Eat Bulaga! Silver Special is the 25th anniversary celebration of Eat Bulaga! held at the Clark Centennial Expo amphitheater in Angeles, Pampanga on 19 November 2004.
Dubbed at the time as the "greatest show on earth", the iconic special presentation was the result of a whole year’s planning and conceptualization, months of preparation, and several weeks of rehearsals involving the biggest cast ever assembled on Philippine television. The 35,000-seater outdoor venue was overwhelmingly attended by more than 50,000 spectators.
The grand celebration that displayed extravagant musical numbers, popular celebrities, colorful costumes, and high-tech lights and sounds was aired on television as a two-part episode on 27 and 29 November 2004.
It won the Best Entertainment Special at the 10th Asian Television Awards in Singapore on 1 December 2005.
Production
Clark Centennial Expo as the venue
An Angeles-based event planning company, Events and Concepts by Voltaire Zalamea, was tasked to handle the logistics and crowd management that gathered at the 35,000-seater Clark Centennial Expo in Angeles, Pampanga. TAPE, Inc. reportedly spent no less than ₱35 million for the special episode which required an entire year to be planned and conceptualized, at least three months to prepare the venue, and several weeks to rehearse the production.
The extravagant production involved one of the biggest cast (by the thousands) ever assembled on Philippine television. Nearly 2,000 children alone were gathered from two public schools—Sto. Rosario Elementary School and Francisco G. Nepomuceno Memorial High School—in Angeles, Pampanga to participate in the special event. The current hosts of Eat Bulaga! were joined by numerous former hosts such as Aiza Seguerra, Coney Reyes, and original host Chiqui Hollman. The event also showcased exceptional performances from various celebrities such as Regine Velasquez, Pops Fernandez, Andrew E, Giselle Toengi, Diana Zubiri, Streetboys, Danilo Barrios, Jessa Zaragoza, Donna Cruz, Helen Gamboa, Sunshine Cruz, Kyla, Juliana Palermo, Regine Tolentino, Gracia, January Isaac, Maricar de Mesa, and Dolphy Quizon.
Eric Pineda of EMBRC, Inc. was in charge of the costumes and the production design for the show's silver special. In order to make the silver-colored costumes of the children, his design team had to import nearly 6,000 yards of metallic silver from South Korea. Other costumes and formal wear were also designed by Paul Cabral, Totoy Madriaga, and other local costume designers. About ₱3 million were spent on the costumes alone.
The special celebration was directed by Bert de Leon, Jojo Jardeleza, Poochie Rivera, and Ding Bolaños. The musical director was Louie Ocampo.
Main event
Tito, Vic, and Joey become emotional after being overwhelmed by the cheering crowd.
The silver anniversary celebration was held at the Clark Centennial Expo in Angeles, Pampanga at 7:00 PM. Entrance was free to the general public. The show lasted for more than four hours.
The show began with nearly 2,000 costumed school children singing in unison the Eat Bulaga! Theme Song—segueing to Tito, Vic, and Joey aboard a mock space capsule that brought them on a time travel back to 1979—the year the show was launched. It was immediately followed by a 15-minute display of dances coupled with a VTR flashback of the notable global events that coincided with the birth of the program.
TVJ then came out of the capsule and took centerstage. The trio became very emotional after being overwhelmed by the size of the cheering crowd. They were immediately joined by other current Eat Bulaga! hosts to sing a multilingual version of the show's timeless theme song.
The succeeding segments proved to be an emotional walk down memory lane as the show paid tribute to the men and women who lent face to this noontime treat through those 25 years, from the original TVJ to all the former co-hosts who contributed their time and talent to the program. Even those who were not necessarily regular emcees then, but helped out as pinch-hitters, were also honored.
One of the most emotional moments of the show was the tribute to two late Eat Bulaga! former co-hosts: Helen Vela and Rio Diaz. Aiza Seguerra and Pops Fernandez sang The Warrior is a Child as part of the tribute.
The other showstoppers were mostly the production numbers that traced all the dance hits that became part of the daily contests of Eat Bulaga! in the past, which included "Macho Man", "Lambada", "Thriller" and other dance crazes that were made popular to the public via the noontime program.
Later in the special, Rochelle Pangilinan and the SexBomb Girls whipped up a storm of a performance when they were joined via VTR by the now-New York-based Samantha "Gracia" Lopez in a dance showdown that went back to the days when the dance hit was "Manila Girl" and went all the way to the SexBomb's popular hit song "Spaghetti".
TVJ with Dolphy
The special tried to feature everyone who had been part of the program up to that time either via clips or production numbers and, in the process, we were reminded of the celebrities who once graced the show—from major local celebrities like Sharon Cuneta and Maricel Soriano to big foreign artists like John Denver, Brian McKnight, Michael Bublé, and the Menudo.
And then there was a throwback to the different periods when Eat Bulaga! became the launching pad for some of today’s young talents who joined the show’s various contests such as Little Miss Philippines and Mr. Pogi that produced countless stars like Aiza Seguerra and Jericho Rosales.
The biggest performance, however, was given to the King of Comedy, Dolphy, who joined Tito, Vic, and Joey in a medley of foreign classics that led to the comic geniuses doing on-air banter.
At the finale, the special ended with a series of fireworks above the venue, marking the conclusion of the show's memorable silver anniversary celebration.
Cast
Present hosts
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Celebrity performers
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VTR performers/messages
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Television broadcast and DVD release
Because the actual event lasted four hours, it was aired on television as a two-part episode on Saturday, 27 November 2004 and Monday, 29 November 2004 during Eat Bulaga!'s regular timeslot.
A special documentary titled Eat Bulaga! Sunday Special was aired at 9:00 PM on Sunday, 28 November 2004. Jointly produced by TAPE, Inc. and GMA Network, the documentary chronicled the preparations of the program leading up to the grand event as well as interviews from TVJ and the production staff of the noontime show. It also featured two Eat Bulaga! superfans from remote provinces who were invited to watch the Eat Bulaga! Silver Special live. The documentary was hosted by Arnold Clavio and Rhea Santos.
DVD cover
Due to popular demand, Eat Bulaga! replayed its 25th anniversary celebration on 30–31 December 2004 for its year-end special in order to give home viewers another chance to relive its silver event.
In 2011, Eat Bulaga! gave away 3,000 limited edition DVDs of the Eat Bulaga! Lenten Special along with the show's own coffee table book to mark the more than three decades of the noontime show.
More than 15 years later, selected portions of Eat Bulaga! Silver Special were replayed on Saturday, 25 April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. After receiving numerous requests on how to get the full copy of the episode, Eat Bulaga! decided to make the DVD copies available to the public for purchase once again. Revenue from the sales will be used to help several small businesses who were affected by the long-running community quarantine as part of the Kabuhayan ni Juan project. The DVDs were priced at ₱1,500.
Accolades
Eat Bulaga! Silver Special won the Best Entertainment Special (One-Off/Annual) award at the 10th Asian Television Awards in Singapore on 1 December 2005. The Asian Television Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognizes programming, performance, and production excellence in the Asian television industry. It became the first award won by the show from an international award-giving body.