Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - MINI: THAT 90'S SHOW - Steve Parr

Episode Date: June 24, 2021

In this MINI edition of Jono & Ben, Steve Parr joins us for our special edition THAT 90S SHOW!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jono and Ben, new to your mornings. Friends of Skinny, New Zealand's most recommended telco. Happy, happy, happy, oh, oh. He was the host of the biggest game show on TV in the 90s, Sale of the Century. Steve Parr joins us right now. Thanks so much for your time. How you doing?

It's a pleasure to be with you guys this morning. Oh, my God. This is the interview of the century. Yeah, nice to see you. It's so good to see you again. Whereabouts in the world are you? I am in a little place called Brisbane in Australia. I've heard of Brisbane.

Been here 20 years. 20 years? What do you do now, Steve Parr? I work in the renewable energy industry, so promoting, selling, looking after people's solar power and battery storage systems for their homes. Oh, wow. So you can get us a deal on a bit of a solar power system

for the house there. Yeah, it depends on the exchange rate. I could probably do it for you here. Yeah, wow. Right, so you can get us a deal on a bit of a solar power system for the house there. Yeah, it depends on the exchange rate. I could probably do it for you. Yeah, nice. Now, I see you've still got, we can see you over Zoom, which is great. You've still got, you've got a moustache and a beard because your moustache was very iconic when you were on TV.

Yes, that moustache caused a, it was great. It caused a few cartoons to be made and that was one of the features of the cartoons. Is that the same moustache? Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. Has it gone and come back, or is it the moustache from Sale of the Century?

Well, it's always been on my face. We are talking to the moustache from Sale of the Century. What an unusual question. But I get your point. The Sale of the Century, I read it in the weekend, and someone had written, I think, from the spin-off and they always said it was kind of like the chase of the 90s. You know, the chase is such a big TV show on now. And it was New Zealand's biggest TV show, 7 o'clock every night.

It was. Every night, 7 o'clock, we had 1.3 million people watching it. Every night, rated number 1, 2, 3, four, and five every week in the rating. Wow. We've got some audio which might take you back, Steve Parr, from Sale of the Century. Have a listen to this introduction. I think Grant Walker speaking, the famous voiceover artist,

he is listing off the show's prizes. Tonight on New Zealand's biggest sales sensation, we're offering over $70,000 in prizes, including this spacious Lancer GL wagon, valued at over $27,000 for just $550. On Sale of the Century! Oh, I love it. And then you would come hurtling on stage and you would slide in.

Yeah, that was a very special moment. The show didn't used to start like that. One of the first week or so, we didn't have any slide. It was just a walk in, a gentle wave and good evening. Jeremy and I. But there was something missing at the front. It needed a bit of a zing. So we came up with the idea of trying to slide in.

And it worked beautifully. And that became the trademark of the show. It did. I think there was an indie pop group, an indie rock group that was called Steve Pass Slide. It became... Yeah, the Steve Pass Slide. They were based in Christchurch.

I've heard their music. Yeah, fairly impressed. Yeah, it became something that we all knew. You don't seem overly impressed with the Steve Pass Slide. Fairly impressed. No, they were good. They were good. They play good music. It's a view.

But there was one time, one famous clip where you overshot the sort of the podium. Was that meant to happen or is that just a blooper that we all got to see? No, it wasn't entirely meant to happen. It was on the 100th episode that we did. And yeah, I just missed the podium. You've really got to have a lot of confidence when you come sliding into a show, don't you? Like your ankles need to be, they need to be strong, agile.

Knees, you want to bend down. I imagine the floor, did you add a lubricant to the floor? Like why was it so slidey? It was just good old fashioned. I'm pretty sure it was New Zealand virgin wool carpet and leather shoes. And after the show finished,

those shoes were donated to the Transport Museum in Palmerston North. Oh, really? Yes. Imagine the kilometres and kilometres those shoes slid. They slid the length of the North Island. That's why they went to the Transport Museum. What do you think it was about the show that made it so popular?

I mean, it was the biggest show on TV. Yeah, it was. It was a combination of the fact that made it so popular i mean it was the biggest show on tv yeah it was it was a combination of um the fact that it was so involving of the audience it was very very much uh a show that the people could at home you could play along with it you could you got to be able to say things at home like god that guy's a prat or i knew that question or why didn't he get that one and it was really wise it was the involvement jude had a lot to do with it, her pulling power. She was a very popular part of the show.

And later on on TV3, Julie as well. She was great to work with. So it was just the right show for the right time in New Zealand. It was perfect. Yeah, I know. It was a simpler time, wasn't it? I mean, you just mentioned there to touch on a point where people could sit at home and call the contestants prats.

Well, now you get to do that on the internet. It's not quite as nice, though, is it? It's not. Oh, it's been so nice to see you again. It's been a real great trip down memory lane. We really appreciate your time and being such a huge part of so many Kiwis' fondness of that era. It's so good to talk to you.

It's a pleasure, Jono and Ben. Thanks for calling. Want, Jono and Ben. Thanks for calling. Want more Jono and Ben? You can wake up with the boys' weekdays from sex on The Hits and via the iHeartRadio app. Jono and Ben on The Hits Breakfast. Friends of Skinny.