Boxcutters » abc

Ep 292: Penny Chapman, Grimm vs Once Upon A Time

Josh Kinal — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:58:18 +0000

We talk to Penny Chapman, the producer of the new ABC1 series, The Straits. There’s a review of Grimm vs Once Upon a Time and a Raywatch about Channel 9′s coverage of Australia Day protests.

Notes

One Thing

The Straits: 8:30pm Thursday, ABC1
The Office – BBC version: DVD

Raywatch

You can play along at home with these videos:

Ep 291: Toby Truslove from Outland

Josh Kinal — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:49:34 +0000

Toby Truslove is an actor. You’ll know him from Laid and the soon to premier Outland. He talks to us about the plight of the Australian actor and what he looks for in a role.

There’s a whole heap of news and some great Trotters thanks to Toby Halligan.

Don’t forget there are still Crumpler bags and other rewards up for grabs by supporting our SXSW efforts on Pozible.

Notes

One Thing

The Office – Tuesday 9pm on Eleven

So here’s a funny thing. We recorded a One Thing for you all to enjoy but it somehow fell out of the episode. Still, there it is, just above us, for you to see and watch or not.

See John Richards Live!

Talking Outland

Friday January 27th 8:00pm
Melbourne Science Fiction Club
St. David‘s Uniting Church Hall
74 Melville Road, West Brunswick

Queer Nerd – Spoken Word

Thursday February 2nd 7.30pm
Bar Nancy
61 High St, Northcote

Sex, Lies and Television Screens: Live in the Studio

Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Thursday February 23rd, 7pm

Ep 281: At Home With Julia

Josh Kinal — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:50:58 +0000

Rick Kalowski is the executive producer and one of the three writer/creators of At Home With Julia. We spoke to him about the controversy the show caused but also look at the intentions and decisions behind making the show itself.

Glenn Peters is in the co-host seat and we talk about the Boxcutters Rule of Three and question its validity. That segment may also constitute a review of Hart of Dixie, although I wouldn’t bank on it.

Notes

One Thing

Compass: Christos Tsiolkas: on iView
The Slap “Anouk”: 8:30pm, Thu 13 Oct on ABC1
Happy Days “Hot Stuff”: 1:30am, Wed 12 Oct on Eleven

Ep 277: twentysomething

Josh Kinal — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:04:25 +0000

Jess Harris and Josh Schmidt are the creators and stars of the new ABC2 comedy, twentysomething. This is a show they previously filmed for Channel 31 in Melbourne with almost no budget. Now the ABC has remade it, kind of.

Courteney Hocking is our co-host and she tells us how she watches TV with more updates from listeners.

Josh gives us his first impressions of life with Fetch TV.

Keep sending in your examples of How You Watch or maybe tell us something you enjoyed watching when you were six by sending us an email.

Notes

One Thing

Quantum Leap ‘Lee Harvey Oswald Pt 1’ – 2am Wed, 31 Aug, 7mate
Australian Story ‘David Hicks’ – 8:30pm Tue, 30 Aug, ABC1
Louie – Thu 10:30pm FX (in the USA)

Ep 276: cloudstreet

Josh Kinal — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:17:18 +0000

Is cloudstreet the best television drama creation to come out of Australia or is it just another example of our reliance on nostalgia and bush magic to avoid truly reflecting our culture?

It’s quite possible that we answer that question in this week’s episode and there’s only one way to find out.

Also, John went to ACMI to (s)talk David & Margaret. He made a recording of his (s)talking and shares it with us.

There’s more about How We Watch and an absolutely great bit of Trotters.

Notes

One Thing

The Brady Bunch, “Kelly’s Kids” – 5:30pm Wed, 24 Aug 2011, Eleven
Insight, “Tampa” – 7:30pm Tue, 23 Aug 2011, SBS ONE (repeated on SBS TWO on Friday)

Can’t Stop The Serenity

The Melbourne Browncoats host their annual charity event this Saturday. They promise “heaps of prizes to give away”” plus see Serenity and Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog on the big screen! Tix are $18 online or $20 at the door.

For more info, see the facebook page or the Melbourne Browncoats wesbite.

Senate enquiry into ABC cuts

Josh Kinal — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 08:00:42 +0000

Federal Senator, Nick Xenephon, wants the Environment and Communications References Committee to investigate the recent cuts to production announced by the ABC.

According to the Australian, the Committee is to report back by 12 October 2012.

Meanwhile, the ABC itself reports on the situation with the following par:

Earlier this month Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said he wanted answers from the national broadcaster’s managing director, Mark Scott, over the decision to axe the The New Inventors [sic]and Art Nation.

(Source: ABC News)

There is an issue here about how much influence any government can have over the ABC and where the line of that influence is drawn. Are specific matters of programming and the axing of shows smaller issues than a government should concern itself with? What about when it comes to regional jobs?

The Pointlessness of Tweeting at the TV.

Glenn Peters — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:27:29 +0000

One of the most annoying things about living in a sharehouse was trying to sit through the television news with my tedious housemates. How much fun it was to hear their very considered commentary about “the media this, the conspiracy that, I was reading in Pilger’s blah blah the other day…” Manufacturing consent? Here’s some consent. It’s Monday. I’ll let you take this $4.50 and go watch that Polish agridrama at the Nova. I need quiet couch time to watch Married With Children*.

Years later, and the Smug People of the Land Of Smug and their idiot cousins have broken into my lounge room through their twitter accounts.

TV shows are encouraging it. Watch this. If your job title has the any of the words “digital”, “social media” and “interactive” in it, you might want to apply some of this wonderful stuff after looking at those links so you can concentrate on the rest of this article.

But who really cares what @frogface78 has to say about The Block‘s Josh & Jenna’s performance on Millionaire Hotseat? And as far as we at Boxcutters know, you don’t get a Season’s Pass to the Canberra Press Gallery just because Q&A printed your Oscar Wilde-like witticism on the screen about Penny Wong’s supreme debating skillz. No matter how smartly you tweet, you’ll never be as famous as Jeff Jansz.

Nope, nobody cares. Not even the three or four people who retweeted you.

It’s just a ploy by the marketers behind the shows to make you feel like you’re a loving part of their terrible product. And hopefully while you’re feeling loved by their terrible product, you’re more likely to swallow another hour of their terrible product the same bat-time, same bat-channel, tomorrow. Why would I know this? Because I work in advertising. It’s what we plot in our offices almost everyday. Not that we know what we’re doing or exactly why we’re doing it, but the going wisdom is that we need more @frogface78s talking about our terrible products. It makes us money.

Which brings me to this funny little thing that happened this time last year at the footy… (Yes, every thought I ever have brings me to something that happened at the footy. Deal with it.) This time last year, I was talking to the CEO of an AFL club at his corporate lunch. He was proudly telling me about a brand new thing where supporters like @frogface78 can get their tweets shown on the big scoreboard during the game. The conversation went something like this.

CEO: “Twitter during the game can bring fans closer to the game and their fellow supporters. It’s interactive!”

Me: “Isn’t yelling HOLDING THE BALL YOU WHITE MAGGOT SCUM with 70,000 other like-minded fans interactive enough?”

This Twitter at the footy thing lasted one more week, only to be replaced by more betting ads.

I just fell asleep while I was typing that slightly endearing anecdote. And I had a dream. And the dream was set in the 1980s. After school. I was tweeting. Here’s the seven tweets that were selected by the station producers to be put up there on the screen.

They’re so gonna do it!! #purrrrfectmatch
Here’s an idea Professor. Build a boat. #gilligansisland
Marcia, Marcia, Hell yeah! #pickofthebradybunch
Johnno & Danno have the coolest jobs eva! #wavelength
I’ve never seen so many logs. #beachcombers
Is that Bud Tingwell in Catweazle? #deadsetlegend
This show never lives up to the theme tune. #nannyandtheprofessor

So have I convinced you to put the computer down and give your television the respect and undivided attention it deserves? Probably not. Have I given you enough argument holes to tweet or point out in the comments box below? Definitely have. Will I, even though I’ve written over 600 words against the idea of tweeting at the TV, stop tweeting at the TV? Of course not.

I’m as sucked in as you are.

* I know. Married With Children was on Tuesday nights.

Ep 274: Franklin & Bash, ABC Cuts

Josh Kinal — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:32:10 +0000

Finally we get to episode 274 and to reward you for your long wait we give you 20% more Boxcutters. Or something. It’s long. That’s what we’re saying.

Franklin & Bash is a show from the US about frat-style lawyers.

We take a deeper look at last week’s announcements of ABC cuts and discuss the positives and negatives.

John wants you to come up with a punny and more memorable title for Franklin & Bash.

If you think that Winners & Losers isn’t as bad as we found in the first three episodes, convince us.

If You Watch One Thing

Suits, 9:40pm Monday, 15 August, Seven
SLiDE, 7:35pm Tuesday, 16 August, Fox 8
Man Fixes John’s Television, sometime this week at John’s House

Ep 273: Falling Skies, Phoenix

Josh Kinal — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:02:04 +0000

You wanted us to review Falling Skies so we did. It’s a humans versus aliens war and we have to work out whether it’s worth watching.

Courteney’s been watching some Australian classic television. She talks about Phoenix in Things You May Have Missed and it causes us to reminisce a bit about the good Australian TV of the past.

Then, while we’re in the mood, we take a look back at Angry Boys and try to work out whether or not it was successful.

You can watch Falling Skies on Fox 8, Thursday nights at 8:30pm.

If You Watch One Thing

Breaking Bad, 10pm Sunday, 7 August, AMC (in the USA)
Gruen Transfer 9pm Wednesday, 3 August, ABC1 (in Australia)
Malcolm Turnbull addressing the National Press Club, 12:30pm Wednesday, 3 August, ABC1 (also in Australia)

Ep 271: Crownies, Four Corners

Josh Kinal — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 01:26:07 +0000

After a short break we return with a review of the ABC’s new sexy legal drama, Crownies. Did we like it? You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out. If we told you here, that would spoil things.

Sue Spencer is the Executive Producer of the long-running investigative journalism programme, Four Corners. Josh spoke her to find out if people still want investigative reporting. Do they? You’ll find out by listening to the episode. That’s how this thing works.

There’s some news in which we’re flippant about death, there’s some hating on MasterChef and religious figures, there’s some things to watch if you were going to.

Why don’t you spend some time finding out what else is a prime number?

In memory of Sherwood Schwartz, here’s a nice little article of appreciation from the LA Times.

If you are interested in applying for the next series of the Amazing Race, don’t forget to read the terms and conditions.

TV Manufacturers Put on a Brave Face

Josh Kinal — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 03:43:14 +0000

This week’s episode of Radio National’s Background Briefing programme is all about the battle for the lounge room and speaks to our question of how to define television.

They do a great job (much better than we’ve done) of explaining how simultaneously simple and complex the concepts are. People really have no idea what is going on around them and yet technology companies keep pushing out new products.

It’s interesting to hear people say things like: “ Perhaps you’ll just do [internet banking] while you’re sitting around in the lounge room. And you won’t get up and go and get your laptop out and connect to the internet.” It’s a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.

The attempts by the companies that make television sets to stay relevant in a culture that is moving towards constant and portable access to everything seems so transparent and shallow. There’s the stench of desperation around it. They’re trying to make it sound like convenience but it really just comes across as being ill-conceived and reactionary.

Have a listen for yourself or read the transcript.

Ep 261: Marc Fennell, Disabled Characters

Josh Kinal — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:18:59 +0000

With co-host Courteney Hocking we take you on a magical journey through site, sound and cat noises.

Marc Fennell, star of Hungry Beast and the Circle talks to us about the not so surprise third season of Hungry Beast.

Sophie Geffros gives us an insider’s view of what the whole controversy over non-disabled actors playing disabled characters on TV. She fails to mention Ironside but we don’t hold that against her.

Then there’s Toby Halligan’s Trotters and a whole bunch of news and a wonderful email that will bring tears to your throat, or something.

Eat it with your hands:

Boxcutters Episode 261 by Boxcutters is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Ep 244: US Fall Season 2010, Pre-production

Josh Kinal — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 06:37:03 +0000

Brett has some Crap TVs that he needs to offload on us all. The fact that one of them may have been a misnamed Raywatch will go without saying because it doesn’t change the episode really. And who actually understands the definitions of these segment titles anyway? We may as well call the whole show Bucket of TV and be done with it.

Also, reaching into the bucket, I pull out some very brief descriptions of new shows with bad titles from the US Fall Season including Blue Bloods, Raising Hope and The Whole Truth.

John Richards arrives right near the end of the show (retrospective spoiler alert) and tells us what it means to have a show in “pre-production”.

Then Brett spends some time trying to cut 10 minutes out of the show because we can see no reason for anyone to listen to us reach into the Bucket of TV for almost an hour and a half. You won’t hear that bit in the show because we cut it out. One thing Brett can tell you is that no one is going to hear about Grand Final after parties nor the suggestion that the L in AFL stands for Libel.

Enjoy the fruits of our waffle.:

And then, please, let us know what you think and should we change the title?

Ep 243: Grand Final, Strictly Speaking

Josh Kinal — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:31:17 +0000

Is 3D ruining our sports coverage? We take a look at Channel 7′s coverage of the AFL Grand Final and wonder what has changed.

Toby gives us a rundown on what Strictly Speaking is all about.

There’s also some Letters to Boxcutters and an I Don’t Buy It to sink your teeth into (or sync your teeth with if you have those new “smart teeth” that also work as a personal organiser and can download apps etc).

Listen to it here:

And then, please, let us know what you think.

Ep 238: Claire Hooper, The Election & The Mole

Josh Kinal — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:59:40 +0000

To top off what has already been a really busy week full of too much information, we bring in Claire Hooper from Good News Week to talk about the election night coverage.

Remember the extreme game show / early reality series The Mole? Well, Brooke Marshall was the winner of series 2 of that show and she comes in to give us a bit of a 10 year retrospective on what reality was like back then.

There’s a whole bunch of news and some pork as well so get into it.

We might not have a government but we do have episode 238 of Boxcutters.

Send us an email about all the things we asked you to this week.

This episode is supported by IceTV, giving Boxcutters listeners three special offers, including 30% off a 12 month subscription. Find out more at icetv.com.au/boxcutters

Ep 237: Peter Rowsthorn, Let the Blood Run Free

Josh Kinal — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:39:50 +0000

Are you sad, alone, or just generally unhappy with your life? Then you need the LATEST EPISODE OF BOXCUTTERS!

Star of Kath & Kim, Comedy Company, Let the Blood Run Free and, most recently Can We Help, Peter Rowsthorn joins us in the studio to discuss his extensive career.

We also get a chance to talk to him about one of the nominees for Greatest TV Character of All Time, Matron Dorothy Conniving Bitch.

It will make your life better!

Send us an email about all the things we asked you to this week.

This episode is supported by IceTV, giving Boxcutters listeners three special offers, including 30% off a 12 month subscription. Find out more at icetv.com.au/boxcutters

———————–

There’s a great competition on at the moment for students interested in advertising or directing. It’s called Shout Out For Climate Change and there are some great prizes available.

Also, it’s the annual 3RRR Radiothon. Go ahead and subscribe or give them a donation to show them how much the Boxcutters family appreciates their help.

Here’s some of Pete Rowsthorn and Lynda Gibson in their Let The Blood Run Free finest.

Ep 224: Lowdown with Adam Zwar and Amanda Brotchie

Josh Kinal — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:44:45 +0000

We speak with creators of ABC TV’s Lowdown, Amanda Brotchie and Adam Zwar.

~~Also we review the recent HBO series, How to Make it in America.~~ Update: We were planning on reviewing this show but ended up talking to our excellent guests for a little longer than expected. We’ll pick this up in a couple of weeks. Sorry for the confusion.

Hey you. Come and celebrate the wonder of the Eurovision Song Contest with Boxcutters.

Also you can tell us stuff: by email or on the SMS us on 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER).

News

Here are some news items we may or may not have mentioned:

In the US, basic cable channel, FX, has ordered a pilot for Wilfred remake
MTV are going to make a US version of Skins (also see the article from Variety)
At last, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are back with their original owner.
There have been even more unnecessary advances in 3D sports telecasting:
- The Australian government has approved the upcoming State of Origin series.
- ESPN signed some sort of deal with Comcast.

Also

Twitter users: Follow us!

Josh is @sealfur
Brett is @bbox
and Boxcutters as a whole is @boxcutterscast

6 Degrees of Sepa-’Rage’

Josh Kinal — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:37:19 +0000

Long running and still excellent ABC music video programme, Rage, is conducting a really interesting competition that’s totally piqued my interest.

Firstly, the prize allows the winner to programme an hour of Rage. This is something I’ve always wanted to do. Really. Programming Rage, in my mind, means that somebody has, in someway, made it.

The following information comes from the media release:

On Saturday night April 10, every video played on rage will be connected to the one before it – the bands will have shared the stage, their members, the same songs or even their DNA. How is Vanilla Ice connected to Massive Attack? What do Jack White and Jay-Z have in common?

An incomplete playlist will be published on April 2 on abc.net.au/rage a week before the special, with every sixth clip missing and replaced by a clue. For a chance to pick the playlist for an hour of rage viewers will be asked to decipher the clues, figure out as many of the missing videos as they can and submit their answers – along with their ultimate killer rage playlist.

Entries close at 5pm on Friday April 9.

You can find out more about the competition on the Rage website.

Ep 217: Quentin Crisp telemovie, BBC changes

Josh Kinal — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:40:26 +0000

In Things You May Have Missed, John introduces us to An Englishman in New York, the continuation of the story of Quentin Crisp. We discuss the changes going ahead at the BBC and also look at whether or not the Golden Age of Television has now passed.

If you have questions about the state of television, let us know by email or on the SMS-gift-deposit at 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER)

Twitter users: Follow us!
Josh is @sealfur
Brett is @bbox
and Boxcutters as a whole is @boxcutterscast

For some more information about the BBC’s digital channel cost-cutting, see these items:

BBC faces strike threat over job losses from the Belfast Telegraph

; and

BBC slashes Web budget from IT World.

We mentioned that Shaun Brown is still unhappy about the funding situation at SBS.

Also, you might be interested in seeing the full list of Logie nominations for 2010, but you probably won’t be.

Maybe you’re trying to find our list of shows in the Golden Age of Television.

Ep 215: Carol-Lynn Parente, Executive Producer of Sesame Street

Josh Kinal — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:01:25 +0000

When the opportunity arrived to speak to the Executive Producer of one of the most influential TV shows on the planet, there was absolutely no question about it.

Josh spoke to Carol-Lynn Parente about Sesame Street, the death of Mr Hooper, the introduction of new characters, and using TV as an educational tool.

Brought to you by the letters B and C and the number 215:

Send us all your Sesame Street related thoughts by email or send us an SMS on 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER).

And don’t forget to invite all your Facebook friends to become Boxcutters fans.

Episode 209: Nazeem Hussain, Ben McNair

Josh Kinal — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:08:26 +0000

Comedian Nazeem Hussain joins us in the studio to talk about how dark people, Muslims and immigrants in general are portrayed on Australian television.

Then Ben McNair from Channel 7 News sits down for a chat about Haiti, Black Saturday, the ABC’s 24-hour news channel and Kevin Rudd.

It’s jam-packed information from start to finish.

Ep 202: Community, Micro Men, Kim Dalton should resign

Josh Kinal — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:43:06 +0000

Community is a new show from NBC in the US about people in community college that is a lot better than it sounds.

Also, John talks about a BBC telemovie called Micro Men.

Hungry Beast could be better.

And, Kim Dalton should resign.

Find out why:

Ep 198: Beauty plus Geek, Marc Fennell

Josh Kinal — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:12:11 +0000

Corin and Jenna, one of the geeks and one of the beauties from Channel 7′s Beauty and the Geek, join us in the studio to talk about what it’s like to be part of a reality television series.

Marc Fennell, the star of ABCTV’s Hungry Beast is on the phone discussing the controversies around the first episode.

Hey, Facebook users, you can become a fan of Beauty and the Geek, and also see Corin and Jenna‘s fanpages.

Also, why not get short snippets of Hungry Beast on twitter.

Then there’s always Josh and Brett, who are also on twitter.

If You Watch One Thing

Brett: Hungry Beast – ABC1 Wednesday, 9pm
John: Ace Of Cakes, Lifestyle Food, Saturday, 9.30
Josh: Dancing About Architecture, Channel 31, Thursday 8 Oct

————
UPDATE: We’ve just received an anonymous SMS.

?It’s a famous quote: “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture” – it’s a music panel show.?

You can find some history on the quote and its various attributions all over the web.

Another news-worthy Chaser Stunt

Josh Kinal — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:33:06 +0000

This just in from The Age:

Chaser duo held over APEC stunt

And so the Chaser gets more column inches dedicated to them. Those boys do that so well.

Media Watch Update

brett — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:12:57 +0000

More cereal news (and thanks to Catbrain for giving us the heads-up in case we missed it)…

Monica Attard said at the end of last year’s series of Media Watch that they’d be back this year just as unforgiving as ever.

ABC’S Media Watch will give its victims a right of reply on air — if they dare.

The program that is loved by the public and loathed by the media returns on Monday.

Presenter Monica Attard said yesterday that invitations had been sent to seven or eight people whose work will be featured on the program, offering them a right of reply on air. Correspondence from journalists and news organisations targeted by the program is posted on the Media Watch website.

The revised format comes ahead of next month’s implementation of new editorial policies at the ABC that emphasise impartiality and are intended to ensure that listeners and viewers received a broad range of views on issues.

The Age

For as long as I can remember, Media Watch has shown correspondence, trying to follow up with the offending party as to whether it had been a mistake, giving them an opportunity to recant or reinforce their stated views.

I can see this turning out to be another opportunity for repeat offenders such as Andrew Bolt to get their head on-air, ignore the matter at hand and continue spouting their crap. Yeah, I can see why they should have that additional exposure in the name of fairness and balance. NOT!

I guess all will be revealed this Monday night when Media Watch returns.