Oh Boy! (TV series)
Britain's first all-teenage music show on television.
Oh Boy! was the first British television programme devoted entirely to teenage music, airing on ITV in 1958 and 1959. It was produced by Jack Good for ABC Weekend TV.
Quick Facts
- Runtime
- 25 minutes
- Producer
- Jack Good
- Language
- English
- Company
- ABC Weekend TV
- Network
- ITV
- First aired
- 13 September 1958
- Last aired
- 30 May 1959
- Related
- Boy Meets Girls (1959)
Facts from the source article.
Synopsis
Jack Good had been the producer behind the BBC's Six-Five Special, but he wanted to strip out the sports and public-service segments and make it a pure music show. The BBC wouldn't go along with that, so Good quit. ABC Weekend TV gave him the chance to create two test episodes that were all music, airing on ITV late on Sunday evenings in June 1958. Those pilots worked, and the show landed a regular Saturday evening slot from 6.00 to 6.30 pm, going head-to-head with Six-Five Special but kicking off a bit earlier. The hosts were Tony Hall, a jazz record producer and critic, and Jimmy Henney. The music ranged across ballads, jazz, skiffle, and rock and roll, and the show was broadcast live from the Hackney Empire. Each episode featured a core group of resident performers along with special guests. The regulars included Cuddly Dudley (21 appearances), Cliff Richard (20), the Drifters (later the Shadows, 17), Marty Wilde (17), and the Dallas Boys (10). Guest artists included Billy Fury, Dickie Pride, Tony Sheridan, Shirley Bassey, and Lonnie Donegan, plus occasional American stars like the Inkspots, Conway Twitty, and Brenda Lee. The solo acts were backed by the house band Lord Rockingham's XI, who later scored their own hits, including the number one single "Hoots Mon," and by the singing and dancing of the Vernons Girls, the Dallas Boys, and Neville Taylor's Cutters. In 1959, the American Broadcasting Company rebroadcast eight episodes in the US, but only three of the 38 regular shows (or 40 including the two pilots) survive today. The final original episode aired in the UK on 30 May 1959, with a promise that the show would return on 12 September after a summer break. Instead, a successor series also produced by Good, Boy Meets Girls starring Marty Wilde, started on that date.
Jack Good's Oh Boy! (album)
Jack Good's Oh Boy! captured performances from the TV show's roster, featuring Cliff Richard, the John Barry Seven, the Dallas Boys, Vince Eager, Cuddly Dudley, Neville Taylor and the Cutters, Peter Elliot, and the Vernons Girls. Harry Robinson, the show's musical director, handled the arrangements, while EMI's Norman Newell recorded the live audience session at Abbey Road Studios on 19 October 1958. Cliff Richard's vocals were cut separately two nights later by EMI's Malcolm Addey, then layered onto the pre-recorded backing tracks.
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