''Enjoy Yourself Tonight'' or ''EYT'' is a popular

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

that was produced in

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

. It first aired on

TVB Jade TVB Jade (), or simply Jade, is a Hong Kong Cantonese-language free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) as its flagship service, alongside its sister network, the English-language TVB Pearl. Br ...

on 20 November 1967. The show lasted 27 years with its last broadcast on Friday, 7 October 1994.Chinanews.com.cn.
Chinanews.com.cn
" ''沈殿霞27日温哥华安葬加卑斯省政界领袖表追悼.'' Retrieved 2009-08-11. During the

1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...

, it was compared with the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' as one of the world's longest running live-shows.

History

''Enjoy Yourself Tonight'' was created by

Robert Chua Robert Chua Wah-Peng (born 20 May 1946) is an Asian broadcaster. Background Born in 1946 in Colony of Singapore, on 20 May 1946, he has worked internationally in Australia, Hong Kong and China as well. Among other activities in his career, he was ...

in 1967, when he was just 21 years old.Paper.wenweipo.com.
Paper.wenweipo.com
" ''蔡和平互動電視品味才是王道.'' Retrieved 2009-08-12. At that time the first General Manager of TVB, Australian Colin Bednall, wished to create a variety show in a format similar to ''

In Melbourne Tonight ''In Melbourne Tonight'', also known as ''IMT'', was a highly popular nightly Logie award-winning Australian variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970. Overview Graham Kennedy was the show's main host and ...

''. Chua was given the task of creating such a show, and after spending five months observing the popular culture and everyday lives in Hong Kong, ''Enjoy Yourself Tonight'' made its premiere, and instantly gained huge popularity. The show aired from 9:30pm to 11:00pm every weeknight, sometimes including Saturdays. The show included singing, dancing, short dramas and variety show games that interacted with the audiences. The show was one of the first shows ever to be broadcast in color in Hong Kong on 20 November 1967. In the 1970s, one of the earliest musical group to perform in the show was the

Four Golden Flowers The Four Golden Flowers was a TV theme song musical performance group in the early 1970s. They are one of the first all-girl modern music group in Hong Kong. The members include Lydia Shum (沈殿霞), Liza Wang (汪明荃), Felicia Wong (王� ...

. Lydia "Fei-fei" Shum would become one of the most notable MCs who became the symbol for the show. Another tradition of the show was for the entire cast to congregate at the end of each show to sing the "Good Night Song", written by

Joseph Koo Joseph Koo Kar-Fai, MBE, GBS (born 3 February 1933), is a Hong Kong composer, who is considered one of the most respected composers in Hong Kong. He used the pen name Moran (莫然) for Mandarin songs early in his career. Early life Koo h ...

, which was one of only 2 songs where Koo was also the lyricist (the other being The Song of 1-10 for children). These, along with the show's opening theme song (a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the chorus to " Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)" in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

), have since attained iconic status within the popular culture of Hong Kong. Many Hong Kong English bands and singers performed on EYT during the 1970s, such as

Agnes Chan Agnes Meiling Kaneko Chan (; Japanese: 金子陳美齢, ''Kaneko Chan Meirin'') is a Hong-Kong-born Japanese singer, television personality, university professor, essayist and novelist. Since 1998, Chan has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador a ...

The Young Men The Young Men was a Hong Kong folk/ rock band in the late 1960s and early 1970s featured in the local media as the answer to the super American band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The group consisted of Stephen Lam (lead vocal, guitars, harmonica ...

, the Lotus, etc. By 1989 ''Enjoy Yourself Tonight'' had suffered a terminal decline in audience number; despite (or perhaps because of) a radical change in format (which saw weeknight programmes reduced to half-hour durations, plus the traditional full-length variety shows on Saturdays) including the use of a new theme song in the tune of the original which debuted in 1991, it failed to retain viewers, who by then had developed new tastes and had access to new forms of entertainment. As a result, the show ended its 27-year run in October 1994. To this day, however, TVB does not admit that Enjoy Yourself Tonight has ended its run. They merely said that if the show was to be canceled, a Farewell/Curtain Call edition will be produced and aired. , no such edition was known to exist. Since then there has been several attempts to resurrect ''Enjoy Yourself Tonight'' as a once-a-week programme, first in 1997, then from 2002 to 2004; neither of which were successful. In 2007, to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of TVB, a half-hour weekday program known as Enjoy Yourself Tonight 2007 was run from 22 October to 16 November. As the Chinese title (再會歡樂今宵, literally "EYT Revisited") suggest, it was a re-run of some of the most memorable moments of the original EYT shows, as well as bringing back some of the original casts involved for guest appearances/interviews. In addition, the original theme song was brought back. Even though the latest program was merely a nostalgic looking back to EYT's former glory, it nonetheless bore testimony to the show's lasting legacy to Hong Kong's popular culture.

References

{{Reflist 1960s Hong Kong television series 1970s Hong Kong television series 1980s Hong Kong television series 1990s Hong Kong television series 1967 Hong Kong television series debuts 1994 Hong Kong television series endings TVB original programming

History

See also

References