Ever get the feeling you’re running in place? That was Australian television comedy in 2015. Not just in the usual “the only way forward is to bring back Fast Forward” sense either, even though once again hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in the firm belief that the only comedy “mainstream Australia” will embrace... 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 »
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 »
Back in the early days of this blog we wrote a lot, an awful lot, about The Chaser. The media at that time was full of The Chaser’s War on Everything, the Make A Realistic Wish Sketch and Gerard Henderson’s constant attacks on the... Read More »
Australian comedy in 2014 did pretty much what it was expected to do: not all that much. The days of any local comedy connecting with a mass audience seem to have ended with the mass audience realising Chris Lilley only ever had one idea, while the ABC’s other crowd-pleasing mainstays either tossed off a half-arsed... Read More »
As is the way of things, the ABC likes to backload their comedy output for the year, piling on the shows through October and November then bringing things to a screeching halt the first week of December when the ratings period ends. With so much going on and our desks still looking pretty cluttered –... Read More »
True story: when this week’s episode of The Chaser’s Media Circus came on, one of us got up from their seat, walked out the back door, walked up the driveway to the street, and then stood there for a full minute wondering exactly what it was they were doing. We’re not saying Media Circus is... Read More »
Comedy: the ABC’s got you covered! Actually, maybe a little too covered – with four new comedy series starting in the one week you’d think they were having a closing down sale or something. We’ll give each series the extended treatment in the coming weeks, but just to get the ball rolling here’s our initial... Read More »
Press release round-up! ABC Mental As… reaches Australian audiences on TV, radio and online and raises $1.47 million for mental health research It was the week the ABC went dotty and audiences answered the call to support ABC Mental As… On TV 5.9 million Australians tuned in during mental health week and $1.47 million has... Read More »