BILLY
RAYMOND
1971 Contd.
However, one critic liked it:
“No matter which side you were rooting for in last night’s new Scottish panel game “The Generation Gap”, you must have managed to raise a titter at some stage in the proceedings. It’s quite possible that the programme’s big selling point will be its sheer simplicity. It certainly has a happy atmosphere without the mindbending questions which we poor viewers are forced to endure in contests like University Challenge.”
Billy says: I wanted to record the show based on the Aussie version, where we taped 5 x 30 minute episodes PER DAY, which gave the show fun with its fast production values and immediacy, along with the faux pas of “ordinary” people and their gaffes. The BBC did not like that thought at all - Aussie crews are used to using the “strip show” technique all the time - up to this day - and British crews wouldn’t have coped with unions in the way, who wouldn’t have approved. Have things changed nowadays, I wonder? After the Aussie show’s success, I was disappointed that the Scottish version didn’t “work”. The producer, Ian Christie, of “Edinburgh Tattoo” fame, was great to work with, though, and I was disappointed for him, for he believed in the format, but couldn’t do it “his way” either!!
Linda says: I was in the studio audience for most of these shows and it was an entertaining quiz. However, the big quiz show success of the time was “The Generation Game” and, while the format of the two shows was quite different, the concepts clashed and BBC Scotland could not compete against the big ITV show with big-name comperes like Bruce Forsyth and Larry Grayson. Also, the original format of the show had been for ordinary families to play against each other, not for younger and older stage, screen and sporting personalities to play the game. Although 12 shows were made, the BBC pulled it after 6 shows. Billy hasn’t made a television appearance in the UK since.
Here’s a nice publicity photo taken of him for the show. The jacket he’s wearing was brick red - very spectacular, considering this was the first colour show to come out of BBC Scotland!
“No matter which side you were rooting for in last night’s new Scottish panel game “The Generation Gap”, you must have managed to raise a titter at some stage in the proceedings. It’s quite possible that the programme’s big selling point will be its sheer simplicity. It certainly has a happy atmosphere without the mindbending questions which we poor viewers are forced to endure in contests like University Challenge.”
Billy says: I wanted to record the show based on the Aussie version, where we taped 5 x 30 minute episodes PER DAY, which gave the show fun with its fast production values and immediacy, along with the faux pas of “ordinary” people and their gaffes. The BBC did not like that thought at all - Aussie crews are used to using the “strip show” technique all the time - up to this day - and British crews wouldn’t have coped with unions in the way, who wouldn’t have approved. Have things changed nowadays, I wonder? After the Aussie show’s success, I was disappointed that the Scottish version didn’t “work”. The producer, Ian Christie, of “Edinburgh Tattoo” fame, was great to work with, though, and I was disappointed for him, for he believed in the format, but couldn’t do it “his way” either!!
Linda says: I was in the studio audience for most of these shows and it was an entertaining quiz. However, the big quiz show success of the time was “The Generation Game” and, while the format of the two shows was quite different, the concepts clashed and BBC Scotland could not compete against the big ITV show with big-name comperes like Bruce Forsyth and Larry Grayson. Also, the original format of the show had been for ordinary families to play against each other, not for younger and older stage, screen and sporting personalities to play the game. Although 12 shows were made, the BBC pulled it after 6 shows. Billy hasn’t made a television appearance in the UK since.
Here’s a nice publicity photo taken of him for the show. The jacket he’s wearing was brick red - very spectacular, considering this was the first colour show to come out of BBC Scotland!
“The Generation Gap” Contd.