The final of ‘It’s in the Bag’

Press, 9 May 1979, Page 21

The final of ‘It’s in the Bag’

■ Last night on TVI the I nation’s greatest showman I ended 25 years on-the-road. For Selwyn Toogood, the show “It's In The Bag,” and. I the whole country', it was! the end of an era. ’ Toogood and “The Bag” I are synonomous. He ran the I show for 11 years and 600 [programmes on radio; and I four years after that successfully turned “The Bag” I into the top-rating locallyI produced television show — 'given the exception of the | o n c e-yearly “Telethon” I extravaganza. • It has now seen six successful years on television, visiting 45 towns in the process and totalling 132 programmes. The show ended at the Dunedin Town Hall — where the television series started. In all, it is estimated that “It’s In The Bag” has raised more than SIM for charities in centres up and down the country. In fact, the television version has played in halls that the radio version helped raise money to build.

“It’s In The Bag” was based on the Australian show “Pick-A-’Box” which itself was a direct steal from an American show. The format has also featured on the 8.8. C. in yet another guise. The show was launched in January, 1954, in the Auckland radio theatre. Eleven years later it ended its radio run in Invercargill. Then followed four years “in limbo” for Toogood dur-

ing which he set up on his own as a contractor advertising travel in general and his own “coronation Street” tours in particular. During this period Toogood also became a thorn in the side of the old N.Z.B.C. television management, persitently nagging them to give "The Bag” format a try on television. Eventually they agreed to a trial run in the afternoons.

Toogood’s faith in the format was justified and “The Bag” took off, winning its way into an evening slot. It didn’t look back, rating consistently in the top three programmes and becoming by far the most popular locally-produced one. ; It was the only television show that regularly went around the smaller centres, and the only quiz show in which the contestants were not selected before the night. Toogood maintained one golden rule. He did not get involved with contestants either before or after the show.

The questions were his own. He researched them from encyclopaedias and dictionaries and sets his own level of difficulty. “If the questions are too hard we get no answers and no show.”

What he found was that New Zealanders in general have a very poor knowledge of current affairs and the history and geography of their own country.