“It’s A Knockout”

This would have to be one of my all time favourite TV shows. Along with the Sunday afternoon Brisbane Rugby League highlights, “It’s a Knockout” was one of only three shows that the whole family made a point of watching together when I was growing up. The other one was “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” but that’s for another time.

The fact that the whole family watched it together made it even more enjoyable and reinforced our family’s internal sense of humour. We always cheered for the Qld teams and anyone who follows the rugby league knows what I’m talking about here.

The show was so huge that it had to be filmed in a field in Dural, New South Wales and the fact that it was done on such a massive scale was a major reason why the show was so enjoyable and had such a huge following. Just watch some of the clips on Youtube and marvel at the size and scale of the each events and the over-sized props. It was awesome!

The running commentary from Billy J Smith and Fiona MacDonald (who would usually rock up in a golf cart) would always have you laughing at the misfortune of the losing teams. Fiona had one of those infectious laughs that you couldn’t help laughing along with.

It was a massive success and everybody loved it so why was it cancelled? There were a tiny few people in Dural who complained that’s why! I watched EVERY single episode of this show and looking at the live crowds they got it was obvious that most of Dural were at the shows having a great time.

If you look at the crowds there were several thousand people that were at each taping, I’m assuming mostly locals. So who these half wits were that complained about the show that the network actually listened to…well…they must have been someone with plenty of money and some political clout because those few complaints got one of the best shows in Australian television history canned.

I hate all of you horrible pricks who complained about this show! I hope you all get cancer and die…well…no…I don’t really. I’m sorry, that was being a bit nasty.

But I do hate you for being so selfish and getting one of the greatest shows in Australian TV history cancelled…I really, really, hate you…

But thanks to the internet we can thankfully relive some of the awesomeness. Make sure you search youtube for more, there’s plenty of great “It’s a Knockout” memories on there. If you have never seen the AWESOME that this show was…make sure you check out this clip for a taste:

Its A Knockout
Years: 1985 – 1987
Episodes: 107

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