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Do yourself a favour

A little bit of television history was dragged out of the cupboard and dusted off, to the delight of some old rockers.

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Television fans lucky enough to attend the recording of the one-off Countdown special, as part of the launch of the 111 Hits channel, relived some old memories yesterday.

Filmed in the same ABC studio where it began, Molly Meldrum was again introducing old friends including John Paul Young, The Angels (how will they edit around the audience chanting to “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?”), The Models along with Bonnie Tyler and Jermaine Jackson.

The softly-spoken Jackson chatted with Meldrum in a scene reminiscent of the famous Humdrum segment. Jackson again said he hoped the family would tour with Janet Jackson.

Meldrum was in fine form, again ad-libbing, with lots of spontaneous reactions, new adjectives and apologies -sometimes all at the same time. Instead of holding up vinyl record albums, he plugged some of the shows that will appear on 111 Hits. Unlike the good ol’ days, he wasn’t prone to stepping into the Ripponlea studios much anymore, although he conceded he recently stint a stint on Spicks and Specks.

True to the show’s history, Gavin Wood was there doing voice over announcements throughout the special.

The audience was sprinkled with die-hard Countdown fans, now more greying, but nonetheless reliving their youth.

The cast of the Rocky Horror Show opened the show and Dharma and Greg’s Jenna Elfman was also a guest (including giving a mean Aussie accent).

The special can be seen at 6:30pm on 111 Hits tomorrow and simulcast on FOX8.

14 Responses

  1. I flicked between the simulcast of the Countdown special/launch on 111 and 108 (Fox 8) and thought it was funny that it finished a minute earlier on 108. They obviously had less ads on 108, but you would think they would have timed it better.

    Also slightly off topic, I use IQ and can’t stand that every week when I record Merrick & Rosso on the Comedy Channel, it chops off the last few minutes. I know I can extend it, but there should no reason why they can’t time it better. I expect that sort of thing on the free to air networks.

  3. @Andrew,
    Short Answer, Nope. It is purely a repeats channel, basically they have grabbed a whole bunch of shows from TV1,Fox8 and Arena, and are going to show them on this “new” channel.

  4. it is interesting that this new channel 111 uses an Aussie TV icon to launch itself but the channel’s schedule is wall-to-wall US sitcoms and dramas. Is the channel going to offer any Australian content other than the Countdown special?

  5. I liked the special, now just waiting for Austar to get the new channel.

    I know it’s a lot of stuff that can be seen else where but there are a lot of shows that haven’t been on any local TV channel free or Pay for years.

  9. Look forward to seeing it! Can’t wait for Countdown re-runs on Rage Saturday nights in January as well. Wish old Countdown episodes would be played more often. Couldn’t Hits or TV1 do it (rather than just single performances)?

  10. Countdown is probably my favorite ever aussie show only Hey Hey comes close. But it would be a mistake to try and recapture the glory days and I’m more then happy with my huge collection of Countdown DVDs! Having said that this one off looks awesome and I’m hoping one of my Countdown loving friends has taped it!

    And clearly Jenna is promoting Dharma & Greg.

  13. Yeah, I know it’s all in good spirit and all that, but the idea of them doing this makes me shudder. The second Countdown (non) Spectacular was embarrassing enough for those of us who remember the era fondly but not through rose-coloured contracts… err I mean glasses. This latest effort just sounds utterly tragic.

    You cannae go home again, folks. Sorry.

    Oh, and why on earth was Jenna Elfman there? Which Foxtel show is she out here promoting?

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