAY SUPERSTORE was born. The format was the same, but the BBC altered the format slightly by dropping the SWAPPING element.

Again this show was a huge success for the BBC with millions of school children tuning in each week. The BBC had a wining formula and continued to dominate the Saturday morning TV slot.

During the last season of SATURDAY SUPERSTORE a new host was introduced, Phillip Schofield. It was during this season that the BBC decided to revamp the format of the show and in 1987 introduced GOING LIVE! The show ran for 176 programmes and ended in 1993.

Not to be outdone by the BBC, ITV (and it's regional channels) also had a number of Saturday morning TV shows that proved as popular.

ITV's most popular show was TISWAS. The show was first shown in the 70s on a variety of channels before finding it's home on ITV. The show ended in 1982, but is still consider to be a classic and many have called for the show to re-introduced to the TV screens.

However, ITV came up with other formats for the Saturday morning viewing. The channel introduced GET FRESH!, NUMBER 73, TX : READY FOR TRANSMISSION to name a few. ITV were considered to be more OTT shows that were thinking outside of the box.

Whatever show or channel you supported, we as "kids" of the 80s had some great shows to view on a Saturday morning. We were very lucky and also spoilt for choice (considering we were limited to 4 channels). Look out for further blog entries on the individual shows in the future!