The Den - Gone but not forgotten

Zhane

Are yas all sure it was ending for good and not just the summer? cos The Den wouldnt bow out unnoticed, woulda has some kinda of media coverage

Capt'n Midnight

No mention on http://www.rte.ie/tv/theden/

It had some moments of pure genius, Zig and Zag playing with velcro bat and ball off screen. The a bat comes flying through the air while Dustin is talking away. Bat sticks to the side of his face and he goes silent. The bat is pulled off and poor old Dustin really hurts "I suppose you think it's funny"

Then there was the time they had a giant toothbrush and broke it hitting someone.

All those adult jokes about "gabo scabbing 5pences in the canteen" , "The Dart to Dingle" campaign

How about a petition to bring it back

Daelus

On the website of it, it says they're just ending for the summer to be replaced with Summer Den.

carpothepunk

the trauma i have gone through.....its...sad.......WHY HAVE YOU FOOLED ME LIKE THIS,I SPOKE TO MY UNCLE WHO WORKS IN RTE,YOU LIE,YOU LIE!!! :mad:

Larianne

Yeah maybe it was Francis' last day and not the Den. Well no loss there, anyways! lol

Brian017

But Dustin thanks the viewers for watching for 19 years. So (a) it's over for good (b) it's back with a new format i.e. new presenters, new puppets etc... because I think Dustin said something about it 'being back in some form or other' in September.

OFDM

Brian017 wrote:

Apparently, he was on it for two years.

Wrong.

To be honest, it went downhill when they introduced more than one camera in the studio - it was like when 24 became all about the action and less about the story.

E@gle.

steveland? wrote:

Remember S.O.L.D

Stamp Out Line Dancing...

And at the end of every day they'd have Ray and Dustin (were Zig and Zag still there... it was quite a while ago... my memory isn't what it used to be) learning line dancing and they kept saying "the camera isn't on... see the red light's on"

AHHH dont bring up that line dancing phase

Its sad to see it go. i used to watch it every dayt after school when i was young.

OFDM

"Scaoil amach, scaoil amach, scaoil amach on bobailín/
Scaoil amach, scaoil amach, scaoil amach on bobailín/
Sean Bán, Sean Bán Breathnach/
Sean Bán, Sean Bán Breathnach"

Elmo

Oh no na noo na Fischa
A meena wana

Yeah used to love that.

STUPID FOOLS IN RTE GETTING RID OF SUCH A GOOD BRAND. DUH.

Lets face it, it was the first Children's Channel.

Elmo

Ok so I have more to say.

1. They could have updated it along time ago. After Darsy left and it went to 12 hours. But Nick is ****e.
2. I though it would go down hill when Zig And Zag left but once Dustin start I changed my mind.
3. Over the last 4 years or since D'arcy left it started talking down to the kids.
4. I will miss it. Honestly only stop watch it a few years ago.
5. RTE are thick. If they call it CRTE they should be shot. Because it should be LRTE or RTEL. DUH.


I also think that Ray, Ian, Zig, Zag, Dustin, Zuppy, Ted, Podge, Rodge and Thelma had more fun in the begining. The had The Bedtime story, The Rotten Apple Club, Skits of Gelroe, Dustin doing interveiws when he when up for the Aras, Eamo Grumpy, Pop Gossip with Simon Young, trying to get Ray a wife .............

I mean it was far better when it was done on a shoe string.

But in the end RTE should have help the channel relaunch its Brand as The Den.

Also Dustin and the gang are staying their just getting a new name

www.rte.ie/ipu

If you want to help them out.

Elmo

Also each year they used to change the sets and title graphics. They have kept the same ones for a number of years. There not very good.

Space Set (I think this was design by a kid through a competition)
Tree House
10 Celeb Sq
Basement
Bus
etc etc

Tha Gopher

Cant believe its gone with barely a media mention! What i recall


Dustin leading SOLD (Stamp Out Line Dancing) around 1994. It went on for weeks, however one night The Dens live camera feed accicdently was left on until 6:05, and we saw Dustin doing secret line dancing lessons in the studio
When Socky first arrived, Dustin and whoever (Ray presumably) hated him, and Socky briefly ran away after he overheard them badmouth him (I assume there was some sort of anti bullying message in it, I dunno). Remember feelin sorry for him, the big sad look on his face when he overheard them :rolleyes: But sure i was young
Sitting through episodes of things such as Bouli the Snowman, hoping this episode might be in English instead of poxy as Gaelige. It never was
Echo Island. God it was sh1te
The time Dustin, Ray and Zig and Zag went to Moscow in the early 90s
The way they would compare Ray to Tom Cruise, with some birds voice doing a "Tooooommmmm Cruuuuiiiissseee" soundbite, complete with hollering American sitcom audience sound effects
Some kid on the birthdays from Leitrim pictured outside a shed, which Dustin claimed was Leitrims finest hotel
The skangeriest skanger in my skangery locality winning a bike when he was about 9, he was live on the phone and all, proclaiming his win to be bleedin raphid.
He totalled the bike about a year later
Another mate winning a SOLD t-shirt
Ray shouting out me and my school teamates after we came second in some competition he judged in the RDS. Got a picture with him and talked briefly, seems like a sound guy in real life as well
Ted the panda batin the sh1te out of Ray
Numerous North Pole trips
There was one episode, possibly a crimbo one, which showed Dustin driving his Hi-Ace van
Operating the takeaway
"John Bruton? More loike John bleedin BRUTAL!"
Vaguely remember A Christmas Carol starring Dustin. IIRC the younger pikey kid from Into the West was in it as a ghost
"Kaaaaaaaaa(clearing throat noise)aahhhhhhhh(spits)hhheeeet!!!" (Dustins way of pronouncing Keith Duffys nayem bud)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Den_(television)

"The show goes out live, as was demonstrated all too well in 1990 when the adbreak ended early, with the shot coming back to Zig and Zag punting a Bosco puppet around and the puppeteers shouting "Bosco is a bollox". However, Ray D'Arcy claims this never happened. On another occasion, a particularly dim-witted child was doing a phone quiz and could not answer a question despite being directly told the answer after several hints. Zag finally shouted "Ah, for ****'s sake!" On another occasion, an adbreak cut in when Ray was halfway through talking about an item. When the adbreak ended, he complained... a lot."

I will donate one kidney for footage or audio of some of these


Tenacious Den link- i once pulled Geri Mayes cousin(only remembered when I read on the above link she was engaged to Ray Darcy, never knew that). However, she was half goin with a mate of mine, though I didnt know it then.
Me and him are cool about it though

Brian017

HI there,
The Den is changing format for the autumn. Dustin will have his own show called
Dustin's Daily and Soky will be on in the morning with Emma O'Driscoll. The Den
will emcompass all the children's programming and there will be continuity
links at the usual Den time but these will be with different presenters. There
will also be new branding, graphics, look and feel etc.
So it's all change. The website will update with the information over the next
week.
All the best,
The Den


So it's not over afterall.

OFDM

They're doing a Late Late Show, like when Byrne left and The Plank took over.

cmcquaid

dustin doing the flap flaps classic entertainment

toiletduck

i used to love it when ted would jump on ray darcy and an epic wreastling match would take place!

YeatsCounty

Does anyone remember Ian Dempsey's last ever episode? As I recall, the gang went on a trip to Legoland and Ian said his goodbyes there.

Sad to see it go. That was my childhood in one TV show.

Hecate

Well I must be ancient because I remember clearly the first time Zig and Zag appeared on the show. They'd landed from zog and were hiding behind the various bits of furniture in the room, sticking their heads out when Dempsey wasn't looking - the whole 'they're behind you!' thing going on.

And the giant panda saga was just hilarious, when they were tracking him up the coast of Ireland as he made his way to the rte studio to carry out whatever dastardly deed he had in mind.

Great after school TV.

YeatsCounty

From http://www.rte.ie/tv/ipu/news.html

"DUSTINS DAILY: Shorts
Dustin has finally hit the big-time. From September 2005 he is getting his own daily magazine show - a brat of a show. Unpredictable where nothing is as it seems........"

Whoever writes this stuff obviously likes the Simpsons.

the_syco

YeatsCounty wrote:

From http://www.rte.ie/tv/ipu/news.html

"DUSTINS DAILY: Shorts
Dustin has finally hit the big-time. From September 2005 he is getting his own daily magazine show - a brat of a show. Unpredictable where nothing is as it seems........"

Whoever writes this stuff obviously likes the Simpsons.

Write to:

[font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Orlaith Buckley
Young People's Programming Round 2005,
IPU,
RTÉ Television,
Donnybrook ,
Dublin 4.[/font][/font]

and demand they reintroduce Zig & Zag!!![font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/font][/font]

Ishmael

Elmo wrote:

trying to get Ray a wife .............

Heh heh, yeah. Enya - I love ray, i love ray, i love ray...oh the hilarity

I used to the den up until Ray left, i still watched bits and pieces after but nowhere near as much.

Heh, i even remember my mother watching the den with me when i a wee laddy and she used to get as much enjoyment out of it as i did..

*sniff* getting all sentimental and misty eyed now *sniff*

Podge and Zag was the funniest thing i remember about that show.

*drifts off into found memories..........

YeatsCounty

the_syco wrote:

Write to:

[font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Orlaith Buckley
Young People's Programming Round 2005,
IPU,
RTÉ Television,
Donnybrook ,
Dublin 4.[/font][/font]

and demand they reintroduce Zig & Zag!!![font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][font=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][/font][/font]

Nah, they lost their edge once they went to Channel 4. They conformed to the strait jacket of society. </freeSpirit>

Ishmael wrote:

Podge and Zag was the funniest thing i remember about that show.

Just read this, I forgot that Zig used to call Podge "Sponge"! Remember in the Podge and Zag Show when Zag was up on stage in a big theatre and Ray, Zig, Dustin and Zuppy (the only people who ever turned up) were sitting in the middle of it? Brilliant.

OLDYELLAR

i never knew the den was finishing I would a rang in sick to see the last one

I loved Ray he was brilliant but I vaguely remember ian dempsey he was well cool , !Aww I cant believe the Den Be gone

zap

was on a sliding slope after ray left, tuned in recently and it was utter crap bearing im now 18 not 9/10 anymore.

Sully

I agree with everyone - the show went downhill and hit "rock bottom" since good awl Ray left.

Also, to make it worse it kept bloody changing its name, style, look, apperance etc. Bloody annoying. How many names did the Den go through, how many changes of style and characters etc?

Dustin and Socky kept the show alive if you asked me. The presenters they hired didnt help the show at all so I guess RTE could be just giving up - fed up with there attempts to "rejuvinate" the show.

OLDYELLAR

I was watching a cartoon this morning and the den was up ib the corner , are they leavin it on saturdays?

nlgbbbblth

Mossy Monk wrote:

dustin was always useless. good riddance

Dustin was the sort of character people refer to as 'the salt of the earth' when in fact he's just an obnoxious Dub who has no regard or interest for any other part of the country.

Dustin = scum

OLDYELLAR

Aww i loved dustin , his pat kenny and ann doyle bashings!he was great.

nlgbbbblth

OLDYELLAR wrote:

Aww i loved dustin , his pat kenny and ann doyle bashings!he was great.

Anne Doyle is a ride

nlgbbbblth

Didn't Dempsey's Den start in 1987?

OLDYELLAR

Ian dempsey ruined my childhood , he sent my sis a den pack after we both sent pics in , then we were playing hide and seek and i found it in my parents room , my mam was hiding it til mine came , I cryed so much and mine never came

Larianne

nlgbbbblth wrote:

Anne Doyle is a ride

Ya obviously haven't seen her in the flesh!! Turkey neck and leather skin! Eurgh!

I think they should definately do a send off type show for the Den. Show it throughout the years like they did for the 10th Anniversary! It was so funny!

nlgbbbblth

Larianne wrote:

Ya obviously haven't seen her in the flesh!! Turkey neck and leather skin! Eurgh!

I used see her around Ranelagh a fair bit when I lived there. (1991 - 2003)

Larianne

nlgbbbblth wrote:

I used see her around Ranelagh a fair bit when I lived there. (1991 - 2003)

Before her using the auld sunbeds so.. :eek:

_Kaiser_

Never watched it to be honest..unless it was because I switched over too early for whatever cartoon I did wanna see.. listening to them roaring back and forth at and over each other didn't really appeal to me.