Hangar 17

Synopsis

Children's variety show set in a cabaret venue and probably one of the most impressive studio sets ever made. Basically Crackerjack for the 90s, cool and hip without the pandering and outdated naff.

Series 1

The first series focused on more of a variety-based show with comedy sketches and performing acts that range from magicians, dancers, comedians and singers. There was however one game segment in this series.

Battle of the Bands had two unsigned bands go head to head and perform to the audience, then the audience, in the same vein as Opportunity Knocks, have to cheer which one they like the most and the winner gets to perform again at the end of the show.

They did well to keep an audience of children entertained for a variety show through the winter months of 1992 while Fun House was taking a year off on the other side. By the way, this series aired on Fridays at 4.30pm, in case if you're interested.

Series 2

New series and a new timeslot, Tuesdays at 4.35pm to be exact. It was more or less the same as the first series, but with a couple of new game segments thrown in for good measure.

Battle of the Bands was carried over from the first series, but only the name survived as the format for this segment was revamped. Two teams from a programme they appear on go head to head and complete a series of tasks to gain points and whoever gains the most points wins the Hangar 17 trophy.

Taking the Mickey is the main game show segment of the show where two contestants go head to head in a series of three games and whoever gets the highest score over the course of the games wins a jacket, but they get a choice to either keep the jacket they won or gamble it to answer a question correctly for a chance to win a mystery prize, which ranges from a cabbage to a computer, if they get it wrong, they lose the jacket they just won.

Comedy Cones had three entertainers try and make the audience laugh for about 60 seconds, then a panel of three kids would have to score out of 10, which one of the three is the funniest, the one who scores the most would then get to gunge their two opponents under ice cream cones.

This series is definitely an improvement over the first series with a nice balance of game segments and variety acts.

Series 3

This series was a little more game show focused than what the previous two series offered, but it still had some variety stuff to keep the balance going.

Battle of the Bands was renamed to The Fame Game for this series, while Comedy Cones survived both its name and its format.

Taking the Mickey also survived for this series but with a bit of a format change. There were now three contestants going head to head with the contestant who scored the least points after the second round is eliminated and another one after the third and final round. The winner as always won a jacket, but would get a chance to gamble it for a mystery prize, which again is ranged between a cabbage to a computer. If they do gamble, they would then be asked not one, not two, but THREE questions and they would have to get two out of three of them correctly to win the mystery prize.

Hot Seat had kids write in to nominate their teacher to get gunged for basically a silly reason, if the teacher wants to avoid getting gunged, they would have to answer all three questions correctly. Get Your Own Back would later incorporate the three questions part of the show in the Gunk Dunk round two years later in their "hip and cool" revamp.

Theme music

Martin Cook

Web links

Wikipedia entry

Opening titles from the BBC Motion Graphics Archive

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