Gilgamesh Night
ギルガメッシュないと
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A late-night show pitched as 'a sexy show for girls that men can enjoy too'; about half its viewers were women, and it made Ai Iijima a star.
Gilgamesh Night was a late-night show on TV Tokyo, broadcast on Saturday nights from 5 October 1991 to 28 March 1998, 324 episodes in all. Named after Gilgamesh, the legendary king of great virility, it was pitched as 'a sexy show for girls that men can enjoy too': an information programme for young working women, launched after TV Tokyo had kept away from late-night sexy programmes for six years. Its first three months, hosted by the impressionist Kyosei Iwamoto with a dance trio and the comedian Ijiri Okada, were mostly film tips and date spots.
A relaunch in January 1992 made it the show people remember. The gravure idol Fumie Hosokawa became co-host; the singer Kenichi Nagira cooked midnight snacks beside an assistant wearing nothing but an apron; gravure idols played sports in bodycon dresses. In February 1992 the show found Ai Iijima, who flipped up her skirt to show a T-back before the commercial breaks and later took over as co-host. It went national that October. Its segments included a lingerie fashion show, a lingerie song contest and an acupressure clinic, which drew many women; about half its viewers were women. Unlike 11PM or Tonight, it refused to cover the sex trade.
Complaints were constant, and for a time Iijima and the comedy duo Bakarudi read complaint postcards on air. After viewers wrote to the station's programme council about a broadcast in January 1998, the council reviewed the show and it was cancelled, ending in March 1998.
Starring
Kyosei IwamotoHost
An impressionist and actor who hosted from the first episode in 1991 until March 1997.
Fumie HosokawaCo-host
A gravure idol brought in as co-host at the January 1992 relaunch, who stayed until March 1993.
Ai IijimaCo-host
A former adult-video actress found by the show in 1992, whose skirt-lifting pose before the commercials made her its best-known face.
Ijiri OkadaRegular
A comedian on the show from its first months, who played the director of its acupressure clinic.
Kenichi NagiraRegular
A folk singer and entertainer who cooked midnight snacks in the show's first cooking segment.
Why it matters
Gilgamesh Night is remembered as a sexy show for men, and its producer objected to that at the time. It was made, he said, from a woman's point of view, for the young working women who were beginning to watch late-night television, with lingerie, beauty and practical information alongside the nudity, and about half its audience was female. Both things were true at once, and that is what makes it worth thinking about. It turned gravure idols and adult-video actresses into television personalities, and one of them, Ai Iijima, into a star. It also carried the contradictions of its moment: an equal-opportunity era's promise to women, sold in the language of the male gaze. Its ending, after complaints to the station, came as that era of late-night television was fading.