Confession: I was quite enthusiastic about Randling when it started last year. I thought it looked like a show with potential that just needed a couple of tweaks; to bed down a little. Of course, having been recorded in one monster block earlier in the year, tweaking and bedding down were never an option No,... Read More »
We were recently asked on twitter (by one Ducks McOntos) what we thought of this: The Oxford dictionary defines ”influence” as the capacity to have an affect on the character, development or behaviour of someone or something. In television, that translates into only one thing: having a hand in the most successful programs. Yet influence... Read More »
The only interesting thing about ABC chief Mark Scott’s admission last week – that part of the reason why Randling stunk was because they filmed it all in one batch to save money – was the “save money” part. Fun fact: nobody running a television network these days has any money and they all have... Read More »
From the department of No Shit, Sherlock, comes this startling admission from ABC chief Mark Scott: Scott told Mumbrella’s sister title Encore: “One of the things we did with Randling that we learned from, and this was partly a budget thing, was that we locked all that away. It was all locked away before it... Read More »
The results of the Australian Tumbleweed Awards... Read More »
Here’s the thing: on the day after the final episode of Randling aired we went through all the major metropolitan newspapers looking to see on which page they announced the winner. A 27 week prime-time competition featuring many of Australia’s premiere comedians and social commentators had all been building up to one big result: of... Read More »
Short answer: yes. Or no. Maybe? Dammit, we’re going to have to think about this one for a moment. Let’s back up for a second. Last weeks episode of The Hamster Wheel had a segment on sexism in the Australian media. Yay Chaser! Or perhaps not, as a few people have expressed some doubts about... Read More »
You’d think that after Randling tanked the ABC would be steering clear of comedy panel quizzes, but no, that’s the kind of thing a sane broadcaster would... Read More »
Whadda know? Turns out The Unbelievable Truth isn’t half bad. The jokes are funny and there’s a lot of them, the dodgy panel format is constantly being broken up by cutaways and in studio antics, and… oh wait, maybe we should actually describe the show first: Craig Reucassel from The Chaser is your host, there’s... Read More »
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that Australian comedy is currently not operating at peak efficiency. In fact, it’s coughing its guts up all over the place. Duds to the left, ratings flops to the right, tired old formats hacking out their final breath everywhere else. What does it say about... Read More »