Highlights from Telethon 1981

[philmartellus]

You never got bored with the 24hr antics! Peter Sinclair (R.I.P) and 'mother of the nation' Judy Bailey were the anchors.Other celebrities of the nation got involved (Check out a young , then TV presenter Bob Parker - the one wif glasses doin da cross eye facial. Now mayor of Christchurch, what a fab job he's doin wit earthquake recovery). Don't forget the overseas Big Celebs; Boss Hog (dukes of haz), Estelle Getty (golden girls) Blair underwood (LA Law), and Liza Gibbons wif East Enders hubby

[chrisraupo]

In our region Roger Gascoigne was the anchor - had to get a lot of pledges to get him to do the big wink. John Hore went around with the big gumboot. Not embarrassed that I loved this

[neoimean7]

what the hell is this for?

[zacandmillie]

My goodness what a trip down memory lane. Seeing all those faces I grew up with watching on tele... I wonder where most of them are now? My friends and I would do our best to stay awake for the whole event and watch the television for 24 hours straight. How simple life was in the old days!

[Iamsoocool09]

all the good telethons are gone come tvnz show tv3 how do it do another telethon with short phone number like in the youtube video

[starquant]

At 8.12 I saw the women wearing Wrightsons NMA T-Shirts. What an iconic symbol that was. I think Wrightsons was taken over by Lion Nathan (such a shame). I remember when there was a Wrightsons store in nearly every town. Thankyou TVNZ for this archival footage. Its our history and worth preserving. I am going to watch every TVNZ clip posted on youtube in the next couple of days. Some "It's in the Bag" with Selwyn Toogood would be AWESOME to watch again.

[theoriginalsuzycat]

Bob Parker. Shudder.

[riddicus1]

Here are some possible causes for today's telethon......P Addiction, Prevention of babies gettin bashed to death, violent crime prevention, Child porn prevention and so on..

[starquant]

How about Domestic Violence towards Women?. New Zealand has the highest rate in the Western World. If we don't respect our women, how can you teach people to treat anything with respect?. It all starts in the home. Change old attitutes towards towards Females, then a society matures and the quality and standard of life improves for everyone.

[riddicus1]

Aah! The New Zealand i knew as a kid. When ya jumped on ya pushbike[no helmet!] went to the shop to buy the old man some smokes then got a boot up the arse when ya got home coz ya spent the change on fireworks. All of which are nowadays ILLEGAL! . P was something ya did when ya drank too much L&P or ya ate with ya chops and didn't cost ya a term in jail. If ya used a cell phone it's coz you were in jail. You used a net to catch ya fish. Rugger was free to watch as Sky was for the birds. .......

[80skiwi]

I see Dick Weir in there. Wonder whatever happened to him?

[lolliesnz]

its a shame that this yrs one wasnt as good. even my kids dont wanna watch it. which is sad i know i used to love watching telethons. maybe weve gotten too politically correct now a days that all the fun stuff cldnt be done in case of negative feed back from smaller groups. either way its a shame

[loveuabundle]

i agree this telethon is dull compared too back then ! better personalities back then

[K0I0E0R0A0N]

This seems way better than the Telethon that is on the TV as I type. Looks more unscripted and fun. At the moment the 2009 telethon has raised not even a million. They did do well back then to get 5 mill.

[bohemianprobdrinker]

I reckon if TVNZ did it rather than TV3 more money would've been made.

[theoriginalsuzycat]

@K0I0E0R0A0N It was, largely unscripted and way more fun. All the cities had a local TV studio and the towns that didn't had some kind of donation centre with a link, and so people went down to join in and bring their cash. And people took the fundraising activities really seriously. It obviously took a lot to do, logistically, but it felt very amateur in the very best way.

[browntuka]

They raised 5 million way back then!!!! That surely is impressive!!!!! I wonder if theyll get close to that in 2009??

[themissinglinc]

i was a kid too when these were on,tele was relativly new ,and it was cool to get on tele,and i was always proud of how a country of at the time 3 million got so into it and gave so much

[stormer4LyfE]

I ws in the Bairds Intermediate polynesian group that performed this year up in Auckland Town Hall...hehehehe....gd times!!!!....

[purpleiceprincess]

lol you all are funny!

[bzylizzy]

so are they going to do a telethon for 2009 and if so what is the charity?, hope they are I cant wait.......

[Basiltyne]

Where the hell is NZ's greates Broadcaster Mr DANNY wATSON...HIS LONG HAIR AND GLASSES SHOULD BE THEre somewhere shouldent they?

[jonty131]

He is on news talk zb in the afternoons

[Basiltyne]

If any bloody person sings me that song i will kill them arrrggggghhhhhhhh!

[Motarmstrong]

Yeah we performed on telethon.

[AlexCherr72]

Well I can't believe that's Bob Parker! Having fun! Gosh age HAS wearied him...And the fact that he's the mayor of that most right wing of cities - Christchurch!

[afiomai]

OMG that was Kenny Everett...in the clips...hmmm in retrospect werent our male presenters generally........UGGGGGGGGGGGG­GGLYYYYYYY!!!! LOL Love ya just kidding... Gee no wonder as kids we spent less time inside watching tv and more time outside doing stuff...BRING BACK UGLY TELE PRESENTERS... PS I was the kid that donated 5$ and challenged every boy scout to do the same...(Was asked to leave the Boy Scouts the next day...heh heh)

[ianjohnsonnz]

If they do that bloody Thank You Very Much song on the new telethon, I swear I will throw the tele out the window.

[AlexCherr72]

I just know TV3 will botch Telethon 2009 like they did with the last one in 1993...That was crap. I'm afraid NZ was a totally different country back in the 70's and 80's, the sense of community is now long gone.

[nzradioaudio]

Yeah if I remember rightly TVNZ had separate Telethons running in the 4 main centers and then even smaller ones in the smaller cities. On TV you saw the Telethon in the main center nearest you so in Southland we saw mostly Dunedin with some Invercargill footage addded. TV3 will probably just have one in Auckland and thats it.

[rown23]

people dont sound like that on the telly anymore

[whiteybird]

Bring back Telethon!

[driffter76]

its an outdated relic man

[mcowain]

Thank you very much for you kind donation, give me 20 bucks or i'll munch your face in.

[DaTaf101]

Classic stuff for anyone growing up in the 80s, especially the thankyouverymuch song...Can't believe it's been 15 years.

[newzealandrox9999]

15 years?

[ChrisKilledComedy]

Thank you very, very, very, very much!

[maramaku]

TV was at its peak in those days. Now, Free to air TV is a wasted space.

[meetthefeeble]

i hope the bloke up against the wall recovers soon - god knows how many bricks the poor bastard has had to deal with! i pledge $2.41 for hospital fees...i hope the nz public will match it.

[craze482]

thankyou very much

[oarsomechik]

I agree, bring back Telethon!!

[TestCardFanatic]

It got too expensive and TVNZ are tight fisted... but hold on, how can that be? I mean Judy Bailey's wardrobe would fund some of it and so would the money they gave to John Hawkesby.

[Kiwigrunt]

Great Memories!

[purpleiceprincess]

i loved telethon....the 'thank you very much' song chokes me up a bit with memories lol.....strange but true :)

[brentjohnpalmer]

It was also used in a Cadbury Roses advert in Australia in the '80s... I found it irritating either way

[purpleiceprincess]

lol

[driffter76]

im going to kill myself

[boceebo]

steven melanie & jackie raised $47.01 in a cake stall - miss those 1cents! haha awesome

[anvilofcrom]

I forgot how annoying the "Thankyou Very Much" song was.

[coldtaxer]

bring back telethon!!!!!!!!!!

[naytch2003]

bring back telethon!!!!!!!!!!