- Juke Box Jury
Infobox Television
show_name = Juke Box Jury
caption =
format = Music
runtime =
creator =
theme_music_composer = John Barry
opentheme = Hit and Miss
starring = David Jacobs
channel =BBC One
first_aired = 1959
last_aired = 1967
num_episodes =
producer =
related = "Drumbeat""Juke Box Jury" was a pop themed panel show, originally produced by
BBC television from1959 -1967 , the first edition having been broadcast on 1 June 1959. It was based on a show which began on US Television in 1948, starring Hollywood DJ Peter Potter [cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1960/tv3.shtml|title= A brief description of Juke Box Jury|publisher=bbc.co.uk |accessdate= 2008-06-28] , itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series [cite web|url= http://www.tvparty.com/games2e.html|title= Oddball Game Shows of the 1950s|accessdate= 2008-06-28] .Vastly popular at the time it featured many well known stars of the day, including
The Beatles ,Roy Orbison ,The Rolling Stones ,The Seekers andPhil Spector . Its popularity made it a part of Britain'syouth culture during the sixties. It was broadcast on a Saturday evening and was fronted by David Jacobs. For reasons related to the generational and cultural priorities of those who made the decisions on what to keep and what to destroy, pop programmes suffered particularly badly from the BBC's wiping of much of its own archive, and little of the original "Juke Box Jury" survives.The task of the panel of four celebrities was to judge recent single releases, although they were never played in their entirety, and give a verdict on whether each would be a "hit" or a "miss" (the decision was accompanied by an appropriate sound effect). In the case of a split decision, a separate panel made up of three members of the audience voted as a 'tie-breaker'.
The original panel consisted of Pete Murray,
Alma Cogan , Gary Miller andSusan Stranks , who gave a 'teenager's view' on the offerings. In later series the panel members changed from week to week.Katie Boyle was also a frequent panelist. On December 7, 1963, the panel was made up of the four Beatles, and on July 4, 1964, it consisted of the five Rolling Stones.One notable feature of the programme was that a performer or performers would be present backstage and would emerge to "surprise" the panel after they had given their verdict. (This usually happened once per show.) Towards the end of its original run, a regular panel consisting of four
disc jockey s was introduced, and it was transmitted on early Wednesday evenings.It was axed towards the end of 1967 after falling ratings, but revived on two occasions, the first time with
Noel Edmonds as presenter (in1979 ), and the second time withJools Holland (from1989 to1990 ).The theme music for the show was called "Hit and Miss" performed by The John Barry Seven.
Cultural references
Benny Hill parodied the show as "Soap Box Jury" on one of his1961 shows for the BBC. He impersonated host David Jacobs, as well as the four panelists (one of whom was called "Fred Curry," a takeoff on Pete Murray) and some of the members of the audience. The sketch ended with a shot of Benny as all four panelists in one shot, achieved through filming each "panelist" separately and keeping the other three-fourths of the lens covered, which made this a landmark in both Hill's career and the development oftelevision production. This sketch is on theDVD compilation "Benny Hill: The Lost Years", which was released in2005 .References
External links
*imdb title|id=0197164|title=Juke Box Jury
* [http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/tv/variety/jukeboxjury.htm "Juke Box Jury" - Nostalgia Central]
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