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Hills hoists ABC comedy

Adam Hills talks to TV Tonight about how Spicks and Specks found its formula, the pitfalls of recording in advance and his desire for a Tonight show at some point in his career.

ahAdam Hills admits to being a bit “blown away” by the figures for Spicks and Specks. 1.4m last week, and 1.6m this week -the best ABC result not only for the year, but on par with the show’s best ever which was when The Chaser pulled their APEC stunt.

“This year’s been our strongest year for ratings ever. I think there are a lot of reasons. We’re having better shows this year. We’re ad libbing a lot more, playing around a lot more,” he told TV Tonight.

The return of The Chaser and the recession are no doubt helping bring big audiences to the show, now in its fifth season. But there’s also another inadvertent boost coming from another network.

Thank God You’re Here helps us. I was talking to Rob Sitch and said ‘TGYH helps our ratings’ and he said ‘well vice versa, it’s a case of the tail wagging the dog, because Spicks and Specks is such a mainstay of Wednesday night comedy on Australian television, that if you programme comedy around it Spicks and Specks actually helps it, and vice versa.’

“So people tune in to watch an hour of Thank God You’re Here and as soon as it finishes they switch over to us.”

In a few weeks’ time that strategy will go into overdrive when Hills even guests on Thank God, for the first time.

The success of Spicks has arguably prompted other networks to have another bash at mimicking its success. TEN and SBS both unveiled new panel formats in recent weeks.

“I heard on the set of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, because they film at the ABC studios, where there have been a few times when they haven’t quite nailed it, and someone said ‘just do what they do on Spicks and Specks!’ which is a massive compliment. But it surprises me that it’s taken 5 years for a commercial network to start making comedy panel shows.”

Of course there were others attempts, notably on Seven, that didn’t fare so successfully. So just how did the ABC get it so right in the first place?

“As much as I’d like to take the credit for that, I think the majority of the credit must go to a guy called Peter Faiman,” insists Hills. “The ABC employed him as a consultant in the early days of Spicks and he showed me everything he had learned from Don Lane, Graham Kennedy, Paul Hogan, Bert Newton and even American talk shows. He showed me exactly how to be a host and to make it a comforting, welcoming show that is warm and people really connect with.

“The original producer of the show was Paul Clarke (Long Way to the Top, Love is in the Air, Eurovision). He came up with a whole bunch of games.”

These days it is series producer Anthony Watt who is the main developer of the games.

“But it’s kind of a democracy where we all sit around and chip in ideas. ‘Malvern Stars on 45’ came about because one of the writers thought it would be a good name for a game. And then it was ‘ok we’ve got the name, what’s the game?’ until someone came up with the idea of a bicycle powered record player. Which, remarkably, has become one of the most popular games. I’m not entirely sure why. It’s just that watching someone power a record player with a bike seems to be enjoyable television.”

ABC also films its episodes in the first half of the year, freeing up Hills to pursue his commitments on the international comedy circuit. With that in mind there are occasionally a few times when filming so far out inherits a few risks.

“We had one instance where we had a big chat about Pavarotti and he died the week before it was due to go to air. So back into the editing suite.

“There was one episode where we had a Kylie Minogue video and someone made a joke about her breasts. Two weeks later she was diagnosed with breast cancer. So we had to go back and do a quick edit on that, so that the viewing audience didn’t think we were referring to her breast cancer.”

Hills says he will stick with Spicks while it is still enjoyable, being very conscious of not boring people and over-staying their welcome. He says it’s also a delicate act not wanting to leave early too. He acknowledges that in the future he expects to do his own variety show, at some time, not necessarily on a commercial network. Not a bad career trajectory for someone who was once the warm up guy for Wheel of Fortune with Baby John Burgess and Adriana Xenides.

“I’ve had talks with a couple of networks but they know not to even try now,” he said. “I’m having so much fun doing Spicks. It’s all about the opportunity to do what I want to do, and a cheque is not going to convince me. If they’re not going to let me make the show that I want to make, then no cheque is worth that,” he said.

“I can imagine at some point down the track a chat show, variety show or talk show would probably be where I’d end up. But one of my managers, because I’ve got them around the world, said to me no-one hosts a talk show when they’re under 40. Letterman, Leno, Conan and all of those guys….there’s a certain life experience you need before you can host a Tonight show.

“But certainly down the track it would definitely be something I’d be aiming at.”

12 Responses

  1. rove is also filmed in at the ABC Ripponlea, moved from South Melbourne at the start of this year.

    Completely off topic, but is Neighbours still out at Nunnawading Global or have they moved out to docklands movie studios all ready? anyone?

  2. Dodge Says “Just off-topic, can you (or anyone) tell me why shows like Rove & Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation film at the ABC studios?”

    Yeah, Rove and TGYH used to be filmed out at Global’s studios at Nadawading, but that’s now being developed into residential lots. So Rove is now filmed in Global’s new studios in South Melbourne.. TGYH is filmed in a backlot style campus over at the Showgrounds. Talking Bout Your Generation is being filmed at the ABC, because Ten don’t have a studio big enough in Melbourne to cater it.
    Infact GNW is filmed at the ABC studio’s in sydney, because Ten doesn’t have a studio big enough, or one that caters for HD for that matter (yet)

  3. @ Dodge

    I’m not 100% sure.. but i think that it all comes down to being cheaper, because the ABC have those facilites.. they’ve got all the camera’s and editing suites and what not already set up, and it’s just a convenient way to do it.. GNW does it also, but i think that’s partly also because it was originally on the ABC.. The Sunday Night programme on Seven is filmed at the Foxtel building as well..

    Oh and also.. its partly because the networks don’t always make their own shows.. Rove, GNW and TABYG are all produced by their own respective companies.. so it’s up to those companies to find the recording studios.. again, it’s cheaper to use the ABC for that.. 🙂

  4. Because of the creeping effect on Ten it will be another case of a performer appearing on two networks at the same time for a few minutes. It happened a few weeks ago with Hamish Blake and this week with Cal Wilson.

    Spicks and Specks is a great show – always funny and informative too.

  5. “So people tune in to watch an hour of Thank God You’re Here and as soon as it finishes they switch over to us.” – I am one of those people. I love watching 2 hours of Aussie comedy. I think the TGYH – S&S – TCWoE combination works brilliantly. I used to do the exact same thing back in 2007. Now that it’s back, it is the only real time I can enjoy multiple programs in order on one night. Congrats to all involved in making Aussie comedy! We need the most we can get. Now all we need for the icing on the cake is a new Chris Lilley series.

  6. David, do you know in how many weeks wiull Adam be on thank god? It sounds definitely like an unmissable show.

    I love the more ad-libbing – the best show ever was the recent one with Stephen k amos and Steve coogan. I cursed myself for not taping the encore screening on abc2 the following day.

  7. Great article David.

    Just off-topic, can you (or anyone) tell me why shows like Rove & Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation film at the ABC studios?

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