YTT, Hey Hey, SeaChange: television remakes the networks should have passed up

Recycling makes good sense most of the time, but most television reboots are an exception. Here are some of the resurrected TV shows that failed to make the grade.

Neighbours disproved the theory that lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

Melbourne’s suburban soap premiered on Channel 7 in 1985 and struggled to 170 episodes before it was dumped.

Ten picked it up straight away and the rest is history, with more than 9000 episodes to be completed over 37 years by the time the axe falls for the second time in June.

But plenty of TV reboots fall flat. Here are a few.

HEY HEY IT’S SATURDAY

Hey Hey It’s Saturday began as a Saturday morning cartoon program in Melbourne in 1971 but grew legs with the help of voiceover man John Blackman and a crew that was a big part of the show.

It soon went national and, in 1984, switched to a full-blown Saturday night variety show.

Rising costs and falling ratings spelt the end in 1999.

Two reunion specials stirred enough interest for Nine to revive Hey Hey in 2010, but viewer reaction was subdued and it was axed again.

Hey Hey switched to Seven for a 50th anniversary special last year, and plans are afoot for another reunion.

Daryl Somers and Ossie Ostrich of TV program Hey Hey It’s Saturday, 1988.

Livinia Nixon and Daryl Somers on the set of Hey Hey It's Saturday. Picture: Channel 9

BULLPITT!

Kingswood Country was a hit for Seven in its 89-episode run from 1980 to 1984.

Aussies took the bigoted, Holden-loving window putty factory worker Ted Bullpitt to their hearts as he whined through life as wife Thelma, son Craig, daughter Greta and Italian son-in-law Bruno rolled their eyes.

Fifteen years of social change didn’t do the formula any favours when Bullpitt! arrived on Seven in 1997 with Ross Higgins’ Ted single, living in a retirement home and still ranting.

Seven commissioned 13 episodes and signed for another 13 after just four episodes aired.

But, pickle me grandmother, ratings tanked and only 17 episodes ever aired.

YOUNG TALENT TIME

Young Talent Time, the kids’ talent show hosted by the ever-smiling Johnny Young and featuring a regular cast of fresh-faced singers, was a huge hit on Channel 10 from 1971.

Screaming fans worshipped stars, including Debra Byrne, Jamie Redfern, Sally Boyden, Karen Knowles, Dannii Minogue and Tina Arena but by 1988 it was struggling on Saturdays against the might of Hey Hey and switched to Fridays. By December, the music stopped permanently. Almost.

Colour version of the Young Talent Time team with Johnny Young.

Johnny Young sold 13 episodes of a new show, The Young Generation, to a US cable network in 1989.

It was hosted by an American but featured some of the last YTT cast and a few older YTT favourites.

In 1990, Young produced a straight-to-video YTT special.

Then, in 2012, he helped revive YTT for Ten with host Rob Mills and Tina Arena as a talent judge but the ratings were dreadful. It lasted 15 episodes.

Here’s Mills performing the old Johnny Young standard closer.

SEACHANGE

The ABC struck gold with SeaChange.

Sigrid Thornton played city lawyer-turned-magistrate Laura Gibson who arrived in Pearl Bay with kids Miranda and Rupert after a split with her dodgy husband.

David Wenham and William McInnes played Laura’s love interests among a cast of townsfolk, including Mayor Bob Jelly (John Howard), his wife Heather (Kerry Armstrong) and Kevin Harrington as local Kevin Findlay.

The ABC made 39 much-loved episodes from 1998 to 2000.

A 2019 reboot for Nine left fans flummoxed.

Thornton, Howard, Armstrong and Harrington returned for the remake.

Laura had been away for many years but returned to support new single mum Miranda (Brooke Satchwell) and her baby boy.

New players included Dan Wyllie and Darren McMullen.

The 2019 SeaChange was not a big hit. It held on for eight episodes.

It’s available for viewing now on 9Now.

BONY

Fauna Productions, the producers of Skippy, saw great potential in Arthur Upfield’s Bony murder mystery novels and his central character, mercurial Queensland Police Detective Inspector Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte.

They made 26 episodes of Boney (with an e) for Seven in 1972 and ’73.

The choice to cast James Laurenson as Boney drew controversy.

Upfield’s character had a white father and Aboriginal mother but Aboriginal actors were overlooked in favour of Laurenson — New Zealand-born, London-based and playing Bony with a darkened complexion.

In 1990, the producers of Seven’s 1990 Bony (with no e) telemovie ignored the earlier furore and cast Cameron Daddo as David “Bony” Bonaparte, a detective and a descendant of Upfield’s Bony.

Cameron Daddo was the star of Bony.

That led to the 1992 Bony series, in which Daddo’s Bony was guided by an elderly indigenous man, “Uncle” Albert Harris (played by Burnum Burnum).

It survived 13 episodes.

Fun fact: Upfield’s hero’s nickname was Bony, but producers of the ‘70s series spelled it Boney, fearing overseas audiences would pronounce Bony as “Bonnie”.

The Daddo series restored Bony’s moniker.

THE ADVENTURES OF SKIPPY

This brings us to The Adventures of Skippy, a 1992 remake of Fauna Productions’ Skippy. It aired on Nine.

Adult Sonny Hammond, played by Andrew Clarke, is a ranger like his dad, but in a wildlife park, living with twins Jerry (just like Tony Bonner’s chopper pilot from Skippy) and Louise – and a pet kangaroo named Skippy.

Most episodes had a very worthy environmental message rather than cartoonish baddies and improbable roo rescues.

Its 39 episodes lacked the warmth and evergreen innocence of the Skippy beloved by kids around the world.

Here, Andrew Clark introduces the new show.

IN MELBOURNE TONIGHT

Nine was always in for a hiding when it dusted off the iconic In Melbourne Tonight name for its new variety show in 1996.

The IMT that ran from its 1957 to 1969, featuring Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton and a cast of household names, is the stuff of legend.

Frankie J. Holden was pretty brave to step into Kennedy’s famous Raoul Merton shoes to host the new IMT on Mondays, supported by Denise Drysdale (a regular in the original IMT), Stevie Jacobs, Ann-Maree Biggar and Julia Morris.

They tried hard, and the new IMT lasted until 1998, but it laboured under the weight of the original’s enormous legacy.

Check out this classy promo.

BRITISH SITCOM AUSSIE REBOOTS

Nothing sends a shiver down the televisual spine of almost anyone under 60 quite like the phrase “British sitcom”.

In the late ’70s, an unfunny spate of them was transported to Australia for unspeakable comedy crimes.

Father Dear Father in Australia saw titular dad Patrick Glover (Patrick Cargill) come to Oz with assistant Nanny (Noel Dyson) to care his brother’s daughters, played by Sally Conabere and Sigrid Thornton, while he went away.

It lasted 14 episode on Seven in 1978.

In 1979, Love Thy Neighbour’s racist Eddie Booth (played by Jack Smethurst) emigrated down under on his own for seven dreadful episodes of blueing with new neighbours on Seven.

Jack Smethurst as Eddie Booth in the TV program Love Thy Neighbour.

That same year, Doctor in the House stars Robin Nedwell and Geoffrey Davies took their characters Dr Duncan Waring and Dr Dick Stuart-Clark to a Sydney hospital for 13 episodes of wackiness on Seven.

Ten drank from this poisoned well in 1980 with an Australian version of Are You Being Served?.

In the antipodean version, Mr Grace sends John Inman’s Mr Humphries from Grace Brothers to assist his cousin, Mr Bone, at Aussie department store Bone Brothers.

Mr Humphries discovers a gang of Aussie characters that miraculously mirrors the familiar old gang from Grace Brothers.

Local actors including June Bronhill, Shane Bourne, Tony Bazell and Christine Amor starred. Ten stretched the premise to 16 episodes.

A COUNTRY PRACTICE

A Country Practice held a special place in the hearts of millions of viewers.

The goings-on in the fictional NSW town of Wandin Valley were compulsory viewing over 13 series and 1058 episodes on Seven before the axe fell in November 1993.

But Ten, sensing a Neighbours-style revival, swooped and re-started production in Melbourne in 1994.

Old favourite Joyce Jacobs came across to Ten as nosy Esme Watson, along with Andrew Blackman as Dr Harry Morrison. Stalwart Matron Maggie Sloane (Joan Sydney) re-joined after four years away.

New castmates included Jane Hall, Vince Colosimo. Claudia Black, Laura Armstrong and Paul Gleeson.

Audiences did not warm to the NQR, very Victorian-looking reboot. Ten killed it off after just 30 episodes.

Unlike Neighbours, there was no life left in that old dog.