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TV Offal
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TV Offal
TV Offal is a British satirical comedy sketch/archive television series that ran on Channel 4 from 31 October 1997 to 26 June 1998. It was written and narrated by comedian and writer Victor Lewis-Smith, who shared writing duties with Paul Sparks. It ran for seven episodes (including the pilot), and is probably best known for first airing the uncensored Rainbow sketch on national television, as well as the "Gay Daleks" sketches.
The series covered generally obscure, rare or offensive excerpts of television footage from numerous media archives, usually accompanied by Lewis-Smith's biting commentary and cynical approach to what was being shown. Lewis-Smith used a variety of categories on the show to accompany a particular selection of programme footage. The show was also characterised by its musical score of campy jingles introducing the regular segments. These were produced in the 1980s style by the Dallas-based radio ID company JAM Creative Productions.
The programme was made by Associated-Rediffusion, the name of a TV company formerly serving the London area from 1955 to 1964 (and continuing as Rediffusion London until 1968). Lewis-Smith bought the name for his own production company when he discovered that it was dormant.
TV Offal has never been fully repeated, although a "best of" series entitled TV Offal Prime Cuts was aired in November 1999.
The opening to each episode involved an imitated guest appearance from Professor Stephen Hawking, who's often shown conversing with either Lewis-Smith or one of the gay Daleks (who's convinced he's really Robert T. Ironside and so pesters Hawking for an autograph).
A satirical look at the death of either a current or generally obscure celebrity personality's "demise" followed by a satirical account of their contributions to the viewing public (which usually derails them) before revealing the exaggerated cause of death. The first few lines of the obituary are a list of very harsh criticisms, usually followed by "[his/her] critics were less kind". The deaths are usually announced using a piece of dubbed dialogue of the celebrity's name, mixing into BBC News footage of newsreader (Michael Buerk) saying "... who died today" in a bitter and traumatised manner. (From the news reports broadcast on the day that Princess Diana died.) Obituaries included Noel Edmonds, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Melvyn Bragg, Nigel Kennedy, Jeremy Clarkson, Vanessa Feltz, Two Fat Ladies and Jeremy Beadle.
Usually involves Lewis-Smith imitating various musicians to interpret how they sound "to him", usually mocking them in the process.
This segment usually had two parts, with one part leading to the commercial breaks, challenging the viewer to depend on their memory to guess the outcome of a genuine assassination attempt aired on the show, and the second part resolving the outcome and whenever or not the victim survived or was killed ("did they live or are they worm food?"). Those featured were Inejiro Asanuma and Luis Donaldo Colosio (both killed), Park Chung-Hee (who survived but whose wife Yuk Young-soo was killed in the attempt), Imelda Marcos (who survived), John F. Kennedy (who was killed but whom Lewis-Smith said had survived in a fictitious "what really happened" segment) and Prince Charles (who survived but whom Lewis-Smith said was killed in an equally fictitious segment). In between the setting of the question and the reveal of the answer, viewers were usually treated to a bizarrely outdated television advertisement, such as an ad for the Daily Mirror produced in about 1960 (using the slogan "the Daily Mirror backs the young!" and ridiculing the "old guard" of British society) and an advert for the now discontinued Diocalm. The section was dropped from one episode when TV Offal instead used the original break titles from an episode of The Golden Shot during a piece satirising the game show.
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TV Offal
TV Offal is a British satirical comedy sketch/archive television series that ran on Channel 4 from 31 October 1997 to 26 June 1998. It was written and narrated by comedian and writer Victor Lewis-Smith, who shared writing duties with Paul Sparks. It ran for seven episodes (including the pilot), and is probably best known for first airing the uncensored Rainbow sketch on national television, as well as the "Gay Daleks" sketches.
The series covered generally obscure, rare or offensive excerpts of television footage from numerous media archives, usually accompanied by Lewis-Smith's biting commentary and cynical approach to what was being shown. Lewis-Smith used a variety of categories on the show to accompany a particular selection of programme footage. The show was also characterised by its musical score of campy jingles introducing the regular segments. These were produced in the 1980s style by the Dallas-based radio ID company JAM Creative Productions.
The programme was made by Associated-Rediffusion, the name of a TV company formerly serving the London area from 1955 to 1964 (and continuing as Rediffusion London until 1968). Lewis-Smith bought the name for his own production company when he discovered that it was dormant.
TV Offal has never been fully repeated, although a "best of" series entitled TV Offal Prime Cuts was aired in November 1999.
The opening to each episode involved an imitated guest appearance from Professor Stephen Hawking, who's often shown conversing with either Lewis-Smith or one of the gay Daleks (who's convinced he's really Robert T. Ironside and so pesters Hawking for an autograph).
A satirical look at the death of either a current or generally obscure celebrity personality's "demise" followed by a satirical account of their contributions to the viewing public (which usually derails them) before revealing the exaggerated cause of death. The first few lines of the obituary are a list of very harsh criticisms, usually followed by "[his/her] critics were less kind". The deaths are usually announced using a piece of dubbed dialogue of the celebrity's name, mixing into BBC News footage of newsreader (Michael Buerk) saying "... who died today" in a bitter and traumatised manner. (From the news reports broadcast on the day that Princess Diana died.) Obituaries included Noel Edmonds, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Melvyn Bragg, Nigel Kennedy, Jeremy Clarkson, Vanessa Feltz, Two Fat Ladies and Jeremy Beadle.
Usually involves Lewis-Smith imitating various musicians to interpret how they sound "to him", usually mocking them in the process.
This segment usually had two parts, with one part leading to the commercial breaks, challenging the viewer to depend on their memory to guess the outcome of a genuine assassination attempt aired on the show, and the second part resolving the outcome and whenever or not the victim survived or was killed ("did they live or are they worm food?"). Those featured were Inejiro Asanuma and Luis Donaldo Colosio (both killed), Park Chung-Hee (who survived but whose wife Yuk Young-soo was killed in the attempt), Imelda Marcos (who survived), John F. Kennedy (who was killed but whom Lewis-Smith said had survived in a fictitious "what really happened" segment) and Prince Charles (who survived but whom Lewis-Smith said was killed in an equally fictitious segment). In between the setting of the question and the reveal of the answer, viewers were usually treated to a bizarrely outdated television advertisement, such as an ad for the Daily Mirror produced in about 1960 (using the slogan "the Daily Mirror backs the young!" and ridiculing the "old guard" of British society) and an advert for the now discontinued Diocalm. The section was dropped from one episode when TV Offal instead used the original break titles from an episode of The Golden Shot during a piece satirising the game show.