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Young Talent Time

Young Talent Time was a long-running Australian television variety programme, with a core group of young performers - vaguely in the vein of The Mickey Mouse Club[?], and a weekly junior talent quest[?]. The programme was the creation of host Johnny Young, and over the years it ran it gave many young performers their first taste of fame. The series ran from 1971 until 1988 - for a total of almost 18 years.

Some Young Talent Timers disappeared into oblivion (many through choice) after their stint on the show was up, but many went on to have successful adult careers in show business as either actors or performers. These Young Talent Timers included:

and many more....

Because it ran for such a long time and featured young performers, Young Talent Time made an indelible mark on the psyche of several generations of Australian children, leading them to believe that if they tried hard enough, they too could be a 'star' like the kids they saw on television.

One memorable aspect of the show was the regular closing number, where Johnny Young would sing the Beatles song All My Lovin' (with which he had an Australian hit back in the 1960s), accompanied by the entire cast, in an almost nursery-rhyme style, individually wishing all of the children good night. At the time, little was thought of it, but in retrospect it clearly marks the show in its now long-past era, safely before the hysteria about pedophilia of the 1990s.

Towards the end of the show in Australia Young Talent Time launched an American based show, "New Generation", produced in Australia starring certain Talent Time Team Members with a new American host called Michael Young. It was screened twice weekly in the US. Europe and Canada.

The show still continues to be seen on pay television, meanwhile there are moves to reproduce the programme.

Many of the team members have their own web sites and yahoo groups,where fans can swap photos and scans of ytt news.

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