In its various iterations over the years, audiences in huge numbers tuned in to watch the likes of actors Rod Taylor, Leonard Teale, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, June Bronhill, David Gulpilil and Gordon Chater; television personalities including Maggie Tabberer, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Bert Newton, Toni Lamond and Bobby Limb; musicians Johnny O’Keefe, Peter Allen, Olivia Newton-John, Slim Dusty, Col Joye, Robie Porter and Bee Gees Barry Gibb and Maurice Gibb; sports stars such as John Newcombe, Lionel Rose, Johnny Famechon, tennis star Frank Sedgman and yachtsman Bill Northam; and politicians including Don Dunstan, Neville Bonner and Al Grassby.

Even Alan Bond and Rolf Harris got a go.

Aiming for a younger audience does not necessarily mean the show’s subjects should be exclusive to people aged under 40, but it should certainly be people who still have a level of “traction” around their celebrity and credibility.

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Clearly, candidates need to have a few years under their belt too. Names like Kylie Minogue, Ben Quilty, Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Patty Mills, Cathy Freeman, Nick Cave and Nicole Kidman, certainly have that longevity and are still in the Zeitgeist. If it’s gonna work, they’ve gotta aim high.

But there are also far greater, more existential obstacles facing a rebooted TIYL. The world in 2022 is a vastly different place to the one that first saw TIYL when it first aired on Seven in 1975 with the late Mike Willesee as host.

Over the decades, and on various networks, Roger Climpson, Mike Munro and Eddie McGuire all helmed the show. Opting for a female host is certainly a step in the right direction.

Back in the 1970s the act of making an international phone call was a major event, one which was incredibly expensive, required considerable planning and might only happen every few years.

Today, thanks to the internet and social media platforms such as Facebook, it has never been more convenient to keep in contact with people or reconnect with those from our past, no matter where they are.

Nostalgia web pages are prolific. Old videos and photos are a simple Google search away.

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TIYL’s great appeal was exhuming long-lost friends, family members, acquaintances and loved ones and seeing the look of utter disbelief and raw emotion on the celebrity guest of honour’s face when they walked out onto the set, usually resulting in floods of tears.

Getting that same kind of reaction today, let alone finding an audience to watch it, is going to be a much more difficult prospect for Seven and Doyle than it ever was before.

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