Tag: Don Lane

Seventeen nine-tee-hee nine reasons to laugh

Umbrella recently released the DVD Studio 9 – The Home of Australian Television, featuring golden moments from Channel 9’s glorious... Read More »

The Home of Variety

Channel 9's push to become the “Home of Comedy” this year hasn't really worked out for them; Live From Planet Earth, the bumping of The Joy of Sets...even Hamish & Andy's Gap Year. Sure, Gap Year made it to the end and managed decent enough ratings, but it wasn't the greatest piece of television ever.... Read More »

Our alright of nights

Ah, yes, the Logies...Australian television's night of nights, where the show itself is often as good as the programmes it's awarding. But despite that, there's always one good reason to tune in: when you bring together a large number of this country's most high profile ego manics and show-offs, and allow them to get as pissed as they like, there's a strong probability that at least one of them will make an idiot of themselves. On live... Read More »

It’s actually pretty easy to believe it wasn’t better

Whilst updating iTunes last week I noticed that what had been the podcast feed for ABC Local Radio's 2008 comedy talent quest The Comedy Hour has now become the podcast feed for ABC Adelaide's Talkback Gardening, that perennial favourite of my father and many of his friends. If it wasn't for the fact that the ABC are great fans of recycling podcast feeds (do they think they're rationed?), I could probably draw a crap metaphor for the ABC's interest in The Comedy Hour from this – and indeed, there wasn't much interest in it from them - but my main feeling is one of sadness, that The Comedy Hour is yet another comedy writer's competition that's been shut down for good (although that's been pretty clear for a year or so... Read More »

So easy: RIP Don Lane

Maybe it's because to my generation Don Lane was a guy who'd clearly been famous once, but for what we weren't sure. His appearance on The Late Show was fun, and he presented American football on the ABC and turned up in the odd special, but that was it: he was just some old has-been in embarrassing trousers. So why am I about to launch into a heartfelt tribute to the Lanky Yank? Because, to paraphrase his theme song, he made it so... Read More »