It’s unusual to hear a TV executive say anything like what we’ve been saying about Australian comedy for years, so we wanted to note this interview for TV Tonight with Foxtel’s Brian Walsh: Last year Foxtel rolled a big gamble on its sketch comedy series Open Slather produced by Laura Waters and Rick McKenna. Despite... Read More »
As Black Comedy vanishes in the rear vision mirror it’s increasingly clear – well, it was pretty obvious from the start, but sometimes it takes a while for these things to sink in – that of the two words in the title, only one is surprising to see on the ABC. Okay, we’re exaggerating for... Read More »
Yesterday, TV Tonight reported that Channel 9 sitcom Here Come the Habibs, now two-thirds the way through its first series has been renewed: Nine has renewed its new sitcom Here Come the Habibs! for a second series. The series launched to 1.25m in overnight metro viewers, although Nine cites almost 3 million nationally including repeats... Read More »
We shouldn’t have to rely on our ex-pats (or fair-chunk-of-the-year-ex-pats) to “nail it” satire-wise, but here’s a comedy song you’re probably more than familiar with by now, and boy does much-of-the-year London resident Tim Minchin “nail it”. It’s not just the sentiment of Come Home (Cardinal Pell) that we like, it’s that this delivers on pretty... Read More »
Wow, how about that segment on The Weekly about dodgy campaign donations! Shocking! Scandalous! Hilarious! … oh wait, no it wasn’t. It was a bland intro-level current affairs story of the kind 7.30 wouldn’t touch because there’s no story there. Well, there is, but the story is so big and unfocused – “political donations: we... Read More »
What made the first series of Black Comedy refreshing wasn’t that it was an “all black” or “mostly Aboriginal” show (although because that kinda thing is still so rare in this country, it’s not hard to see why a bunch of people got hung up on it). What made Black Comedy refreshing was that it... Read More »
So we decided to give Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery another shot, even though the producers are clearly continuing their new policy of not featuring comedians by interviewing Rebel Wilson. Zing! Actually, we only tuned in to see how a show so firmly focused on the guest’s childhood and early years would deal with Wilson’s flexible... Read More »
Pretty much from the first moment we heard about Here Come the Habibs, the big question was “is this going to be the sitcom that destroys Australia”? Ha ha no fuck off with that slow news week crap: the real question was “how is this going to be any different from any other comedy show... Read More »
How does the ABC start the new comedy year? With an episode of Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery featuring that well-known comedian, er, Kerry O’Brien. Safe to say we didn’t really bother with that one, as entertaining as the 7:30 host-turned Keating interrogator can be. We’ll save ourselves for episode 2: Rebel Wilson. Be back at... Read More »
As part of a long-standing policy clearly designed to avoid the Team Tumbleweeds critical blowtorch, SBS has once again released pretty much all of their Australian comedy content during the non-ratings period – and more importantly, during the period when we’re traditionally slaving away putting together the Tumbleweed Awards (out Australia Day! Tell your friends!).... Read More »