Eat Bulaga Anniversary

[Muriel Pelley]

Thecelebrating Dabarkads at the time were led by the so-called "OGs" (originals) Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, Joey de Leon, and Coney Reyes, who marked her second return to the EB stage since she left the programme in 1991 (her first being her special appearance in the EB Silver Anniversary Special in 2004).

Before the anniversary day itself took place, Eat Bulaga! held a special show at Zamboanga del Norte on 2 July 2022 entitled Sugod-Probinsya: Tara Na, ZaNorte!, which was touted as the beginning of the programme's 43rd anniversary celebration. The special also served as the programme's pilot testing of returning to live audience admissions, which proved to be a success as the venue, Zamboanga del Norte Convention and Sports Complex, was filled up.

In the same announcements made for the ZaNorte special, other such shows throughout the country (conceivably one in the Visayas and another in Luzon) are slated to be held in connection with the anniversary.

However, despite having been mentioned in various plugs leading to the 43rd anniversary celebration itself, these special shows were indefinitely put on hold and have since been overlooked, especially with the departure of the participating hosts as listed below.

The anniversary special opened with the entry of the present set of Dabarkads who, before their entry into the stage, each posed beside two television screen showing their early years on EB and their "glown-up" looks respectively.

Song-dance performances were then made, with the theme of love (from "143", a colloquial form of conveyance for "I love you") being set then and there as each greeted one another, the Team APT (live audiences, although limited in number, were admitted for the first time since the pandemic), the Team Bahay, the Team Abroad, and all those watching the programme. Then came a audio-visual presentation of the present Dabarkads through the years, which marked the beginning of their performances.

First came the Dancing Kweens, who served as the openers of the performance, as well as the dancers for those that came thereafter. The first set of performers - Allan K., Jose Manalo, Wally Bayola, and Paolo Ballesteros - sang "The Best of My Love" by The Emotions. An entrance was then made by Ryan Agoncillo, Maine Mendoza, and Ryzza Mae Dizon, who were immediately followed by a dance from Pauleen Luna-Sotto and Maja Salvador. After the dance, the singing of the earlier song continued as the Dabarkads assembled together and sang in unison.

Another audio-visual presentation was shown after and served as the introduction of Tito, Vic and Joey. They made their entrance in the same way as those that came before them, by posing beside two television screens showing their past and present selves. They then entered the stage to great cheers from the audience as they sang "More Today Than Yesterday" by Spiral Starecase.

Another set of spiels came at the conclusion of TVJ's song number, with special mentions of Maine Mendoza's engagement to Arjo Atayde (which happened just a day befofe the show). After the greetings and introductions, the allusions to the coming of an "OG Dabarkads" was then addressed by the hosts as another audio-visual presentation was plugged.

The audio-visual presentation showed clips of Coney Reyes on the EB stage through the years, which included clips of Coney singing "-" on the ABS-CBN DOMSAT Launch special and her talking to Aiza Seguerra on Aiza's Kiddie Korner. The latter part of the presentation was played over the original rendition of the Eat Bulaga theme song that mentioned Coney in the lyrics. "Welcome Home, Dabarkads Coney Reyes" was then beamed on the screen as Coney Reyes was seen on stand-by at the backstage.

Tito Sotto then led the welcome to the "original Dabarkads since 1982", Coney Reyes, who entered the stage to rapturous applause and cheers amidst the playing of the nostalgic original arrangement of the theme song. She did so quite tearfully even though no words were yet spoken - much to the amusement of the audience and the Dabarkads. Coney then greeted all those on stage and saved her hugs to long-time friends Tito, Vic and Joey. The tearful reunion was sealed with the presentation of a bouquet of white tulips (Coney's favourite flowers) by Ryan Agoncillo, with whom she has worked in projects before.

An emotional Coney was rendered speechless by the welcome and took a little time before finally greeting all those who were watching the programme just as she did many, many years ago, and expressing her good wishes for the programme on its 43rd anniversary. Coney then went on to greeting each of the Dabarkads on-stage, which she insisted on doing one-by-one. This proved to show her instant rapport with them as she engaged in playful teasing with them, and with Maine Mendoza, having had good words to say about her fianc.

She then turned her attention once more to TVJ as she expressed her thanks to them for being her friends despite leaving the programme some thirty years prior. While giving the impression that she is pressured by the time constraints of the programme, Coney still had her skill for hosting in her, so much so that Joey even joking on having her again as a permanent host in the programme.

The anniversary/birthday cake was then brought in, with Coney being given the honour of blowing the celebratory candle. The original theme song again played over as Coney made her more personal greetings to the Dabarkads on-stage, and to Vic and Pauleen's daughter, Tali.

Serving as the choices to be "judged" were four young individuals, who were all on-site, each standing behind a giant plexiglass body-shield which are in turn flanked each by the Dabarkads hosting the segment (notably one each from the "OG" set and the present set) .

The question for the first round asked which of the four choices were two gold medalists in local and international competitions. Player Christallyn picked A (Teo) and D (Erica) as her choices. The hosts then proceeded on interviewing the choices. Her first choice, Teo, proved to be a right one, as he had in fact won several medals in both local and international mathematics competitions, placing him among worldwide ranks of young mathematical wizards. Next to be interviewed was letter C's Dwight who, if chosen, would have resulted in a subtraction of PhP 20 000. While not a mathematician as looked for by the question, he stood out for his expertise for academic research and book-writing on at such a young age, taking focus on the understanding of "victimology" and other investigative disciplines, which he says he takes from his father. The remarkableness of his endeavours would later earn him a further interview in the episode's the Bawal Judgmental on-line exclusive to shed more light on his interests and activities.

Christallyn's second choice, Erica at letter D, proved to be a mistake that cost her PhP 10 000. This was because Erica's expertise lied in sports journalism, poster-making and slogan-making. As it turned out, the other correct answer for the question turned out to be choice B, JL, to whom the Dabarkads are endeared for his cuteness and charisma. JL has participated in various on-line mathematics contest where he, according to himself, has earned around 40 medals.

The second round posed the question of which one of the four choices was a K-Pop and K-Drama fan. Christallyn chose Teo, instead of Erica, who was the correct answer, which meant that another PhP 10 000 was subtracted. As such, her game finished with her taking home PhP 30 000.

The now-traditional and iconic Bulagaan segment makes a return for the 43rd anniversary special episode after having not been conducted for the past three years (the last one being in 2019), hence the subtitle "face-to-face" {the colloquial term for on-site classes, which are indeed making their return at around the same time).

Playing out in its usual classroom format, guest Coney serves as the "teacher" - a role she has played many times way back her official hosting years. Joining her at the table are Ryzza Mae, who has been relegated for the time being to substitute teacher, and Tito in his capacity as the Principal of Bulagaan University (which back when Coney was still a regular host, was called "Bulaga High [School]"). The other Dabarkads played the role of the "students", two of whom caught Teacher Coney's attention - Vic and Joey (in their respective Iskul Bukol characters as Victor Ungasis and Joey Escalera) - since it baffles her that they still have not graduated, to which they answer that they are just taking their "master's".

The class accordingly begins, with the day's knock-knock jokes taking the theme of love in line with the anniversary special's theme. The Dabarkads students were divided into four groups which are as follows - each making knock-knock jokes based on the different translations of "I love you":

After each joke came the spinning of the roulette, where the result would be equated to the group's grade. Group B of Maine, Maja, and Wally got the lowest score and as such were put "behind bars" (the penalty for those with the lowest score). The segment ended with the usual messy-ing up of the Dabarkads between and by themselves, although the usual cream pies thrown out about were replaced by 'crazy string' sprays.

The first winner, Agnes, was specially picked by Vic from the studio audience to mark the 43rd anniversary. A school teacher, Agnes said that she will use her winnings for her family. In picking the "Laban o Bawi cake", she took home PhP 32 540.

The second winner - the first caller in the number flashed on screen, was Romnick Cojuangco from San Pablo, Mexico, Pampanga, who chose the "Pinoy Henyo cake" containing PhP 32 670. Upon winning, he said that he will be using his winnings for the celebration of his upcoming birthday and for his wife's check-ups.

Tito later remarked that there was still two cakes on display, which prompted Vic to pick another winner from the studio audience. Albert Maristela from Malinao, Albay was the lucky winner and he took PhP 33 400 home after choosing the "Little Miss Philippines cake", which he said will be used for the repairs for their Marikina home.

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