The past couple of months have been all go go go at Boxcutters HQ so we’ve decided to take a week off. We’ll be back with our big 140th 139th episode on July 7th.

We hope you can find out a way to entertain yourselves until then.

On another note, thanks to Paddy who created a Boxcutters Wikipedia page. Unfortunately it was taken down fairly quickly because, apparently, it didn’t have enough information. Thanks for trying, Paddy.

Anyone who wants to give it another go, please, be our guest. You might want to have a look at some other podcast descriptions on Wikipedia.

Channel Nine will not be moving from its Sydney and Melbourne bases. They have withdrawn both sites from sale.

The Age reports:

The network is now expected to inject capital to digitise its Artarmon Road, Willoughby, studios in Sydney’s north, and the Bendigo Street, Richmond, studios in Melbourne’s east.
When PBL Media listed the properties for sale at the end of last year, institutional developer demand was buoyant, with the two properties at one time expected to have sold for $200 million.
But sharemarket volatility and a slowdown in the residential market changed the dynamic this year. It has been reported that Charter Hall lowered its price for the Willoughby and Richmond sites to about $165 million.

They just can’t seem to catch a break. What is going on with them? Also, it’s obvious from this latest debacle that since the whole PBL Media creation, Nine is being shaken like a piggy-bank trying to get the money out rather than being used to actually make great television.

Source: The Age

For those interested in seeing the first 3 season recap that Justin was talking about in this week’s episode, this is it here.

Further to the “news” item that WIN would be showing Brady Bunch in the afternoon and why they would bother sending out a media release about it, a dedicated listener informed me of WIN boss Bruce Gordon’s current battle with PBL Media/Nine over content deals and pointed me to a Fairfax article from this morning:

“We’re out of contract and they keep threatening to turn us off,” Mr Gordon said. “We said, ‘Go ahead: take your programming off’, and we think it would be a lot of fun if they did. We can program this network. When I bought this network in 1979, there were no affiliation agreements.”

PBL Media, owner of the Nine Network, wants WIN to pay 40 per cent of its revenue in return for programming, up from the 32 per cent it pays under the current agreement, which officially expired on July 1.

Mr Gordon wants the fees reduced to reflect poor ratings, and to bring them into line with the 29 per cent of revenue that WIN’s main regional competitors, Prime and Southern Cross Broadcasting, pay their partners at Seven and Ten.

Apparently it is worthwhile to boast about putting on 35 year old repeats if it means you’re sticking it to the big boys.

WIN calls Nine’s bluff on program supply — The Age

US publication TV Guide has just published a list of what they consider to be the top 30 Cult TV Shows of all time.

I don’t know about you but I can’t understand how The Simpsons gets in there but Arrested Development misses out. Then again, they don’t seem to have listed any criteria or even seek to define what a “cult” show might be.

Of course, magazines have a tendency to create lists in the hope they will be talking points. In that way this list is no different to Who Weekly‘s most intriguining people lists. Similarly, it was probably created in a half-hour meeting with people just shouting names at someone writing them on a white-board.

For your perusal, here’s the list: TV Guide Names the Top Cult Shows Ever

This week I mentioned a screencap of the balls returning to 9 now that Eddie’s going. Well, here it is, with a bonus pic:

and

Our server issue may have left you with episode 84 running to only 1 hour 5 minutes. The full show goes to 1:10:48.

If you’d like to download just the bit that you missed, here it is:
Direct Download

iTunes seems to be a mite recalcitrant about re-downloading podcast shows – there’s no way I can figure out to make it get the full show again – so, for iTunes users, the news, once again, isn’t good.

BB

More to my report this week on the Chaser’s serious complaint, I came across a little something in the Australian which I’ve not been able to find in their online version.

It started out talking about their pranks being newsworthy and finding their way into the nightly bulletins before they get a chance to air them on the show proper – this happened with the West Coast Eagle mascot more than a week before it turned up on the Chaser.

The article goes on to talk about the Chaser podcast being number 1 on iTunes Australia and how the download doesn’t include a number of items from the version that went to air:

The Marcus Einfeld sketch is missing due to him being subsequently charged for 13 criminal offences;

The Qantas ad pisstake; and

Andrew Hansen’s musical tribute to Naomi Robson, Goodbye Plastic Face.

The article also talks about the Mercedes Corby suit against TT, et al., stating that Jodie Power has been named in the suit and that Stuart Littlemore QC is Corby’s barrister. Did I mention this could get interesting? As a former host of Media Watch (before it was a crippled piece of dross), with a particular focus on the ethics of tabloid TV, Littlemore’s involvement should make it even more so.

Updating the story about a new show coming up in the US but didn’t have the details to hand:
Melissa George has signed on to a new US drama called In Treatment, from Entourage producer Mark Wahlberg and Noah Tishby. She’s departed the new project from Sex & the City author Candace Bushnell, Lipstick Jungle, after her character was re-written as a 40 year old.
More Info

And on the back of the Quotes segment this week:
Eboni Stocks, the winner of the second series of Australia’s Next Top Model, was removed by security from a Darlinghurst, Sydney bar after allegedly punching a female patron in the face. ANTM isn’t a show I’ve had the pleasure to partake in but, having heard Josh’s offering, now I’m not so surprised to hear about this.
More Info

Hot off the Boxcutters production line, where starving, one-armed Pakistani orphan children work their nobbled, spastic fingers raw tying pull strings 18 hours a day, for $0.57US a day, the Boxcutters Talking Coonan Parrot doll.

Be quick because this limited item will be rampaging out the door for just $19.95 from the Boxcutters Superstore o’ Love and, once they’re gone, that’s it.

Continued inside »