Posted July 5, 200619 yr Metal Mickey UK, ITV (LWT), Children's sitcom, Colour, 1980 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Metal_mickey.gif Starring: Irene Handl, Michael Stainton, Georgina Melville Mirth with a walking, talking mechanical man named Metal Mickey, a five-feet-tall rotund robot with red eyes, blue ears and a dazzling display of multi-coloured lights and buttons on his chest control-panel. Mickey is the invention of Ken Wilberforce, a precocious science boffin who has assembled the automaton to assist with the household chores. But not everything deep down inside the metallic man is functioning as well as it ought and he just won't do what's expected of him. Mickey means well, but wreaks havoc and soon shows alarming tendencies towards summoning aliens, transporting people back in time and, worst of all, pop music. (He trundles around saying 'boogie boogie' half the day.) The extended Wilberforce family - four children, parents and dear old Granny - are the victims of Mickey's antics. Metal Mickey first appeared on television in the ITV children's magazine show The Saturday Banana, and was then produced in his own series by a famous namesake from the past: Michael (Micky) Dolenz, the actor who had become a member of The Monkees and was now turning his hand to work behind the camera. The star of the series, though, apart from the android, was undoubtedly the great Irene Handl, as Granny, although her appearances became sporadic towards the end. As a character in his own right, Metal Mickey enjoyed many TV appearances outside the scope of his own series. so what was the saturday banana? was it a proper entertainment show or just a block of cartoons and comedies under a name like t4?
July 7, 200619 yr from TV Cream SATURDAY BANANA (1978) SOUTHERN BILL ODDIE again. This regional TISWAS replacement (see also OUR SHOW) didn't exactly have legs. Oddie wore yellow waistcoat and boots. "Banana", you see? They had an audience. They had guests. "It's the Saturday Banana..." Notable (well, relatively) for containing the first TV appearances of METAL MICKEY (qv), ie pre the Dolenz series. Presumably he just stood about saying "boogie boogie boogie" to Oddie. The shadow of Maidstone, ME15 6RS loomed. "Filmed at the now Meridian studios in Southampton, featured a 30ft tall fibreglass banana, sat phallus like vertically in the air, almost level with the main road. A real sight to see as a kid and a part of local folklore round here." - Matt Mullen "The name of this show came about because it was originally supposed to be called The Saturday Bonanza but someone had very bad writing, and it was copied across incorrectly..." - Simon Moore I have no recollection of it, presumably it was just shown in the Southern TV region. Here in the north east, we didn't get TISWAS either, but rather some regional TV show which I've long forgotten the title of. I think TISWAS was eventually shown on a national basis in either 1979 or 1980
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