With this iteration of ‘Strong Heart‘ coming to an end, it made me think of all the great Variety Shows over the years. Every fan of K-pop knows that if they want to catch a glimpse of their favorite singer, one of the best places to do it is the variety show. Korean variety shows are an essential stop on any K-pop promotional tour because it’s the perfect opportunity to showcase their personalities and show a side of themselves that fans might not always get to see. While variety shows are always entertaining, most of them aren’t totally original ideas. If the mid 1990’s was the renaissance for K-pop then the 2000’s was the variety show renaissance spawning a number of famous shows that were the blueprint for many shows today. Today’s Way Back Wednesday will revisit a few shows from that past that were not only my favorites at the time but helped influence the shows we continue to enjoy today.
Looking back, ‘Let’s Go Dream Team‘ was ahead of its time with the concept of featuring celebrities competing against each other in games and athletic competitions showing that they weren’t only pretty faces. That sort of thing might be normal today but back then, the premise was unique. The thing that made the show so popular though was the caliber of star who would appear like Jo Sung Mo (a Dream Team legend), Rain, Kwon Sang Woo, and Shinhwa. The original show ended in 2003 but was recently rebooted in 2009 and still airing today. Any show featuring idols competing in sporting events (like those track and field specials they have around the holidays) can all trace their roots back to this show and the popularity it gained almost fourteen years ago. It was tough finding videos or even a picture but some truly awesome person has a clip of Shinhwa from the original run. Sorry for the lack of subtitles and graininess but remember, this was shot not too long after Zelo was born.
One of the most important of the early variety shows, ‘Heroine 6‘, which began airing in 2004 as part of the famed KBS Happy Sunday block, was the first show I remember to feature female comedians and make women the stars of the show. The basic premise of the show was that male guests would partner off with the female members and participate in a number of games including the now well-known “dibi dibi dip” and Catch the Mouse. While there were many lineup changes over the years, the show served as a jumping off point for a number of careers like Hyun Young, Lee Seung Gi, and Kim Jong Min (the variety version, not the Koyote version). Recent shows like ‘Invincible Youth‘ and ‘Heroes‘ that were female dominated owe a thanks to this groundbreaking show.
The third iteration of this venerable show is still on the air but it was the first edition which began airing in 2001 that stands the test of time. Starring hosts Shin Dong Yup (who won a KBS Grand Prize) and Lee Hyori (who won the Newcomer of the Year award), ‘Happy Together‘ was one of the leaders in the new wave of variety shows and changed the way celebrities could relate to the audience through variety shows. ‘Happy Together’ also featured one of the most famous games in variety history: Metal Tray Noraebang. Each member would have to memorize a different portion of a children’s songs (think “Old McDonald Had a Farm“) and sing it back within a set number of attempts. The fun part was when someone messed up and all the members would be hit in the head with these metal trays which were suspended above them with rope. Sounds a bit dangerous but it was funny. The game was so iconic that it could never be duplicated and featured some of the biggest names of that era.
This is another show that’s also still on the air and has changed formats over the years before settling on the winning formula it enjoys now. But Infinity Challenge‘s claim to fame is that it was the first “real” variety show, Korea’s answer to reality television, that has now been duplicated many times over the years. The basic premise of the show is that the hosts take on challenge each week and some are as small as getting random people on the street to say a certain word or as big as holding massive bi-annual concerts that go on to produce some of the biggest songs in K-pop (think G-Dragon and Park Myung Soo). The show has steadily been the most watched non-scripted TV show during its time slot and is a ratings juggernaut. Shows like ‘Qualifications of a Man‘ and ‘1 Night, 2 Days‘ are all a different evolution of the basic premise that the show began in 2005.
Airing from 2003-2007, ‘X-Man‘ was maybe the most important variety show of the 2000’s. Before the show, MC’s Yoo Jae Suk and Kang Ho Dong were somewhat known (especially Kang Ho Dong for his prestigious career in Korean wrestling) but they were not the “national MC’s” they are today. The show was able to elevate their status to millions of viewers and helped them become more than just hosts and full on celebrities. Fixed guests like HaHa, Park Myung Soo, Kim Jong Gook, and especially Yoon Eun Hye were the beneficiaries of the popularity of ‘X-man’ and the show helped to grow their careers. In the case of Yoon Eun Hye, the show was the springboard to super stardom. Your favorite K-pop stars like Shinhwa, TVXQ, Super Junior, Jang Nara, Chae Yeon, SS501, and many other singers and actors had memorable appearances on the show. X-Man also had the only game that could rival the ‘Happy Together’ metal tray game for supremacy and would be the iconic, “Of Course”. The game would require two guests to trade questions with each other while the opposite member having to answer with only the words, “of course”. As you can imagine, there are some questions that you might not want to acknowledge with “of course” and that made the show genius. The show was also the precursor to other large-cast variety shows like ‘Running Man‘ which use running story arcs (Yoon Eun Hye and Kim Jong Gook vs. Monday Couple of Song Ji Hyo and Gary) alongside rotating guests each week. It was the pinnacle of that era of variety program and is still a must-watch for anyone who missed it.
There were so many other great shows that aired during that era which has had some influence on the TV we watch today and they couldn’t all be featured here but what were some of your favorites?
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