Written by Matthew K. Sharp,
kirseval@werple.mira.net.au
Version 1.1
Revised 1 August 1995
"The Goodies" returned in 1973, and began to pull out of the downward spiral of the previous series, altering the "Goodies vs Guest Star" format so that now the guest provided the impetus for the plot. The theme song, too, was changed, to a more pop-based arrangement.
#22 The New Office
AKA Moving Day (g)
Series Three, Programme One
1st BBC Transmission: 4 February 1973
BBC Project Number 82396
Six months of waiting for renovations to their office prove too much for the Goodies, so they decide to buy a deserted railway station and convert it. However, they cannot afford one, so they build their own deserted railway station miles from anywhere. It seems peaceful, too peaceful, until the creatures start attacking them...
#23 A Hunting We Will Go
AKA Hunting Pink
AKA Where There's A Will... (g)
Series Three, Programme Two
1st BBC Transmission: 11 February 1973
BBC Project Number 82500
Tim inherits a country estate and becomes a blood thirsty hunting chappy. Appalled, Graeme and Bill set out to cure him of the bloodlust.
#24 Winter Olympics
Series Three, Programme Three
1st BBC Transmission: 18 February 1973
BBC Project Number 82599
The Goodies are asked to represent Britain at the Winter Olympics held at the North Pole, but find the going far too slippery and so melt the polar ice cap.
#25 Black Magic
AKA That Old Black Magic
AKA Which Witch Is Which? (g)
Series Three, Programme Four
1st BBC Transmission: 25 February 1973
BBC Project Number 82710
A white witch needs the Goodies' help, but Graeme believes he has "the power", becomes possessed by the dark side and is finally turned into a gibbon.
#26 The Lost Island Of Munga
AKA To Those In Peril On The Sea
AKA A High-Sea Adventure (g)
Series Three, Number Five
1st BBC Transmission: 4 March 1973
BBC Project Number 82933
The Goodies set up to find the lost island of Munga and claim it for Britain, but are shipwrecked, picked up by an oil magnate and finally find the island, and an old foe who is about to turn it into a holiday resort, replete with ample fish and chips.
#27 Way Outward Bound
AKA Outward Bounds (g)
Series Three, Programme Six
1st BBC Transmission: 11 March 1973
BBC Project Number 83029
The Goodies are offered 25 pounds per head for children for the Way Outward Bound course, but cannot find any. Dressed as children themselves, they uncover a plot to create a private army of babies.
Series Three Technical Crew
* Special
#28 Superstar
Special
1st BBC Transmission: 7 July 1973
BBC Project Number 83704
The Goodies want to clean up popular music and so form a band and perform the sickeningly sweet "If I Was A Pretty Little Sparrow". They go on the Maxie Grease Show, singing "Mummy Mummy Mummy". Bill is snapped up and made into "Randy Pandy", the star of the rock opera "St Augustine Superstar", the idol of either, or indeed any, sex.
"Superstar" Technical Crew
The Goodies were back again by the end of 1973 with another six episodes. This time the format changed again so that most of the shows were motivated solely by the Goodies themselves.
This series was to be the last which featured the mock advertisements in the middle of the programme. Although some Series Three and Four episodes do not have them, they were finally phased out once and for all after this series.
#29 Camelot
Series Four, Programme One
1st BBC Transmission: 1 December 1973
BBC Project Number 85562
Another of Tim's uncles asks the Goodies to look after his castle (located in a suburban street), and to protect it from developers, the Goodies turn it into a theme park.
Jousting arranged by Max Diamond, with Nosher Powell and Dinny Powell.
#30 Invasion Of The Moon Creatures
AKA The Planet Of The Rabbits (g)
Series Four, Programme Two
1st BBC Transmission: 8 December 1973
BBC Project Number 85697
A rocket trip to the moon proves to have dire consequences as the rabbits which Graeme sent up have evolved and are now bent on taking over the world, with the aid of the now-converted Tim and Bill.
#31 Hospital For Hire
AKA The National Health Service (g)
Series Four, Programme Three
1st BBC Transmission: 15 December 1973
BBC Project Number 85385
As the National Health crumbles, the Goodies step in with a travelling hospital and miracle cure for the nation's sick. Well, nearly all the nation.
#32 The Goodies And The Beanstalk
(See separate article below)
#33 The Stone Age
AKA Archaeologists (g)
AKA Tyrannosaurus Rex
AKA Pot-Holing
Series Four, Programme Four
1st BBC Transmission: 29 December 1973
BBC Project Number 88669
The Goodies discover a giant pothole under their office, and find down there the perfectly preserved remains of a Tyrannosaurus Rex - unfortunately, too perfectly preserved.
#34 Goodies In The Nick
AKA The Great Goodies Bank Robbery (g)
Series Four, Programme Five
1st BBC Transmission: 5 January 1974
BBC Project Number 85753
A police sergeant with a low arrest rate asks the Goodies to start a crime wave for him, so that be may arrest them and get a promotion. The Goodies rather too successful and end up in jail, but they plan an escape...
#35 The Race
Series Four, Programme Six
1st BBC Transmission: 12 January 1974
BBC Project Number 85502
The Goodies, on holiday in France, enter the Le Mans 24 Hour Race. In the absence of a car, they enter the mobile office and pit their wits against the evil Baron, determined to win.
Series Four Technical Crew
* Special
For Christmas 1973, The Goodies made a 43 minute all- film special based (very loosely) on the fairy-tale Jack And The Beanstalk.
#32 The Goodies and The Beanstalk
Christmas Special 1973
1st BBC Transmission: 24 December 1973
Cricklewood, 1973: Poverty stricken, the Goodies sell their trandem for a tin of beans - which, when planted, grows into a giant beanstalk leading up Mt Everest to the giant's castle where golden eggs are laid. But before the Goodies can become rich, they must battle with the Giant.
"The Goodies And The Beanstalk" Technical Crew
* Guest Appearance
The Goodies were part of an all-star cast in a special Christmas Eve presentation of the pantomime Aladdin in 1974.
#35a Aladdin
1st BBC Transmission: 24 December 1974
Starring Michael Aspel, Jacqueline Clarke Dana, Peter Glaze, The Goodies, Barrie Gosney, Derek Griffiths, Deryck Guyler, Don Maclean, Pan's People, Ed Stewart and Richard Wattis.
Script by Bob Hedley & Tony Hare
Produced by Robin Nash
It was to be slightly over a year before The Goodies appeared on air again, but they were back in February 1975 with a new series and new theme tune. Once again the series was thirteen episodes long, but the additional time for writing and the increased experience of the format meant that nearly every one of these thirteen are excellent.
The first episode, "Movies" was entered in the Montreux Festival, and The Goodies won their second silver rose. They also hosted a documentary about the festival (more about which below).
This series features two episodes which contain no location footage and were recorded entirely in the studio. This was mainly for budgetary reasons; The Goodies, using more film than many other BBC programmes, was forever running short of money for this precious commodity, and the last show in most of the recording blocks is an all video-tape, studio bound episode. Both the previous series have shows with little or no film ("Superstar" and "The Stone Age") and the problem would recur again in the future ("The Goodies - Almost Live" and "Earthanasia"). In this series, however, the two cheapies ("Lighthouse Keeping Loonies" and "The End") were planned for, and recorded 9th and 12th respectively.
#36 Movies
AKA The British Film Industry (g)
Series Five, Programme One
1st BBC Transmission: 10 February 1975
BBC Project Number 93292
The Goodies revive the British film industry, but internal disputes lead to them going their seperate ways, through a Biblical epic, a western and a silent comedy - simultaneously.
#37 Clown Virus
Series Five, Programme Two
1st BBC Transmission: 17 February 1975
BBC Project Number 93182
An American army base asks the Goodies to dispose of a "harmless" waste product, but selling it as food and fuel causes an outbreak of people turning into clowns.
#38 Chubbie Chumps
AKA Radio 2
AKA The Beauty Contest (g)
Series Five, Programme Three
1st BBC Transmission: 24 February 1975
BBC Project Number 93479
After seeing the effect BBC Radio 2 has on Tim, Graeme takes it over and runs a Heavy Housewife of the Year competition, with Tim as an entrant.
#39 Wacky Wales
Series Five, Programme Four
1st BBC Transmission: 3 March 1975
BBC Project Number 97853
The Goodies travel to Wales to take part in an eisteddfod, but become involved in a pagan sacrifice ritual - football.
#40 Frankenfido
Series Five, Programme Five
1st BBC Transmission: 10 March 1975
BBC Project Number 98307
Graeme is determined to steal the Cruft's Ideal Dog Exhibition prize from Tim and Bill, and breeds/builds a variety of bizzare animals including a six legged, long snouted monstrosity.
#41 Scatty Safari
AKA The Existance Of Rolf Harris (g) (huh?)
Series Five, Programme Six
1st BBC Transmission: 17 March 1975
BBC Project Number 98311
Television personalities are proving to be a less than popular attraction at the Goodies' safari park, so they get a pair of Rolf Harrises to breed. But the Rolf Harrises escape and breed far too well, reaching plague proportions.
#42 Kung Fu Kapers
AKA Ecky-Thump (g)
Series Five, Programme Seven
1st BBC Transmission: 24 March 1975
BBC Project Number 98447
Bill reveals he is a master of the ancient Lancashire martial art of Ecky-Thump. The effectiveness of Ecky- Thump leads to a craze sweeping the nation, which Bill intends to exploit by taking over t'Parliament. The only way to stop him is by adding remote control his secret weapon - black puddings.
#43 Lighthouse Keeping Loonies
AKA The Lighthouse Men (g)
Series Five, Programme Eight
1st BBC Transmission: 31 March 1975
BBC Project Number 98542
The Goodies are employed for a little light house keeping, and are subsequently stranded in a lighthouse. When they run out of oil for the lamp they dig for some - and send the lighthouse into orbit.
#44 Rome Antics
Series Five, Programme Nine
1st BBC Transmission: 7 April 1975
BBC Project Number 98664
The ancient Briton version of the Goodies are sent for by the Roman emperor to entertain the masses, but fail; until Rome is attacked by the Vandals, when, whilst runnign away, they accidentally invent the Olympic Games.
#45 Cunning Stunts
AKA Fleet Street Goodies (g)
Series Five, Programme Ten
1st BBC Transmission: 14 April 1975
BBC Project Number 98696
Bill is a rather useless employee in the offices of The Goodies' Clarion And Globe newspaper, as he is moping because he cannot marry his true love until he makes her father laugh. Failing in his task, he sets off to do something silly and enters in the Eurovision Raving Loony Competition.
#46 South Africa
AKA A South African Adventure (g)
AKA Apartheight
Series Five, Programme Eleven
1st BBC Transmission: 21 April 1975
BBC Project Number 96215
The Goodies are kidnapped and taken to South Africa, where they are asked to solve the colour problem. They do - all the blacks leave and go to Britain, thus leaving South Africa without a second class to use as slaves. So the Goodies develop a new form of discrimination: Apart-height.
#47 Bunfight At The O.K. Tea Rooms
Series Five, Programme Twelve
1st BBC Transmission: 28 April 1975
BBC Project Number 98967
The Goodies go west (well, Cornwall) to mine for gold, but strike cream instead. Graeme monopolises the cream business by sneaking offon the other two, but Tim and Bill also find strawberry jam and scones. The stakes are set for a poker game where winner takes all, and culminates in the Bunfight at the O.K. Tea Rooms.
#48 The End
AKA Encased In Concrete (g)
Series Five, Programme Thirteen
1st BBC Transmission: 5 May 1975
BBC Project Number 98945
The office is entombed under a pillar of concrete in line with Graeme's new city development plan. Isolated, the Goodies explore their relationships with each other, politics, religion and eye-spy.
Series Five Technical Crew
Note: There is no costume credit for programme 11, no film editor credit for programme 13, and no film cameraman credit for programmes 8 and 13 (There is no film in programmes 8 and 13).
* Documentary
#48a Montreux Festival
Documentary
1st BBC Transmission: 10 May 1975
The Goodies present a 30 minute programme about the 1975 Montreux Light Entertainment Festival, with extracts from various entries, including "Movies", the Goodies episode which won them their second Silver Rose.
* Special
For Christmas 1975, the Goodies made their second all- film special, this time running to 49 minutes.
#49 Goodies Rule - O.K.?
Christmas Special 1975
1st BBC Transmission: 21 December 1975
BBC Project Number B03216
The Goodies finally become successful pop stars, after having their ideas stolen time after time, just in time for entertainment to be banned by the government. They are forced underground and round up all the old entertainers, but they've all forgotten how to do their old acts. The Goodies manage to overthrow the government and install a puppet government - with real puppets - but even they rebel and the Goodies have to try to stop them.
* "Goodies Rule - O.K.?" Technical Crew
Contents / Introduction / Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5
Last updated April 6, 1996 by
Melinda Casino.
melinda@badger.idiscover.co.uk