We've argued before on this blog that The Gillies Report deserves a DVD release. It was enormously popular at the time, it won a Logie in 1986 for Best Light Entertainment Series, it's fondly remembered by those who saw it, many of the sketches still stand up (there are plenty on YouTube), it's a significant series in the history of Australian comedy, and now it seems a future Prime Minister once sat in its audience. What more could you... Read More »
Things have slowed down a little around here of late, as we work behind the scenes to push the lumbering cart that is The Australian Tumbleweed Awards 2009 into position. Sadly, that means no in-depth analysis on why roughly a tenth of Hungry Beast‘s running time is taken up with fancy promos for a show... Read More »
Reviewing Tony Martin’s second book, A Nest of Occasionals, is easy: in pretty much every way it’s just like his first. So if you’re a fan of Lolly Scramble,... Read More »
Sam Simmons must be kicking himself. If only he’d done The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote in blackface, people might be actually talking about it... Read More »
Here’s a question: what makes the Hey Hey it’s Saturday blackface controversy different from the controversy over The Chaser’s “Make a Realistic Wish Foundation” sketch, or Hungry Beast’s promo for a fake story about netball rape,... Read More »
Remember when the ABC cut back their order for the final series of The Chaser's War on Everything from eight episodes to six after the "make a Realistic Wish Foundation" sketch earned them a two week... Read More »
Press releases are supposed to be full of over-oxygenated waffle designed to fan the flames of interest in a program that otherwise would barely rate a grunt as your average viewer clicked past it to repeats of Seinfeld... ... Read More »
Coming to Movie Extra next month is The Jesters, a sitcom which promises to “satirise the satirists”. In the show Mick Molloy plays former comedian Dave Davies, who takes four “upstarts” from the world of student newspapers and gives them their own TV show...but, ratings are poor and the show isn't funny so Davies tries to whip up some cheap publicity by asking one of the team to get... Read More »
So farewell then The Chaser's War on Everything, whether it was the pointless and repetitive pranks, the seeming plagiarism, or the press and industry reaction - both the wowserish condemnation and slave-like devotion - it's sure given us something to talk about for the past three and a half years. If I were to sum up my feelings on the series I'd say that it was deeply disappointing and one of the great lost opportunities in Australian TV comedy history, but admittedly, there aren't that many who agree with... Read More »
One of the rarely mentioned but screamingly obvious factors behind the success of most of the ABC’s local comedy ventures over the last few years is the... Read More »