Say what you like about Working Dog, but they definitely know the right way to do an end-of-year wrap-up. Throw in a few old clips, make the hosts dress fancy, and otherwise stick to business as usual. Which is just the way we like it. Of the two Working Dog series that wrapped for the... Read More »
Have You Been Paying Attention? celebrated its 250th episode with all the people and segments we’ve known and loved for 10... Read More »
In a semi-recent interview to promote the return of Have You Been Paying Attention? – in the real estate supplement Domain, of all places – Tom Gleisner pointed out it was now a full decade since HYBPA? first aired on Ten, and that the first few seasons had been teetering on the edge of cancellation:... Read More »
Have You Been Paying Attention? is back for 2022 and it’s like it never went away. Well, apart from all the panelists seemingly having gotten engaged or had children over the break; guess all those lockdowns last year had an effect after all. With the election campaign dragging itself into the final week, in its... Read More »
This week saw the two hundredth episode of Have You Been Paying Attention? and the show feels as fresh as it ever did. We say “fresh” but we could have gone with “timely”, or “thrilling”, or “topical”, or any number of words that don’t necessarily start with “t”: HYBPA? came out of the gate strong... Read More »
This isn’t strictly a like for like comparison, but we’ve had a few thoughts about Have You Been Paying Attention? and Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation. Both shows, on the surface, are the same kind of show: a game/quiz hosted by a 56-year-old white male comedian, in which celebrities compete against each other in amusing ways.... Read More »
Having Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation and Have You Been Paying Attention? on back-to-back (there was even time this week to go from one to the other without missing anything out) is both a great way to get two-and-a-bit hours worth of something close to actual entertainment from the commercial networks, and a handy way to... Read More »
Making a one-off funny show is relatively easy; making a long-running show is also fairly easy. Combining the two is where it gets a little difficult, and not just because of the generally held belief that a comedy that starts strong is bound to drop off quickly (aka the Fawlty Towers defense). So hats off... Read More »
What can we say about Ten’s comedy stalwart Have You Been Paying Attention? that we haven’t already said during its long and stellar run? It’s the kind of comedy show that we happily tune into each week, but one of its big virtues is its consistency – which means that once you point out all... Read More »
Whoever thought it would come to this: after what – thirty weeks? – HYBPA? has finally left our screens. Well, for 2015 at least – it’s already been announced it’ll be back in 2016. And why wouldn’t it? You don’t let a show that nobody’s watching run for 30 weeks, even on Channel Ten. For... Read More »