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“Put Ray on the Flag!”
Many years ago an episode of Fast Forward had a sketch with Marg Downey hosting an audience forum, dressed up in her comedy impersonation of Jana Wendt.
The audience forum was on the subject of changing the Australian flag.
Two old dears in the audience (none other than Magda Szubanski and Jane Turner) agreed the flag should change.
“Put Ray! Put Ray on the Flag!” they yelled.
It’s hard not to remember that moment today as Ray is quoted in the Herald Sun as calling for the Union Jack to disappear.
“I object to having the …
Jail Birds
“The Choir of Better Luck next Time.” “The Choir of Good Intentions.” “The Choir of Long Detention.”
The women at Tarrangower Prison desperately need a name for their new venture with choirmaster Jonathan Welch, and there are lots of ideas being tossed around in the early scenes of this ABC documentary.
“The Choir of “We’re So Sorry.” “The Choir of Better Luck Next Time.” “The Choir of Get Me Out of Here.”
Yes, these women have more spirit than skill, and presumably, more than self-esteem and confidence which is the point of this new …
ABC gets the Lowdown on Adam Zwar
The ABC will produce a new 8 part comedy, Lowdown, starring and co-created by actor / writer Adam Zwar (Wilfred).
Zwar, who has just completed a second season of Wilfred for SBS, told TV Tonight, “I created it with Amanda Brotchie, an AFI Award winning filmmaker. It’s based very loosely on my career as a celebrity profile writer for a Sunday newspaper.”
Joining Zwar in the cast are Paul Denny (Love of Lionel’s Life, Wilfred, Hawke), Beth Buchanan (Hey Dad, The King) and Dailan Evans (Eagle and Evans, Mark Loves Sharon.)
During his time …
Laughing matter
“2003 was the last time that all three networks had sketch comedy on at the same time,” ponders producer David McDonald. “Comedy Inc, The Big Bite and Skithouse all launched the same year, within a month of each other I think.”
His producing partner Rick Kalowski chimes in: “And Ronnie Johns was always a shell game. It was on but they (TEN) were not going to tell you when. Work it out for yourself. But when was the last time there was a hard launch of a commercial primetime …
Airdate: Double Take, TV Burp
Seven has announced its new sketch comedy series, Double Take, will move into a Thursday 8:30pm slot from July 23rd.
The timeslot was the traditional home for Fast Forward’s legendary run.
This series is half the length, 30 minutes, and put together by the team behind Comedy Inc. Produced by FremantleMedia Australia, it will parody TV shows, movies, celebrities, politicians and more. Many of the cast of 7 are theatre performers, and will be relatively new to TV viewers, except for former Comedy Inc’s Paul McCarthy.
It will be followed by Ed …
Jon Olb: Hitmaker
With three hit shows Director Jon Olb has been keeping a frenetic pace lately. But if ever there was truth to ‘making hay while the sun shines’ it’s now. The economic gloom has powered his television gigs, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Spicks and Specks and Thank God You’re Here.
As Series Director on all three -and on three different networks, no less- he has to be one of the hottest properties in television right now. So while all his shows are firing, Olb’s recent workload has been relentless. He’s lucky all three …
The freedom to Moon
Peter Moon has nothing but praise for Foxtel, and who can blame him? They’ve embraced his new series which is a pitch to come back Lazarus-like (or possibly Kirstie Alley / Larry David-like) in a comedy where he freely admits he’s climbing his way back from the bottom of the heap.
Moon says the idea first came to him following a forum at the National Screenwriter’s Conference by Foxtel executives.
“Kim Vecera and Brian Walsh did a presentation during which they said Foxtel now has 1.4m households and they wanted to spend some …
Whatever Happened to That Guy?
There is a scene in the second episode of Whatever Happened to That Guy? where former Fast Forward star Peter Moon, playing Peter Moon, goes to audition for an advertisement.
When he gets there he finds out it’s an ad for erectile dysfunction treatment.
Seated in the room waiting for their chance to read are John Blackman, Pete Smith, Red Symons, Wilbur Wilde and Michael Veitch.
It’s a moment that sums up the self-irreverant tone of Moon’s new comedy in which he sends himself up mercilessly.
The series opens with Moon in bed laughing at …
Airdate: Whatever Happened To That Guy?
Peter Moon’s self-devised (and doubtless self-ironic) comedy series Whatever Happened To That Guy? will premiere on Monday May 25 at 8.30pm on The Comedy Channel.
The eight-part series about a character called Peter Moon, a former star of Fast Forward and breakfast radio in the late eighties and nineties (sound familiar?). But his career has tapered off and he is but a dim memory in the mind of the public. Sounds like the closest thing we’ll get to a local Curb Your Enthusiasm…
According to publicity notes, Moon is now an unemployed baby …
30 Seconds cast ad nauseum
Peter O’Brien, Joel Tobeck, Gyton Grantley, Stephen Curry and Jenna Lind will feature in 30 Seconds, the new scripted comedy Andrew Denton is producing for the Comedy Channel.
The show is a character study ‘based on the moral dilemmas people face, heightened by the excesses of the advertising industry and the three maintain no character in the show is based on any single person they know, but drawn from many of their real-life experiences.’
The show’s creators Tim Bullock, Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, who met in 2003 when they worked together at …
Survey: Great Aussie Catchphrases
“My wordy yes indeedy do di do” – Chenille (Magda Szubanski, Fast Forward).
TV Tonight today launches a reader survey to recognise the most memorable catchphrases in Australian television.
Shows like Fast Forward, The Comedy Company, Kingswood Country, Kath & Kim have given us phrases that have a life beyond the television screen.
And there are also lines we remember fondly from The Price is Right, Big Brother, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and Countdown.
And what about the News, Mr Squiggle, and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo?
This survey offers you a number of choices …
Out of the Blue
If it isn’t already well-known that this new soap opera has been made to order for the UK market, it’s certainly obvious from looking at it.
It has a dash of Neighbours, spoonfuls of Home and Away, hints of Echo Point -maybe even a sprinkling of Fast Forward’s parody ‘Dumb Street.’ Like a slice of glorious suburban Australiana, all the ingredients for which Aussie soaps have become famous in the UK are here: a pretty, young, whitebread cast, a slim budget impossibly stretched (there are quite a few location scenes), pedestrian dialogue, …