To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent of Johnny Carson dying. Both the BBC News and Sky News rolling news channels immediately dropped coverage of Barcelona and went to rolling coverage of his death when this was announced (Note BBC World News didn't as he's a quintessentially British star who didn't really find fame abroad).
BBC One ripped up the schedule and aired an hour long tribute this evening, and I'm certain that there will be more to come. Adam On Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 7:02 PM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]> wrote: > 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! > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
