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NZBC TV Archive

NZBC/TVNZ Pop Shows

C'mon — 1960s NZBC TV Music Television Programme (1966-1969)

When the pilot for C'mon screened in November 1966 it was reviewed as the brightest thing that has happened on New Zealand TV this year and resulted in six months of weekly C'mon shows being commissioned by the NZBC for 1967. Thus, from 1966 though to 1969 the C'mon TV show was required viewing for Kiwi pop fans - there were bands, pop stars and Go-Go girls all clothed in pop fashion and surrounded by pop culture iconography. It made local pop artists like Sandy Edmonds, Mr. Lee Grant, Shane, The Chicks, The Keil Isles and others into household names. C'mon opened with a snappy theme song, performed by the Keil Isles, and it was introduced by a flashy compère, Peter Sinclair (who wrote his own scripts and was a rock-solid anchor). It also featured groovy graphics, swinging London Street fashions and Go-Go Girls in risqué short skirts, with a talented technical crew and producer Kevan Moore at the helm, they began churning out weekly C'mon shows to a very tight schedule. C'mon was one of the foundation stones for a fledgling pop industry that had previously been held back by cultural cringe. When the 1967 series of C'mon finished, the brand was kept alive with the C'mon Tours which lasted 7 weeks and featured Mr. Lee Grant, Sandy Edmonds, The Keil Isles, The Chicks, The Underdogs, Go-Go Girls and Pete Sinclair.

Ray Woolfe, Sandy Edmonds, Herma Keil, Mr Lee Grant and Tommy Adderley

In 1969, after the 3rd series of C'mon, the show was axed by mutual consent. The music and the scene changed and the feeling was that the public wouldn't put up with the increasing numbers of records that were glorifying sex and drugs. It could be considered that the legacy of C'mon is that it changed the perception of how the public viewed NZ talent. It created a template for music programmes that were to follow, and in 1975, when Kevan Moore took over as Head of Programming for TV2 (South Pacific Television), he gave Peter Gratten the go-ahead to launch Radio with Pictures in 1976. New Zealand music has much to thank shows like C'mon for, despite it having only screened 50 episodes between 1966 and 1969, but it established a pop culture template that became prescription viewing for young New Zealanders, and evolved into a thriving scene.