We chat to beloved kiwi icon and children's TV presenter Suzy Cato

We chat to Suzy Cato about how she’s wasn’t the first host of You and Me! And why she can’t decide on the best era…

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
With the John and Ben Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Cheers to Dilma making the world a better tea. How
are you.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
We're doing good. Always nice to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Likewise, trapped in a.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Lift with you was just a week ago.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm sorry, awful.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It was lovely. He was honest behavior here at his
googeous wife with them, and he was.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Just the only time Susan has ever been downbeaten liking life.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
This bald idiot. Oh, Susie. We were doing a bit
of reflecting this this week.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's a bit of a competition, to be honest, deciding
which was the better decade, the nineties or the noughties.
Now you've spanned across both, what would you say was
the best decade?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh gosh, that is really really tricky because when I
think of it in terms of songs, it's a.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Cut that was the nineties, and that was your signature.
You and Me, Susie's World was over two thousand episodes.
I was reading of You and Me.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
You did that's right. We'd recorded over five years. So
I'd go to the need of for two weeks of
every month from Auckland. I'd fly down record, record, record,
then go home and throw out and We did that
for five years, so a very special part of my life,
and by the sounds of it, a whold several generations

(01:19):
of Kiwi's lives as well.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, you must still have people coming up to you
all the time and going I used to sit and
watch you.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh yeah, I love it. And you know, through COVID
and things like that, got reintroduced to a new generation
of Kiwi's which was absolutely adorable. But you know, I
still love that the Naughties had Susie's World. Susie's were
part of the thing, but it still touched the whole generation,
several generations. And now I've got young scientists coming up

(01:47):
to me and saying, look, I'm going to put that
down to you. You inspired me to embark on a
world of science.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
You just got whoam mean a lot to you?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh yeah, Well, one of the main reasons we made
Susi's was because I was robber science myself as a kid.
And but they were all questions that I had wanted
answered as a child. You know, why is the sky blue?
How can birds sit on power lines without getting electrocuted?
What happens when we eat baked bean?

Speaker 1 (02:14):
How do the birds sit on the power lines out
of interest.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I'm really proud of you for not asking the other
questions because they are not earth grounded, right.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, grounded, So if they touched the ground at the
same time.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Order, When you look back at those iconic shows through
those years, I mean you used to wear some really
bright clothing, right, I mean your personality is bright, but
the clothing may have been brighter.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, definitely, it was cosmic cosmic. Yes, if I had
a face on, I'd be able to send your photograph
of what I'm wearing today, though. TI dyed electric blue
and pink, and.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
You do love a tight height.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, you really bright neon sort of colors I remember.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, definitely need to get yours or something. I remember
that Cosmic brand color. They're all just bright colors, and
now they kind of come back.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
I mean, look at Barbie. You know, the Barbie movie
kind of brought all that back. So this song, you
know you were just singing before It's Our Time? You know,
where did that come from? Like, and did you know
it was going to be such a success when you
started singing it.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, I'd love to be able to take full quint
for that song. And you and me and the studiess
Lord and all the rest of it. But I'm a
cog and an amazing will of talented people who created
those programs, and I very luckily one of about eighty
people who interviewed or auditioned got the role.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
So did send me another's audition for that that gig?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, there were lots of people that auditioned
because it had already been going for a year before
I joined it. Yeah, but the wonderful Pauline Cooper had
been presenting it for nearly a year. They threw open
the doors and they've got a telephone call. I'd been
with the Early Bird Show with Russell Ruther. You'ld dooodle dude.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Russell, you say it was aimed at preschoolers. I feel
like I was a lot older watching it. That makes
me go, oh Jesus, was I just a bit slow
on it. I didn't realize it was aimed the preschoolers,
but I watched a lot of it. We're going to
put you on the spot now because you've been through
those decades, as John I said, you've had big hit
shows in both those decades.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Susie, what was your favorite decade?

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
It is so hard I'm going to have to say.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Susie, you're so nice, you just can't.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
I don't think you're going to offend a decade feelings decades.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh look, it's like choosing a favorite child. How can
you do that? They're both good for so many different breaks.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
All right, you're gonna sit on the fence on this one.
She's doing a trademark ben boys.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, that's annoying, isn't it. But I get it, I
get it, I get it. You don't. Yeah, you've all
got the positive points. Oh, Susie, listen. Always love catching
up with you. Appreciate your time, and thank you for
joining us pleasure. That's not how you say goodbye to Susie. Yes,

(05:05):
you're doing it. Yeah you go, you go, tell you away, Susie.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
See you see yea later. It's time to say goodbye.
See you see year later. We've really got to fly goodbye,
my friend.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Oh not just to preschool. And that was for everyone