Tonight Live With Steve Vizard - Stunts, Pranks and Mishaps

Stunts, Pranks and Mishaps

Some of the most memorable moments on Tonight Live were those that were unscripted and unexpected, many of which may not have gone to air except that the show was live.

• In 1992 Tonight Live was “rained out”. Wimbledon, the tennis tournament, was broadcast live on a competing network had been rained out again. Vizard claimed that his Tonight Show had been rained out too, and using special effects, created the effects of rain in the studio, the crew wandering around in wet weather gear sweeping water from the covers, and guests in the control room looking forward to the rain easing so they could get out there.

• In 1991, Mr. Lifto, from the freakish Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, had multiple piercings and hung concrete blocks from his nipples, suitcases from his ears, and an iron from his penis. The modesty screen erected around Mr Lifto could not hide his elongated member as he started swinging the iron, which was accidentally broadcast live to a national TV audience.The Network demanded the nude segment be removed before the show was telecast in the western states. Vizard, always looking to cause sensation, replayed the Mr Liftos nudity again the following night, and once more in slow motion.

• In the 1990 Australian Federal election Vizard nominated one of the show’s writers, Mitchell Faircloth, (a.k.a. Slim Whittle from the Whittle Family ) as a Senate candidate in Western Australia. Mitchell used the show to make policy speeches and a camera followed him on the hustings.

• On one show Vizard asked the studio audience if any of them had tattoos and a large man took off his shirt and revealed a back covered in ink. A member of the Victorian Police Major Crime Squad was watching the show at home and recognised the tattooed man from his tattoos as a wanted criminal, and arrived at the studio and arrested the criminal before the show was over.

• One night the show consisted entirely of footage that had obviously been recorded during a rehearsal. This resulted in many unrefined moments being put to air, including liberal use of swear words. The broadcast ended with the countdown that would normally herald the moments immediately preceding a live broadcast.

• Vizard had a television set installed on the host set so that he could turn over at any time and see what Tonight Live was up against on the other stations. When Tonight Live found itself up against a good match from Wimbledon, he would swing over the TV on his set to let the viewers watch the match and know the score.

• To celebrate his 100th episode Vizard hosted a dinner party in which he invited stars and Seven Network executives to the Studio and broadcast it live.

• A lottery show, in which all of the guests and segments in the show were allocated different numbers; a machine was used to randomly select the order and elements of the show.

• One stunt that caused immense trouble with the Network and their star current affair host, Derryn Hinch, was when Vizard incited Terry Willessee, a guest, to brick up the door to Derryn Hinch’s dressing room.

• In an episode that confused the audience and angered the Network, Vizard broadcast in its entirety for one hour the amateur uncut wedding video of one of the members of the crew who had recently been married.

• The show purchased and trained its own Greyhound which it raced under the name Tonight Live.

• On one episode a genuine wedding of an audience member including a stag party and reception was squeezed into one hour.

• For one week, Vizard ran a segment called Nudie Hobbies, in which actors demonstrated different hobbies such as stamp collecting and scrabble in the nude. The public outrage was reflected in warnings from the Network. Unbeknownst to the Network, Vizard had a bet to get the ratings up to 20 and Nudie Hobbies won his bet.

• The show included an on-set fax machine (at the time the show ran these were just becoming popular) and Vizard regularly read out Viewer faxes and rang viewers from the phone on his desk. Occasionally he would ask the viewers to come into the studio, on several occasions asking for pizzas to be delivered to the studio audience, for takeaway Chinese to be delivered and even for a masseur to attend to massage one of his guests.

. When the set was renovated in 1991, Vizard replaced the guest chairs with different chairs each night. One night, a dentists chair was used for guests and Eddie Fisher, the singer and Father of Carrie Fisher, was interviewed in the dentists chair and given a free dental check up at the same time.

. On the week of the first show, Channel 7’s parent company Quintex had just been placed in receivership and Vizard joked in that maiden show “Welcome to Tonight Live, or item number 731 in the Qintex catalogue.”

• When guest hosts appeared, Vizard's voice would announce that they would be 'playing the role of Mister Steven Vizard', reinforcing a concept that he had mentioned at the time, that he saw his on-screen persona as a character.