Imagine, if you will, a fan of Australian comedy. Not all that long ago, this fandom might have kept them pretty busy; these days it only takes a few hours a week to keep up to date. And yet, even with that meager diet it still feels like they’re watching the same thing over and over – because the only comedy that’s left is news-based clip shows, and they’re all using the same clips. It’d be unfair to direct most of our stink eye on this subject towards Question Everything. They’re at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to news clips. The Cheap Seats gets almost a full week to scour the new ..read more

It’s been well over a year since the incoming federal Labor government promised a new cashed up world for the ABC. Okay, so 2023 was always going to be business as usual. But surely 2024 was going to present us with the fruits of that momentous electoral decision? Mo’ money, mo’ programming and all that. Got your hopes up? Time to dive into the 2024 ABC upfronts! We’re so used to getting less comedy out of the ABC each and every year that we’re not entirely sure how to react to a future that is basically “more of the same”. Remember when the ABC had two news satire shows a year, and then Shau ..read more

Despite what television producers like to think, musicals aren’t automatically funny. The joke with Australian Epic is meant to be that hey, we’re making big musicals out of small stories. It’s not a bad joke – but going by the first episode, it’s not good enough. When it was first announced, Australian Epic was called Stories From Oz. Presumably that’s because the concept was a straight lift from the series Stories From Norway, which aired on SBS here a few years ago. Since then, it looks like the ABC realised they didn’t need to pay royalities for the “musical documentary” concept. Hey pres ..read more

“We are all interested in the future,” someone once said, “because that is where we shall be spending the rest of our lives”. But what if the future looks really shit? Welcome to the magical world of Australian television’s plans for 2024. He’s already announced he’ll be back in 2024 – as will Charlie Pickering In recent weeks the commercial networks and streaming services have been holding their upfronts – the events where they let the media and public know what they have planned for the coming year. The only holdout left is the ABC, which in recent years has been the main focus when it comes ..read more

Press release time! And we’ve been waiting for this one: Get your jazz hands ready as ABC delivers new musical comedy doco Australian Epic in November.  The ABC is thrilled to announce the ingenious new six-part musical comedy documentary series Australian Epic, where six of Australia’s most defining stories are retold as musicals, will premiere on Wednesday, 8 November at 9pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. Written by The Chaser’s Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen, with 36 original songs  performed by an ensemble cast of dazzling triple-threats, including Phoenix Jackson Mendoza (Six The Mu ..read more

Earlier this week this not-exactly-news-type-news was announced: the days of Daryl Somers hosting Seven’s Dancing with the Stars are no more: “Seven let me know recently that they have signed Chris Brown to the network full-time and amongst his commitments he will be hosting DWTS.” Not only was it a case of “you know that new guy we hired? Yeah, we hired him to do your job”, but everyone knew about it months earlier: Industry rumours have been rife for several months that Brown might take to the dance floor alongside Kruger, particularly after both hosted the Logie Awards red carpet. As w ..read more

Mother and Son is a great sitcom premise. A single guy in his 30s, in precarious employment – and an even more precarious state when it comes to his love life – is forced to live with his elderly mother, and deal with her stubbornness, erratic moods and encroaching dementia. He can’t leave because who’d look after his mother, and despite her behaviour towards him she doesn’t want him to go. Drop these two characters into any number of situations and the interpersonal tension between these two forced-together people should result in comedy gold. That’s should result in comedy gold. And we stre ..read more

For some reason or another the ABC is currently running ads featuring Dr Karl. You know, the guy who answers all your science questions? Only if you actually listen to his answers, he often doesn’t answer your questions – he just throws out a bunch of quirky facts that are kind of adjacent to whatever question was put to him. Which often makes him useless if you really do want to know something and hello, did someone mention WTFAQ? Of course not. Nobody is talking about WTFAQ, because for all the care and effort that’s clearly gone into it – plus they named a presenter’s baby Methamphetamine ..read more

Stan’s new comedy C*A*U*G*H*T is the sort of show no one expected in 2023. It’s not a dramedy with depressing subplots about death and mental illness, it’s a pure comedy which just wants to make you laugh. Think big comedy performances, with digs at celebrity culture, action films, social media, and contemporary politics. Plus dick jokes. There are lots of dick jokes. “I really wanted to make this in the vein of Australian classics like Priscilla, Crocodile Dundee, and Muriel’s Wedding,” creator and star Kick Gurry told the Sydney Morning Herald recently. Maybe, but C*A*U*G*H*T feels more like ..read more

We can’t blame Working Dog for taking an “if it ain’t broke” approach to their revival of Thank God You’re Here. The original run was much loved and fondly remembered… though not by us, which is why fans of the show might want to skip what comes next. Glad you enjoyed it, it’ll probably be back next year, kthxbyeee. Okay, now that nobody’s reading this, what was the point of all that? The central gimmick of the show has always been to throw comedians into tricky situations and watch them flail. This year, even with a limited number of returning guests, the novelty factor dropped off fast. May ..read more