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Upper Middle Bogan / It’s a Date

ABC finds its funny bone on Thursday night with two new local comedies with very different styles.

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5umbABC turns Thursdays into comedy nights with two local half hour comedies.

UPPER MIDDLE BOGAN

The first is a narrative comedy from Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope (The Librarians, Very Small Business).

Bess Denyar (Annie Maynard) and Danny Bright (Patrick Brammall) are a young well-to-do couple living in a swish upper middle class house with twin teenagers, Edwina (Lara Robinson) and Oscar (Harrison Feldman). Bess is a hypochondriac doctor, while Danny is a successful architect.

In a rare return to television Robyn Nevin plays Margaret, Bess’ society mother who is forever meddling in family life. But when Margaret goes to hospital and has a blood test, Bess learns the truth that has always been hidden from her: that she was adopted. And with that Upper Middle Bogan is off and running, all the way to the Wheeler family.

The Wheelers are a family of redneck drag racers with Julie (Robyn Malcolm), Wayne (Glenn Robbins), and their adult children Amber (Michala Banas), Briana (Madeleine Jevic), Kayne (Rhys Mitchell) and grandson Shawn (Douggie Baldwin). When they are not racing hot rods, they live in a McMansion and argue a lot.

The two opposites of Upper Middle Bogan set up a rich terrain for conflict and class comedy. One family speaks with a plum in their mouth. The other are no-frills, straight-shooters with a swear jar. When the worlds collide it’s necessarily awkward. Bess is nervous about meeting her real parents, while they are guarded but excited at the prospect.

Maynard shines in her central role with great comic timing. Robyn Nevin is wonderful as a mother who sneers down her nose at the world and Robyn Malcolm is on fire as a forthright, working-class mum, dominating all her scenes. Maynard and Brammall both seem pretty young to play parents to teenagers, as well as leading such affluent lives.

Michala Banas also makes the most of her brash daughter, if somewhat resembling a role she played in Winners and Losers. But Harrison Feldman in the supporting role of Oscar steals all his scenes with an hilarious congested voice and a performance ringing in child-like truth.

The inclusion of the hot-rod world gives Upper Middle Bogan all kinds of colour and individuality, however the sea-sick camerawork, which feels like it is trying to resemble The Office is a distraction.

Upper Middle Bogan is raucous fun, settling in an ABC suburb somewhere between Moody Christmas and Kath and Kim.

Upper Middle Bogan airs 8:30pm Thursday on ABC1.

4dateIT’S A DATE

Peter Helliar’s new offering is also a narrative comedy from Princess Pictures, but with an anthology format: every week the cast changes.

Each episode centres around two dates, with a range of actors, comedians and even a few personalities, playing fictional characters going on a date.

In the first episode Patrick (Dave Lawson) takes Jasmine (Poh Ling Yeow) on a date to a mini-golf range to propose to her. In a separate story Em (Lisa McCune) and Greg (Peter Helliar) dine out in a Mexican restaurant. The theme for the episode is “When Should You Abandon A Date?” explored by both plots.

Jasmine’s date quickly goes from bad to worse. She’s urinated on by an angry window washer, she learns Greg has a propensity for Asian women (she accuses him of having “Yellow Fever”) and both their parents are giddy with glee over the possibility of nuptials. Meanwhile Greg fumbles his way through a risque dinner date with an adventurous Em, while she flirts continuously, plays footsies under the table and even joins in the thrill of a girly bar with Greg.

Like her coquettish role in Rake, McCune comtrasts her nice-girl image here, while Poh Ling Yeow makes a strong debut as the short-tempered Jasmine. The roles of both males in the first episode are written as hapless men in love, but the beauty of this format is that in episode two we get four more performers: John Wood, Denise Scott, Sibylla Budd and Luke McGregor. Many more will follow.

It’s a Date is a playful and observational look at the trials of dating and Helliar is to be commended for devising a versatile format, that is as amusing for its style as its content. You may not split your sides at its comic tone, but chances are there are moments we’ve all experienced before.

It’s a Date premieres 9pm Thursday on ABC1.

35 Responses

  1. Rayzzer, you’ve named some absolute classics there & I still enjoy watching Seinfeld & Frasier (in particular) to this day. I realise we wouldn’t be having the high standards of comedy today without the likes of I Love Lucy, Get Smart, Welcome Back Kotter, Mother & Son, Cheers, etc. They broke new ground then & we should all be thankful, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go out of my way to watch them today. As I commented before, many of the old comedies have dated really badly. Who knows, maybe Modern Family will be unwatchable in a decade? For me niche is usually best (I know MF is mainstream) because they still put out mass-market shows today – most of them are made by that profit machine, Chuck Lorre.

  2. Stan, you actually think comedy has got a lot better, than ‘Frasier’,Seinfeld and Cheers? Barely a sitcom comes near these award winning gems. Sure, Modern family’ is great. But can you watch repeat episodes of MF’ like the above mentioned ? I would doubt it. The charactors in Cheers, Frasier and Seinfeld are so larger than life, than any recent tv comedies. Great comedies are watched to death.Get Smart is the best example. Also your comment on niche comedy, well it may interest you, but production companys and networks prefer to make a profit.

  3. Rayzzer, I actually think comedy from every country has got a lot better since the ’90s. No more do comedies have to appeal to wide demographics on a limited number of channels. These days they can hone their humour to niche audiences on a wide variety of channels & platforms. We live in a golden age of creativity on TV. So much so, many successful people from the movie industry are all jumping into TV, where not that long ago that would’ve been a sign of failure.

  5. Stan, With comedy and drama there often is a fine line. Minder’ was a drama. but many humorous moments flowed through the show. And the main reason is Terry’ and Arthur Daley were sooo likeable. In fact it’s what makes the best comedies shine. Who could dislike any of the charactors in Cheers’? Did we like Sigfreid in get smart? of course we did. But good drama is the essential foundation of great comedy; the tension release of well written lines create the humor.This is often where OZ comedies fall down. There set-ups are poor. They rarely build the drama to a piont where a great punchlines releases the tension. Comedy world wide, has hit somewhat of a little flatspot, because we were spoilt rotten from the sixtys to the ninetys. But with time, things will reset themselves and hopefuly good comedys emerge from all corners. If you want to see top tension comedy ‘youtube: Fatal…

  6. Rayzzer, I don’t understand why TV shows have to fit themselves into little boxes called, ‘comedy’ or ‘drama.’ These rigid categories are only useful for TV guides & shouldn’t be the yardstick for determining whether something is good or not. One of my favourite programs of all time, Gavin & Stacey, is classed as a comedy, yet I don’t get many laughs from it. I love it because all the characters are so warm & fuzzy.

  7. Now ive got your attention Stan, oh and thanks for the correction. I probably should have said Wednesday and Thursday are the ABC’s target evenings for Con’medy. But for interest sake, Thames television produced a comedy in 83 called The steam video company’ It’s an off the wall show with clever comedy and chunks of vaudville. Entertaining viewing becuase it’s pacey and Funny! Only six eps. But well written good fun. There on youtube at ones pleasure.

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