13 schoolyards, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds

Vale The Cheap Seats 2023

You can get away with a lot when you’re funny. The Cheap Seats is the kind of show that Australian television loves to throw together, throw at a screen, then throw in the bin when nobody tunes in. And yet it’s one of the big successes (the only success?) of recent years, a sure-fire winner... Read More »

Clip Joint

Imagine, if you will, a fan of Australian comedy. Not all that long ago, this fandom might have kept them pretty busy; these days it only takes a few hours a week to keep up to date. And yet, even with that meager diet it still feels like they’re watching the same thing over and... Read More »

The World of Tomorrow 2.0: Snore ABC

It’s been well over a year since the incoming federal Labor government promised a new cashed up world for the ABC. Okay, so 2023 was always going to be business as usual. But surely 2024 was going to present us with the fruits of that momentous electoral decision? Mo’ money, mo’ programming and all that.... Read More »

Australian Epic (Fail?)

Despite what television producers like to think, musicals aren’t automatically funny. The joke with Australian Epic is meant to be that hey, we’re making big musicals out of small stories. It’s not a bad joke – but going by the first episode, it’s not good enough. When it was first announced, Australian Epic was called... Read More »

The World of Tomorrow

“We are all interested in the future,” someone once said, “because that is where we shall be spending the rest of our lives”. But what if the future looks really shit? Welcome to the magical world of Australian television’s plans for 2024. In recent weeks the commercial networks and streaming services have been holding their... Read More »

Never Underestimate the Power of the Press

Press release time! And we’ve been waiting for this one: Ahem. It’s obvious to all that our recent “Where’s Stories From Oz?” campaign was the driving force behind getting this finally on air. It’s clearly in no way the result of a scheduling decision that was probably made months ago and the very idea is... Read More »

A Question of Timing

Question Everything made its triumphant return to the ABC for a third season this week. A third season? Of a show that still can’t figure out how to make its core concept – fake news but comedy! – work? Good thing it’s not our tax dollars paying for this crap oh wait. Having it back... Read More »

The End of an Era (we hope)

Earlier this week this not-exactly-news-type-news was announced: the days of Daryl Somers hosting Seven’s Dancing with the Stars are no more: “Seven let me know recently that they have signed Chris Brown to the network full-time and amongst his commitments he will be hosting DWTS.” Not only was it a case of “you know that... Read More »

WTFAQuestion Time

For some reason or another the ABC is currently running ads featuring Dr Karl. You know, the guy who answers all your science questions? Only if you actually listen to his answers, he often doesn’t answer your questions – he just throws out a bunch of quirky facts that are kind of adjacent to whatever... Read More »

Vale Thank God You’re Here 2023

We can’t blame Working Dog for taking an “if it ain’t broke” approach to their revival of Thank God You’re Here. The original run was much loved and fondly remembered… though not by us, which is why fans of the show might want to skip what comes next. Glad you enjoyed it, it’ll probably be... Read More »

Australian Tumbleweeds is Australia's most opinionated blog about comedy.
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