13 schoolyards, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds - Page 4 of 110
Appetite For Destruction
Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction is an extremely basic talk show. Kind of like Enough Rope, if Enough Rope hadn’t tried to make its guests cry each week. That said, this is only week one of Micallef’s return to the ABC: there’s still plenty of time to turn on the waterworks. On a massive night... Read More »
Vale Austin
Here’s an exciting fact: Austin was the biggest commitment to scripted comedy we’ll see from the ABC in 2024. Sitcoms usually get six episode runs: Austin had eight. Was there anything at all at any point during those eight episodes that left anyone thinking “wow, this story really needed that extra space”? Or was it... Read More »
Unemployment Has Its Benefits
Press release time! The Boys Are Back In Town. The Inspired Unemployed (Impractical) Jokers Returns For A Second Season. The New Season Premieres Wednesday, 14 August At 8.30pm On 10 And 10 Play, Or Stream The Entire Series On Paramount+. The Jokers are back for a new season, and this time the pranks and... Read More »
Television’s Night of Nights of Nights
Press release(s) time! Let’s get spelling! Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee premieres this August on ABC Get ready to laugh-out-loud as Guy Montgomery and his loyal assistant Aaron Chen test the spelling prowess of some of Australia’s favourite faces on Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee. The fast-paced eight-episode series will premiere Wednesday 14... Read More »
There’s No Time like Fam Time
Finally, a new comedy on Seven that isn’t from Paul Fenech! Wait, did we say “new”? As fans of The Last Year of Television know, Fam Time has been sitting in a drawer for years. A change of management at Seven around the start of the decade saw it fall firmly out of favour, even... Read More »
Satire-day Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week
Australia is a country you can barely trust to deliver the news, let alone make fun of it. Once upon a time there was something of a vague commitment by news organisations to be balanced and informative, which happily also provided a rock-solid foundation for satirists to bounce off. Now our news is a mix... Read More »
Dead Heat for Deadloch
Press release time! No big surprise there, though it took them long enough. Guess they had to find another state willing to cough up the funds (season three they’ll be heading to… the Gold Coast?) before the big announcement. The real interest here’ll be how much comedy this retains, or whether it makes the (small)... Read More »
Emu War (What is it Good For)
The Emu War is an Australian comedy movie and we’ll stop right there. To clarify: this is a comedy that’s (barely) movie length, not a movie that’s claiming to be a comedy. What’s the difference? Australian movies are almost always either scams to extract money from funding bodies or calling cards for the cast and... Read More »
Austin Powers
Austin is the kind of series you get when the production side of television couldn’t give a rat’s arse about whatever it is the audience actually wants to watch. And fair enough. The entire basis of ABC television is to provide programming for those who aren’t being served by mainstream broadcasting. But there’s a big... Read More »
The (F)art Of…
ABC arts programming has been rubbish for years and new effort The Art Of… is no exception. Just how bad is it? It manages to make Josh Thomas seem good. It doesn’t make him seem funny mind you because haha, they’ve got him on the episode about “heartbreak”. Why is a program about the arts... Read More »