THE GERIATRIC GAME

THE GENERATION GAME
1971-2018, BBC1

MAD UK #189, c. 1977
w: Les Lilley
a: Clive Collins

The Generation Game was a game shoe that was a combination of Breat the Clock and Family Feud. Teams competed in physical activities to win prizes, but each team was a member of the same family. The original host was Bruce Forsyth, and his co-host was Anthea Redfern.

Certain racism was acceptable in the seventies, particularly overseas and particularly when it applied to martial arts. Sessue Hayakawa was an actor in Japan.

THAT'S LIFE!

THAT'S LIFE
BBC1 1973-1994

MAD UK #192, c. 1978
w: Les Lilley
a: Clive Collins

That's Life was a magazine program which mixed serious and light-hearted items in a studio-based format with film inserts, devised by Peter Chafer, John Lloyd and Esther Rantzen, it was presented and produced by Esther Rantzen with various teams of reporters and contributors. Special spinoff programs concentrated on serious topics which were first aired on That's Life, such as childbirth, mental health and child abuse. Its journalism relied on the skills of researchers many of who went on to hold senior jobs both inside and outside the media industry.

The first presenter is Cyril Fletcher.

Bernard Braden was host of a competing show called On the Braden Beat.

The show was spoofed on the BBC comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News. Non-anglophiles may still rcognize Rowan Atkinson.

CONTRACEPTION STREET

CORONATION STREET
ITV 1960-present

CORONATION STREET
MAD UK #212, December 1979
w: Les Lilley
a: Harry North

Long-running daily British soap opera which is now the world's longest running program. It all takes place in a working-class neighborhood in the fictional Weatherfield, a town in Northern England. The cover focuses on Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth) and his friends at the local pub.

The story has the show being pitched by a Prince Charles lookalike.

I'm afraid a lot of the references go over the head of an Ugly American like myself, though a Brit or Anglophile is welcome to help. No need to go through the extra trouble of googling just for li'l ol' me.