{"id":3873,"date":"2019-06-03T14:16:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T14:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/?p=3873"},"modified":"2019-07-25T11:14:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T11:14:41","slug":"blast-from-the-past-10-series-and-soaps-that-spiced-up-television-in-nigeria-80s-era-%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/2019\/06\/blast-from-the-past-10-series-and-soaps-that-spiced-up-television-in-nigeria-80s-era-%ef%bb%bf","title":{"rendered":"Blast from The Past: 10 Series And Soaps That Spiced Up Television In Nigeria (80\u2019s Era) \ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Adeoye Falade<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years Nigerians have, in the midst of\nsubpar programming at times, been blessed with television soaps and series that\nbrought some much-needed freshness. In the 80s and 90s, and even in this era,\nwe\u2019ve had riveting series and soaps keeping us glued to our screens. So for\nthose of you who were very much around in the 80s , think of this as a feel\ngood trip down memory lane. For the rest of us millennials *coughs, think of\nthis as a form of lesson form TV history in Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cock Crow\nDawn<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cock\nCrow At Dawn <\/em>explored the\nlife of a family that had to move from the city to the village and the changes\nthey had to go through. It succinctly captured the scenario of the\nurban-meets-rural culture shock. The series had a talented cast which included-\nSadiq Daba, the late George Menta, Ene Oloja and Tola Awojobi. A lot of people\nstill have the the theme song by Bongos Ikwue<\/a> in their heads till date \u2013 that\u2019s one smashing piece of music.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Village\nHeadmaster<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An adaptation of a book written by Dr Segun Olusola, who is\nalso acknowledged as the creator, The\nVillage Headmaster<\/em> was set in rural Western Nigeria and basically follows\nthe adventures of \u2013 well, the Village Headmaster. We saw Tedi Okoro, Femi\nRobinson and the Late Justus Esiri play the role of the Headmaster at different\npoints in time. There was also Gorimapa<\/em> – the bald-headed King’s attendant; Amebo<\/em> (Ibidun Allison); the Oloja of Oja\n(Dejumo Lewis), Counselor Balogun (Wole Amele); teacher Garuba -Garus Garus\n(the late Joe Layode), Sisi Clara (the late Elsie Olusola), Eleyinmi (Funso\nAdeolu), and many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things Fall Apart<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was an adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s\ninternationally acclaimed novel and it gained a huge following while it was on\nair. Pete Edochie, who became one of the most prominent actors in Nollywood\nplayed the main character \u2013 Okonkwo. At the time, he was a staff of the\nNigerian Television Authority, like many others and was allowed to express his\ntalents.  His was a performance to\nremember. Feels silly to admit this now but that theme song gave me the creeps\nback then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Masquerade<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was one of the funniest shows to have ever aired on TV.\nThe ensemble of characters in it were simply hilarious – Zebrudaya alias 4.30,\nOvularia, Jegede Sokoya, Apena, the late singer Christy Essien Igbokwe who\nplayed Apena, Clarus and Giringori. It was an absolute moment of laughter when\nthis came on air back in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the Clouds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another great piece of work from the Jos crew. The\nfantastic Ene Oloja (also in Cock Crow at Dawn) acted in this series and it was\nset in Jos, Plateau State. Macarthur Fom played the role of a notable\ncharacter, Nosa but he passed away due to illness. A lot of viewers were\ndevastated by this and although his death was written into the script, the show\nwas never the same after Fom\u2019s passing and was cancelled shortly after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mirror in the Sun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mirror In The Sun<\/em> was an intriguing soap opera that\nwas very popular in the 80’s. 
\nIt aired on NTA and won the hearts of both\nchildren and adult back then. It was created by Lola Fani-kayode and Nigerians basically got a first serving of the\ntalents of actors like Sola Fosudo, Babara Soky and Clarion Chukwurah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baba Sala<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not much I can remember here but Baba Sala<\/em> was absolutely nuts – 30\nminutes of rib-cracking comedy in Yoruba Language. The main character was Moses\nOlaiya (Baba Sala) who is fondly remembered for his humongous bowtie.  The show can be said to be a pioneer in\nNigerian comedy shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aluwe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show became synonymous with the comical Sunday\nOmobolanle, who played Aluwe in the series, so much that, he was made to retain\nthe name in some other feature films and TV series. It became more than a show\nas Aluwe<\/em> or PapiLuwe<\/em> became a trademark character which could only be played by\nhim as was the case of the other characters in the series – Oga Bello (Adebayo\nSalami), Awero (Lanre Hassan), Yinka Quadri, Alabi Yellow \u2013 the\nsharp-mouthed-tongue-twisting albino, and Jide Kosoko. I still refer to most of\nthese people with their names from the series over two decades later. Props to\nDuro Ladipo (of blessed memory) for bringing these amazing actors together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samanja Mazan Fama<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Popularly referred to as just Samanja, <\/em>this show originally aired on NTA Kaduna and radio Kaduna\nin 1973 but was later placed on the national network in the late 1980s. The\nshow’s main protagonist Samanja was a character played a popular writer and\nactor, Usman Baba Pategi. The show’s was set in the barracks and follows the\nvarious adventures of Samanja (meaning: Sergeant-Major) and what he got up to\nwith his unit in the Northern part of Nigeria. Hugely entertaining was his\nverbal style which usually changed from Hausa and ‘soldier-speak’, mixed\nEnglish and Hausa language to pidgin. The show gained popularity back in the\nday and its blend of comedy and drama was a joy to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basi And Company<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Created by the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, Basi And Company <\/em>told the story of Mr B,\na millionaire. It\u2019s theme was basically about the various get-rich schemes some\nNigerians take part in without coming off any better. Mr B was first played by\nAlbert Egbe, then Zulu Adigwe (then more famous for his stage roles). Other\ncolourful characters are: Segi (Mildred Iweka), Dandy and Madam the Madam,\npopular for statements like, \u201cCome in if you are handsome and rich\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Adeoye Falade Over the years Nigerians have, in the midst of subpar programming at times, been blessed with television soaps and series that brought some much-needed freshness. In the 80s and 90s, and even in this era, we\u2019ve had riveting series and soaps keeping us glued to our screens. So for those of you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3875,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions\/3875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}