Here are some facts about Bullseye...
From series 5 onwards, you can tell that many people in the audience can't see the dart boards or the quiz desk. You can see them looking up at the ceiling at a screen.
Jim Bowen said in interviews that later episodes cost £80,000 each to make.
Daphne Fowler from the BBC quiz show Eggheads appeared in series 2, episode 9 (guest Tony Brown). She and her husband beat the other contestants, but lost the gamble at the end. (It turns out that Daphne Fowler appeared as a contestant in lots of game shows.)
Series 3 and 4 had what were called "dart playing celebrities" taking part in the charity round, as well as the normal professional dart players. Generally, they scored terribly. As with their playing, the celebrity idea was a bit hit and miss. It makes identifying series easier. You can see a list of the celebrities here.
From what Jim Bowen has said outside of Bullseye, the later series were filmed over two weeks, with two episodes done each day. Six pairs of contestants would go through a rehearsal, and then film for real. Therefore, Bowen, Green and the contestants would know each other reasonably well by the time of filming. In Paul Lim's second appearance on Bullseye, Bowen says that Lim had spent all day with the contestants, so perhaps it was standard for the professionals to hang out in rehearsals too.
From series 4 to 10, when a car was the star prize, it was rolled out on a dart-board shaped platform. From series 11 onwards, it was driven out in clouds of exhaust fumes. It can't have been much of a surprise to the contestants, given the sound of the engine noise and the crew asphyxiating back stage.
From what Jim Bowen has said, it was possible to swap the star prizes in the background if they paused filming. He told a story of the crew (unnecessarily) trying to choose a better prize for someone in a wheelchair, but mistakenly choosing a much worse one. Sometimes, YouTube commenters say that the production company swapped good prizes for bad if people looked like they might win, but I haven't heard any official stories like that, and having watched lots of episodes, I haven't seen any evidence of it either. Given that the moment contestants had won, they were rushed over to the prize room, there wouldn't have been time to swap prizes to defraud the contestants. Also, often if a prize wasn't won one week, it would appear the next week. (There is also the thing that a cash alternative was available if the contestants didn't want the prize. Therefore, a lousy prize like a selection of fancy clothes could still be exchanged for cash. The prizes all seem to have been worth roughly the same amount. Therefore, there would be no benefit in swapping prizes.)
Nick Owen did the voice over in series 1 and 2.
No one gambled in series 4, episode 23 (with guest Lil Coombes). I think this was the first time this happened. Jim Bowen just showed the Star Prize anyway. It happened again in series 7, episode 3 (guest Dave Lee), when Bowen incorrectly said that it had never happened before.
Episode 04x23, with Jim Bowen waving the non-gamblers away. "First time in four years of Bullseye. No one wants to gamble." (To be fair, one of the throwers had his arm in a bandage after breaking it a week before the show.)
Episode 07x03, with Jim Bowen pointing the first two pairs of non-gamblers off stage, and then showing the last pair what they might have won if they had gambled. "It's the first time it's ever happened on Bullseye, I've got to tell you that, in seven series" (which it wasn't). Having seen the Star Prize, I think the contestants chose wisely.
The drum rolls and piano music were added on afterwards to make the show more entertaining. The audience and contestants didn't hear them. Jim Bowen explained this in series 7. (A good reason for this is that if the music were played in the studio, it would sound terrible and editing would be much harder.)
Several contestants returned in a later series to throw in the charity round. e.g. Alan Warriner (no relation) who became a professional, Ali Timmins, Anthony King, Peter Evison who became a professional, Scott Coleman who also became a professional. Look them up on this page here.
There is a common remark on discussion forums and YouTube whenever someone mentions Bullseye. Someone always gives the Bowen slipup, "What do you do for a living? / I'm unemployed. / Super!". Often this is misquoted with "super, smashing, great!". I have never seen this, and I think this was actually said in one of the unaired episodes (Series 1, episode 1 or 2). Andrew Wood gave it as an example of the problems they had early on when Bowen was getting to grips with presenting. On forums and YouTube, it's given as if people had actually seen Bowen say it, but I'm not sure if that's possible. I might be wrong though.
I saw an interview with Jim Bowen where he said that only one speed boat was ever given out, and that was to someone in a flat in Coventry. I think he was giving a sort of jokey ironic summary of the speed boat-as-a-prize situation. His comment has been misinterpreted as "only one person ever won a speed boat, and they were from Coventry", which just isn't true. You just have to watch Bullseye to know that lots of speed boats were won:
Series 5, episode 5 (guest Bob Anderson). Contestants from Tyne and Wear:
In my opinion, the best episode of Bullseye was series 6, episode 12 (with guest Malcolm Davies). The program started with a clip from the previous series where the contestants had won the Star Prize (a car) with two darts. (They were in series 5, episode 16, guest Ritchie Gardner.) Those contestants were in the audience to explain how they had split the car (i.e. one had taken the windscreen wipers; the other had taken the bumper etc). Therefore, the episode started off with a two-dart win. Later on in the episode, the new winners decided not to do the Star Prize gamble, and neither did the pair that had come second. Therefore, the pair that came third got to do it. The non-dart player went first, and, with her first two darts, scored treble 18 and treble 19 (which seemed to be entirely by chance), thus winning the Star Prize. The Star Prize was thousands of pounds worth of white goods: freezer, washing machine, dryer, cooker, television etc, and so was a prize worth having. Therefore, the least good dart player of the least good pair on the show won an excellent star prize with two darts.
Other good moments:
Series 6, episode 15 (with John Cosnett): The dart player trying to win the Star Prize gamble thinks he's only hit the double five. Tony Green says he's just checking to see where it landed, and the thrower prepares to throw his third dart. Suddenly everyone realises he's actually hit the double twenty and won.
In series 4, Alan Evans scored 401 (including two 180s), which I think is the highest anyone has ever scored in the charity round on Bullseye.
