For a few years now – well, it feels like years at least – we’ve been complaining / warning that Australian television likes everything about comedy but the making-people-laugh stuff. Of course, who listens to what we have to say? And so it has come to pass that in a few short weeks (July 25th)... Read More »
You know us, we’re not scared to pre-judge, so welcome to the third blog we’ve devoted to Myf Warhurst’s Nice, an upcoming series about nostalgia and pop culture presented by everyone’s favourite female member of the Spicks & Specks... Read More »
If you like comedy and didn’t have reason to dislike the inordinately smug Andrew Denton before now, thanks to a recent interview he gave to Fairfax, now you do: In a perfect world, Denton says, Randling would have been a companion piece to the popular music-trivia show Spicks and Specks. But two weeks after pitching... Read More »
In yesterday’s Green Guide Debi Enker wrote something that will come as no surprise whatsoever to long-suffering readers of this blog: “Wednesday night ratings are not giving Aunty much joy”: In recent years, the ABC has established Wednesday as a home for crowd-pleasing light entertainment. Reliably anchored by Spicks & Specks, it offered a selection... Read More »
And so we bid farewell to Outland, the long anticipated and much delayed ABC-1 sitcom about a gay science fiction group.... Read More »
2011 was a bad year for Australian comedy – on television at least – but not in the ways we’ve come to expect. Yes, the energy level was down across the board, with old favourites either tanking hard or stuck in a rut while the fresh faces were shunted off to digital channels where they wouldn’t upset the Spicks & Specks... Read More »
Tonight Spicks & Specks died the way it lived: as a bland, largely forgettable chunk of televisual muzak that actively repelled any attempt to engage with it beyond the occasional glance at the screen. Of course it was a massive hit watched by millions: how could it have possibly failed? Just to make things very... Read More »
A year or so ago, when the iPad was released, there was a brief period in which a small number of well known local comedy groups, well, two local comedy groups - Working Dog and The Chaser - released their own apps. Now with smart phones and tablet computers to be found in every second person's bag, including our own, we assumed there must be stacks more Australian comedy apps to download.... Read More »
Showing the hard-nosed journalistic skills that have put them in the fore-front of “who’s wearing what at fashion launches” coverage, today the Melbourne Herald-Sun‘s “Confidential” put two and two together then wheeled out a giant multicoloured symbol that just might be a four. Or a squiggle: SHAUN Micallef’s bid for a variety show on Channel... Read More »
Perhaps sensing weakness in the ABC’s long-running stranglehold on Wednesday night comedy, Ten has decided to once again shift Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation to an “all-new” timeslot – Wednesday nights at 8.30pm. The later time – made necessary thanks to Ten clogging up the 7.30 / 8pm slots with ratings straggler The Renovators and its... Read More »