over time, for one cannot do this across any other measurement, i, or we, since you read this, look you see, have looked at the guests which featured on the television show Bullseye. there's been a look at the overt and covert appearances, as well as a look (perhaps consideration) at (or of) how this has all impacted modern society.
time, then (to use that word once more) for a different approach. i thought it might be of some interest, even if only in passing, to look at some of the possible guests which did not appear on an episode of Bullseye. at the least, they did not appear in a way that was obvious or widely known. so, to clarify, it could be that they sneaked in to the audience, but i don't know that they did.
a careful consideration of the subject has led me to believe that the most likely person to have appeared on the show but never (as far as i can work out) did was Joe Bugner. this is a chap who needs little or no introduction from me, but for a brief overview he is by some distance the greatest ever boxer who held tri-nationalities. also, without doubt, or to use the lexicon of boxing, "pound for pound" he was the most formidable boxer ever to have nearly beaten both Ali and Bruno, coming a respectable second in both bouts.
providing the images for this post was rather tricky. as there is no known appearance of Bugner (if i may address him in the manner he has affectionately come to be known) (indeed, Aussie Joe too, celebrating some 33% of his nationalities) on the show. instead, then, i have opted to use images from a mid-80s episode of Bullseye that if he was going to be on would have been it, probably.
yes, oh yes indeed, for the fans of this format, there are a couple of animated picture files, GIF i think they are called, in Commodore 64 mode. well, two are, one is in another format, just to mix things up.
first off, then, some frames of reference. it is important (if you have continued reading) to understand both why it would have been suitable for Bugner (Aussie Joe) to feature on the show, and what barriers may have prevented (prohibited) this. there are a number, but i shall try not to waffle too much.
many might assume that a darts based early Sunday evening quiz show was not a natural forum for the public appearance of a professional boxer. not so, for we know of several boxers who featured. one of them was Frank Bruno, who was on a least once, in a Christmas special. from what i recall it was the Christmas special what featured Linda Lusardi too, but not the controversial Christmas Gang Bang edition. so, being a boxer was no barrier to an appearance.
yes, indeed the above has little to do with Bugner, and everything to do with Dino, Jaws out of James Bond and Glass Eye in particular. my research into the infamous, shelved Rat Pack special edition of Bullseye has caused some slight interest. one observation made has been that the three of them (Dino, Glass Eye and Mr Sinatra, with the latter being relevant not Jaws) probably filmed, if they did indeed film it, their guest appearance on Bullseye around the time that they were making the celebrated motion picture Cannonball Run II. whereas i cannot confirm that is the case, it would make a good deal of financial sense, for the three of them were already together and the set of Bullseye was not all that far away from where they were making the highly considered, seminal classic.
another boxer appearing on the show, in particular who it was, might well prove to have been a barrier to Bugner's presence. one of the key considerations of the psyche of a boxer is arrogance, confidence and self-belief. these are powerful, yet fragile. Bugner might well have decided that no, he was not going to play second fiddle, or be second choice, to Bruno, and simply refused overtures or invitations exploring the potential to appear.
that there was some history between Bruno and Bugner is not, i think, relevant. both were, indeed are, consummate professionals, so i doubt their highly regarded grudge match in the 80s would have seen Bruno insert a clause preventing Bugner from being on a show that he had been on. also, one suspects Jim Bowen really would not have tolerated such prejudice.
exactly how big a deal was the Bugner vs Bruno fight? a defining moment of the decade, really. casual fans and boxing purists have been known to laud the bout, declaring it to be "the single greatest ever boxing match of all time to feature boxers who both had a surname that began with a B and one of them held three nationalities". when you consider just how many boxing matches meet that judgemental criteria, you know it was something really special.
another barrier was cost. if you want the best, you have to pay a premium. by the time that Bullseye might have considered Joe Bugner as a guest or contestant, his value was at its highest. other than being highly in demand for his raconteur skills and deft boxing prowess, by the mid-80s he was established as one of the best and most important actors of his generation. for the most part this stemmed from his seminal appearance in I'm For The Hippopotamus, the highly rated 1979 Italian film. this was of course the film most movies made in the 1980s was measured against, and usually found to fall short of.
wouldn't Bugner have agreed to appear on the show for free, though? not really. i mean, yes, sure, being associated with Bullseye would have generated an even bigger footprint for the Bugner brand, making long term lucrative deals a consequence. but not everyone would have been in such a position. if Bugner had appeared on Bullseye for free then it would have set a precedent that other guests would be expected to follow, and so very few of them could have afforded such.
also, Jim Bowen was one of the world's leading advocates of the concept of a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. his speeches and public addresses on this philosophy regularly, perhaps invariably, built bridges between trade union enthusiasts and captains of industry around (or across) the world. he would not have tolerated a guest being on his conduit to the masses without fair and appropriate recompense being made.
yes, that's him, Mr Sinatra, the Chairman of the Board, the American Jim Bowen, as he appeared in the classic film Cannonball Run II. we can but look at this image of him seated in a suitable throne and wonder just how outstanding he would have looked sat on one of the contestant's chairs in Bullseye.
might, to return to the (ostensibly if nothing else) subject, it be the case that Bugner simply had no interest in darts at all? well, no. other than Bullseye being more than just darts, Bugner was quite adept at the sport. we know this for two reasons. firstly, the way he used to punch opponents in bouts gave every indication that he would have no problem accurately hitting double 16 or triple 19, such was his skill. secondly, and most importantly, he is name-checked in a book by Sid Waddell. he would not be if he were not excellent at darts, would he? yes, since you ask, here is a link to the name-checked section.
again, i am reluctant to say too much on the subject as it will deeply affect my book when it comes out, but yes, in Commodore 64 mode, that is another speedboat i have located. this one was in a far more affluent area than usual, so it looked like it had been kept in pristine condition. it is a pleasure to see someone who won something off of Bully's Special Prize Board treat it with the relevant respect.
is it not, you wonder, the case of me just taking images of any and all speedboats which i see, and assuming they were won on Bullseye? this is partially correct. when one considers the cost of a speedboat, the only practical way for anyone in England (or the wider UK) to own one was via a combination of their own skill, their proclivity to gamble and the generosity of Jim Bowen. this is true, at the least, outside of the ruling classes, who have more than enough money to afford such luxuries on account of their exploitation of the proletariat and other such working classes.
that indeed is another "animated" thing, but not Commodore 64 mode. whereas i do not recall the specifics, i am pretty sure it said that this was "Hercules" mode. nope, no idea if that was some sort of American video game thing or early days home computer. it looks OK, i suppose, but i prefer Commodore 64 mode. but you would be quite aware of that if you were a regular reader.
speaking of Commodore 64 mode, and since i seem to be out of things to mention on the subject of Joe Bugner not being a guest on Bullseye, yes, another look at Glass Eye and his chum Dino.
a quite scary reality, one of those "what if" or "butterfly effect" (or "chaos theory") things, is the question of whether or not Cannonball Run II would even have been made if the Rat Pack special edition of Bullseye went ahead as planned. perhaps if they had gotten a taste of the Jim Bowen life they would have elected to have more of it, irrespective of how luxurious their existing lives were. we shall never know.
many might say thankfully, for a world without Cannonball Run II would be a dark place. but, i am one of them that cannot but help wonder what might have been.
that's just a close up of one of the contestants on the episode of Bullseye which did not feature Bugner. in entire honesty with you i took the above image by accident, when trying to get an image of Tony Green. but, i have taken it now, and so here it is. if you concentrate you can see written all over his face the implication that he is aware of how he could have been indelibly associated with Bugner, had Aussie Joe featured on this particular episode.
were there any other prominent boxers in the 80s who might have appeared on Bullseye? not particularly; certainly not of the stature of Bugner. although, now that i think on a bit in consideration of the matter, i seem to vaguely recall that Barry McGuigan featured once. or that might have been on Celebrity Squares or similar.
surely there can be no more fitting or apt end to this post that the above image of Mr Sinatra, resplendent in Commodore 64 mode. it would really have been special to see him on Bullseye, wouldn't it? when you remember that Jim Bowen was an established singer too, who knows, perhaps they could have done some form of duet on the show.
anyway, super, smashing, great. that is well and truly that for another look at Bullseye, one i hope you have found to be as informative and as entertaining as the others. or more so if you did not like the previous ones.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment