Spicks and Specks (TV series)

The show takes its name from the 1966 hit single by the Bee Gees. It was hosted by stand-up comedian Adam Hills who posed questions to two teams each headed by a permanent team captain, actor/comedian/author Alan Brough and radio announcer Myf Warhurst. They each have two guest panellists, generally one from the world of music and one from comedy. They vary from week to week, but regular guests included Hamish Blake, Tim Minchin, Frank Woodley, Colin Lane, Ross Noble, James Morrison, Renée Geyer, Ella Hooper, Meshel Laurie, Denise Scott, Antoinette Halloran and Dave O'Neil. With the exception of Dave O'Neil, Blake appeared more often than any other guest panellist,[2] and his comparative lack of musical knowledge was a running gag.

The show's general style, employing a mix of music and comedy, is similar to the British show Never Mind the Buzzcocks and fellow Australian TV show RocKwiz, but the question formats and program style (Satirical vs. Family vs. Pub Quiz) are different.

The show returned for a seventh season on 4 May 2011. On 25 May 2011, it was announced the seventh season would be the final season and the show would end on 23 November 2011.[3]

ABC Television announced on 28 November 2012, during their 2013 program launch that Spicks and Specks would be returning in the new year but without Hills, Warhurst or Brough.[4][5] However the re-launch of the series was delayed by the broadcaster until 2014, with the first episode airing on 5 February. The new host was comedian Josh Earl with Adam Richard and Ella Hooper as team captains.[6][7][8]

The revival was axed after 20 episodes due to low ratings, with the final six recorded episodes airing over the summer non-ratings period.

The show sticks to a simple quiz-show format, with host Hills asking the teams varying music-themed questions. Some rounds are played on an "open-to-all" basis, i.e. both teams can answer the questions, but in most rounds each team gets their own questions to answer – although the other team may answer the question if the first team doesn't know it. Scores are kept, but the prize for the winners is simply personal satisfaction. Many segments are named after, or otherwise reference, well known song titles. Regular segments include:

• Know Your Product, where each team chooses one of four given topics – three questions around this topic are then asked which either team can answer. The questions are usually ordered by points allocated and the number of answers needed. (e.g. first question is worth one point, but only one answer is needed, the second question is worth two points and requires two answers, and the final question is worth three points and has three answers). This game is played first in every episode. In special episodes the topic is the show's theme which has 5 questions of which the 4th & 5th questions have 4 & 5 answers respectively. Named after the song by The Saints.
• Substitute, where one panellist from each team sings three well-known tunes, substituting words from a text provided by Hills. This is usually a technical manual or some kind of text humorous given the context (texts used have included Datsun 180B Service Manual, 2004 Australian Government Tax Pack and A Guide to Yabbie Farming). The other panellists of that team then guess the songs. This game is loosely based on One Song To The Tune Of Another from the BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Adam Hills' own minor hit with "Working Class Anthem", in which he sang the lyrics of the Australian National Anthem to the tune of Jimmy Barnes' "Working Class Man". Named after the song by The Who.
• Cover Versions in which one contestant is chosen to draw pictures (in silence), representing firstly album covers and then song titles in later episodes, as their panel attempts to guess which album/song it is. Contestants are not allowed to use words or numbers. Music used during this round is Axel F.
• Samplemania/Videomania, where five or six songs/music video clips are edited into one short 30-second clip. Players must identify the different songs/videos in the clip after they have all been played, and are not allowed to take notes.
• Turning Japanese in which the lyrics of well-known song are translated into Japanese using an online web translator. The lyrics are then translated back into English using the same translator. Contestants must guess the title of the song the mismatched lyrics are from. Named after the song by The Vapors
• Please Please Tell Me Now Hills presents part of a music video clip, and the teams must answer questions about the video. Named after a line in Is There Something I Should Know? by Duran Duran
• Musician or Serial Killer, in which each team is shown a photograph of a person and is asked to identify whether they are a musician or serial killer. Early episodes tasked individual panelists with identification, resulting in six rounds of this game.
• Sir Mix'n'Matchalot, where each team is given three famous people and three facts about each of these people. They have to match the fact with the correct person. A play on rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot.
• Bottom 100 in which Hills provides each team with a choice of two awful songs and asks them to determine which was rated worst by a given group or list. A play on the Triple J Hottest 100.
• You Can Buy Me Love in which Adam reads out three celebrity themed items that have been found on eBay (e.g. A tour jacket, keychain with artist/band name). Some of these items are the usual merchandise, while others are down-right weird. The teams are then asked to place each item in order from cheapest to the most expensive. Named after the song Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles.
• Common People in which the teams identify the commonality between three musicians/musical personalities or songs/albums. Named after the song by Pulp.
• Malvern Stars on 45 in which a single contestant rides a bicycle which powers a record player. The speed each record plays at is determined by the speed at which the contestant pedals. The contestant must continue to ride until their panel correctly guesses as many songs as possible in the time limit. Named after the bicycle manufacturer Malvern Star and the band Stars on 45.
• Mondegreens, in which teams are given a short piece of text that vaguely sounds like real lyrics or a set of lyrics. They must then identify the real lyrics.
• Looking for Clues, where teams have to guess the name of a band from a cryptic clue given by Hills. Named after the song by Robert Palmer.
• Look What They've Done... where song clips have been changed and the players must identify the tracks. Most commonly, a guest artist or group is used to play the tracks in a different style from the original, however the songs have also been played backwards, which later became its own game (Step Back In Time), through headphones played to maximum volume, through ringtones, over the top of each other, on a malfunctioning radio, etc. Named after the song What Have They Done to My Song Ma by Melanie Safka.
• Something's Missing, where the teams are shown album covers with an item or word blanked out, and they must identify the missing item. Named after the song Something's Missing (In My Life) by Paul Jabara and Donna Summer.
• One out of Three Ain't Bad, where teams are given a relatively obscure musical story and are presented with three possible endings. Teams must select the true ending to the story. Named after the song Two Out of Three Ain't Bad by Meat Loaf.
• Word Up, in which teams are given five random words from the lyrics of a song, and they must then identify the song. Named after the song by Cameo.
• You're The Voices, where a member of each team must stand next to the opposite team and sing a song from a book (by only singing la la la). The first team to get their member's song correct wins a point. Named after the song You're the Voice by John Farnham.
• All Shook Up, in which each team is shown a series of anagrams of musicians' names (e.g. "Bomb Early" – "Bob Marley"), and they have to unscramble the anagram. If nobody guesses the anagram immediately, Hills will give a clue. Named after the song by Elvis Presley.
• Two Little Words, where one member of each team is blind-folded by wearing the Spicks Specs and the others are given the name of a musician or band. The two other team members must get their teammate to guess correctly which musician they are given using only one one-word clue each. Named after the song Three Little Words by The Rhythm Boys.
• Counting the Beat, where one member of each team plays songs on a keyboard while the others try to guess the song. Keyboardists are given a list of numbers corresponding to the order in which they should play the notes, but are given no indication of the rhythm in which they should be played. Introduced in 2008. Named after the song by The Swingers.
• I'll Jumble For Ya, where one team member is given thirty seconds to correctly match nine song titles divided in half and mixed up on a magnetic board. Named after the song I'll Tumble 4 Ya by Culture Club.
• Step Back in Time, where songs are played backwards and must be identified by the teams. Named after the song by Kylie Minogue.
• What's The Story?, where the team presented three stories of an opposing team member, with each story either true, half true and untrue, their job is work out which one is true, half true and untrue. Named after the album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis.

The final round of each program, The Final Countdown, is devoted to a generic musical quiz. This is a beat the buzzer round, and is the only round in which points are deducted for incorrect responses. Named after the song by Europe.

Many of these rounds have proven more popular than others. Substitute was used consistently throughout the early history of the show appearing in almost every episode (although later in the programs run was sometimes excluded in favour of Cover Versions occasionally), whereas some were only used every now and then and others used much less. Some other segments which proved to be popular early in the show's history but have been used less or even abandoned later : Musician or Serial Killer and Bottom 100 were both commonly used early in 2005, but are rarely later. Some games were also introduced later in the series, and occasionally a game will be temporarily changed in some way (e.g. Musician Or Serial Killer was changed once to ARIA winner or Audience Member on the ARIA special episode).

Despite points being awarded for each round, there are no prizes for the winners, except on rare occasions where Hills decides to award some convenient prop for comedic effect – a "Fools' Gold" sandwich very similar (they used strawberry jam as opposed to grape jam) to that eaten by Elvis, for example.

On 27 August 2018, it was announced that the show would return for a one-off hour-long special as part of the ABC's "Ausmusic" month. Confirmed as panellists were award-winning rapper Adam Briggs, singer/songwriter Ricki-Lee Coulter and comedians Frank Woodley and Denise Scott, plus a line-up of famous guests to lend their musical talents and knowledge.[9]

The one-hour special aired on 4 November, with a repeat airing on ABC Comedy on 10 November. Guests included Adalita, Vika and Linda Bull, Troy Cassar-Daley, Kate Ceberano, Murray Cook, Paul Dempsey, Antoinette Halloran, Guido Hatzis, Kram, Angie Hart, Kate Miller-Heidke, Lindsay McDougall, Luke McGregor, Russell Morris, Montaigne, Pseudo Echo, Josh Pyke, Ruel, Eskimo Joe's Kav Temperley, Tripod, Cal Wilson, Ross Wilson. The show was dedicated to long time regular guest Richard Gill, who had died a week before the special went to air.[10] It ranked #1 nationally with 1.36 million viewers.[11]

In August 2019, it was announced that the show with the original lineup would return for a one-off special in November 2019, followed by a short three-episode reboot airing in 2020. The episodes will feature original host Adam Hills and team captains Alan Brough and Myf Warhurst, with each episode focusing on a specific generation of music.[12]

The show takes both its name and theme music from the Bee Gees' 1966 song, "Spicks and Specks". The theme music is performed and produced by The Dissociatives, a duo consisting of Silverchair singer Daniel Johns and dance musician Paul Mac, and replaces all the lyrics bar the title refrain with scat singing. In addition, Mac once appeared on the show as a panellist.

In 2007 during the Kid's Music Special, the question "What children's song is contained in the song Down Under?" was asked. This question resulted in Larrikin Music taking legal action against Men at Work songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert. The lawsuit was over the main flute riff that accompanies the line from children's nursery rhyme Kookaburra which Larrikin Music alleged was reproduced in the Men at Work song Down Under.[13] The lawsuit ruled in favour of Larrikin Music.

• In 2007, the first Spicks and Specks product was launched, the Spicks and Specks Interactive Quiz DVD.
• A Very Specky Christmas was released on 4 December 2008;[14] it contains the 2007 and 2006 Christmas Specials.
• In 2009, the DVD Up to our Eras was released. It contained the 50s special, the 60s special, the 70s special and the 80s special.
• Spicks and Specks: The Remixes was released on 5 August 2010 containing 4 episodes that were uncut and uncensored.
• Spicks & Specks: World Tour was released on 4 November 2010, containing the Australiana, Britannia, Americana and Europa specials, and is said to have unseen footage.[15]
• The Spicks and Specks Boxset was released on 1 April 2015, the 4-DVD set contains: The Remixes, World Tour, The Finale and the Pick of Spicks.[16]

In 2008, the Spicks and Specks Board Game was released by Imagination Games.[17] In 2011 Spicks and Specks Quiz, an app for iPhones, was released. Users are given two play options, Quick Play or Quiz Challenge, with various games taken from the show. There are a number of top-up Quiz Packs to extend the game. On its initial release, the name of the app was automatically censored by Apple to 'S****s and Specks' because of the racist use of the word 'spick' in the US to describe a person of Hispanic heritage.[18]

• Official website
• Spicks and Specks at IMDb
• Spicks and Specks at TV.com