The Return of the Telethon

This weekend it's Back to the Future for TV3, as the network presents a 24-hour telethon, The Big Night In, featuring a host of celebrities raising funds for the Kids Can charitable trust.

Television viewers "of a certain age", as the saying goes, will remember the golden age of the telethon on our screens, the late 70s and early 80s.

It was an era when colour television itself was still a novelty to many New Zealand homes, let alone this phenomenon - entertainment, live and unrehearsed!

On show was 24 hours of fun, silliness, pranks and local and international superstars making complete fools of themselves for all to see.

Telethons were run nationwide in New Zealand in 1976, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1990 and 1991 by TVNZ and later, CanWest's TV3 in 1993.

Its theme song "Thank You Very Much For Your Kind Donation" could generously be called "distinctive" and, less charitably perhaps, extremely annoying (after the 10th rendition or so).

The neon sign showing the current donation total and the opening bars of the theme tune signalled it was time to form a conga line which wound around the cramped studios of TV2 in Shortland St.

The conga line was not discriminating: A list celebs and B listers linked up happily - after all, it was all for a good cause.

What made telethons unique entertainment at the time was the local flavour.

Viewers would be shown coverage of the telethon panel nearest their location, as the broadcast emanated from one of the five main centres: Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin.

In each region the event would be hosted in large exhibition halls and indoor stadiums, so the the public could flock in in their thousands to be seen on TV and to watch the entertainment live.

After 1976 each Telethon always outdid the previous amount of dollars raised. The largest Telethon in terms of money raised was 1985, when over $6 million poured in from generous kiwis, in return for seeing John Hawkesby do 20 push-ups on stage, Peter Sinclair stand on his head, or pop singer Suzanne giving someone a big smooch on the lips.

One of the reasons that saw telethons wind down and eventually disappear off the radar was one that is regretfully with us again today - a recession.

As 1990 approached, and with it the so-called "oil shock" of galloping energy price hikes, the prevailing economic climate saw a drop in money raised (1988 -$5 million, 1990 - $4 million) while the costs associated with hosting such a gala live event soared.

It was obvious telethons had had their day, and the plug was soon to be pulled.

The last nationwide event was to raise funds for the Starship Children's Hospital in 1993, TV3 being the host. The event raised just over $3.5 million.

And now, 16 years after that last one, it will be interesting to see how a phenomenon that was a hybrid of the 70s and 80s fares against a backdrop of so many new competing technologies like Facebook, Twitter, MSN Messenger and texting.

- Historical information sourced from Wikipedia. The Big Night In on TV3 screens from 7pm Saturday night.