OTT

Tiswas ended, ATV lost its ITV franchise to Central TV and OTT was a late Saturday night adult entertainment show featuring a lot of the gang from the anarchic children's TV show Tiswas.

The result a lot of kids staying up late to watch this and in equal measures confused, appalled and titillated.

Chris Tarrant who was one of the driving force behind this show in a sense was ahead of the times. If he had waited five years and gone to Channel 4 he would had been a millionaire earlier.

Tarrant clearly was on the lookout for new talent, and sensed there was a wind of change in comedy and he managed to give a break to the new wave of alternative comedians who could use the late night slot to try out the edgier material and also swear a lot.

Mixed with this was just crude jokes and nudity both male and female which would find an appreciative audience from those who came in late night from the pubs to see men dancing with popping balloons and bare breasted ladies but would be flummoxed with Alexei Sayle's spiel.

It did not last, the press had a field day denouncing the show and there was only going to be limited mileage with the smuttiness.

Still there was a rumour if this programme had continued that the BBC were going to get in the act with 'Even Bluer Peter!'

O.T.T. was the greatest, very funny to say the P.I.T.T.S. as the last comment did. This show was not the P.I.T.T.S. and it is funny the last comment split up pitts with dots like O.T.T. There was no difference between O.T.T. and Tiswas except O.T.T. was on very late, I guess the guy who thought it was the pitts never understood the humour, look on some of the reviews O.T.T. got. Seven Million viewers for a one hour late night Saturday show. The PITTS. Obviously 7 Million people as well as myself would disagree. O.T.T. was a very funny show simply put it was late night Tiswas, Beat your Brains out was Tiswas Compettion time. The Phantom Benny Mills was still there. The greatest curse on this Country is political correctness, leading to shows like The minstrels and love thy neighbour even mind your language getting cancelled. O.T.T. was from a time when political correctness was as vulgar as it is today

not being a drunk i can only say that this program was in my opinion excellent and before its time. this program was not meant to be taken seriously. it was at the end of the day a children's program for adults which just allowed you to laugh at everything it came up with. the combination of Lenny henry, Alexei Sayle, Michael Palin, Chris Tarrent and Bob Carolgees made it very funny indeed. with late night programs like eurotrash and gods gift doing well it goes to show the lack of good late night entertainment we have in this country. if it was on now it would be on at 9pm and probably be one of the highest rated TV shows of all time. **********

In my opinion it was the funniest show I ever saw with the likes of beat your brains out and the bare balloon dancers. Probably one of the funniest moments for me was the pre credit sequence at the start of episode 4 when they had a Tennis violence match and they all had to try and commit the most violent act on the umpire in order to gain a higher fine. Helen Atkinson Wood was an American using four letter words and Lenny, who Chris Tarrant referred to as a six foot nig nog threw grenades at him. Finally Bob Carolgees tried everything, but when he failed he finally gave in and mooned Chris. Then it all ended when Alexi Sayle pulled out a Bazooka to blow up Chris, who finally said in a very weak voice, new balls please.