History Trivia / NotTheNineOClockNews

* GenreKiller: Professional darts boomed in TheSeventies and TheEighties as a very unlikely spectator sport - but one that could fill conference venues and draw millions of spectators on TV. It became a theatrical spectacle along the lines of pro wrestling or a big boxing bout - especially when two big-name heavyweights were slugging it out for a title. And then [=NTNO'CN=] came along with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHnBppccI0o skewering parody]]. [[Series/AlasSmithAndJones Mel Smith and Gryff Rhys-Jones]] aided by an over-the-top commentator voiced by Creator/RowanAtkinson, pointed out that the reason ''why'' big name darts players were heavyweights was that... well, they ''were'' [[FatSlob heavyweights]]. The parody made drinking the center of the sport, with a little actual darts going on in the background. The uneasy realization started to set in... ''Why are we watching extremely fat men smoking, drinking, and occasionally throwing a dart at a board?'' (Although oddly enough, televised Darts matches were entirely "dry", with no drinking allowed - the sketch has apparently created a national false memory that the players were drinking on camera.) The sport faltered as a TV phenomenon and has never really recovered.

** As with other BBC shows of the same period, some of the humour acceptable as TheSeventies turned into TheEighties wouldn't really fly today. The sketch where two womens' fooball teams exchange shirts at the end of the match (and, unlike real women footballers, are not wearing sports bras), for instance. Or else some strangely out-of-kilter-with-the-rest gags about black people and gays. Anyone compiling a "Best Of..." would have to take this into account too.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/BillyConnolly and Pamela Stephenson - they first met on the show in 1979, married in 1989, are are still together.

** As with other BBC shows of the same period, some of the humour acceptable as TheSeventies turned into TheEighties wouldn't really fly today. The sketch where two womens' fooball teams exchange shirts at the end of the match, for instance. Or else some strangely out-of-kilter-with-the-rest gags about black people and gays. Anyone compiling a "Best Of..." would have to take this into account too.

* GenreKiller: Professional darts boomed in TheSeventies and TheEighties as a very unlikely spectator sport - but one that could fill conference venues and draw millions of spectators on TV. It became a theatrical spectacle along the lines of pro wrestling or a big boxing bout - especially when two big-name heavyweights were slugging it out for a title. And then [=NTNO'CN=] came along with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHnBppccI0o skewering parody]]. [[Series/AlasSmithAndJones Mel Smith and Gryff Rhys-Jones]] aided by an over-the-top commentator voiced by Creator/RowanAtkinson, pointed out that the reason ''why'' big name darts players were heavyweights was that... well, they ''were'' [[FatSlob heavyweights]]. The parody made drinking the center of the sport, with a little actual darts going on in the background. The uneasy realization started to set in... ''Why are we watching extremely fat men smoking, drinking, and occasionally throwing a dart at a board?'' The sport faltered as a TV phenomenon and has never really recovered.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Only two GreatestHits [=DVDs=] have been released, which included the most famous sketches ("Gerald the Gorilla", "Kinda Lingers", "the deaf telephone" etc.) and those which don't rely too heavily on the current affairs of the early 1980s. Much like ''Series/SpittingImage'', some of the references and sketches would probably be somewhat impenetrable for viewers without much knowledge of that period. The full episodes probably ''are'' somewhere in the BBC archives, but if they are it remains to be seen if they'll ever see the light of day.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/VictoriaWood declined the offer to be the show's female castmember.

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: The show was supposed to air on April 2, 1979 but a general election was called a couple of days before the airdate, so the programme was put on hold for six months, getting extensively {{retool}}ed.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Pamela Stephenson was a cast member on this show a few years before she was hired for the tenth season (1984-1985) season of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', becoming the first female ''SNL'' cast member born outside of North America and the (as of 2014) first and only ''SNL'' cast member from New Zealand.
** The miners negotiations sketch features a young Jim Broadbent.

* {{Defictionalization}}: The show was the first to use the term "flange" to describe a troop of baboons; the word later made its name into serious studies. (The official name for a group of baboons is a "congress" which, as [[{{QI}} Rich Hall can tell you]], is funny enough on its own.)

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Only two GreatestHits [=DVDs=] have been released, which included the most famous sketches ("Gerald the Gorilla", "Kinda Lingers", "the deaf telephone" etc.) and those which don't rely too heavily on the current affairs of the early 1980s. Much like ''SpittingImage'', some of the references and sketches would probably be somewhat impenetrable for viewers without much knowledge of that period. The full episodes probably ''are'' somewhere in the BBC archives, but if they are it remains to be seen if they'll ever see the light of day.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Pamela Stephenson was a cast member on this show a few years before she was hired for the tenth season (1984-1985) season of ''SaturdayNightLive'', becoming the first female ''SNL'' cast member born outside of North America and the (as of 2014) first and only ''SNL'' cast member from New Zealand.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/BillyConnolly and Pamela Stephenson.

* MissingEpisode: Only two GreatestHits [=DVDs=] have been released, which included the most famous sketches ("Gerald the Gorilla", "Kinda Lingers", "the deaf telephone" etc.) and those which don't rely too heavily on the current affairs of the early 1980s. Much like ''SpittingImage'', some of the references and sketches would probably be somewhat impenetrable for viewers without much knowledge of that period. The full episodes probably ''are'' somewhere in the BBC archives, but if they are it remains to be seen if they'll ever see the light of day.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/BillyConnolly and Pamela Stephenson.