Saturday Morning TV: Swap Shop To SM:TV Live

For about twenty-five years, Saturday morning television was three hours of chaos aimed at children, live, with a phone number on the screen.

Here's the whole run, in order.

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, 1976 to 1982

• The BBC show that invented the format: live, three hours, phone-ins, and children swapping their belongings.
• Noel Edmonds, with Keith Chegwin out on the road and Maggie Philbin.
• The swap-a-rama outside broadcasts, where children queued in a car park to trade a Chopper for a skateboard.
• 01 811 8055 - the phone number a generation can still recite.
• It ended in 1982 and was replaced by Saturday Superstore, with Mike Read behind a till.

Tiswas, 1974 to 1982

• ATV's answer, made in Birmingham, and far less controlled.
• Chris Tarrant, Sally James, Lenny Henry, Bob Carolgees with Spit the Dog, and John Gorman.
• The Phantom Flan Flinger, the Cage, and buckets of water thrown at adults who had volunteered.
• It had a large adult audience, which is why Saturday morning television changed permanently.
• The adult spin-off, OTT, followed and was cancelled quickly.

Going Live!, 1987 to 1993

• Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene, with Gordon the Gopher.
• Trevor and Simon, 'we don't do duvets', and swinging your pants.
• Phone-ins where a celebrity was asked something dreadful by a nine year old live on air.
• Run Duck Run, the cartoons, and the chart run-down.
• It ended in 1993 and Live & Kicking took the slot.

Live & Kicking, 1993 to 2001

• Andi Peters and Emma Forbes first, then Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston from 1996 - the pairing most people remember.
• Ratings peaked in the mid-nineties before SM:TV arrived.
• Electric Circus, the Double Dare-style games and the big music guests.
• The final episode aired in 2001, ending twenty-five years of the BBC's Saturday morning block.

SM:TV Live, 1998 to 2003

• Ant, Dec and Cat Deeley on ITV, and the show that finally beat the BBC.
• Wonkey Donkey, Challenge Ant, Eat My Goal and Chums - the Friends parody that ran for years.
• CD:UK immediately afterwards, which is where you found out what was number one.
• The three of them left in 2001 and the show never recovered.
• It ended in 2003, and nothing has replaced the format since.

The others

• Number 73 and its successor 7T3, on ITV in the eighties.
• Motormouth, ITV, 1988 to 1992, with Andy Crane and Caroline Hanson.
• What's Up Doc?, The Disney Club and The Ant and Dec Show.
• Saturday Superstore, 1982 to 1987, with Mike Read, Sarah Greene and John Craven.
• The Saturday morning block died because children stopped watching scheduled television, not because the shows got worse.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Swap Shop invented the format everything else copied.
• Tiswas had more adult viewers than children.
• SM:TV beat the BBC, then lost its three presenters at once.

Where to shop next

• 70s kids' TV shows
• 80s kids' TV shows
• 90s kids' TV shows
• After-school TV
• Kids' TV presenters we all remember
• Scariest kids' TV moments
• Christmas TV of the 70s, 80s and 90s
• Bank holiday films that were always on
• Puppets and animation we grew up with
• ITV or BBC childhood
• TV theme tunes quiz
• Adverts we can all still recite
• Test card, Ceefax and the three-channel years
• Soap moments that stopped the country
• Nostalgic quiz questions
• Growing up in the 80s and 90s
• Playground games we all played
• 80s and 90s party ideas
• Free feel good tools
• Shop cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Birthday cards for kids
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What was the first Saturday morning kids' TV show?

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, which started on BBC1 in 1976 with Noel Edmonds. It invented the live three-hour phone-in format that everything after it copied.

What replaced Going Live?

Live & Kicking, which ran from 1993 to 2001 - first with Andi Peters and Emma Forbes, then Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston.

Why did SM:TV Live end?

Ant, Dec and Cat Deeley left in 2001 and the show never recovered its audience. It finished in 2003, and no channel has run the format since.

What was the Swap Shop phone number?

01 811 8055 - a number a remarkable number of people over fifty can still say without thinking.

Do you sell DVDs or TV merchandise?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This is written for the pleasure of remembering it, and the only products on this page are our own cards.