BEFORE Netflix dominated TV screens, quiz shows were all the rage in many British households.
Due to the limited channels, primetime shows would see figures reach 19million for the peak-time shows with the presenters becoming huge household names.
However, would these dominant shows from the 60s to 90s be put in front of modern TV viewers today?
Times have evolved and many of the outdated jokes would not land well with audiences – especially families on a Saturday night.
Here, we look at some once-popular TV shows that quite possibly wouldn’t make it to air today…
Man O Man
Hosted by Chris Tarrant from 1996 to 1999 before his Who Wants To Be A Millionaire stint, Man O Man effectively was a beauty pageant for men.
Ten chaps competed in front of an all-female audience in just swimwear for one section, and would perform chat-up lines and show their muscles.
Then, 125 women would vote for them, and if a female contestant wasn’t impressed, she’d push the man into the pool.
While some described the show as inverting stereotypical tropes and being tongue-in-cheek, others felt it was degrading and encouraged public humiliation.
Bullseye
During its peak from 1981 to 1995, Sunday night darts show Bullseye drew up to 20million viewers.
The show saw host Jim Bowen – known for catchphrases such as “super, smashing, great” – guide three pairs of contestants through the darts and quiz questions.
However, ex-teacher Bowen’s comedy frequently relied on punching down at contestants, including body shaming women.
In one toe-curling exchange, he asked Jane Groves about her weight loss journey after she did a sponsored slim.
Bowen cruelly asked: “How much do you owe?” and when audiences stopped laughing, he added: “That’s very unkind of me.”
The show has been rebooted in recent years, with ex cricketer Andrew Flintoff taking the helm, and guest appearance by Britain’s teen darts hero Luke Littler.
3-2-1
From 1978 to 1988, the TV show 3-2-1 brought Ted Rogers, his sidekick Dusty Bin, and a large dose of sexism into millions of homes.
Rogers commanded the stage while surrounded by silently objectified “3-2-1 girls,” whose main purpose was to wear revealing outfits that often matched to the prizes.
Rogers’ routine heavily featured old-fashioned sexist “nagging wife” tropes and jokes that modern audiences could find intolerable.
They Think It’s All Over
Airing from 1995 to 2006, this sports panel show fostered a hyper-masculine, “locker room” environment.
Panelists routinely demeaned female guests and admitted they “behaved like teenagers” whenever they were booked in.
The show was originally hosted by Nick Hancock, and saw two captains, often David Gower, Gary Lineker, Phil Tufnell, Ian Wright, and David Seaman, joined by comedians and sporting stars.
Ex Manchester United footballer Luke Chadwick received a public apology from Hancock and Gary Lineker over jokes made about his physical appearance, including his teeth and acne, on the show.
One example of the bullying was: “This photo of Luke Chadwick was ruined… when Luke Chadwick turned up.”
He admitted to BBC in 2020 that the comments affected his mental health.
Chadwick shared: “I became a picture of fun, and that was probably the hardest thing.
“Obviously people were finding it funny, but it was eating away at me a bit inside while that was happening.”
Olympian Fatima Whitbread settled for an undisclosed figure when she took the show to court in 1999, with Rory McGrath saying: “We joked she failed the urine test because she got her c*** stuck in the bottle.”
Mr and Mrs
Running from 1965 to 1999 after originating in Canada, Mr and Mrs championed old family dynamics that feel rather archaic now.
Host Derek Batey questioned heterosexual couples, consistently reinforcing a dynamic where the husband was the primary breadwinner and the wife a homemaker.
The game, which many people will know from hen or stag parties, involved each person answering questions about their partner, with the aim to get enough right to bag a jackpot.
Its narrow definition of marriage and with Batey referring to some ladies as “my darling”, mean it probably wouldn’t land well with modern viewers.
The Generation Game
Occupying prime Saturday night viewing from 1971 to 2002, The Generation Game featured casual sexism despite its massive popularity under hosts Bruce Forsyth, Larry Grayson, and later Jim Davidson.
Contestants would watch prizes go past on a conveyor belt and would have to recall what they saw in order to take a haul home.
Glamorous assistants like Anthea Redfearn and Rosemarie Ford were relegated to secondary roles on the Saturday night BBC show, and were seen modelling prizes and smiling silently.
Bruce famously courted and married his hostess, Anthea, before they divorced six years later in 1979.
During their tenure together, Forsyth regularly flirted with her on camera, and instructed her to spin around so the studio audience could “have a look at you.”
The Price is Right
Brought to ITV from the US, The Price is Right – which has aired between 1984 and 2007 – was first hosted Leslie Crowther, who had previously fronted the deeply controversial Black and White Minstrel Show.
Later Bruce Forsyth took the helm, and airing on Saturday night at 7pm, audience contestants would guess the cost of various items to win prizes.
A rather sexist element of the show were the ‘Host’s Hostesses’.
Typically models were hired for the role, which involved them smiling and looking glamorous as they’d drape themselves across the prizes without uttering a word.
Blankety Blank
A recent reboot of Blankety Blank, hosted by Bradley Walsh, was cut in July by the BBC to reduce costs.
However, the original version – which ran from 1979 to 1990 – would certainly raise eyebrows today.
Deadpan comedic presenter Les Dawson was known for sharing numerous offensive jokes about his mother-in-law and wife, and relying on sexist quips.