Notes

One Thing

• Laid – 9pm Wednesday night, ABC1
• Mark Zuckerberg: Inside Facebook – 9:30pm Thursday, ABC1
• Insight: ‘Generation XXX’ – 8:30pm Tuesday, SBSONE

Paul Ireland talks to us about being a young actor in The Bill and an older actor in Outland.

There’s One Thing and Pork and News and what else do you need to know?

Notes

One Thing

• Outland: 9:30pm, Wednesday 8 Feb, 2012 on ABC1
• Outland: 10:30pm, Thursday 9 Feb, 2012 on ABC2
• Outland: ABC iView.

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Go to our Pozible page. There are still Crumpler bags and other goodies to be found. Donate and help us show the world how great Australian podcasting can be.

Notes

One Thing

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

Raywatch

You can play along at home with these videos:

Enjoy responsibly:

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Toby Halligan is doing a trial show for his Comedy Festival season this Saturday at the Brunswick Green in Sydney Road at 3pm. Go along. It’s free and funny. Find out more details on the Facebook Event Page.

Update: 15 March, 2011

For those pics of GTV9 we mentioned this week, simply go to the Outland Institute blog.

Boxcutters Episode 260 by Boxcutters is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

We review the new show from Shaun Ryan, the creator of the Shield, The Chicago Code.

If you want more there’s some Pork, some Crap TV, some dumb anecdotes that should never have gone to air and a bunch of other stuff that is probably not work mentioning like breathing and stuff.

Breathe with this:

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Also, we mentioned a few excellent radio shows on Radio National.

We think you should check out:

• Future Tense – A show all about the roads we’re making towards a better, or at least more interesting future.
• This American Life – This is the excellent USA radio show that we’ve been telling you to listen to for years.
• The Lonely Hearts Club – Dave Lawson thinks it’s good and so does Tony Martin. That should be good enough for you. Listen to it

Twitter feeds for:

• Dave Lawson
• Josh Kinal
• Brett Cropley
• Boxcutters as a whole

UPDATE: 10 March

Oh hi there. I found some news items we wanted to mention in the show but didn’t because we got so engrossed in that conversation that seemed to go on forever (but an interesting forever):

• Automatic profanity checker to be used in US network television (from Variety)

Actually, it turns out that was the only one. Enjoy.

UPDATE: 16 March

Chris Kennett, one of the former writers on The Bounce tells me on Twitter that Ray Matsen was not a writer on the show. Sorry for the error.

Boxcutters Episode 259 by Boxcutters is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

We take a look at the new sketch comedy from the Independent Film Channel in the US, Portlandia.

Toby Halligan’s Trotters brings us home and there’s the week’s TV news and what you should watch this week.

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Courteney and our very own Toby Halligan have a special Comedy Festival edition of Political Asylum. It will be funny.

Boxcutters Episode 257 by Boxcutters is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Over 40% of viewers had switched off by the end of the show. Melbourne, which had the highest starting numbers over all, also had the largest evacuation with almost 45% of viewers fleeing to safety.

This graph shows all 5 major cities and the ratings for Channel 9 in the four quarter-hours from 9:30 to 10:30.

See that downward trend? That’s not a good sign for the show.

If you know anybody who enjoyed Live from Planet Earth, or if you’re one of those people, please let us know.

We discuss recent news coverage and the secret lives of journalists with James Talia.

Also we review Harry’s Law, the new David E Kelley drama.

Expect, as well, the usual fare of news and pork with trotters.

Smell the audio treats:

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This week’s question: Are you coming to our exciting event at ACMI? Let us know by email.

While we can’t bring you any information about Assange, you can bet that Nelly and Brett both have opinions, information and a whole world of words to say about that Oprah lady.

If you’re sick of hearing about Oprah‘s tour to Australia then we’ve got some other news and an I Don’t Buy It for you.

Come on a journey with us. We promise there’ll be fun and games and arguments and sighing.

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This week’s question: Do you have anything to say to us? Let us know by email.

Also, if you’re wondering where we are on Facebook and Twitter, just click on those words back there.
A follow-up to last week’s German tv documentary news comes from Variety this week:

With broadcasters paying less and demanding more rights, it’s all the more necessary to secure film subsidy financing. But commissioning editors, needing product they can show immediately, are getting less involved in theatrical docs.

One commissioning editor acknowledges the dilemma, saying, “When you take the programs that are made for TV, you just get typical TV product. And that’s not what we want.”

Regional film subsidy funds like Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg remain supportive of theatrical docs, both in production and distribution, but competition for screens and a decline of programming strands makes the endgame difficult.

But industryites believe the fact that docs get screen time and are taken seriously, regardless of mass appeal, makes the fight worthwhile.

Whether AG Dokumentarfilm can shout loudly enough to change the situation remains to be seen.

After many requests from listeners we finally have a look at the comic book adaptation, The Walking Dead. I still wish it was called “They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?”

In News we look at what’s happening in Germany and Japan as well as some important local stuff.

There’s also an I Don’t Buy It, some great Letters to Boxcutters, and a whole helping of Pork with Trotters

Oh yeah, and Carrie Bickmore sold us out to Oprah.

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This week’s question: What do you think of Actual Chad’s new single,”The Man from Boxcutters”? Let us know by email.

Also, if you’re wondering where we are on Facebook and Twitter, just click on those words back there.

Show Notes

If you want to speak to Peter Hitchener and Peter Overton via the interwebs, then you first need to “like” the Channel 9 news Facebook page. Then follow the instructions for how to leave questions and watch their replies.

Peter Hitchener is @phitchener9 on Twitter and he genuinely tries to follow and respond to everybody who follows him.

You can see the reception fees for NHK on their translated website. Wikipedia has a great page detailing NHK.

The Australian wrote all about the Oprah, Carrie Bickmore and the McDonald’s scandal that rocked Australia. Also, our own Jess McGuire wrote some commentary in Defamer Australia.

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.

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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

We review this year’s Eurovision coverage and the Lost finale.

And we look at the recent shows we’ve reviewed and see how they match up against the Bechdel Test.

All that and more. Just listen.

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Don’t forget to let us know about your list of the greatest TV characters of all time.

You can also SMS us on 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER).

Become a fan of Boxcutters on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

That will make it the first time a sports program has ever been broadcast in 3D anywhere in the world.

That’s all well and good but, as the old meditative saying goes: If sport is broadcast in a medium but nobody has the technology to watch it, is it really broadcast at all?

3D sports has the potential to be amazing but we still haven’t heard anybody say they actually want 3D television.

Still, a world first is a world first and it’s a long time since Australia has been first with anything in the world of television.

From the media release:

All three Harvey Norman State of Origin matches between NSW and Queensland – beginning with game one at ANZ Stadium, Sydney, on May 26 – will employ the latest enhancements and technology in 3D production.

Nine CEO, David Gyngell, said the project was an enormous undertaking achieved through a collaborative effort with Gerry Harvey of long-term rugby league partner Harvey Norman, with the support of David Gallop, the NRL and the ARL, together with vital assistance from the Federal Government through Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

“It’s early days of course because the technology is still developing, and its availability to consumers right now is limited. But 3D is about to arrive with a bang across the world, and the Nine Network and Harvey Norman want to pioneer the revolution in Australia,” Mr Gyngell said.

Stay tuned as we try to bring you more information about 3D TV in Australia but, in the meantime, what do you think?

It’s possible that they discovered how quickly they can put this kind of material together and have some solid gold ratings filler by just throwing together some old news footage and shoving Vince Colosimo in a sound booth for a few hours to read a few lines of voiceover.

Called Australian Families of Crime, the whole exercise feels like a cynical attempt to plug in to an audience’s basest interests. What once seemed like the sensational and exploitative homeland of Channel 10, with their Cops / Hard Copy programming is now wholly occupied by Channel 9.

The flag they plant to claim this land as their own is in the titles of the episodes. The first is called Milat: Backpacker Bloodshed. Shocking, isn’t it.

There is, in our culture, a fascination with the macabre. I love stories of serial killers and other true crime when they’re told well. The producers of Crime Investigations Australia, credited with creating this series, have told some great stories of Australian serial killers and other criminals. They have never, however, shied away from an exploitative production style.

It’s the speed with which this series was announced and slammed onto the air (announced on Thursday and airing on Sunday) that stinks of exploitation. Capitalising on criminal behaviour is a very tight rope to walk. What makes the Underbelly series an acceptable pulp story but Baby Faced Killer a soul-less profiteering on somebody’s horrible crimes and gruesome death? Maybe it’s just time but then the adage states that timing is everything.

Australian Families of Crime airs at 9:30pm Sunday on Channel 9.

As we battle with international time-zones, we have some suddenly curtailed news, one thing to watch this week, some updates to things we’ve covered in the last week or two and some hilarious reality gossip.

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Send us all your winter olympiad thoughts by sending us 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.

No aussies in event means 9 don’t think we care. God forbid we’d enjoy something other than the summer swimming. Fucking disgaceful! I wish i had fox!
-Alex b

On Twitter we saw @mollyfud hitting his head on a virtual brick wall with anger.

The other night I saw what was neither worthy of being called an advertisement nor a faux-Getaway piece about shopping in one particular street in Vancouver.

So, tell us. Have you been trying to watch the Winter Olympics on TV? Have you been happy what Channel 9 have provided in terms of coverage? Has anybody out there bought the Foxtel package for the duration?

Let us know in the comments or through the contact form.

We’ll try to get some answers from Channel 9 in the meantime.

Tom Elliott inventing the flux capacitor giving us some rational explanations for the asset writedowns and massive profit downgrade at 7 and how hard 9 and 10′s parent companies are doing it;

a preview of Flash Forward, coming to our screens on the 7 network after the ultimate conclusion of Lost; and

The Lost Room from the SciFi Channel in Things You May Have Missed.

Pick up your very own copy of The Lost Room on DVD from Amazon.

Contact us by sending us email or send us an SMS on 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER)

Remember when networks didn’t know how to fill their entire schedule so they’d put old, cheap or seemingly random programmes on at dead times? My Two Dads at 4pm, Newhart whenever it rained at the cricket, and Thrillseekers at midday on Saturday were all old Channel 9 staples.

I don’t think they ever thought people were watching their station at these times. Either that or Kerry Packer really loved an afternoon of stuntmen jumping cars over canyons.

One of the ingenious things about Go! is that you can watch their entire programming for a day depending on whether you wake up in the morning or the afternoon. They’ve really catered this one to the lazy. Despite the exclamation mark in the title, Go! does not seem to be an imperative. In fact, it’s the name I’d give to a new designer drug that made you feel like you were having a good time while really the whole world was passing you by.

Here’s a taste of what they’ve launched with: The Nanny, Just Shoot Me, Entertainment Tonight, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, and Australia’s Funniest Home Videos. All of those shows are available TWICE A DAY. In case you miss an episode of the Nanny you can catch it again eight and a half hours later!

I think what happened is they couldn’t fit the entire title, “Go Into A Vegetative State!”, on the screen.

Really, this was the laziest thing I’ve seen come out of the Free To Air networks for some time. Somebody got paid for coming up with that programming schedule, that title, that media release that came to my inbox. Everybody involved should be ashamed.

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You can buy Torchwood – Children of Earth on DVD and make your own mind up.

This episode of Boxcutters has nothing to do with Ghost Busters 2 but we do talk about Parks and Recreation and other things already mentioned in the title of this episode.

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If you want to get more of a taste, check out some show-note-action after the jump.

You can find John’s excellent Outland Institute podcast online (because it’s a podcast and that’s where it lives).

If you watch one thing

• Brett: Liberal Rule, 8:30pm Tuesday 28th, SBS1
• Brett: Fog of War, 10:00pm Tuesday 28th, SBS1
• John: Mad Men Box Set
• Josh: had his “one thing” lunch cut and is sulking.

John M. asked us if we had seen the promo for The Prisoner. We largely hadn’t.

season 2 of Ashes To Ashes

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You can help support Boxcutters by buying yourself something pretty – like the book Nul Points that John mentioned in this week’s show – from the You Do Buy It stores.

Also, we’ve got new t-shirts, t-shirts, t-shirts!

Here’s the c-span coverage of the Senate Hearing with David Simon:

Also here’s a bit from Party Down on YouTube

The Nine Network originally alleged that IceTV was reproducing a literary work when it published a version of the programming schedule for the network. Since then the case has been playing court tennis with decisions and appeals, a lot of waiting and potentially the chance that Goliath would indeed crush David under a giant sandal.

In a brief interview via Twitter, IceTV said that this decision could possibly open up the market to new players in the EPG space but pointed out that “EPGs are still copyrightable. [The] High Court Ruling didn’t change that.”

The Court’s conclusion was brief: “Any reproduction of the time and title information in the IceGuide was not a reproduction of a substantial part of any of the Weekly Schedules (or the Nine Database).” IceTV were awarded costs.

Read the High Court’s judgement to get into the nitty gritty of the decision.

There’s also some letters to Boxcutters and all the news we could fit into the rest of the show. It’s good. Listen to it.

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Things we mention:

• The Freeview parody we talk about.
• The heartbreaking moment where Tony Jones reports on Brian Naylor’s death.

Get it:

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Two news and current affairs programmes that once stood tall in the jungle of commercial network reportage are now gone. Over the past few years both shows, but Sunday especially, were stripped of their traditions and leadership.

It’s a sad day for network news.

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

With reports of his discontent last year – before the reinstatement of David Gyngell as network chief executive – the snubbing of his pitch for a chat show and the earlier start time for the Sunday programme, it’s not much of a surprise.

Martin began at the network as a reporter on 60 Minutes, continuing as host of Midday and A Current Affair, with any number of special hosting gigs thrown in over the years.

Both David Gyngell and Martin claim it’s an amicable split.

Full report from AAP at NineMSN

Wayne Carey, after being arrested the other night (as we discussed on episode 117), has been fired from Nine.

And the Nine Network this morning said it had sacked the former football great turned commentator, a day after radio station 3AW announced his contract would not be renewed.

So now, the only good thing in Footy Classified, according to Ross, is gone. How will Nine sustain the one year old show? Who will replace Carey in his important role? The 50 people who watch Footy Classified will want to know.

Source: The Age

This article from the Daily Telegraph details the rumours of goings on at Nine in Sydney with Majella Weimers, fill-in weather presenter, who apparently stormed out when told that her contract would not be renewed.

Of course, this led to the Telegraph quoting “one news staffer” saying something about John Westacott – that he “doesn’t like blondes”. Even though there was nothing in the preceding paragraphs to suggest Westacott had anything specifically to do with the incident.

The more I read about this, the more I think someone at the Tele has a bone to pick with Westacott and tries to get him to look bad in every article about Nine.

Really, give the man a chance to make himself look bad on his own. I’m sure he’s more than capable.

If you’re a Channel 9 staffer then don’t go running to Confidential every time your boss yells misogynistic epithets from the transmission tower. Do the honourable thing. Note down exactly what he said and hold on to your notes. Then, when you retire from the profession, publish it in a tell-all book.

Until then, keep your mouth shut. You’re making your network look bad, you’re making your colleagues look bad, and you’re not helping your own careers at all. On the weekend, go to the video store and rent Broadcast News. Then go home and watch it. Twice. Try to remember what being part of a news room is all about.*

And while I’m telling people what to do: Daily Telegraph, you can shut the hell up. No one really cares about the wars you’re trying to start. Do some proper work.

*Apparently it’s about faking your own tears to make a story better and then breaking Holly Hunter’s heart. Oh, and sweat.

With the exception possibly of Damages that group has the freshness of week old garbage at best.

To borrow a bit of football parlance I think it?s about time Nine started ?tanking?. 2007 is over, start thinking about 2008. In the meantime, try some different ideas, blood some new players.

Here are some things they could try:

*Give shows more than one of two eps to find their audience. ER has disappeared from our screens already. It was always going to struggle up against Californication.

*Weeds is funnier and more irreverent than Californication and could easily be just as much a hit here. Nine could give it a proper run, showing an entire series or two, unedited, in a consistent timeslot with a bit of promotion.

*Why not use the HBO output deal to give Flight Of The Conchords a run? (Same rules apply as for Weeds) Or the new relationship drama Tell Me You Love Me.

I know none of these ideas will help Nine win the rating the rating but neither will this steaming pile of guff they are serving us.

EDIT Channel 9 are apparently going to screen series two of Weeds from Oct 1st at 10:30pm… Whether this means consistent, unedited and promoted screens remains to be seen.

The Nation has obviously been a surprise hit so they’re taking it out of the soft Tuesday night lineup and throwing it into the high profile Wednesday 10:30 slot. I wonder if Mick Molloy will be able to take the increased pressure.

On its last Tuesday night airing, The Nation pulled 548,000 viewers nationwide.

(Josh says: “Read the article from the Age.”)

Maybe TIVO won’t as doomed as we first thought.

The first tells us:

PBL Media today announced that Mia Freedman will leave the business this week after twelve months in the position of Creative Services Director for the Nine Network Australia and Editorial Consultant for ACP Magazines.
Mia’s role will now be absorbed by Nine’s Head of Programming, Michael Healy.

And then the second announces:

The Nine Network Australia today announced that a decision had been taken to cease production on its weekday talk show, The Catch Up.
The final broadcast will occur on Friday 15th June, 2007.

Nine moved The Catch-Up to a new timeslot at the start of the week but nothing could save it. The Y&R timeslot still needs something for the stay-at-homes. What will they try next?

The Nine Network Australia today announced Mick Molloy’s new television project, The Nation, will premiere on Tuesday, June 5 at 9.30pm.

Mick Molloy swaps his tracky daks for a snappy suit to sit at a desk and let rip with a topical, news-based program ? with an edgy difference.

Every week The Nation will take a humorous look at the people and events making news. Mick will be joined at the news desk by a roster of comedians and entertainers as they dissect the real world of politics, current events, sport and entertainment.

“I promise that every episode will end with a dog that can ride a surfboard and do long division,” said Mick Molloy.

Stars of the airwaves such as 2Day-FM breakfast co-host Jackie O and Nova drive co-host Akmal Saleh will join Mick each week to review the news.

My favourite bit of this media release is “with an edgy difference”.

Anyone who has seen the Daria episode where her dad is supposed to be more “edgy” will know what I mean.

Placing bets now. I reckon it will last 5 weeks.

and

I guess after 18 months of claiming it was ‘building’ when there was no real change in the ratings Nine had to do something. Like the whole Rowe departure you just have to wonder why it has taken this long.

The program, which is likely to feature Scott Camm as well as Burke and others from the former sister program, Backyard Blitz, will return to Nine after the National Rugby League competition proper finishes and the finals start.

At this stage it will return towards the end of September when the Friday night semi-final matches are finished.

The timeslot will be the old 7.30 pm on Fridays where the program was a standout success from 1987 to about three or four years ago when ratings crumbled.

It’s like people at Nine don’t remember why they got rid of the show in the first place. Staleness had set in and people stopped watching. Yes it was one of the first of its genre, but Burke’s Backyard as we knew is unlikely to stand on its own in the current climate.

I’d be interested to see how the show changes to bring it up-to-date but I truly doubt there’ll be anything ground-breaking.

Nine set to revive Burke’s Backyard via e-news