Tonight Live With Steve Vizard - Outside Broadcasts and Non-studio Shows

Outside Broadcasts and Non-studio Shows

Tonight Live often left the studio, sometimes without any planning, and broadcast from the street, suburbs and often bizarre locations. The show was often broadcast for a week at a time from remote locations such as London, New York, Spain, Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, a bowling alley, an aircraft carrier, Vizards home and an Italian viewers backyard BBQ.

One show was broadcast from an open top convertible driving around St. Kilda. Prostitutes were picked up. Japanese Tourists were given a guided tour of the city.

Another show was hosted by Vizard on the back of a motorcycle being ridden through the city by World Motorcycle champion Mick Doohan.

Another show was broadcast from tram as it trundled around Melbourne.

Against expert advice, Tonight Live broadcast one episode in 1992 from maximum security of Pentridge Prison in the inner northern Melbourne suburb of Coburg. The show was broadcast from the notorious H-Division, the area of the jail where the hard men were housed and featured attractive women including Dannii Minogue and Ally Fowler, performing before the many convicted murderers in the 70 person prison audience.

In 1992, Tonight Live broadcast from London for a week, each show from a different location. One London episode from the dining room at London’s Ritz Hotel starred UK talk show hosts Terry Wogan, Michael Parkinson, Ben Elton, Alexi Sayle, Joanna Lumley, Kylie Minogue, Michael Caine and Jane Seymour.

Another UK episode was broadcast from a Village in the Cotswolds and featured Oliver Reid who arrived drunk and dishevelled, went on camera and began to tell x-rated stories of his time in the British SAS, including one about the eagle that was tattooed on his penis.

Another episode from the Duke of Malboroughs ancestral home, Blenheim Palace, featured Spike Milligan and Gary Glitter. The show broadcast the near- death of show regular Glenn Robbins who was flying overhead in a two-seater ultra light aircraft at about 2000 feet, when his scarf became caught in the single propeller. The resulting crash landing in the Blenheim lake was broadcast live across Australia.

In a 1992 show from Barcelona, Spain, Vizards crew surprised him by arranging for him to fight a bull. Vizard dressed in his matador outfit which had been rented from The State Opera’s production of Carmen, and was bright red. The bull took one look at Vizard and attacked him and Vizard ran.