Noel Edmonds was very much a Marmite figure of British TV. But whether you loved or hated him, Noel's House Party was the last of its kind - a Saturday night light entertainment programme that could get more than 10 million viewers a week.
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How would you describe it?
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Hmmm, words don't really do much justice to it really. Imagine a bulldozer of sketches and light entertainment, a ton of viewer and audience engagement, and a smattering of minor and some major celebrities, half of whom would end up in a gunge tank. It was a simpler time back then...
And then there's Mr Blobby. Words don't really do him justice because he was a character of few of them, mainly being "Blobby, Blobby, Blobby". A lot. That said, he'd fit right in on Question Time these days.
The main attractions
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Never let it be said that Noel wasn't predictable... Amidst the (carefully scripted) mayhem, there were some features you could come to rely on for most episodes.
Originally called the 'Gotcha Oscar', until a cease and desist letter appeared from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts... Can't think why.
What was it? Essentially the BBC's answer to the pranks played by Jeremy Beadle on ITV, but with amenable celebrities instead of members of the unsuspecting public.
Best moments? Became an instant hit after Noel's infamous Gotcha on Dave Lee Travis during his BBC Radio 1 show, in which he provided joke answers to DLT's long running quiz:
"Which instrument does the leader of an orchestra play?"
"Oh yes, I know Dave. It's the baton"
These days, you can be lucky enough to pick up a phone call and win half a million pounds on a radio prize draw.
In the 1990s, you had to hope that Eddie the Eagle Edwards was agile enough to pick up some fake bank notes in one of those hurricane simulators you sometimes see in amusement arcades.
Having said that, the tune that played for the minute whichever minor celebrity (or member of the public) was in the Grab a Grand booth is remarkably catchy.
On the one hand, a truly remarkable piece of TV engineering for the 1990s - on the other, an excruciating wait to see if the unsuspecting member of the public would wave for the camera, smile politely, or run away screaming (which to be fair, would have been a perfectly valid response).
These days, we deal with some heavy and serious questions, often via referendums.
In the 1990s, the big question tended to be: "who should go in the gunge tank - Ross King or Alan Titchmarsh?" (It was Ross, if you needed to know). As I say, a simpler time...
Started out as a relatively ornate piece of furniture, and ended up like a cross between a rollercoaster and the dodgems.
Fun fact: to meet health and safety requirements, the gunge used had to edible, but we wouldn't recommend eating it...
Towards the end of every series the production team always planned an elaborate stunt on Noel, just to keep him on his toes.
In this clip, he's spent the entire series pretending to sing 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' at the end of every episode, only to be foiled by the end of the programme.
This time, the producer has made sure Noel has finished (unknowingly to him) 4 minutes early...
