HEY HEY IT'S SATURDAY: BY REQUEST
From 1971 until 1999, "Hey, Hey, It's Saturday" appeared on Australian TV, first as a kid's cartoon carnival, until it was transformed to the wacky ad-lib show in the mid 1980's. The show's main host (Daryl Somers) would host the show from the start until the very end (it was last broadcast on 20/11/1999).
On it's last broadcast, it had a huge viewing audience of 2.62 million viewers right across Australia (and also in Papua New Guinea. At one point in the early 90's, the show also aired in New Zealand).
The show had an eclectric mix of music and wacky segments (usually with the participation of the show's studio audience and viewers). Segments like "Red Faces" - a talent quest for people with no talent, Pluck A Duck where people had a chance of winning a very expensive car, as well as parodies of famous TV shows including "The Shove Boat" (a parody of Arron Spelling's "The Love Boat), "Division Saturday" (Crawford's classic cop show, "Division 4") and "The Sillivans" (Crawford Productions classic wartime drama, "The Sullivans")
In 1994, Somers Carroll produced a series of one hour long specials airing on the Nine Network entitled "Hey, Hey, by request".
This DVD is the first of two volumes that will appear under this title, and contains the first two specials. This volume contains many classic clips (many dating back to 1977) and I'll give you a rundown of some of the material included here.
Amongst the material contained in this volume include "Fred Fly's Great Feat" (from the Daryl and Ossie Cartoon Show era), Strange and Wonderful Request ("Is Ossie Real?"), a classic moment with Murphy Brown's Faith Ford ("Where Am I?") from the specials made at the Warner Bros. studio lot in 1991, and the Hey Hey gang turning up at the home of cricket, Lords, in 1993.
There are many, many more segments that will appear in the course of the special too numerous to mention including the case of the two Ian "Molly" Meldrums (one of whom was the late (and legendary) Graeme "Shirley" Strachan from "Skyhooks"), the infamous appearance of "Special Robert" and the 1986 "Canned Film Festival"
As these specials were made in 1994, there are no clips from the show's final five years on the air (hopefully that will be a special feature in volume 2.)
There are no additional bonus features on this DVD outside of a brief history of the show (so it is very much a barebones release)
If you are a fan of Hey, Hey, now's your chance to bring back a huge collection of memories, and is a worthwhile release.
Below is a mini gallery of screencaps from these specials:
Now, roll on volume 2!
TECHNICAL INFO
Title: Hey, Hey, It's Saturday: By Request Volume 1
Starring: Daryl Somers, Ernie (Ossie Ostrich) Carroll, Jacki MacDonald, Rhonda Burchmore, John Blackman, the SFX wizardry of Murray Tregonning, the graphic wit of David Ross and Andrew Fyfe, Melissa Hannan, Robin Bailey, Mark (Plucka Duck) McGahan, Russell Gilbert, Trevor (Tumut) Marmalade, Ian (Molly) Meldrum, Wilbur Wilde and Red Symons
and a celebrity cast of thousands
Production Company: Somers Carroll, for the Nine Network
DVD producer/distributor: Sony BMG Music
Region: All
Video Format: PAL
Soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0
Apect Ratio 1:33:1 (as it originally appeared on TV)
Total Running Time: 87 Minutes
OFLC rating: 
2005, Bruce Laing. Created 29/10/2005 and updated 16/11/2005