8 January 1993 (1993-01-08) – 21 September 2001 (2001-09-21)
Zzzap (rendered ZZZap!) is a British children's television comedy programme. The concept of the show is a giant 18 ft comic that has been brought to life. The show was broadcast on ITV from 8 January 1993 until 21 September 2001[1] and was produced for ten series by The Media Merchants and Meridian Broadcasting.
Format
The programme mostly followed the same format throughout its run. A title intro is shown consisting of a couple of short clips for each character from the series. It is then followed by a series of short two- or three-minute-long segments, followed by the credits.
For Series 1–9, each segment was introduced by the camera zooming in on a corresponding panel on a giant comic, shot in reverse (e.g. the camera starting at the panel, and pulling back into a wide shot), which was reversed in post-production; this technique was done to aid the camera operator in aligning the camera squarely with the panel, which was especially important with Cuthbert Lilly and Smart Arty sketches, where the exact same panel graphic often physically existed on set in some form. This giant comic has a set of nine frames on it, some of which contain a character representing their segments. For Series 10, the aforementioned comic transitions were replaced with a CGI roulette of the panels.
The show was designed with deaf children in mind,[2] and so the style of the show is predominantly visual, with the sound only providing music and effects. The audience in "The Handymen" segments would also often sign clapping instead of actually clapping.[3]
The introduction to Series 1 was filmed in Chequers Shopping Centre in Maidstone showing a boy buying a copy of a comic called "ZZZap!" from a newsagent. The comic contains a 'Free TV Zapper!' which he uses only to find that the comic has increased to an enormous 18 ft size. This introduction was abandoned from series 2 onwards, which instead showed the giant comic and then introduced each of the characters with a short video. Some computer generated additions were made in series 8, and transitions were wholly computer generated by series 10. The closing titles also changed between series.
The series was more recently broadcast on the CITV channel in 2006, 2007 and 2009. There were plans to broadcast the programme as part of CITV's 30th anniversary in January 2013, but this did not go ahead due to licensing issues.[4]
The Smart Arty elements and The Handymen were repeated in the US and Canada as part of It's Itsy Bitsy Time on Fox Family and Treehouse TV, respectively, with Smart Arty being renamed to "Art to Art with Arty Art". The segments ran from 1999 until 2001.
ZZZap! was also screened on TVOntario in Canada in its original format, alongside the runs on It's Itsy Bitsy Time.
The series was also broadcast on the local military forces television networks BFBS and SSVC Television as part of their children's programming blocks Children's SSVC and Room 785. The network was shown on television transmissions in Germany, Belize, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar.
The series mainly uses library music for most of the background music. The theme tune is Keystone Chaos, composed by Ron Aspery, from the KPM library. The background music used in the majority of The Handymen sketches is Memories of the Music Hall, composed by Roger Webb, from the De Wolfe Music Library.
Track(s) used from the Music House Library (KPM Music) for Cuthbert Lilly sketches:
Candid Camera (MHE 3): "Vintage Hollywood"
Children's Hour (KPM 147): "Animal Capers"
Comedy & Animation Volume I (KPM 367): "Busy Days"
Comedy Classics (MHS 13): "English Country Garden", "He'd Have To Get Under"
Comedy Classics 1 (KPM 131): "Banana Skin", "Bundle Of Fun", "Goodbye Rodney", "Jobsworth", "Morning Darling!", "Roll Up! Roll Up!", "Round the Bend", "Tea Dance", "What A Cheek!"
Come Dancing by Sam Fonteyn (KPM 1151): "Love In June", "The Mirabelle Waltz", "The Silver Ballroom"
Fun/Novelty/Kids (CAR 237): "Seaside Piano"
Memories Of The Music Hall by Roger Webb (DWCD 0082): "After The Ball", "Daisy Bell", "I'll Be Your Sweetheart", "Lily Of Laguna", "Memories Of The Music Hall", "Old Time Waltz", "Schoft-schoe Schottische", "The Honeysuckle And The Bee", "Why Am I Always The Bridesmaid?"
Period Pieces/Hotel Ballroom (BMLP 111): "Quick Waltz"
Victoriana (Parts 1 and 2) (KPMLP 1116): "Tea Dance"
