Geoffrey Rush – our Australian of the Year

Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush (pictured) was last night announced as our Australian of the Year in recognition of his contribution to the arts.

The 60-year-old, who this year celebrates 40 years in the industry, gained international fame in 1996 for his portrayal of pianist David Helfgott in the movie Shine which led to him winning the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Despite much of Rush’s acting work being in the theatre and on film, the Queensland-born actor has also worked in television.  He made his TV acting debut in the ABC mini-series Menotti in 1981.

He later appeared in Twisted Tales and played the lead role of newspaper editor Bill Wyatt in the 1996 series Mercury.

Rush also made a guest appearance in Kath And Kim in 2004.

Also on this Australia Day, a number of television identities were among the hundreds recognised in this year’s Australia Day honours list:

Maggie Beer – “For service to the tourism and hospitality industries as a cook, restaurateur and author, and to the promotion of Australian produce and cuisine.”  Beer was a co-presenter on the popular ABC series The Cook And The Chef for five years and has also been a regular guest on MasterChef Australia.

Jamie Durie – “For service to the community as an ambassador and supporter of a range of charitable and environmental organisations, and as a landscape designer.”  Durie came to national fame as the presenter of Backyard Blitz and The Block.  He has more recently appeared on the Seven Network’s The Outdoor Room and gained international fame when he caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey.

Gus Mercurio (posthumously) – “For service to boxing as an administrator and sports commentator, as a film, television and stage actor, and to the community.”  Mercurio appeared in numerous television series over his career, including period dramas Cash And Company, The Sullivans, Power Without Glory, Tandarra, Five Mile Creek and All The Rivers Run, and was a boxing commentator for 12 years.

Oscar Whitbread – “For service to the Australian film and television industry.”  Whitbread has been a television producer since the 1960s, working on ABC dramas including Bellbird, Marion, And The Big Men Fly, Power Without Glory, Rush, Catspaw, The Truckies, Outbreak Of Love and I Can Jump Puddles.  He later worked on The Flying Doctors, Ratbag Hero, Cluedo and Acropolis Now.

Source: ABC, Governor-General of Australia, IMDB, IMDB.

Kylie jokes about Neighbours return

Could Ramsay Street’s most famous daughter be talking of a return to the neighbourhood?

Kylie Minogue, who turns 42 next week, has joked to UK newspaper The Sun about reprising her 1980s Neighbours character, tomboyish Charlene Robinson:

"The other day I thought how much fun it would be to do it after years of saying never.  I've decided how it would work.  Charlene would screech up the drive in her souped-up Mini which she's been working on all the time.  I don't watch the show any more, but it could be fun to do that. It could be hilarious.''

Minogue joined Neighbours as a 17-year-old in April 1986.  Her prior TV appearances had included guest roles in series including The Sullivans and Skyways and more prominent roles in children’s shows Fame And Misfortune and The Henderson Kids.  The pairing of Minogue’s character with Jason Donovan’s Scott Robinson gave the Ten Network soap its biggest drawcard, creating the show’s first ‘super couple’ and earned massive ratings when the two characters tied the knot in July 1987.

Minogue left the series in 1988, after winning a TV Week Gold Logie, to pursue her then fledgling recording career, with Charlene last seen driving out of Ramsay Street to head off to a new life in Brisbane. 

Of course, the pop princess is known to have returned to her Aussie acting roots before – in 2004 she appeared in Kath And Kim as a grown-up Epponee-Rae Craig, an appearance that was seen as a light-hearted throwback to her former Neighbours character.  After the Kath And Kim appearance (pictured) she was also reported to have expressed disappointment that she was not offered an opportunity to appear in Neighbours for its 20th anniversary in 2005, but producers claimed that any efforts to approach her management about setting up a cameo appearance fell on deaf ears.

Perhaps, with the show hitting 25 years this year, it could be an opportune time to make amends?

Source: Herald Sun, Perfect Blend

The series they tried to ban in Australia!

With today marking the 38th anniversary of ‘the night Australian TV lost its virginity’ and the release of the third DVD of Number 96, here’s a brief look at how the Americans adapted Australia’s hit show of the ‘70s for their own market.

America’s network giant NBC approached Network Ten early in 1980 to enter into discussions over acquiring the concept for the US market.  The deal also needed the approval of Bill Harmon, co-producer of the original Number 96, as his company Cash-Harmon Productions jointly owned the rights with Network Ten.  Harmon helped complete the deal with NBC in mid-1980.

NBC debuted Number 96 on 10 December 1980, following an advertising blitz that saw the show launched during “96 Week” – with the series debuting over three nights before settling into a weekly Friday night timeslot.  Leading storylines in the opening episodes included no less than five seductions, a robbery, a fight, a blackout and an earthquake.

But NBC, with America’s strict censorship laws, could not dare to bare as much flesh or uncover such seedy storylines as its Australian original.  So the series that saw Australian television ‘lose its virginity’ was a lot more subdued in the US, although it did try to stretch the boundaries with regards to casual discussion of sex, but instead put the emphasis on comedy rather than titillation.

It also seems that the American producers, while envying the show’s earlier success in Australia, weren’t too impressed with the Australian original.  “All we have taken from their series is the title.  We got the basic idea from them.  We’re not enchanted with the Australian version.  We felt it was badly written and badly acted.  Their show had broad jokes like we did here 15 years ago.  They had very heavy characters.  What sold their show was full-frontal nudity,” producer Bob Ellison told TV Week at the time of the US series’ launch.

The US adaptation was set in an apartment block at 96 Pacific Way, West Hollywood, and included a cast of around 18 actors, though most of them were largely unknown to viewers.  Ellen Travolta, John’s sister,, played the co-proprietor of the local bar and grill.  Other characters in the series included a beautiful would-be concert pianist who decided that playing the field is the cure for a boring marriage; a retired naval commander who keeps a keen eye on the happenings at 96 through a pair of binoculars; a middle-aged widow who loses far too many inhibitions when she moves into the building; a psychologist with a secret greater than anything his patients, or neighbours, could imagine; a newly-married football hero who gains the amorous attention of his next door neighbour; and a love-sick policeman who won’t leave his British girlfriend’s apartment.

However, despite the larger-than-life storylines and award-winning producers and writers – Ellison and writer David Lloyd had won awards for their work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show – Number 96 was a spectacular bomb in the US.  Viewers didn’t take to the comedic adventures of the swinging tenants of the apartment block, and the series was ripped from NBC’s schedule in January 1981 – just as TV Week in was informing Australians about the show’s debut.

Number 96 was not to be the only hit Australian series to be re-worked for the American market.  Prisoner was re-invented as Dangerous Women in the US, largely recycling many of the opening characters and storylines from the Australian original.  In more recent times, the top-rating comedy Kath And Kim was adapted for NBC, with less than pleasing results.

Source: TV Week, 10 January 1981.  TV Guide (US), 6 December 1980.

Remembering the Noughties

At this time of year, and this time of decade, comes the inevitable “lists” of some of the highlights, and possible lowlights, of the year or decade coming to a close.

So who are we to be any different?  Time to look at some of the events, programs and people that have stood out for this past decade, in chronological order:

1. 2000 Today/Millennium Live.  The worldwide celebration of the new millennium was well covered on TV, from the earliest celebrations in New Zealand and Australia and following the progress of celebrations throughout the world over the next 24 hours.  ABC was the Australian participant in the global 2000 Today telecast, and the Nine Network tapped into its worldwide resources to present Millennium Live.

2. Sydney Olympic Games.  The world’s attention was focused on Sydney for two weeks as the city presented the Games of the XXVII Olympiad in September 2000.  The opening ceremony, featuring Cathy Freeman (pictured), earned the Seven Network the highest ratings received for any telecast since 1969. 

3. Digital TV begins.  Beginning on 1 January 2001 with a whimper rather than a bang, digital TV promised widescreen pictures, high-definition, surround sound and new channels.  However, the initial roll-out of digital TV into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth came before many retailers had tuners or set top boxes to sell.  As a result the launch of digital TV was seen by only a few.  Although the original proposal was to have Australia fully converted to digital TV by 2008, this date has now been postponed to 31 December 2013.

4. Big Brother.  An invention of Dutch TV producer John de Mol in the late-1990s, Big Brother had made itself known in a number of countries before being unleashed on Australia in 2001.  All commercial networks fought to gain access to the format, but it was Ten that was to succeed and would use Big Brother as its flagship program in reaching out to the advertiser-friendly youth demographic with the reality genre.  The program turned host Gretel Killeen (pictured, with contestant Merlin Luck) into a household name and created short-term suburban heroes out of some of its contestants.  Some of the show’s more controversial moments attracted plenty of scorn from the public, added words like “turkey slap” into the mainstream, and Prime Minister John Howard at one time demanding the show be taken off the air.   Falling ratings led to the show finally coming to an end in Australia in 2008.

5. Kath And Kim.  Although the ‘high maintenance’ Kath Day (Jane Turner), her ‘hornbag’ daughter Kimberley Craig nee Day (Gina Riley) and Kim’s second-best friend Sharon Strzelecki (Magda Szubanski) were creations of the 1990s, featuring in sketch comedy shows Big Girls Blouse and Something Stupid, they got a new lease of life when ABC took up the show with eight half-hour episodes going to air in 2002.  Kath And Kim gave ABC some of its highest ever ratings over its three-series run and the show added a number of words and phrases into the language - “look at moiye”, “c’ardonnay”, “foxy morons” and “muffin top”, just to name a few – and even scored an AFI award for Best TV Drama!  Kath And Kim then led to a Christmas-themed telemovie, Da Kath And Kim Code, before the Seven Network took over the rights, producing a top-rating fourth series in 2007.  The concept was even picked up by the American NBC network to be re-made for the US market, a feat rarely achieved by any Australian series.

6. Australian Idol.  When it was announced that Network Ten was to adopt the Pop Idol franchise in Australia, there were cries that Australia had already ‘been there, done that’ with the Seven Network’s Popstars (2000-2002).  But in launching Australian Idol on the back of Big Brother during 2003, Ten had a new reality-themed hit on its hands and a couple of ‘70s pop idols, Mark Holden and Marcia Hines, were given a new profile as part of the judging panel.  The show transformed Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson from record producer to media celebrity and even gave serial breakfast radio pest Kyle Sandilands a shot at the TV spotlight before recent radio controversies saw him dropped from the show at the start of the 2009 season.  Although Guy Sebastian (pictured) is perhaps the only Australian Idol winner to go onto any sustained pop music career, other contestants to continue some level of pop music stardom after the series include Anthony Callea, Shannon Noll, Ricki-Lee Coulter (who has also co-hosted Australian Idol in later years) and Jessica Mauboy.

7. Asia Tsunami Telethon.  On 26 December 2004, a tsunami triggered by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean wreaked havoc across a number of Asian countries, with the death toll estimated to reach into the hundreds of thousands.  With such massive destruction and casualties, Australia’s three commercial networks put aside their rivalries and got together to present a three-hour telethon, simulcast across all three networks.  Hosting the event was Andrew O’Keefe (Seven), Eddie McGuire (Nine) and Rove McManus (Ten) with appearances by personalities from all three networks, including Gretel Killeen, Bert Newton, Ray Martin, Melissa Doyle, David Koch and Larry Emdur.  The three-hour telethon raised more than $A20 million.

8. Thank God You’re Here.  Working Dog Productions, producers of Frontline, The Panel, All Aussie Adventures, A River Somewhere, Funky Squad and movies The Castle and The Dish, came to Network Ten with a new twist on the improvised sketch genre.  Thank God You’re Here would place unprepared performers into an established scene and be greeted with the words ‘Thank God you’re here’ before having to improvise their way through the scene without any prior knowledge of what the scene is about.  Hosted by Shane Bourne (pictured, with judge Tom Gleisner), Thank God You’re Here became a ratings hit for Network Ten when it launched in 2006.  The popularity of the show led to the format being franchised worldwide, with adaptations in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and Italy.  After three series on Ten, the show was then picked up by the Seven Network in 2009.

9. Underbelly.  Melbourne’s real-life gangland wars of the 1990s to mid-2000s provided the perfect backdrop for a TV series.  Adapted from the book Leadbelly, by John Silvester and Andrew Rule, Underbelly debuted in February 2008 – but, ironically, except in Victoria where the series was banned by order of the Supreme Court due to pending trials.  With liberal amounts of sex, nudity, coarse language and graphic violence as well as its real-life basis, Underbelly was a ratings hit despite not showing in its home state, although the court later permitted an edited sample of episodes to be shown in Victoria later in the year.  At the time of writing the full, unedited version of Underbelly is still banned from broadcasting and sale within the state of Victoria.  A second series of Underbelly, sub-titled A Tale Of Two Cities, followed the activities of the underworld drug trade in the 1970s and 1980s.  A third series, Underbelly: The Golden Mile, is now in production for 2010, set in Sydney in the early'-‘90s.

10. Masterchef Australia.  When Network Ten announced that it had purchased the Masterchef franchise as the replacement for Big Brother, nobody thought the show would take off.  Who would watch a cooking show, six nights a week?  What sort of drama or human emotion can be dragged out over a hot stove over thirteen weeks? Doesn’t keeping the contestants in a share house look a bit much like a Big Brother-rip off?  What was Australia’s self-proclaimed youth network thinking?  But within weeks of its debut, Masterchef Australia was showing to prove its critics and doubters wrong.  There was, it seemed, plenty of human emotion and drama to be played out as contestants slaved over hot stoves in preparing high-end cuisine to achieve the status of being awarded Australia’s first Masterchef, with $100,000 prizemoney, further professional tuition and a book publishing deal.  Some well-considered casting and a charismatic threesome, chefs George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan and food critic Matt Preston (pictured), turned out a show that gave Ten the highest ratings it had seen at 7.00pm for many years and turned food preparation into a spectator sport.  The show’s grand finale was watched by over 3 million viewers (OzTAM, 5 cities), making it the highest rating non-sports telecast since OzTAM records started in 2001.  The success of Masterchef Australia has led to a celebrity version being played out this year, and 2010 will see a second series of Masterchef Australia and, apparently, a junior contest as well. 

Of course, this is far from being an exhaustive list of highlights, or lowlights, of the decade.  What would you rate as your standout highlights of the decade?

Ticking away for 30 years

Beginning on 11 February 1979, 60 Minutes marked a new era for current affairs on Australian commercial television.  Before then, current affairs on commercial television was limited to early evening programs, such as Willesee At Seven and the original A Current Affair, or low-profile late night programs that attracted few viewers.  And Sunday night at 7.30pm was most definitely a time for light entertainment as viewers prepared to enter a new working week, so for Nine to slot an expensive new current affairs program into one of the most important timeslots of the week was an extreme gamble.

Based on an American program of the same name and assembled by former Nine news reporter and producer Gerald Stone (pictured), Nine's gamble almost didn't pay off as viewers did not attach themselves to the new 60 Minutes which was up against the popular This Is Your Life and the far more camp Adventures Of Wonder Woman.  But, unlike the current day trend of bumping programs after one outing to disappointing ratings, Nine persevered and, by 1980, 60 Minutes was becoming the flagship of Nine's prime-time schedule. 

So much has 60 Minutes gone on to be an unbreakable force in the ratings that it is estimated that over 150 programs have been thrown against it to try and dent its ratings armour.  Some of the programs pitted against it have included Kingswood Country, MASH, This Fabulous Century, The Benny Hill Show, Cheers, ALF, The Comedy Company, Sons And Daughters, The Main Event, Australia's Most Wanted, NSW Rugby League, Beverly Hills 90210, The Comedy Sale, Seachange, Good News Week, Big Brother, Australian Idol, Always Greener, Kath And Kim, All Aussie Adventures and Dancing With The Stars.  Some programs have managed some short-term damage to its ratings, but 60 Minutes has always fought back with flying colours.

And for reporters on 60 Minutes, they become almost as much the story as the subjects they are covering.  The show's initial reporting lineup - Ray Martin, George Negus and Ian Leslie - while they had years of television journalism experience, were far from being household names until they joined 60 Minutes when suddenly they were prime-time celebrities. 

Former ATV10 Melbourne newsreader Jana Wendt (pictured) became 60 Minutes' first female reporter in 1982 and set a new benchmark for female journalists who previously might have been tied to covering light news or human interest stories on commercial television.  Wendt went on to become one of television's most valued TV presenters with a career that has also included A Current Affair, Witness, Dateline, Sunday, a number of return visits to 60 Minutes and filing special reports for the American 60 Minutes.

The 60 Minutes lineup has also included many others along the way: Jeff McMullen, Charles Woolley, Jennifer Byrne, Elizabeth Hayes, Tracey Curro, Paul Barry, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Tara Brown, Mike Munro, Liam Bartlett, Peter Harvey.  ABC political reporter Richard Carleton made headlines when he joined 60 Minutes, after many years with the national broadcaster, and himself became a story subject when he allowed 60 Minutes to cover his own heart bypass surgery in 1988.  Tragically, while covering the Beaconsfield mine disaster in 2006, Carleton died from a heart attack.

Of course, the program has had many significant moments: former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher giving George Negus an ear-bashing over claims that Britons said she was pig-headed; Ray Martin's award-winning report on Sydney's Chelmsford Hospital;  former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson (pictured), when asked was she xenophobic, famously responds "please explain"; former cult spokeswoman Ma Sheela's calm response - "tough titties!" - when accused of stealing $40 million from the cult; actor Tom Cruise telling Peter Overton to "stick his manners back in!" after questions about former wife Nicole Kidman; and former Nine Network CEO Eddie McGuire presenting a special report on colleague Sam Newman's prostate cancer surgery.

This Sunday night 60 Minutes returns to air for 2009 with a tribute to its first 30 years.  It will be interesting to see what, of the estimated 3500 stories filed for the program in that time, will be featured.

60 Minutes Celebrates 30 Years. Sunday 22 February, 7.30pm.  Nine/WIN/NBN/Imparja

Melbourne's Guide turns 18

The Herald Sun Guide has been a weekly supplement in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper since October 1990. Though it could be said that the Guide actually had its origins as Melbourne's Listener In which began as a radio listing back in 1925 and continued publication until 1987, ending its days as TV Scene. The Sun newspaper at that time had only recently launched a seven-day TV guide in its Thursday edition, which later moved to Wednesdays after the demise of TV Scene, which also used to come out on a Wednesday. Another common link between TV Scene and the Guide was that of Robert Fidgeon who wrote for TV Scene and later wrote for and edited the Guide until his passing last year.

This week's edition of the Guide, to celebrate its 18th birthday, featured network personalities Rove McManus, Rebecca Gibney and Bert Newton (pictured, above), thus representing each of the three networks, each recalling various highlights of their careers over the past eighteen years.

Back in 1990, 16-year-old Rove McManus was in Perth performing in a high school musical production of Oklahoma ("thankfully for everybody I didn't move into musical theatre") before eventually coming to Melbourne to host a variety show on Channel 31 called The Loft, attracting high praise from the Guide's Robert Fidgeon (pictured). In September 1999, McManus began hosting his own late-night show on the Nine Network and when the network decided not to renew after ten weeks he wound up at Network Ten where his company Roving Enterprises now heads a number of prime-time shows for the network, and has led to McManus winning three TV Week Gold Logies awards.

New Zealand-born Rebecca Gibney has been a regular fixture on Australian TV for much of the last eighteen years, with roles in popular productions The Flying Doctors, All Together Now and the Halifax f.p. and Small Claims telemovies, plus mini-series Day Of The Roses, Kangaroo Palace and Come In Spinner. A break from regular series television saw Gibney move to Tasmania, but still appearing in programs such as Sensing Murder and Venus And Mars. The TV Week Logie award-winning actress has returned to television drama this year in the popular Seven Network series Packed To The Rafters.

Bert Newton recalls that at the age of 18, he was starting in television as a host of HSV7's The Late Show. By the time the Guide began publication in October 1990, Newton had been in television for over thirty years but his TV career was looking a bit uncertain following the demise of The Bert Newton Show which had struggled to make a dent against Midday With Ray Martin the previous year. Things turned around in 1992 when Newton made a surprise signing with the Ten Network to host its new Morning Show, later changing to Good Morning Australia, and redefining mid-morning television. Newton eventually left Ten when Good Morning Australia wrapped up three years ago, and returned to the Nine Network to host Bert's Family Feud, and later 20 To 1 and What A Year.

To commemorate the 18th birthday of the Herald Sun Guide, Darren Devlyn proposed his list of the top 18 TV stars who've made the biggest impact on TV over the last eighteen years:

1. Rob Sitch and Working Dog Productions, with hit shows The Late Show, Frontline, The Panel, Thank God You're Here and The Hollowmen under their belt.

2. Daryl Somers, for his broad appeal in popular shows Hey Hey It's Saturday and Dancing With The Stars.

3. Don Burke (pictured), for bringing gardening to prime-time commercial television and hence spawning a whole string of similar lifestyle programs

4. Ray Martin
5. Eddie McGuire
6. Bert Newton
7. Brian Naylor
8. Jana Wendt (pictured)
9. Gina Riley and Jane Turner (Kath & Kim)
10. Rove McManus
11. Bruce McAvaney
12. Lisa McCune
13. Aaron Pedersen
14. Rebecca Gibney
15. Andrew Denton (pictured)
16. Georgie Parker
17. Claudia Karvan
18. Gary Sweet

Source: Herald Sun, 22 October 2008

TV Week Logie Awards 2008

Former Home And Away star Kate Ritchie has won her second Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television.

The actress, who has recently left the series after twenty years on-air, also won the award for Most Popular Actress.

Full list of this year's TV Week Logie winners, in order of presentation:

Most Popular Reality Program: Dancing With The Stars (Seven)

Most Popular Lifestyle Program: Better Homes And Gardens (Seven)

Most Popular Factual Program: Bondi Rescue (Ten)

Silver Logie — Most Popular Actor: Chris Lilley (Summer Heights High, ABC1)

Silver Logie — Most Popular Actress: Kate Ritchie (Home And Away, Seven)

Most Popular New Male Talent: Lincoln Lewis (Home And Away, Seven)

Most Popular New Female Talent: Bindi Irwin (Bindi: The Jungle Girl, ABC1)

Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie: Curtin (ABC1)

Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program: Kath & Kim (Seven)

Most Popular Drama: Home And Away (Seven)

Most Popular Sports Program: The Footy Show AFL (Nine)

Silver Logie — Most Popular TV Presenter: Rove McManus (Rove/Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Ten)

Most Outstanding Children's Program: Lockie Leonard (Nine Network)

Most Outstanding News Coverage: "Garuda Plane Crash" (Seven)

Graham Kennedy Award For Most Outstanding New Talent: Tammy Clarkson (The Circuit, SBS)

Most Outstanding Comedy Program: Summer Heights High (ABC1)

Most Outstanding Sports Coverage: Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 (Seven)

Most Outstanding Factual Series: Choir Of Hard Knocks (ABC1)

Most Outstanding Documentary Series: Constructing Australia: The Bridge (ABC1)

Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report: "Some Meaning In This Life: Belinda Emmett" (Australian Story, ABC1)

Most Outstanding Actor: Stephen Curry (The King, TV1)

Most Outstanding Actress: Alison Whyte (Satisfaction, Showcase)

Gold Logie — Most Popular Personality: Kate Ritchie

Separated at birth?

Yesterday's flashback to The Box brought to my attention a startling resemblance between Judy Nunn

and.....

The foxy moron herself, Kath Day-Knight!

Talk about matching clowning glory!!

The Year That Was... #4: Lots of laughs in '07

Australians love their comedy on TV, but in the last couple of years, apart from a few stand out successes like Spicks & Specks and Thank God You're Here, there wasn't a great deal to laugh about.

Then 2007 came along and the tide was turning. ABC's The Chaser's War On Everything was plucked from last year's late-night timeslot to take The Glass House's spot on Wednesday nights, and virtually doubled its audience as a result of the change. Various stunts of the Chaser team (pictured) inspired many headlines and a lot of outrage - whether it be the team infiltrating the iron-clad security of the APEC Summit in Sydney, making crude remarks about deceased personalities or gate-crashing the offices of Today Tonight, a program that was the subject of much derision by the team.

Also on ABC this year was another comedy hit - Summer Heights High. This long-awaited follow-up from Chris Lilley, who gave us the mockumentary styled series We Can Be Heroes in 2005, received plenty of mixed reaction and also its fair share of headlines. Parents and teachers were outraged when school children were now mocking the crude phrases of troubled student Jonah. Similar outrage was also felt when one of the show's central storylines, the death of a student from a drug overdose, was seen to mirror that of a similar real-life case where the victim happened to have the same first name as the fictional character depicted. In that case it was found to be an unfortunate coincidence as the series had been written and produced before the real-life incident occurred.

At the same time, Summer Heights High also received its share of accolades as Lilley, who wrote the series and performed the three very different key roles - private schoolgirl Ja'mie King (pictured), self-obsessed drama teacher Mr G, and student Jonah - very aptly covered various issues found in today's schools such as drugs, bullying, racism, violence, disability and homophobia.

Following on from Summer Heights High was The Librarians - a title that doesn't inspire much excitement but instead showed that inside a library is a pit of sexual tension, jealousy, bitchiness and bigotry in the lead up to the biggest event in the suburban library calendar, Book Week.

But possibly the biggest comedy event to hit Australian TV this year was the comeback of those foxy ladies, Kath & Kim. It was thought to be an April Fool's Day gag when on 1 April, the Seven Network announced it had shelled out $3 million to drag the popular pair across from ABC where they'd presented three top-rating series and a telemovie. It was also ironic in that Seven is where the characters were formed in the first place, as characters in the sketch comedies Big Girl's Blouse (1994) and Something Stupid (1998).

Success in the transition from ABC to commercial TV isn't always a given, it has been tried before by others with mixed results, but Seven's debut of series four of Kath & Kim on 19 August attracted over 2.5 million viewers in the capital cities and the series had a series average of 2.128 million - the highest of any TV series all year.

Network Ten presented a third series of Thank God You're Here, providing more unpredictable performances from actors thrown into scenarios without the safety of a script. A creation of Working Dog Productions, Thank God You're Here was the second most watched series of 2007 with 1.86 million viewers. The success of the format in Australia has seen it franchised around the world although it did stumble in the US after its initial six-week run when it was shown on NBC, currently the fourth-ranked commercial network.

Despite the format's continued success in Australia, there is still uncertainty as to whether it will be back in 2008 although it looks like the rival Nine Network could be stringing together a similar concept in a bid to regain its ratings dominance. Nine will hope that the new show gives it something to laugh about because 2007 was a year they'd probably like to forget.

Nine's ratings failings this year were not helped by Mick Molloy's The Nation which aimed to put a humorous spin on the week's events - a concept not entirely new to viewers familiar with similar programs such as The Panel. The gamble on Molloy (pictured) was puzzling, given that his last venture at the Nine Network was the ill-fated Mick Molloy Show which set new benchmarks for questionable taste, and it would appear that viewers hadn't quite forgiven him enough to give The Nation a go.

Nine's other new comic venture this year was nothing really new at all - Surprise Surprise Gotcha was a thinly-veiled attempt to repackage a series that it had made almost a decade ago, complete with segments simply cut-and-pasted from the original version. Nine also followed on from Surprise Surprise Gotcha with another cheap format, Commercial Breakdown, with former AFL footballer Dermot Brereton presenting packages of funny or quirky commercials. Again, a format that had been done plenty of times before.

Although ABC had good results this year from Spicks & Specks and The Chaser's War On Everything, they had less success with The Sideshow, a show loosely modelled on the broadcaster's former hit The Big Gig. Launching in ratings graveyard of Saturday nights, The Sideshow was always going to struggle to find an audience and the 7.30 timeslot was at odds with presenting the more risque humour better suited to a later timeslot. Then ABC did shift the program to 9.30 but perhaps by then the damage was done, and it was cancelled shortly after.

Finally, over to SBS who delivered their own humorous take on the news with Newstopia, a creation of comedian and radio host Shaun Micallef (pictured), though was said to be a local take on the US series The Daily Show. SBS also aired a sixth series of urban comedy Pizza.