History Series / TopOfThePops

* TransAtlanticEquivalent: ''Series/AmericanBandstand'' (in fairness, this started in the 1950s).

* BookEnds - Creator/JimmySavile presented the first episode. At the end of the series, he co-presented the last, and the final scene showed him shaking his head in sadness and then pulling a giant switch as though to cut the power. This is grim in hindsight, of course -- Savile is now an UnPerson in the eyes of the BBC and much [=TotP=] material featuring him as linking man has been locked up in the archives, [[BannedEpisode unlikely to ever be screened again]].
* BRollRebus - Dance troupe Legs and Co, on the show from 1976-81, relied so much on literal dancing that it was often joked that viewers could identify the song with the TV muted.
* CloudCuckoolander - Jimmy Savile, at least onscreen.
* DeadpanSnarker - John Peel. ''"That's one of the very best things since Napoleon's retreat from Moscow - Keith Harris and Orville."''
* {{Fanservice}} - Resident dance troupes Pan's People and follow-ups Legs and Co; arguably most of the female presenters in the late 1990s: Jayne Middlemiss, Gail Porter, Lisa Snowdon...
* GuestHost - Played with at various points of the show's history.
* InvisibleBackupBand - Common with solo acts, as most artists appearing on the show were lip-syncing.
* IsThisThingStillOn - [[Series/TopGear Jeremy Clarkson]] was a guest presenter of one episode late in the programme's life. After an American hip-hop group finished performing he asked his co-presenter the trope question, then proceeded to refer to the song as "[[TakeThat bloody appalling]]."
* TheLastDJ - John Peel.
* LongRunners - 42 years for the weekly programme, 52+ years overall thanks to the Christmas specials.

* OneLiner - John Peel. ''"And if that doesn't get to Number One, I'm gonna come and break wind in your kitchen."''
* ReTool - Often when a new producer was appointed. Either made the show good (Ric Blaxill) or awful (Andi Peters). Also the ''TOTP 2'' {{Re Tool}} mentioned above.
* TakeThat - The TOTP crew insisted that Music/{{Nirvana}} play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the show, and Kurt wasn't too fond of the focus on "Teen Spirit" already, so his CreatorBacklash mixed with an imitation of Morrissey and made a TakeThat moment to the crew of TOTP.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child/adult/dead-person/the-list-goes-on-and-gets-increasingly-unpleasant sex offender (although according to Operation Yewtree, the investigation into celebrity sex offences, he probably wasn't the ''only'' [=ToTP=] presenter to abuse his position this way; colleague Dave Lee Travis was tried on similar allegations, and was convicted on an indecent assault charge, although it was not directly connected to [=ToTP=]). The stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, [[KarmaHoudini so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes]]. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

[[caption-width-right:320:The 1998-2003 series logo.]]

* LongRunners - Into its 45th year - just about.

* NothingButHits: Unintentional deconstruction, in a way. The show's remit was, as mentioned, to focus on current singles chart hits, as opposed to ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' which focussed on more "serious" rock music and the like, perhaps catering to slightly more niche interests. So in a very literal sense, the show was about "nothing but hits". But because of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops#Appearance_rules the rules governing what they had to show]], this meant ''whatever'' was trending in the charts, as mentioned above.

** Also Suzi Quatro's performance as described above.

* BannedEpisode - After Jimmy Savile was exposed as a prolific sex offender in October 2012, the episodes he presented were dropped from the schedules. When similar allegations were made against Dave Lee Travis (who, unlike Savile, is still alive) his episodes were also withdrawn, permanently after he was convicted. Also, Gary Glitter appeared as a guest host in the Nineties, a few years before his own fall from grace, though it is almost certain that the episode concerned would have been banned even without the Savile scandal.

* CloudCuckoolander - Jimmy Saville, at least onscreen.

Was presented by disc jockeys from BBC Radio 1 for many years (including [[TheLastDJ John Peel]], the legendary DJ who helped popularize PsychedelicRock, PunkRock, AlternativeRock and Indie Rock on his various radio shows) but most viewers associate the show with Jimmy Savile, who presented the first episode, co-hosted the last, and appeared regularly as a host for 20 years.

* BookEnds - Jimmy Savile presented the first episode. At the end of the series, he co-presented the last, and the final scene showed him shaking his head in sadness and then pulling a giant switch as though to cut the power. This is grim in hindsight, of course -- Savile is now an UnPerson in the eyes of the BBC and much [=TotP=] material featuring him as linking man has been locked up in the archives, [[BannedEpisode unlikely to ever be screened again]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: And how! Not even mentioning the charts and the featured songs, the audience and their fashions and the video effects and graphics combine to make each episode a time capsule of the year it came from.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child/adult/dead-person/the-list-goes-on-and-gets-increasingly-unpleasant sex offender (although according to Operation Yewtree, the investigation into celebrity sex offences, he probably wasn't the ''only'' [=ToTP=] presenter to abuse his position this way; colleague Dave Lee Travis was tried for, but cleared of, similar allegations); the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, [[KarmaHoudini so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes]]. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender (although according to Operation Yewtree, the investigation into celebrity sex offences, he probably wasn't the ''only'' [=ToTP=] presenter to abuse his position this way; colleague Dave Lee Travis was tried for, but cleared of, similar allegations); the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, [[KarmaHoudini so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes]]. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender (although according to Operation Yewtree, the investigation into celebrity sex offences, he probably wasn't the ''only'' [=ToTP=] presenter to abuse his position this way; colleague Dave Lee Travis was tried for, but cleared of, similar allegations); the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

* CashCowFranchise - As well as its 42 year run, the ''TOTP'' format was sold worldwide and spawned a magazine in the UK (which is still published despite the end of the weekly series) and many compilation albums (the 1970s ones not sung by the original artists, the 1990s ones actually sung by the original artists).
* ChannelHop - from BBC One to BBC Two in 2005, what turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for the weekly series.

* NoExportForYou - Aside from an extremely brief run on BBC America in 2002, the only episode to air on American television was the last one, which was aired on Creator/VH1 Classic in August 2006.

* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: Appeared to be in play, but ultimately averted in one 1982 episode. DexysMidnightRunners performed a version of Music/VanMorrison's ''Jackie Wilson Said'' in front of a massively blown up photo of the wrong J. Wilson. Not black American soul legend Jackie, but white Scottish darts legend Jocky Wilson. Turns out putting the wrong picture up there was intentional; the gag was lead singer Kevin Rowland's idea.

* NoExportForYou - Aside from an extremely brief run on BBC America in 2002, the only episode to air on American television was the last one, which was aired on {{VH-1}} Classic in August 2006.

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* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: the infamous night when DexysMidnightRunners performed a version of Music/VanMorrison's ''Jackie Wilson Said'' in front of a massively blown up photo of the wrong J. Wilson. Not black American soul legend Jackie, but white Scottish darts legend Jockie Wilson.

* TransAtlanticEquivalent: ''Series/AmericanBandstand''.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender (although according to Operation Yewtree, the investigation into celebrity sex offences, he probably wasn't the ''only'' [=ToTP=] presenter to abuse his position this way; colleague Dave Lee Travis is currently under trial, verdict still pending, to answer similar allegations.); the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

Not to mention various adaptations in other countries around the world.

* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: the infamous night when DexysMidnightRunners performed a version of Music/VanMorrison's ''Jackie Wilson Said'' in front of a massivley blown up photo of the wrong J. Wilson. Not black American soul legend Jackie, but white Scottish darts legend Jockie Wilson.

* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: the infamous night when DexcysMidnightRunners performed a version of Music/VamMorrison's ''Jackie Wilson Said'' in front of a massivley blown up photo of the wrong J. Wilson. Not black American soul legend Jackie, but white Scottish darts legend Jockie Wilson.

For a large part of its history, the artists performing on the show were required to lip synch their performance. Some (like Music/BelleAndSebastian, Music/{{Blur}}, Music/{{Oasis}}, Music/TheCure, Music/{{Nirvana}} and Music/{{Marillion}}) had fun with this, intentionally miming their vocals and instruments poorly. Music/TheSmiths, in fact, gained their first major breakthrough with their anarchic miming of their first UK Top 40 single "This Charming Man" on the show. Before the "lip sync-only" rule was removed, there were a handful of performers (namely Music/NewOrder, Music/DavidBowie and Music/JohnLennon) who performed one of their songs ("Blue Monday", "Starman" and "Instant Karma", respectively) live on the program. These performances were always a made into a big deal. SuziQuatro's band really went to town on this: during a performance of "Devilgate Drive", the keyboards player left the piano and got up and danced, whilst the piano appeared to play itself. The drummer soon joined in, whilst the thunderous drum-playing continued with no obvious musician at the drum kit to provide this. Meanwhile three hundred clearly bored and embarrassed kids just sat there, listlessly clapping out the beat ''and still getting it wrong''.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender (although according to Operation Yewtree, the investigation into celebrity sex offences, he probably wasn't the ''only'' [=ToTP=] presenter to abuse his position this way); the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender (although according to Operation Yewtree, the investigation into celebrity sex offences, he probably wasn't the ''only'' ToTP presenter to abuse his position this way); the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender; the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes. Not surprisingly, [[BannedEpisode his episodes are no longer seen in reruns]], and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

Not to mention various adaptations in other countries around the world. Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender; the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes. Not surprisingly, his episodes are no longer seen in reruns, and any footage used for news purposes is heavily blurred to edit out audience members to protect the identities of the victims.

* BookEnds - Jimmy Savile presented the first episode. At the end of the series, he co-presented the last, and the final scene showed him shaking his head in sadness and then pulling a giant switch as though to cut the power.
** Although Savile is now an UnPerson in the eyes of the BBC and much [=TotP=] material featuring him as linking man has been locked up in the archives, [[BannedEpisode unlikely to ever be screened again]].
* BRollRebus - Dance troupe Legs and Co, on the show from 76-81, relied so much on literal dancing that it was often joked that viewers could identify the song with the TV muted.

* NostalgiaFilter: Averted especially with straight repeats. The show's policy was to broadcast ''whatever'' was trending in the charts at the time- which includes all the stuff that most people have forgotten and in some cases, preferred to forget. Even though it's essentially a ClipShow, Top of the Pops 2 sometimes lampshades this, with Steve Wright sometimes saying words to the effect of "yes, we really did listen to that back then!" or "yes, this one really was a hit!"

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Not to mention various adaptations in other countries around the world. Sadly, the entire original show is now trapped in the shadow of the discovery that Savile abused his position at the BBC and with various charities to become the British Isles' most prolific child sex offender; the stories of his assaults broke to the public after his 2011 death, so he was never brought to judgment for his crimes. Not surprisingly, his episodes are no longer seen in reruns.

** Although Saville is now an UnPerson in the eyes of the BBC and much [=TotP=] material featuring him as linking man has been locked up in the archives, unlikely to ever be screened again.