Sir Bruce Forsyth worked his way up in the world of the British music hall
as a song-and-dance man with some jokes, but didn't get a lucky break until
1958, when he was hired to fill in for two weeks as host of the UK's
Sullivan show equivalent "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" on ITV.
That two-week fill-in turned out to be a five-year run that made him
British TV's most popular personality, which he pretty much held for most
of the rest of his career. Since a regular segment of the Palladium show
was the U.S. game "Beat the Clock," he became typed as a game show host (to
his regret in his later years), which still brought him big hits in the 70s
with "The Generation Game" at the BBC and UK versions of "Card Sharks"
("Play Your Cards Right") and "The Price is Right" for ITV, succeeding with
his ebullient personality and his ability to get laughs from his
contestants without being nasty to them. He briefly worked in America with
the short-lived game show "Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak" on ABC in 1986 (only
previously appearing on American television as a "Muppet Show" guest star
in the first season).
In 2002, he seemed to be headed for retirement when the snarky BBC panel
game "Have I Got News for You" asked him to be a guest host. His
performance, featuring playing "Play Your Cards Right" with the infamous
Al-Qaeda card deck (to the undisguised disgust of regular panelist Ian
Hislop), led to Sir Bruce being asked to host a new reality comp that took
some twists on a long-running ballroom dancing competition show. That
show, "Strictly Come Dancing," ended up franchised around the world as
"Dancing With the Stars" and made Sir Bruce a star again (and one could
argue that he was a big reason for the show's success)--he retired from the
regular series in 2014, although he continued to host special editions:
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-11084846
The BBC had recently announced a reboot of "The Generation Game" as a
vehicle for former "Great British Bake-Off" hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue
Perkins, although now I wonder if this would be the right time.
It was nice to see you, Sir Bruce--to see you--NICE!
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