It looks like 2011 will be a bumper year for fans of Australian Comedy. Most of the Free to Air stations have announced plans for new shows for their 2011 line ups and I’m particularly excited with a lot of the comedy shows that have been announced so far. So excited, that I decided to write an article about it to give you all a heads up. I can’t help but be impressed that the networks seem to be finally acknowledging that all that Comedy Festival experience might be an excellent training ground for top notch, world class TV talent.
ABC
ADAM HILLS IN GORDON ST TONIGHT
I’m sure that Adam Hills is very excited about hosting twelve weekly, hour-long talk shows. He’s been talking about wanting to do this for a long time. He says “It feels like Mum and Dad are leaving town and have given me the keys to the studio. I’m gonna invite a few friends around, have some good chats, play some good music and try not to trash the place’. I was very excited by this until I saw the ‘questionnaire’ that potential audience members are being asked to fill in. Audience members are advised that there will be audience participation and it requires a lot of personal information like email, phone, Facebook and Twitter info and 20 rather outrageous questions such as;
What annoys you most about your partner/housemate/parents?
If you are coming to the show with a friend or partner tell us something about them that they wouldn’t tell us (embarrassing moment, guilty pleasure etc…)
Email us the worst / most embarrassing photo that you can find of yourself or the person you are coming with.
And
Have you ever committed a crime? (??)
After seeing this questionnaire, I’m starting to think that this show isn’t for me. I like chat shows, but not stupid stunts and audience humiliation framed as a ‘bit of fun’. But there are heaps of ‘Balls of Steel’ fans out there that might disagree with me. We’ll see.
OUTLAND
I didn’t get to see the short film that this twelve part series is based on but heard lovely things about it. This show is about group of friends who are all sci-fi nerds and also gay. I love the idea that they are out and proud about being gay but a bit closeted about being sci-fi fans. It’s written by John Richards and stars The Fabulous Adam Richard, Christine Anu, Toby Truslove, Ben Gerrard and Paul Ireland. Having been a teenaged fag hag and sci-fi dag myself, I am really looking forward to this one.
WOODLEY
Yes Frank Woodley (of Lano and Woodley) is getting his own eight part TV series. He plays a father of an eight year old boy, separated from his wife and hoping to win her back. Expect a lot of his trademark breathtaking physical humour and some sweet sentiment. Hooray!
LAID
Another sitcom of sorts about relationships staring Celia Pacqola, Toby Truslove (busy boy!), Graeme Blundell, Alison Bell, and Abe Forsythe. Marieke Hardy has co-written this and if the wonderful episode she wrote of the delightful ‘Spirited’ is anything to go by, this could be raunchy! There will be six half hour episodes of this.
LAWRENCE LEUNG’S UNBELIEVABLE
This is another fab documentary based series from clever Lawrence Leung. This time it’s six half hours investigating myths and superstitions using science experiments and comedy. It’s described as ‘Mythbusters meets Ghostbusters’, so it should be a hoot!
JUDITH LUCY’S SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
This sounds like a serious, personal documentary exploring her faith or lack of it. She will be trying out different religions and looking at her past. Sections of this are being directed by Tony Martin. Great for us to see the lovely Judith Lucy on TV again.
MADE UP RELIGIONS: YOUR CENSUS GUIDE
Still on comedians doing shows about belief, the comedian with the most experience in this area is probably John Safran and his new documentary will explore fictional religions and compare them with the conventional ‘real’ religions.
SPORTING NATION
A different kind of faith that has John Clarke exploring Australia ’s obsession with sport. There will be three one hour episodes and will involve amateur and professional sports people and fans.
ANGRY BOYS
If you liked ‘Summer Heights High’ and ‘We can Be Heroes’, you’ll enjoy Chris Lilley’s similarly styled 12 part mockumentary, introducing a bunch of new characters who will be exploring ‘What it means to be a 21st Century boy’.
THE WAREHOUSE COMEDY FESTIVAL
This show sounds very exciting to us here at the Australian Comedy Review. It’s going to be on ABC2 and will introduce some of our best stand ups who will all hopefully go on to become household names. It will be a series capturing 12 of the hottest recent comedy festival shows. Comedians who will be performing their entire festival shows include Josh Thomas, Tom Ballard, Charlie Pickering, Hannah Gadsby, Denise Scott, Sam Simmons, and Felicity Ward. It’s being part-produced by Adam Hill’s Dick the Horse, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a look in too. It’s always so sad when a brilliant comedy festival show is the talk of the town and showered with awards and there is no record of it, especially if you were unable to see what everyone was raving about. The concept sounds a lot like ‘Smallest Room in the House’ (1997/99), whose episodes were only 30 minutes long, comedy fans will remember it with great fondness and admiration and hopefully this series will be as brilliant and inspirational.
I’M NOT DEAD YET
This is a curiosity and caught my eye as it sounded rather cute. It’s documentary about Australian comedy/country music legend Chad Morgan, 76 and still touring.
Meanwhile comedy favourites returning to Aunty ABC include:
A Quiet Word with…
The Gruen Transfer
Hungry Beast
Spicks and Specks
CHANNEL 9
Well, well, well, what is going on at Channel 9? No mention of ‘Hey Hey it’s Saturday’ in the schedules (it has since been axed) and instead they are employing some actual comedic talent for 2011. Who would have thought it? Maybe they want a fresh start at their spanking new studio.
THE JOY OF SETS (or ‘something less punny’ according to Tony)
Wow. You can only imagine how excited I am about this. Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee back together after their huge success on 3MMM radio with ‘Get This’ (2006/7). The only show I can think of that was destroyed because it was Too Successful! It seems that Austereo had a theory that somehow ‘Get This’ was sucking all the ratings away from their other timeslots and if they got rid of ‘Get This’ the ratings for 3MMM overall would skyrocket. Guess What? Wrong! And the fans (including yours truly) have been pining ever since.
Frankly I was very impressed with Ed’s comic TV presence in the show he hosted last year, ‘TV Burp’ and thought him not a bad substitute for the UK’s wacky Harry Hill. Since then he has been part of the fabulous Cup Fever team with Santo Cilauro and Sam Pang. His mentor, Tony Martin has years of experience up his sleeve including his recent interviews on the ABC ‘A quiet Word With…’. Which will continue through next year, and it will be great to see the chemistry between he and Kavalee up on the screen. The only tinge of sadness is the loss two years ago of their third ‘Get This’ cohort, Richard Marsland.
Of course we are all a bit surprised the show will be on Channel 9, who don’t have the greatest record in supporting modern, smart entertainment. You would’ve thought Rove’s folksy family appeal would have fitted in there, but like the genius Shaun Micallef, 9 didn’t know what to do with him and Channel 10 reaped the benefits. Apparently Tony & Ed are going to discuss TV on the new show, whatever it ends up being named, but who cares what it’s called or what it’s about, it’s bound to be a heap of fun. How Good is This?
BEN ELTON LIVE FROM PLANET EARTH
This is being described as a variety show that involves regular sketch performers, stand up, musical acts and international stars.
THE GAMES – LONDON CALLING
Another surprise pairing with 9, John Clarke and Gina Riley will be reprising their roles from the delicious 2000 ABC mocumentary ‘The Games’ a satire about staging the Sydney Olympics. Unsurprisingly this will be about preparations for the London Olympics. Not really one for 9’s ‘Footy Show’ fans I would have thought, but a win for comedy fans who appreciate a more subtle and intelligent style.
CHANNEL 7
Local comedy content seems pretty thin on the ground at Channel 7 in 2011.
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Alright this is a drama, but it has Denise Scott in it! It’s about a high school reunion of friends who were considered losers at school and it’s from the makers of ‘Packed to the Rafters’.
Otherwise they seem to be concentrating on reality shows, not even a mention of ‘Thank God You’re Here’ in the line up. Of course they haven’t released all their 2011 shows, so there might be more Australian made comedy to come to 7, but at least we have ‘30 Rock’ to look forward to, even if they keep it in that ridiculously late timeslot.
CHANNEL 10
The commercial king of Australian comedy on television in recent years, Channel 10 hasn’t announced anything new in the way of comedy, just some new reality shows and a return of the successful comedy shows in 2010 such as the adorable ‘Talkin’‘bout Your Generation’ and ‘Good News Week’. The interesting thing about ‘The 7pm Project’, which gathered good steam during the year is that it will be part of a revamped concentration on news by 10,- just as long as they don’t forget about the comedy! Hopefully Channel 10, will have some comedy surprises up it’s sleeves later in 2010, no doubt some of these will involve Hamish & Andy.
SBS
SEX: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY
This is a six part series written by Mark O’Toole and hosted by Julia Zamiro, so it should be a fun exploration of 50 years of Australian sexual history.
EUROVISON 2011
This is always funny. Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang travel to Germany for both semi finals and final.
The SECRET HISTORY OF EUROVISION
A documentary about the behind-the-scenes stories of The Eurovision Song Contest. I don’t know if Julia and or Sam will have anything to do with this but it might be worth checking out for laughs.
And of course there’s always the hilariously daggy ‘Letters & Numbers’.
FOXTEL : THE COMEDY CHANNEL
THE STATESMEN OF COMEDY
This show has already begun airing. It’s basically a warm chatty Panel type show that reminds me of The Chat particularly as Tim Smith is one of the writers of The Statesmen… and was on the panel of the first show. For the past couple of years Tim and his old comedy mates have been posting a free podcast called ‘The Chat’ which involves him, The Empty Pockets (Matt Parkinson and Matt Quartermaine) and Andrew Goodone, with the occasional guest chatting about stuff, they used to perform it live in a pub. The difference here is where The Chat (like ‘The Panel’) talks about current events, The Statesmen of Comedy will be talking about stand up comedy and more universal topics, obviously making future repeats more accessible.
The host of The Statesmen of Comedy is Trevor Marmalade an old pro who was a member of Punter to Punter on 3RRR in the 80s and became known as ‘The Comedy Dr’ in Melbourne comedy circles, because of his sage advice to other stand-ups. His guests are all comedians who have been in the industry for many years and include Glenn Robbins, Greg Fleet, Shane Bourne, Peter Rowesthorn, Jason Stephens, Rachel Berger, Anthony Morgan and Jane Kennedy. The show is written by Marmalade, Smith and Paul Calija, it is produced by McGuire Media and there will be 15 episodes.
BALLS OF STEEL AUSTRALIA
Basically an Australian version of the British pranking show that is already showing on The Comedy Channel. The new version will be hosted by Craig Reucassel from The Chaser team.