Press release time! Charlie Pickering returns to ABC with a double offering Friday, September 18, 2015 — Following a highly successful debut season, ABC TV is thrilled to announce The Weekly will return this December with an end of year special called The Yearly. Host Charlie Pickering: “The team at The Weekly is currently on... Read More »
So The Chaser’s Media Circus returned last week, and we had nothing to say about it. Well, actually we did: compared to the stodgy, plodding panel show we recalled from last year it was a snappy, pacy – even, dare we say, funny – slice of political comedy that used the game show angle to... Read More »
Remember Open Slather? The show that was going to revitalise Australian sketch comedy by harking back to the golden age of the late 80s and… well, that was pretty much it. But the late 80s! When comedy was funny! Not all the quasi-racist material mind you, and a lot of the stuff about women looks... Read More »
“Lauren, isn’t that stretching credibility?” That was the moment we gave up on Gruen for 2015 (we made it a whole ten minutes in – gold star for us). Wil Anderson and the panel were talking about a pet food commercial involving warring street gangs that joined forces to save a dog, this issue of... Read More »
If you’ve ever seriously wondered why television critics in this country are respected by no-one – even as television criticism around the English-speaking world enters some kind of magical golden age of relevancy thanks to the irresistible rise of the recap – may we quote Debi Enker on The Weekly: “Through four months on air,... Read More »
Ok @mscott, if you won't let me be on #qanda, how about the Chaser? Put in a good word? — Ben Pobjie (@benpobjie) September 8, 2015 If you don’t see why this kind of thing coming from a professional television critic is a problem – and it’s a firmly established pattern of behaviour now –... Read More »
It’s easy to forget how charming Mad as Hell is in its refusal to assume it’ll be invited back next year until you hear Charlie Pickering say “Welcome to the final episode of series one of The Weekly“. Series one? Forgive us if we’re wrong, but at the time of writing the ABC hasn’t announced... Read More »
So we picked up a copy of Greg Fleet’s latest book These Things Happen pretty much the moment it hit the shops. Why wouldn’t we? Fleet is a comedy titan: a legend of the local stand-up scene, a regular on television for close to twenty years, and always good for a laugh on radio show... Read More »
It’s hard to know what to think when the ABC’s Australian Story decides to focus on a comedian. Once side of the coin is that Australian Story is a massively popular series with a huge reach: putting on a comedian is a great way to remind people that Australia actually does have professional funny people... Read More »
Press release time! Twice! ABC announces plan to replace The Chaser’s Media Circus with cat videos From Thursday 10 September at 8pm on ABC Tuesday, August 18, 2015 — ABC TV management has confirmed it hopes to replace the second series of The Chaser’s Media Circus with cat videos. “As soon as we can find... Read More »