Mad for It

Current revision as of 19:34, 29 January 2024

Host

Mike McClean (and Yiolanda Tokkallos from 1998-9 / Danielle Nicholls, Simon Amstell and Nigel Mitchell from 2000)

Co-hosts

Alex Verrey as "Pie Boy"

Broadcast

Carlton for ITV, 2 September 1998 to 31 March 2000 (39 episodes in 2 series)

Synopsis

Magazine game show format featuring children playing various games, competitions, performances from the flavour of the month pop acts, loud presenters and "Pie Boy" (Alex Verrey) running about custard pieing random children, in the style of The Phantom Flan Flinger from Tiswas.

Losers of the various games were rounded up in to the 'Dungeon of Gunge' and covered in, er, gunge at the end of the show.

But what of the games? Well, there was:

Stars Up Their Noses - People get a 30-second slot to show off their particular talent and the winner was chosen by the Bedheads, a group of kids filmed live in their bedroom. Opportunity Knocks it isn't. Winners got vouchers to spend in the popular hardware chain MFI. Do you see what they did there?

That's My Pet - trying to guess which pet is yours amongst similar looking things. That will be a random guess, then.

How Far Will You Go? - Three people played horrible games, such as filling up a bucket of horse manure with your hands and finding shower caps and putting it on your head with lard. I'm sure Paul Ross and the Endurance UK team were quaking in their boots with that little lot!

How Far by Car? - Dull phone-in where people attempted to guess how far it is from the Mad for It studios in Nottingham to wherever the Bedheads were, without going over.

All made for an amusing half-hour show which pleased a generation of 90's kids.

Trivia

Singer Katie Melua made her TV debut on the talent contest segment, "Stars Up Their Noses". She sang "Without You", and won. So no second-to-a-singing-dog embarrassment there - she didn't even get gunged!

Wolf from Gladiators appeared on the last ever show, after cheating at Shatter That Platter (a cononut shy game featuring dinner plates) he was sent to the Dungeon of Gunge. Any Gladiators fans expecting to see it's most well known baddie being gunged would be disappointed as Wolf tricked Pie Boy in to the dungeon instead.

Over the course of the second series, several CITV hosts were gunged. Hosts Danielle Nicholls and Mike McClean ended up on the receiving end as well as fellow CITV continuity presenters Stephen Mulhern, Tom (Arthur) Darvill and Andrea Green as well as Vanessa Bewley (from The Top Ten of Everything).

The catchy harmonica driven theme music was an edited version of the dance tune Harmonica Man by Bravado. Originally released in 1994, reaching No.37 in the UK charts.

Web links

Wikipedia entry

Pictures

Yiolanda and Mike - quite obviously Mad for It.

Videos

The very first episode

The very last episode

Feedback

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<div class="image">[[File:Mad_for_it_1.jpg|250px]]</div>
+<div class="image">[[File:Mad_for_it_1.jpg|300px]]</div>
 <div class="box">
 == Host ==
-[[Mike McClean]]<br>
+[[Mike McClean]] (and [[Yiolanda Koppel|Yiolanda Tokkallos]] from 1998-9 / [[Danielle Nicholls]], [[Simon Amstell]] and [[Nigel Mitchell]] from 2000)
-[[Yiolanda Koppel|Yiolanda Tokkallos]] (1998-9)
-Danielle Nicholls (2000)<br>
-[[Nigel Mitchell]] (2000)
 == Co-hosts==
-Alex Verrey as "Pie Boy"
+[[Alex Verrey]] as "Pie Boy"
 == Broadcast ==
@@ Line 20: / Line 19: @@
 == Synopsis ==
-The brothers Gallagher have a lot to answer for. But first, a tirade on the world of the children's gameshow...
+Magazine game show format featuring children playing various games, competitions, performances from the flavour of the month pop acts, loud presenters and "Pie Boy" (Alex Verrey) running about custard pieing random children, in the style of The Phantom Flan Flinger from ''Tiswas''.
-Why, oh why, oh why does any children's gameshow these days have to include: (a) Gunge, and (b) Some wacky, ker-ay-zee presenters? Apparently, it would appear today's children are easily pleased and need nothing but humiliation and shallowness. Three exceptions to the rule:
+Losers of the various games were rounded up in to the 'Dungeon of Gunge' and covered in, er, gunge at the end of the show.
-* ''[[Knightmare]]'' - a brilliant non-patronising adventure gameshow.
-* ''[[Incredible Games]]'' - an affable ''[[The Crystal Maze]]''-U-Like set in a tall building (supposedly)
-* ''[[Get Your Own Back]]'' - while, yes, it has gunge and yes, it has a wacky host in the form of [[Dave Benson Phillips]], at least it has some innovative games (apart from the ones that have probably been on ''[[It's a Knockout]]'' - oh...)
-So what was Mad for It's excuse? Because yes, it had mad presenters, [[Mike McClean]], who probably moonlights as Steve Coogan in his spare time, and Youlanda, a ''Nickelodeon'' presenter. And yes, it had gunge - all the losers in the show were rounded up and put in the ''Dungeon of Gunge'' where they were splattered at the end of the show.
 But what of the games? Well, there was:
-* ''Stars Up Their Noses'' - People get a 30-second slot to show off their particular talent and the winner was chosen by the Bedheads, a group of kids filmed live in their bedroom. ''[[Opportunity Knocks]]'' it isn't. Winners got vouchers to spend in the popular hardware chain MFI. Do you see what they did there? Another game also involved the Bedheads, usually involving running round the house to do things, followed by a custard pie when they inevitably lost.
+* ''Stars Up Their Noses'' - People get a 30-second slot to show off their particular talent and the winner was chosen by the Bedheads, a group of kids filmed live in their bedroom. ''[[Opportunity Knocks]]'' it isn't. Winners got vouchers to spend in the popular hardware chain MFI. Do you see what they did there?
 * ''That's My Pet'' - trying to guess which pet is yours amongst similar looking things. That will be a random guess, then.
-* ''How Far Will You Go?'' - Three people played horrible games, such as filling up a bucket of horse manure with your hands and finding shower caps and putting it on your head in lard. I'm sure [[Paul Ross]] and the ''[[Endurance UK]]'' team were quaking in their boots with that little lot!
+* ''How Far Will You Go?'' - Three people played horrible games, such as filling up a bucket of horse manure with your hands and finding shower caps and putting it on your head with lard. I'm sure [[Paul Ross]] and the ''[[Endurance UK]]'' team were quaking in their boots with that little lot!
 * ''How Far by Car?'' - Dull phone-in where people attempted to guess how far it is from the ''Mad for It'' studios in Nottingham to wherever the Bedheads were, without going over.
-All mixed together with interviews, phone in competitions, live acts from pop bands and "Pie Boy" (Alex Verrey) running about custard pieing random children, in the style of The Phantom Flan Flinger from Tiswas.
+All made for an amusing half-hour show which pleased a generation of 90's kids.
-If you're a half-hour show which aims to really catch the youth of today, there's no time for wit when you're ''Mad for It!''
 == Trivia ==
-Singer Katie Melua made her TV debut on the talent contest segment, "Stars Up Their Noses". She sang "Without You", and won. So no second-to-a-singing-dog embarassment there - she didn't even get gunged!
+Singer Katie Melua made her TV debut on the talent contest segment, "Stars Up Their Noses". She sang "Without You", and won. So no second-to-a-singing-dog embarrassment there - she didn't even get gunged!
-Gladiator Wolf once appeared on the show, he didn't get gunged though, instead he picked up and put Pie Boy into the Dungeon of gunge, who was gunged at the end of the show.
+Wolf from [[Gladiators]] appeared on the last ever show, after cheating at ''Shatter That Platter'' (a cononut shy game featuring dinner plates) he was sent to the Dungeon of Gunge. Any ''Gladiators'' fans expecting to see it's most well known baddie being gunged would be disappointed as Wolf tricked Pie Boy in to the dungeon instead.
-Over the course of the second series, all of the hosts of CITV were gunged at some point.
+Over the course of the second series, several CITV hosts were gunged. Hosts [[Danielle Nicholls]] and [[Mike McClean]] ended up on the receiving end as well as fellow CITV continuity presenters [[Stephen Mulhern]], Tom (Arthur) Darvill and Andrea Green as well as Vanessa Bewley (from ''The Top Ten of Everything'').
+The catchy harmonica driven theme music was an edited version of the dance tune ''Harmonica Man'' by Bravado. Originally released in 1994, reaching No.37 in the UK charts.
 == Web links ==
@@ Line 66: / Line 57: @@
 == Videos ==
-<div class="video"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3L3b7DeEddM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3L3b7DeEddM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br>''An episode from the year 2000.''</div>
+<div class="video"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KbvJ210E8AY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KbvJ210E8AY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br>''The very first episode''</div><br/>
+<div class="video"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gcfzlRcjcQk?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gcfzlRcjcQk?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br>''The very last episode''</div>
 [[Category:Childrens]]
 [[Category:Carlton Productions]]