Top Town was the name of a NZ TV series that aired between 1976 and 1990, similar to the UK's It's a Knockout. Various towns and cities throughout New Zealand competed against each other in a series of physical challenges.

The web site nzonscreen.com has two editions of the original version - the 1977 final and the 1986 final. I'm afraid I can't direct link to the finals as they feature minors as audience members. If you go to nzonscreen.com and type Top Town as the keyword you will find the series.

Thanks for the link. Actually, in the history of that show it was originally called "Top Town" when it was first created in the late 1950's in the UK. It was during it's 2nd generation in the mid 1960's that it was re-named "It's a Knockout". It was duing the late 1960's that I first started watching that show in the UK. By then there were several versions in other countries (it was called Intervilles in France and Telematch in Germany). During the early 70's all these international versions started banding together and they start the European games called "Jeux San Frontieres".

From a wetlook point of view, the best scenes happened on the mid 60's IKO shows, when the girls wore gym skirts for the pool games....in latter years it was less interesting when they changed to shorts instead. Likewise the early 70's Jeux San Frontieres were better because they used many interesting costumes for the teams. This degenerated by the 80's and 90's when everything on JSF became all spandex and silly animal costumes.

The best series for wetlook was the mid 80's Australian version of IKO

Thanks from me too! Great shows and well worth watching! I just loved the way that the New Zealanders just turned the firehoses on the contestsnts! One the games in the 1986 final turned into a mudbath and it was great fun!

Wamtec's comments really took me back. I remember watching IAK in the late 60's and I remember seeing the girls wearing games skirts and t-shirts. Smashing pianos and squeezing into mini cars was OK television, but next thing they showed a pool and I remember the curious thrill of really wanting to see the girls fall in! And they did, not always but often. I think it was an early onset of wetlook, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. I was only a young boy then. I did like the 70's shoes too, shiny shorts still do it for me now. But I agree with Wamtec about the later years, the costumes and props spoiled it. I've got a few 70's shows on DVD, quality isn't great but seeing them takes me back to when I looked forward to Friday night on BBC1! As the opening titles showed the arena on that night's show I looked closely to see if they had the pool that night! Thanks!

I was a big fan of the Australian series when it was on TV here.
I think my favourite wetlook scenes were at the very start of the series. In the first series, the cheergirls always celebrated with the winning team at the end. On a couple of occasions, there was a final game in which the you had to pull a lever at the end and water came out from the top. The water kept running for some time, and the cheergirls on both occasions got "absolutely soaking" wet. In fact, I kept the second one because it was longer and there was more wetlook.

Yeah....I have that episode with the cheerleaders too, My favorite episodes were one where they did the Alice in Wonderland wetlook conveyer belt pool dunk game, They did that same game on 2-3 different shows. A teenage Kylie Minogue was one of the contestants in those mid 80's Aussie IKO shows.

Some of the best wetlook scenes were on the German version "Spiel Ohne Grenzen" in the 1970's and 80's. Many of those full shows areon Youtube.

One of my favorites in the 1977 Celebrity IKO featuring dancers Leggs ad Co in the waterslide game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUuC15Phcfc

MK

Thanks for the posts!
Some great shows to watch there!
It's fascinating to read about different favourites, all these years later. Still, thanks to your suggestions, I've got lots to look out for on YouTube
Mr W!