Late Late Show - GAA Special

[T Fearon]

Am I missing something here? Its the Late Late Show, not Prime Time. It is obvious from this thread that many people who allegedly found the show unentertaining still did not reach for the remote control and switch it off. If 100 of us were capable of producing a tv programme like this in honour of the GAA, we would come up with 100 different programmes/ formats etc.

Also I find it hard to believe that the GAA had no editorial input into last Friday night or at the very least had a preview of the content with the option of amending it. Obviously this was the case if Sean Og had to be removed from the guest list.

[Zulu]

Tony no one was thinking this would be a comprehensive look at the GAA. You're right, it is a light entertainment show. Tell me though, where was the entertainment?

That is the real point, as GAA fan's we might have liked to see a whole lot more done with the show but even if you look at it as just a piece of entertainment it was woeful. Rubbish music, rubbish comedian and bland enough guests, I mean if you interviewed some of the people starting clubs in various cities around the world or a Canadian teacher about the GAA in th eschools over there it would at least be interesting. And I don't mean talk to them in the audience but send a camera over there a do a pre-recorded interview. There was so much that could have been done to make the show mildly interesting (at least) but instead we were treated to a show that was put together by people without any feel for the GAA and worse again entertainment.

[Blue and Navy]

I think Zulu hit the nail on the head there. Obviously we weren't looking for an in-depth rivetting analysis of the GAA here, we'd have needed sociologists and historians for that purpose and obviously thats not what the Late Late Show is all about.
However, with the audience in situ and the vast source of stories out there, this show could easily have been a momument to the GAA. Instead we were left with a third or fourth rate production that gave us nothing. I mean what would a foreigner tuning into that show have learned?
Surely that should be what the LLS producers have been looking to do is it not? I mean i'd like to think that a programme by the biggest  show in Ireland could come up with something that could explain how what the GAA means, no matter how superficial the level?
The songs on it didn't even have anything to do with the GAA, where was Dancing at the Crossroads for God's sakes?

[Hardy]

Not to excuse RTÉ or anything, because the whole outfit is chronically inexcusable, but maybe I can see their thinking when it came to selecting the "music" for this fit-up show. Who can blame them for concluding that's the kind of thing the GAA public goes for when they look at what the GAA itself puts on for entertainment at its showpiece occasions? It's relentless marching-up-and-down music, except when they push out the boat with the likes of Foster and Allen for the really big occasions. Of course they save the progressive stuff for the international occasions and that's how we get to look forward to Brush Shields every two years.

And they can only have been aiming this show at the GAA public. They must know their demographics well enough to know there was a mass reaching for remote controls across large tracts of D4 and further afield when the continuity announcer said "GAA". And that's why this effort is a pretty good indicator of the respect in which they hold the GAA public.

[T Fearon]

The last poster seems to be inferring therefore that the Late Late Show was a fair reflection of the GAA, in terms of music etc.

[Zulu]

I don't think he is doing that at all.

[cornafean]

The last time Foster & Allen played at an All Ireland Final, Micheal O'Hehir was doing the TV commentary.

[Zulu]

Late Late Show falls flat for GAA celebration
Galway Advertiser, January 15, 2009.

- Ray Silke

Like many other sports fans I am a big admirer of much of the material produced in the RTE sports department on both TV and radio.

Programmes on television like The Sunday Game, The Premiership, coverage of the rugby championship, the Olympics, World Cups and the like, are usually professionally done and provide considerable quality entertainment.

My licence fee is paid by standing-order every August and I have no real gripe with the television directors/producers who earn their crust in Montrose. They do their job, and many of them do it very well.

In our household we are becoming more radio than TV people anyway - old age and trying to set a good example to the children are taking their toll.

I find myself listening to Morning Ireland and Drive-Time much more now, sitting in traffic, keeping up to date with all the inward bound cut-backs, pay-cuts, or independent TD allowances that are indeed "entitlements" for the chosen few.

Ideally I would prefer to keep a positive seam in this column and I'd like to point out that I think that Pat Kenny is a superb radio interviewer and presenter, but Jumping-Jack-Flash, do I find him hard to take on the Late Late Show (I did say ideally).

He is just so leaden and it all seems such hard work that it makes me feel uncomfortable. I find myself switching channels just to stop myself cringing on his behalf.

However, even that constant view-point did not prepare me for the dreadful and abysmal effort that was trotted out last Friday night as a so-called celebration of the GAA's 125 years.

It was a shocker. A genuine shocker.

So much of the show lacked élan and panache that it became very difficult to stop switching the bloody thing off.

Nevertheless, like a committed sleep-walk, I just ploughed on until the death, hoping that salvation would come from somewhere. It did not.

Kenny as anchor neither knew his subject nor his audience. And he lacked the capacity to engage in conversation or banter with many (any) of his guests - apart from a few high profile Kerry and Dublin footballers from the 1970s.

It was impossible not to laugh or squirm (your choice) when Brush Shiels (what was he doing there?) spoke about floating on air when he performed to a full house in Croke Park. Shiels described being weightless as he ran around the packed stadium, and Pat retorted by saying he too felt that way once - wait for it - "when he passed an exam he had not expected to pass".

Oh-my-god man! Just let it go.

Another major faux-pas is that there is no new material from chatting to the likes of Paidi O' Se, Mick O'Dwyer, Kevin Heffernan, Jimmy Keavney, and Jack O'Shea at this juncture. It has all been said. And their anecdotes are dated and stale. And let's be honest here, the whole goddamn show just seemed to be one big Kerry/Dublin love-in.

There was practically no mention of hurling, despite Henry Shefflin having flown half way around the world to be back for the show.Where was Brian Cody? The Connollys? DJCarey? Jimmy Barry Murphy?

Of course the west of Ireland got a really short-shift.Did the producers never hear of the Galway three-in-a-row team of the 1960s? The Roscommon team of 1942 and 1943, or the Mayo team of '50 and '51?

Why was there not a feature on any of the clubs in the country? Did their target audience consist of only Dublin and Kerry people?

The choice of show for the subject matter was incorrect.

Pat Kenny and The Late Late are one in the same, so one could argue that Pat Kenny isn't the issue, but that The Late Late should never have been used as the platform to celebrate the GAA. That was a crazy decision in the first instance, albeit a cost-effective one.

Fill up studio one with greats and former greats and give a few of them an opportunity to be nostalgic (again) and Bob's your uncle. No expensive outside broadcasts, no innovative features on contemporary Gaelic games. No vision, little entertainment value. The whole thing went down like a lead balloon.

To prove my point: The difference that Dessie Cahill made when he arrived on set was amazing. All of a sudden the mood in the audience picked up and he started - how sad is this for a presenter? - pointing out members in the crowd who should be spoken to like Peter Quinn and Conor O' Shea.

RTE should have called in producers like Paul Byrnes and Bill Lawlor from The Sunday Game team and given them a good budget and let them use their knowledge and expertise to come up with a specific show for the 125 year celebration. It was a glorious opportunity for the national station and the GAA to have worked in tandem to produce a show of which everyone would have been proud. Instead, you had a mongrel of a show that just sickened the majority of GAA people.

If you think I am alone in my views, check out the on-line survey in one of the best GAA sites in the country, Anfearrua.com where nearly 70 per cent of respondents thought the show was awful. Or, if you have a few free hours check out another GAA site, gaaboard.com where they have a television review thread on the show that goes on for almost 30 pages.
Most of the commentary is again negative and that's a real pity. Celebrations are after all meant to be fun.

When I was reading this I considered the fact that he might have got most of his ideas from here and AFR because all his points were made here already, though in fairness any right thinking person would have thought as most of us did so maybe they are his own take on it. He did read here though......

P.S. I took the article from AFR

[Hardy]

The last time Foster & Allen played at an All Ireland Final, Micheal O'Hehir was doing the TV commentary.

The horror is as vivid as if it was yesterday.

I've just received this reply (three days it took) from RTE to my email about the Late Late Show GAA special:

Thank you for contacting us. I'm disappointed to hear that you were not happy with the Late Late show GAA Special however I'm sure you can appreciate it was simply impossible for us to include all aspects of the GAA over the past 125 years within the confines of a Late Late show. The aim of this show was to show case (sic) the GAA to the populous (sic) and make people aware that this fantastic organisation had reached a major milestone of 125 years while at the same time ensuring that the show was entertaining for the Late Late show viewers who would not necessarily have much of an interest in sport. It was our decision to include Bertie Ahern, Eamon Dunphy and Oliver Callan and we stand over this.

Best wishes,

The Late Late Show

I'm hugely reassured that they've taken my constructive criticism to heart and have resolved to try harder, etc.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Got the exact same email, nice to know they're reading all our emails and sending out personalised replies 

[RedandGreenSniper]

Yeah, got the same one too. I didn't need to check here to find out either because they didn't answer any of my questions in the reply. Lip service. A bit like their effort on Friday night

[Shamrock Shore]

Same reply here as well.

A rale cut and paste jobbie.

I will reply I think.

[cornafean]

The horror is as vivid as if it was yesterday.

The aim of this show was to show case (sic) the GAA to the populous (sic)

Holy mother of Jesus.... 

[Maguire01]

Same reply here as well. Nice and personal.

[Maguire01]

If 100 of us were capable of producing a tv programme like this in honour of the GAA, we would come up with 100 different programmes/ formats etc.

Yes, but not one of those formats would include Brush Shiels or Eamonn Dunphy, i'd wager.