The Old Days on RTE

NewbridgeIR

Dusty's Trail - was shown at least twice on RTE 1 - late '70s and early '80s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_FfBM9Uwwo

fryup

continuity announcers use to appear on screen

Hangdogroad

fryup wrote: »

continuity announcers use to appear on screen

A lot of the big names of RTE started out as continuity announcers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYY__mgNX8k

NewbridgeIR

I see the “Bil Keating” credit. Always thought that looked odd.

Who wants to be a millionaire hosted by Gay Byrne RIP

The famous show, where the contestant gave the correct answer for the word 'lunula'


The Weakest Link hosted by Eamon Dunphy

Unsuitable format for Irish contestants:

I noticed when half the contestants were dismissed, they looked visibly upset and close to tears

AndrewJRenko

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

I see the “Bil Keating” credit. Always thought that looked odd.

There was a trend in RTE of mispelling names for extra street cred - wasn't there Kyran and Jon and Mat and others?

odyssey06

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

I see the “Bil Keating” credit. Always thought that looked odd.

There could be another Bill Keating so in credits you have to be different either with a letter or initial

Another general reflection on the old days in RTE:

Many guests on programs like Nationwide were shown travelling in humble vehicles like the Renault 4, or simply taking the CIE bus.

Nowadays they alight from their BMW SUV or Audi.

orlaithd12

Who remembers Peter Murphy on Cross Country Quiz? I've been trying to find the theme time, can't find it anywhere????

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118232483#Comment_118232483

I remember it too. It was a sort of squelchy moog theme, it might have been that tune Popcorn which was a big hit in the early 70s. That was used as well on some RTE sports programme.

Hyperbollix

The old soccer panel is a huge loss. How often the game itself was only an interlude to what would be going on in the studio with Bill, Eamon, John and Liam.

Thinking back to Saipan and the world cup that year, the action on the pitch, off the pitch and in the RTE studio was unmissable. Have really missed being that invested in the games since the national team took a nose dive in quality as did the punditry.

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118232483#Comment_118232483

I remember it - had one of the tie-in quiz books.

Radio5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117063184#Comment_117063184

Yes. The Irish RM also (maybe that was with UTV). It's still being repeated on TG4 as far I know.

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117123863#Comment_117123863

I'm almost in despair here at the thought of those programs being considered the old days 😭

Hangdogroad

Who remembers Folio? RTE book review show that ran from the late 70s to circa 84/85. The opening sequence used to unsettle me, it had a big perspex or glass model of the word "FOLIO" set against a black background and foreboding music. I only found out recently the theme music was a track by the Steve Miller Band.

https://youtu.be/j8eh93CoJpY

. Edit: must be getting alzheimers. Looked a few pages back and I already posted about this.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118240054#Comment_118240054

Still spectacularly unfunny.

Stage Oirish Yes Sorr, no Sorr, as you wish Sorr, from the good old forelock tugging days. A sort of Irish Uncle Tom's Cabin.

odyssey06

@Hangdogroad I cannot rule out that I have done the same myself on a quiet thread touching upon the old days :)

tv3tg4

Anything goes that was a platform for bands.

It made videos for bands

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118232483#Comment_118232483

Think it was the same music as used in the opening here.

https://youtu.be/fJz3eQmVqig?si=x9QGODMPkPL5NQZX

Radio5

There were newsreaders and presenters who pronounced the letter 't' unlike some of the current personnel.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117027603#Comment_117027603

Heres the picture again as it didn't post properly at first. Different times indeed.

squonk

Anyone remember Going Strong I think it was called. A show in the afternoon for OAPs in the early 80s. I don’t remember who presented it but I remember a lady singing old standards called Ann O’Dwyer with someone accompanying her on piano . Her and the audience would all have a sing song. I was very small but it seemed a bit dreary to me.

Around about 1987 there was a medical magazine show called Check Up presented by Siobhan Cleary who disappeared from RTE after the 80s.

She also presented a magazine show called Evening Extra with another short run presenter, Cianna Campbell that occupied the slot Nationwide does today after the 6pm news. I remember it was the first time I saw BB King as I guess he was touring after Rattle n Humm came out. They interviewed him. It also had a very cringey interview with Joe Dolan and Siobhan Cleary where he seemed to try and grab her at any opportunity, or maybe I misremember but I do remember him grabbing her leg and at the time even as a very early teen I was left wondering WT ACTUAL F? Of course it was just Joe keeping up the pretence that he was a serious lady’s man. I still felt sorry for Siobhan Cleary though. Wouldn’t happen now.

Radio5

I remember the Check Up book came out also with that series, all about medical issues. Siobhan Cleary was married to Joe Dowling who was a theatre director/manager, maybe in the Abbey, they moved permanently to the US when he got a job over there.

Live at 3 replaced Going Strong I think.

leath_dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117035341#Comment_117035341

Kevo was the inspiration for this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgMgkl-gRxk

Strumms

The 30 minutes delayed ‘live’ football on a Saturday was weird as fûck.

you’d want to check on the other scores on teletext but you couldn’t really as you’d likely see the match you were watching…

whoever was in charge over in England who insisted on delayed football coverage for us here was a prize cock… it would have no bearing on their attendances so it was almost saying "Well we can’t give it in England so we can’t let you have it here, we’ll compromise and delay”….

bobbyss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116903705#Comment_116903705

Came across as lazy.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121423921#Comment_121423921

I think at some point in between Going Strong being replaced by Live At 3 it was called Looking Good.

squonk

One ither memory, RTE ran a show in the early evening in the late 80s called “Giz A Job” that was designed I think to give people some help in getting work and general job seeking skills. No idea who presented it or anything. I remember it being kind of funny and thought it was ok until my older cousin who I thought was cool at the time said it was shíte and I stopped watching! Our career guidance teacher at secondary school also showed us episodes except she called it “Jizz A Job” which still Makes me laugh today!

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121424290#Comment_121424290

I remember that, it was originally called "Nothing To It" and consisted of comedy sketches, a young Pauline McGlynn used to feature in these along with Mikel Murfi and maybe Veronica Coburn. There were studio discussions as well which had some other presenter. I'd forgotten about the name change.

Edit: It seems Giz A Job was a one off programme, a follow up to the series Nothing To It, though theres no mention here of the latter.

https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/2215/080.html

squonk

They’d be it. I didn’t raise that Giz A Job was a one off. Thanks a million.

squonk

I remember Derek Davis being battered by the wrestler as well. I figured it was set up as it was the very last item in the final show in the series. Also the desk appeared enormously flimsy so I figured that it was a stand in they kitted up so no serious injury was done.

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121423710#Comment_121423710

Going Strong was also repeated on Sunday mornings. Was on in the late 1970s too.

Not entertaining - for me anyway

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121424567#Comment_121424567

My Nothing To It piece is here - plus a 5 minute clip

https://wheresgrandad.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/nothing-to-it/

Mullaghteelin

"Living in the Desert: The Adventures of Scrapiron O'Toole" was an obscure low-budget educational documentary made in Texas, that bizarrely ended up being shown primetime on The Den around 1993.

The entire internet seems to have repressed the memory of it, there's barely any evidence it even existed.

Ray Darcy started apologising before each episode because it was so hated. They had a little celebration when the last episode aired.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only person who has any memory of this happening. How or why it ended up on RTE is anyone's guess.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426252#Comment_121426252

Saw the clip on your article. I was in first year of secondary school when that show aired. It was only much later I realised how utterly crap the mud/late 80s was here kind wise, and this was the best they could do? You ready have to wonder. It’s utterly shít that they pretty much recommended expiration in the end. I can it if concede in the mid 90s and was insulated from most of the harsh reality through being a kid, a teenager and college student and thugs had injected vastly by the time I graduated.

NewbridgeIR

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426400#Comment_121426400

It's mentioned on the Wikipedia entry for Network 2.

I have a vague recollection of something like that. I lived with a guy who would tape The Den and watch it later. Presumably it was dirt cheap.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116924821#Comment_116924821

This is Carlton your doorman😆😆

Hangdogroad

Couched, comedy sketch show that ran on Network 2 towards the end of 1998 late at night. Some of the Apre Match team were involved in it. As well as regular sketches it used to show snippits from the RTE archives and dub over them. In those pre YouTube days it was a big novelty. I couldn't stop laughing at this particular bit, especially as I'm just about old enough to remember the original (Cathal Dunne, Happy Man. Ireland Eurovision entry 79)

https://youtu.be/BA2b5vBiVf8?si=h-bt2amfmHiXaBy7

Shakyfan

Does anyone remember the week Simon Young stood in on the Den and he and Dustin did a spoof each day of some of the RTE shows of the day like Glenroe? Would love to see those again!