Over The Top

Do You Remember Over The Top?

Do You Remember Over The Top?

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  Roxxy on 2011-10-19 19:30:28

  Well I remember it, but are you sure the dates are right? I seem to remember it being on from 1983-84, after Tiswas had finished. It was, indeed, very risque- like a televised version of 'Viz' comic but more consistently obscene. It was presented by the same team as did Tiswas (Chris Tarrant, Sally James, Lenny Henry, Bob Carolgees and John Gorman), with added guest appearances by the likes of Alexei Sayle and Rik Mayall. Broadcast in front of a live studio audience, the stage action was interspursed with rude cartoons and animated sequences- there was also 'Beat Your Brains Out Time', when the audience went mad to the accompaniment of the show's hard rock n' roll theme tune hitting each other with plastic clubs, hurling 'custard pies', and John Gorman went around blipping people with a gigantic inflatable hammer. There were also live appearances by bands such as Fun Boy Three- the show was probably most notorious for the infamous 'balloon dance', in which three male strippers pranced about in synch wearing nothing but a pair of balloons to cover their privates- the conservative press went absolutely ballistic about that!! OTT (as it was known) was pulled after only a year, to be replaced by the more restrained but even shorter-lived 'Stayback'.