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1958-59 ‘Oh Boy!’ ABC Television

On 13 September 1958 a new show appeared on ITV which was the first all-music British television show aimed solely at entertaining young people (unlike the BBC’s ‘Six Five Special‘ which had been launched over a year-and-a-half earlier in early 1957 and had taken rather too seriously its aim to be ‘wholesome’ and ‘educational’). Here is the last episode broadcast of ‘Oh Boy!’ – of 38 episodes – which aired on 30 May 1959.

Here is episode #30 from the 04 April 1959

There is no need to go into depth in this article, since you are better off looking at the excellent dedicated ‘Oh Boy!’ website here.

Jack Good

Tony Davis (2016YTcomm) It was reported that 13 Telerecorded shows were sent to the USA for broadcast, no trace has been found of them, either shredded, or ended up in some private collectors hands.
Sean Ryan (2020YTcomm) I think only 3 complete shows exist of this TV show.
johnreynolds71 (2015YTcomm) ultra rare footage u got as only 2 shows remain, rest erased/lost 🙁
Geoffers008 (2019YT) Four shows are known to exist; details on the Oh Boy! website.
Rhubba (2018YTcomm)
Although I much prefer 60s music the presentation of this show is fantastic.  Minimal set, great use of lighting and shadow and the frenetic pace never lets up.  Bam, bam, bam!
filbertthedilbert1 (2018YTcomm)
Phew! You can’t get your breath with this.

*trunky123 (2018YTcomm) “It actually looks more exciting and far more fun than any American shows at the time, bandstand etc. No wonder Jack Good was whisked off to the USA.”

Dave Carter (2019YTcomm) “This show and Boy meets Girl were both superb shows. Both fore runners of Ready Steady Go of course.”

PJ Riverdale (2018YTcomm) The prototype for Shindig five years later. Produced by Jack Goode.
Gordon Hastie (2020YTcomm) Except that, from what I’ve seen, Shindig was far more orthodox and less exciting. Plus the ads of course. I can imagine that working for US TV must have been frustrating for Jack Good.

PJ Riverdale (2020YTcomm) Good basically transplanted “Oh Boy” intact and revived it as “Shindig” for the US market. It is reported that ATV/ Good attempted to sell ” Oh Boy” to American networks and to that end kinescoped episodes were sent to the US. For whatever reason, the show was not picked up. One can speculate that the US Rock N Roll market on TV was already well served primarily by programs hosted by Dick Clark plus local spinoffs. Clark’s name has not been mentioned as him being the obstacle to Oh Boy’s release in the US, but one could see that his “Saturday Night Show” may have been his response to ” Oh Boy”. More likely, there was NO interest in the US for UK bands until January 1964. There are many stories of giant UK acts and hits that absolutely could not get any footing in the US. Even the Beatles’ initial releases were flops and not originally released by Capitol/EMI until after February 1964 in the US. But, Good’s time had come due to the high level of interest by broadcasters to jump on a burgeoning teen music market and by July 1964, him being British didn’t hurt. With Dick Clark now widening his scope as a program packager outside of music, shows like “Shindig”, “Shivaree”, “Hollywood A Go Go”, “The Lloyd Thaxton Show” and finally, “Hullabaloo”, which threw a lot of money at production to only look like a corporate rip off of “Shindig”. By Shindig’s second season, Good was gone from it and in re watching episodes, one can feel ” something” is different although the staging and pacing remained the same. The funny irony for US viewers of “Shindig” is while it looked like nothing else had on US TV in 1964, its presentation and pacing had already been put in place with “Oh Boy”. With “Oh Boy”,Good had it right the first time. We, in the US had to catch up with him.

Good basically transplanted “Oh Boy” intact and revived it as “Shindig” for the US market. It is reported that ATV/ Good attempted to sell ” Oh Boy” to American networks and to that end kinescoped episodes were sent to the US. For whatever reason, the show was not picked up. One can speculate that the US Rock N Roll market on TV was already well served primarily by programs hosted by Dick Clark plus local spinoffs. Clark’s name has not been mentioned as him being the obstacle to Oh Boy’s release in the US, but one could see that his “Saturday Night Show” may have been his response to ” Oh Boy”. More likely, there was NO interest in the US for UK bands until January 1964. There are many stories of giant UK acts and hits that absolutely could not get any footing in the US. Even the Beatles’ initial releases were flops and not originally released by Capitol/EMI until after February 1964 in the US. But, Good’s time had come due to the high level of interest by broadcasters to jump on a burgeoning teen music market and by July 1964, him being British didn’t hurt. With Dick Clark now widening his scope as a program packager outside of music, shows like “Shindig”, “Shivaree”, “Hollywood A Go Go”, “The Lloyd Thaxton Show” and finally, “Hullabaloo”, which threw a lot of money at production to only look like a corporate rip off of “Shindig”. By Shindig’s second season, Good was gone from it and in re watching episodes, one can feel ” something” is different although the staging and pacing remained the same. The funny irony for US viewers of “Shindig” is while it looked like nothing else had on US TV in 1964, its presentation and pacing had already been put in place with “Oh Boy”. With “Oh Boy”,Good had it right the first time. We, in the US had to catch up with him.

PJ Riverdale (2020YTcomm)
@Gordon Hastie The Beats’ appearance was an insert done from the Saville Theater in London. There was some effort to make the visuals more like Good’s lighting choice but not exactly. One has to remember, “Oh Boy” was staged during the “405 line” era of British TV. The lighting choice was more a matter of trying to overcome low resolution in the picture transmission and not in the least, production costs. Shindig was shot on a much larger stage with the increased stage depth accentuating the high contrast lighting effect. On US TV productions dating back to the mid 1950’s, the stark effect was used sparingly, usually to impart a dramatic tone to a scene or presentation. Not until “Shindig” was it used for entire episodes, although many acts were shot in full lighting and the final song of the show would always be done in full lighting.
Good would leave “Shindig” during 1965. Careful viewing of the episodes post departure do reveal a slight change in the overall feel of the show. “Shindig” made it to January 1966 before being cancelled.
*Raggy50 (2020YTcomm) “My cousin knew Jack Good and took me to see this a couple of times. I couldn’t believe the colourful clothes they wore, light blue, green and pink. Really loved it.”
John Kingdon (2018YTcomm) “Worked on the 1st show at Hackney Empire, incredible adrenalin, I was actually tracking a dolly as a trainee.”
Derek Woodman2 years ago
Brilliant watching this every Friday night before going out and thinking you were one of the rock n rollers.
John Still5 years ago
This was the GREATEST TV Rock n Roll series EVER!! I was 19 yo at the beginning of the series[1958]. I was 20 in the August, and then in September Cliff came on the screen with MOVE IT…WOW!!
In 2014 Jeremy Hoare uploaded onto Youtube an 8mm film he made on 1 November 1958 when he was a call boy on the ground breaking series thanks to Jack Good. It was live every Saturday evening for 30 minutes at 6pm from the ATV Hackney Empire Studio. Jack used to start the show with a warm up which went segue into the show for real, thus creating a great atmosphere before we went live.

johnreynolds716 years ago
according to a great website dedicated to oh boy, this footage is from nov 58 and was tommy steeles only appearance on the show http://community.fortunecity.ws/greenfield/wolf/31/id47.htm
Chris Hughes6 (2015YTcomm)
The ‘Blind Saxophone player’! Benny Green hated this gig so much he wore shades to disguise himself – and in came fan mail for the blind saxophone player!
djangorheinhardt (2016YTcomm)
+Chris Hughes When Benny did his Sunday afternoon radio 2 show he used to mention his time on this show with undisguised bile and venom.I religiously listened to his show ,every week as he was marvellous although when i mentioned his name to a friend of mine he retorted,”Now there`s a sour man”.I suppose Benny was, as he saw the changes in music and did not like them.I see you are a sax player .I try and play jazz guitar myself and struggle with its complexities.I still think this show and the music was great Benny did not like the fact that Jack Good told them to detune ,or play their instruments slightly out of tune ,to make it more R n R .!!!Nuff said !!!!!

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