Following on from Saturday Supertstore, Auntie discovered women's lib and promoted so Sarah Greene to co-presenter, along with Philip Schofield, newly liberated from the Children's BBC broom cupboard. Whereas Noel had been an uncle type, Philip was more like your naughty older brother with Sarah the (not too sensible) sister.
Joining the pair was Gordon the Gopher, who couldn't speak like Superstore's annoying Crow, but offered a well-timed squeak. Not surprisingly this cute ball of fluff became somewhat of a cult, even inspiring viewers to send in outfits for the little critter.
After Mike Reid's pathetic attempts at humour, it was decided to call in the professionals. Enter Trevor (Neal) and Simon (Hickson) who would present scheduled sketches or just disrupt proceedings. Who can forget the hippies who would get guests to "swing their pants" to such ditties as Froggy Went A Courting in the Singing Corner? And then there was the barbers sketch featuring celebrity guests coming in for a 'do' only to be told, "We don't do perms".
Other fun came in the form of Peter Simons's Double Dare (Cheggars Plays Pop rip-off) which mutated into Run the Risk and unleashed Shane Ritchie on poor suspecting viewers.
Unlike previous shows Going Live acknowledged that life wasn't all fun and drafted in its very own agony uncle, Philip Hodson, to tell it like it was. Hot potatoes he tried to deal with included bullying and low self-esteem. American children's author Paula Danziger also tried to get the kids to pick up a book
Other attempts at more serious content failed miserably. Presenting a cookery slot was Emma Forbes - cue much hilarity as Philip proved even more incompetent than Noel in the kitchen. Annabel Giles came up with wacky and cheap fashion ideas, which basically involved using any old tat to accessorise (and ruin) a perfectly acceptable outfit - What Not To Wear in reverse, really.
