Live and Kicking: start of series eight

[@MultiVince95]

Saturday 7th October 2000

[@JB1601]

@madmusician91 he had a surname when he first started on CBBC on Short Change a couple of years earlier, but had lost it by the time he became L&K's roving reporter the previous series. At a guess, to avoid questions about whether he's connected to SM:TV's Cat Deeley? Bit odd though. I think he's back to Ortis Deley on The Gadget Show now though.

[@tomosburton1756]

I used to turn over to the last series for Monster Rancher and then when they stopped showing it I stayed with SMTV.

[@PutTheTellyOn]

Great clip. The beginning of the end of a very successful format defeated by its rivals.

[@meridian2000]

@Put The Telly On No, it wasn't the beginning of the end, it was all down to stupid Nigel Pickard who didn't understand that L&K was a BBC brand, it should still be on today along with all of other of its important shows that were gone after 2001, not Strictly Come Dancing and The Apprentice, as for its rivals well Ant and Dec are completely untalented, they are a bunch of guys who are rubbish in the tv industry and when the time comes for them to retire, they will not be missed.

[@2001JamesTV]

@JB1601 One thing I find quite interesting is that even though Live & Kicking was in 16:9 here, SMTV on the other side was in 4:3 right until the end- over 3 years later!

[@2001JamesTV]

@JB1601 The interesting thing is Trey went the other way! When he presented on MTV, he only ever used his first name, but he was using his surname by the time he started on L&K.

[@madmusician91]

Have very vague memories of this, so thanks for uploading. Why was Ortis only ever referred to as using first name only?

[@JB1601]

@2001JamesTV yes that was a bit odd. Another one that stayed 4:3 to the end was The Big Breakfast but you can kind of understand that as they would have had to upgrade the whole house, and by that time the show was declinining in popularity and there was probably important things to spend the money on. But SM:TV's studio would have been fully capable.

[@dsd310580]

This is when the show lost it’s heart and soul and everyone switched over to SMTV: Live, leading to Live & Kicking’s cancellation. God I miss the good days of Live & Kicking.

[@meridian2000]

@DSD310580 Listen the only people who watched Smtv are grown up people when it was supposed to be a Saturday morning, CHILDREN's programme, and the content that Smtv provided was inappropriate, so thank goodness it got axed 5 years later and besides we prefer Live & Kicking, that was the best Saturday morning children's programme, not Smtv

[@dsd310580]

@@meridian2000 Shouldn’t treat your kids like fragile little idiots that will grow up to be criminals and deviants if they enjoy a little innuendo. Actually, the innuendo was for the adults. Most of it often goes over little kids’ heads without any harm done. And yeah, as a young teenager, growing up on my estate, coming from my family, I’d already seen it, heard it, and done it, by then. Didn’t matter what I was watching on TV. TV is my escape from the misery of the real world. I actually enjoyed these shows more as a teenager, than as a little kid. And I still grew up to be a nice law abiding citizen.

[@JB1601]

@treffynnon19 it was never explained why Katy went. My guess is that they were all essentially signed up for another contract (as it was normally another show from Glasgow) but she declined to do so as the show was already axed and it could do her career more harm than good. The others were probably grateful for the work :-)

[@JB1601]

@thepod96 was just widescreen a la much of the BBC's output. Unfortunately as I recorded it letterbox rather than anamorphic Iwidescreen I don't know of a way of forcing YT to display it full screen (esp as the first few seconds are traditional 4:3)

[@2001JamesTV]

@JB1601 I keep thinking it might have had something to do with the main CITV continuity being 4:3 until September 2003- by which time SM:TV had already been axed and was running the "Gold" series. I don't know if that's the case though, after all, CBBC being in 4:3 didn't affect FBi or Live & Kicking, and CITV continuity wasn't shown around SM:TV anyway. Some CD:UK specials around 2002-3 were in 16:9 though, as were most pre-recorded performances (though they were shown in 14:9).

[@jasondrury8301]

Found a clip the other day from the night before the series started, the show the late Christopher Price used to present, they were saying then it was like it’s last hope

[@meridian2000]

It doesn't matter about that, it was just a saturday morning children's programme, and a rebrand was needed in the year 2000.

[@JB1601]

@thepod96 cheers, will try that in future. will leave this as is though because of the CBBC link at the start

[@JB1601]

Anyone know if the pre-titles is meant to be a spoof of something in particular? Went straight over my head if so...

[@Allanbuzzy]

Ahhh theres the Anime ident.

[@StFidjnr]

can you please post the last ever Live and Kicking opening.

[@thepod96]

Oh, and by the way, was it in letterbox throughout the whole series? Must have gotten a bit annoying after a while.

[@meridian2000]

Just to say if your all saying that the classic era of Live and Kicking was better than this era. Then your all wrong. This era of Live and Kicking was one of the best ever as with other eras, and Katy hill, Sarah cawood, Ortis, Trey Farley and Heather Suttie were some of the best presenters ever along with Zoe Ball, Jamie Theakston, Emma Forbes and Andi Peters. And also Live and Kicking was way better than SMTV Live, Ant Dec and Cat were rubbish. Nigel Pickard who was head of CBBC at the time should never have axed Live and Kicking, that was a big mistake.

[@RobinBlamires]

What's that there? Oh, just a record that needs changing. Or smashing up altogether.

[@meridian2000]

@Robin Blamires You are a prick, as of now you are banned from criticising L&K, if you do you will get banned as well.

[@VMPhil]

Big fan of KZbin’s auto subtitles version of the presenters names - Katie’ll, Oh Case, Brave Ollie and Sara Heywood. Also anyone else noticed that Michael Underwood introduced the first episode of three failed Saturday morning shows (L&K 1999, L&K 2000 and The Saturday Show 2001?) Finally, dreadful laugh free intro playing to a dead silent studio that is a complete waste of time, should have just dropped that.

[@meridian2000]

@VM Phil Sorry but you're wrong and you're in the minority, L&K did not fail between 1999 and 2001, it was still successful, it was successful than the failed Smtv Live, which was unwatchable.

[@VMPhil]

@@meridian2000 OK Ortis.

[@Hertfordshire247]

Katy Hill, yesteryears Suzanna Reid, Read, Reed. A little bit too full of her own self-importance and certainly no Zoe Ball in PVC.