13 schoolyards, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds
Audiences Are Guaranteed To Be In Stitches
Press release time! Oooh, tricky one. Hussain can be funny, and Carlson is definitely funny, but “the messy reality of becoming a parent and the collision of two big, complicated families”? Sounds heart-warming rather than side-splitting. And “chosen family”? That’s always death. Still, all the usual bigwigs are dropping words like “hilarious” and “giggles” and... Read More »
What Makes a Good Marriage? Let’s Ask Austin!
Press release time! You’d have to say “beloved” is a bit of a stretch when describing Austin. “Tolerated” maybe? “Ignored”? And that whole “we’re thrilled to bring even more laughter, heart and humanity to screens across Australia”? Considering the cast are largely compromised of humans, that’s one out of three at best. We could go... Read More »
More Like Dog Shit
Hey, do you like unlikable characters? We don’t mean grumpy types with a heart of gold, or downbeat loners who just need to be brought out of their shell. We’re talking a real shithead here. Someone who actively goes around making other people’s lives worse. A bitter little turd of a man you’d run into... Read More »
Give Dog Park a Bone
Press release time! ABC unleashes fresh new comedy drama Dog Park ABC is thrilled to announce the premiere of its brand-new six-part comedy drama, Dog Park, arriving Sunday 1 February at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. Co-created by and starring Leon Ford as Roland, alongside ABC favourite Celia Pacquola as Samantha, Dog Park... Read More »
The Children Have No Future (in Australian comedy)
A long, long time ago, comedy was for the young. Sketch shows were packed with performers fresh out of uni; everywhere you looked sitcoms were being written by young faces. And now? Uh, yeah. Hey, let’s start off the holiday season with some good news, shall we? Optics is not returning to ABC, ending its... Read More »
ABC Upfronts 2026: It Could Be Worse
Press release time! In fact, multiple press releases! The ABC announced a large chunk of their 2026 line-up a few days ago and it’s taken us this long to wade through it all. Let’s start with the big news: Not only did the ABC drop an actual surprise announcement, it was for a show that... Read More »
Ghost Patrol, You Are Under Arrest
Ghosts Australia gets a lot of things right. Well, a lot of obvious things at least. The cast is good – a few of them are playing catch-up, but the lead character Kate (Tamala) is strong from day one. The mansion is impressive, which means the whole thing looks good. And the format is strong... Read More »
Crime Night! Let’s Make This Short
We all remember the giddy joy we felt when we first heard about Crime Night! An ABC series where comedians made jokes about true crime cases? What the fuck? There was absolutely no way this was not going to be a massive car crash, and we were 100% there for it. Comedy is back, baby!... Read More »
Yeah, we liked Son of a Donkey
We’ve watched too much Australian comedy over the years to be picky about what makes us laugh. You want a prime-time program that’s a polished product with quality performances and absolutely no decent jokes? Our review of Ghosts Australia is just around the corner. While we wait, there’s Son of a Donkey, which is packed... Read More »
We Feel Like Chicken Tonight
We rarely bother with the commercial network’s upfronts, mostly because they rarely bother with comedy. But this did catch our eye: Comedy returns to prime time on Seven with a new format featuring Mick Molloy and Glenn Robbins and funny friends as guests. It is produced by Molloy Boy Productions. AR: “This was the best... Read More »