Compulsory Logies Wrap-Up Post
Comedy never comes out of a Logies ceremony looking great. Last night we saw the usual mix of light-hearted industry backslapping, and results which ranged from the surprisingly good to the fairly baffling. Here’s a quick run-down:
Most Popular Entertainment Program – Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year South America
No surprises here – kinda like the show itself. After taking Gap Years in various parts of the world Hamish & Andy have a well-honed and very popular formula, and they ain’t changing it. Problem is, they’ve just about run out of continents to eat weird food in. Guess they’ll have to come up with something new. What’s the betting it involves stunts?
Most Outstanding Comedy Program – Utopia
Probably the best of the bunch, government infrastructure satire Utopia beat Black Comedy, Legally Brown, Please Like Me and Upper Middle Bogan to win this award. It was odd to not see Mad As Hell nominated here, but it was entered for Most Outstanding Entertainment Program.
Most Popular Actress – Asher Keddie
Julia Morris was nominated in this category for her role in House Husbands but lost to the Offspring and Party Tricks star. Maybe it was that loss that caused her to mess up and not announce the nominees for Most Outstanding Entertainment Program?
Most Popular Presenter – Carrie Bickmore
The first of several wins for Bickmore, she beat Hamish & Andy’s Andy to take out this award. To be fair, she does a fair bit more presenting than Andy.
Most Outstanding Entertainment Program – The Voice Australia
An odd category this, in which the other nominees were Bogan Hunters, Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell, The Chaser’s Media Circus and The Checkout. Presumably The Voice won because it best fits the definition of an entertainment program, as opposed to the satirical sketch comedies, consumer affairs and exploitative pseudo-comic documentary/game shows it was up against. Oh, and what was Mad As Hell doing in this category and why wasn’t it entered for Most Outstanding Comedy? Do we smell a conspiracy? Your best tin foil hat-esque theories in a comment, please.
Most Popular Actor – Stephen Peacocke
Chris Lilley and Josh Thomas were beaten by the Home & Away star in this category. We guess comedians will never be as popular with the kids as hunky soap stars.
Graham Kennedy Award For Most Outstanding Newcomer – Miranda Tapsell
Sketch comedian Troy Kinne was nominated for this award but lost to Love Child star Miranda Tapsell. She made a much-acclaimed speech about the need for more people of colour to be on Australian TV. We completely agree.
Most Outstanding Actor – Luke Arnold
Luke Arnold won for his portrayal of Michael Hutchence in INXS: Never Tear Us Apart. Other nominees included Rake star Richard Roxborough, who at least was in a show that was meant to be funny.
Most Outstanding Series – Wentworth
Rake also lost in this category to Prisoner re-make Wentworth. Wentworth is way less funny than Prisoner, which is a shame for those of us who like their drama tempered with a little bathos.
Gold Logie – Carrie Bickmore
Bickmore beat nominees Hamish Blake, Andy Lee, Scott Cam, Asher Keddie and Stephen Peacocke to take out her first Gold Logie this year. Whilst clearly not nominated for being funny, it’s interesting to note how many comedians/funny folk have won the gold over the years – Hamish Blake, Denise Drysdale, Norman Gunston, Graham Kennedy, Rove McManus, Bert Newton, Daryl Somers and Steve Vizard – and yet comedy’s greatest hope of the present day, Shaun Micallef, will probably never make it. Kind of a shame, that.
Tin foil hat engaged.
The ABC already finds its programming clustered into the same categories year after year (no doubt the result of both the Logies’ asinine, constantly-changing rules, and the ABC’s commitment to pushing most everything through the Gruen/Chaser strainer). And given that the commercial networks just keep serving up the same reheated footy shows and reno/cooking/wedding reality sludge (and whatever the living fuck Gogglebox is), perhaps who can blame them?
So rather than double down on the Comedy category, they’ve clearly tried to spread their thin catalogue across the board, like butter across too much bread.
Obviously they couldn’t give a shit about ‘Upper Middle Bogan’ (easily my sitcom pick for 2014), and I get the sense they’re even a little tepid on ‘Utopia’, so I suspect the plan was to clear the runway for ‘Please Like Me’ to win best comedy so everyone can keep pretending that it was still critically relevant, even if it nosedived into a puddle in the ratings.
Thankfully even the Logies aren’t that much of a joke (of course I’m kidding – it’s the Logies!), but the the torrent of ‘Award-Winning Comedy Needs A Touch of Trauma’ think pieces in the lead up to the threatened season three might be lessened slightly. …very slightly.
But I bet they’re wishing there was a ‘Vapid Hipster Dramedy’ category right about now.
Likely the ABC were banking on Micallef’s Entertainment Program cred from ‘Talkin’ Bout Your Generation’ to win the day, despite the fact that his current show is the most blisteringly funny thing on television, and would have easily romped away with an award if placed in the right ballot. But that would require someone in Aunty’s programming department to actually care enough to watch his show. So, fat chance.
Wow, I didn’t even realise the logies were still a thing. Glad to see though it’s still intent on disappearing up it’s own arse
The reason Mad As Hell is categorised as Entertainment and not Comedy is simply because it’s commissioned and produced by the ABC’s Arts & Entertainment department. Topical comedy shows like The Chaser, The Weekly, Dirty Laundry Live and Wednesday Night Fever have always been made under this department. Whereas the Comedy dept is purely responsible for narrative comedies.
The ABC itself decides which categories to enter their programs into, so naturally they enter them according to the genres which their own organisation defines them by. Entertainment Dept shows go to the Entertainment category, and Comedy Dept shows go into the Comedy category. There’s no more mystery or strategy to it than that.
Curse your rational logic, Faz!
Although I will say even a friend of mine who works in ABC entertainment was surprised to see the way the shows were nominated – so take that wholly unsubstantiated story from a stranger on the internet for what its worth.
I hope Miranda Tapsell does more comic acting, she’s a real talent.