Bullseye

[Dirty Epic]

Played some darts in a pub for the first time in many a year recently and I’ve never noticed a thread for one of the iconic TV quiz shows of the 1980’s. Bullseye. Wondering if there’s any other fans on here?

Yes Jim Bowen can be a bit of a Marmite character “Sooper, Smashin’, Gree-at!”, “Nothin’ in this game for Two in a Bed!” and those prizes like speedboats and caravans were absolutely bizarre but the cheese factor of Bullseye makes it enjoyable for me and considering the rubbish quiz shows on at the moment I’d happily watch Bullseye on Challenge too.

Always thought Jim and scorer Tony Green used to put off the charity dart player and the star prize shootouts when many a contestant looked at “What yer could’ve won” too. Having said that was a bit of a mistake bringing it back a few years back with Dave Spikey. Not because Dave was bad far from it just it wasn’t the enjoyable cringeworthy style Jim and the original show had.

Any thoughts.

[Arthur Pringle]

One of the best gameshows ever imo. Apparently it was Steve Wright on Radio 1 & also Terry Wogan who started the 'super, smashing, great' stuff as Jim Bowen mentions Wright on a couple of shows & how he poked fun at the show on his radio programme. Wright later appeared on one of the Bullseye Christmas celebrity shows.
What you come to appreciate if you watch Bullseye a lot is that Bowen was in fact an excellent host who had a natural interaction with the contestants, I much prefer his warm & down to earth style to the likes of Bob Monkhouse & he had a great rapport with Tony Green.

Worst special prize must've been the 'Bullseye fashion show', a selection of clothes for all the family, but what they were doing giving speedboats away is anyone's business.

A few professional dart players appeared as contestants on Bullseye including Alan Warriner & Tony Green first appeared as a pro throwing for charity.

Funny story about Tony Green- someone I know was at a darts tournament years ago, later in the day he found himself at the bar with Tony Green & others. Green kept offering him & others drinks & when anyone offered to buy Green one he'd say 'no, don't worry, it's all taken care of'. This kept going for some time, everyone getting free drinks, whatever they wanted. It turned out that the venue where the darts was being held had a wedding going on & Green, who'd been at the venue for darts many times & was friendly with the barman, revealed that all the drinks had gone on the wedding people's bar tab   He also said he'd done it on previous occasions! 

[Vienna]

I used to watch it a lot in the 80s/90s and loved it. Super, smashing, great! - although Jim Bowen never actually said it during the show I believe. The speedboat prize which became a big joke during the entire series was a bit bizarre considering the show was recorded in the Midlands cities of Birmingham and Nottingham, about as far away from the sea as you get in the UK 

[Arthur Pringle]

I'm sure Bowen never uttered 'super, smashing, great' though he did say 'super' a lot- 'super prizes', etc. Steve Wright did actually say something like 'super, smashing, great', mimicking Bowen when he appeared on the show.
In fact I've seen a couple of youtube videos with Bowen describing incidents from Bullseye episodes that I can not remember happening. I think he's just gone along with the popular belief that the show was 'bad', part of the reason its lasted so long in the public's consciousness is this cliche that it was an amateurish show with easy questions. In fact whilst the spelling & faces questions could be basic, the general knowledge questions could be tough by today's standards.

Below is a video demonstrating a talking Jim Bowen keychain, I got one for Christmas some years back. Also got a set of Bullseye darts one Christmas about 30 years ago.

[Bojan Scores]

I spent one Christmas watching Bullseye on YouTube in Bahrain, to counter home sickness. Funny the things that you crave as a little englander abroad. None the less, it cheered me up a fair bit :D

[Del Boy]

Bullseye is a very British institution.
I loved it on a Sunday evening, one of the best game show formats ever IMO.
I remember getting a dart board one Christmas and it was constant battles with my brother for the 101 or more in 6 darts.

[Cartman]

Yes, I’ve had many a go at the 101 with 6 darts on my board! It’s not actually that easy. 

Bullseye was was one of those things that was so bad it was good. Used to love Tony Green when he was going through the prizes IIIINNNNN ONE!

[Ministrone]

Bullseye is great, but to this day it's reminds me of school the next day  

if you catch the very early episodes on challenge. They pre date Tony Green and poor old Jim struggles with asking questions, funny gags AND mental arithmatic. It's entertaining in a car crash tv way..... 

[Arthur Pringle]

Yes the first series is interesting to watch, introduced with the old ATV eyes logo before it changed to Central, funny but Jim Bowen seems to look older in the early shows, I once heard Bernard Manning describe him as a 'trainee corpse'   These early episodes had Nick Owen from TV AM doing the voice-over, he later appeared as a guest on the show. The first dart board they use to decide who goes first appears to be made of plasticene. It's surprising how much older shows from 1979 can look compared to just a few years later.

Shows can be a lot more fun to watch when the host hasn't found his feet or is just not switched on, Max Bygraves on Family Fortunes is much more entertaining than Bob Monkhouse. Bowen's candid way of talking to the contestants is in marked contrast to most hosts, on one episode there was an attractive woman on, I think she was Middle Eastern & Bowen, obviously taken with her, said 'where are you from? you're obviously not English'   If someone said that today there'd be twitter users all over it.

[Vienna]

Feb 16, 2018 10:03:18 GMT Cartman said:

Yes, I’ve had many a go at the 101 with 6 darts on my board! It’s not actually that easy. 

It was especially difficult in front of a studio audience and millions watching on TV as well. Also, the 301 or more with 9 darts to double the money won for charity often caused problems for the professional darts players who had a go at it. Many of them seemed to struggle to get a high enough score in order to have a chance at winning the bronze bully.