| name | date | name | date |
| Fisher making good news again | 22/6/00 | Radio poacher seeks stars | 22/6/00 |
| Sydney confidental | 24/6/00 | Pick of the night | 29/6/00 |
| thumbs up | 3/7/00 | Highlights of the day | 4/7/00 |
| Sydney Morning Herald review | 4/7/00 | Tune out | 6/7/00 |
| Fun and Games for Duo | 13/7/00 | It's Good News for Sydney | 3/8/00 |
| Channel surfing an Olympic Sport | 31/8/00 | Thumbs up | 4/9/00 |
Fisher Making Good News Again - Daily Telegraph 22/6/00
Back in Sydney is Kate Fisher who, since
winging off to LA, makes her first TV appearance on her return at her old
stamping ground, Good News Week, on Saturday. The show is
taped tonight.
Also on the program
will be comedian Rove McManus and Dale Mewis from the Sydney Swans.
No doubt there will be lots of footy talk on and off camera - McManus's
cousin is Shaun McManus fomr the Freemantle Dockers, who trounced the Swans
last week.
Some speculation about
Good News Week. Programmer David Mott says: "Obviously we
are looking at the show at the moment and analysing its performance.
While we are delighted with the show, we'd like its ratings on Saturday
night to be higher. We are also delighted with the success of the
Great Debates [produced by the GNW team] and we have a Sandman
and Flacco special coming up and Mikey Robins special on pubs."
Radio Poacher Seeks Stars - Daily Telegraph 22/6/00
The Austereo Network is sounding out some
of the best radio and television talet with a view to enticeign it across
to Triple M or 2DAY next year. Names doing the rounds include Roy
and H.G., who knocked bakc an offer from Triple M last year, Martin Molly,
who took time out from 2Day at the end of 1998, Paul Mcdermott from Good
News Week adn the stars of The Panel.
Austereo group managing
director Brad March won't name names but says some exciting projects are
in the pipelines.
"We're looking at a
lot of new things for next year, a lot of different shows out of Sydney
and Melbourne. Weekend shows, Triple M breakfast and a whole bunch
of things, but it will be a process that takes two months. There's
a lot of great talent around wanting to do radio and i think we'll pick
up some good shows as a result of it."
March says stars have
increasingly stated a preference for radio over television.
"They feel radio offers
them greater creative control, with less interference from programmers.
They can work toa niche market on radio rather than having to appeal to
a broad demographic. Also, you can get an idea and have it on air
in five minutes, while in television there's lengthy production processes.
Radio is immediate with lots of audiemce feedback and can be put together
by a small team."
Sydney confidental - Daily Telegraph
24/6/00
Model, actor adn pasta sauce spruiker
Kate Fisher - now a treadmill-walking resident of
Los Angeles - slipped back into town this week adn caught up with old mate
Mikey Robins and former Nine employee Rove McManus during
the taping of Good News Week, which airs tonight on Ten at 9:30pm.
Pick of the Night - Daily Telegraph
29/6/00
The Flacco and Sandman Unspectacular
(Ten, 9:30pm)
Flashing underpants, fart jokes, and toilet
humour . . . can television get any better than this? The answer
is yes. Flacco and the Sandman (pictured) have broken loose from
Good News Week and are back with their second special. The
big question is, will the Sandman repeat his nude run of the first special?
It can be revealed that he does strip down to his undies, but beyond that
. . . well, i can't bear to look. Ably assisted by Mikey Robins and
Paul McDermott, Flacco and the Sandman revisit thier classic moments, icluding
their trademark toilet monologues. But the real star is ex-Reserve
Bank Governor and super supremo Bernie Fraser, who steals the show with
a monologue mourning the loss of his beloved budgie, Peter. The bird's
ulitimatly demise at the hands of a cup of hot coffee is described in hilarious
detail. Perhaps the next special should be devoted entirely to Fraser.
The Super Spectacular?
Thumbs up - The Guide 3/7/00
The Flacco and Sandman Unspectacular
There must be some good news left in Good News Week - and this could be it. A Flacco adn Sanmdman special with a stay - awake guarantee, for Sandman (Steve Abott) introduceds Bernie Fraser, superanuation spruiker and former Reserve Bank governor - and remarkably funny with it - who not only accuses his host of pinching his delivery style, but launches into a monologue of his own about the loss of a pet budgie that flew into a cup of coffee and chirped no more.
..........
Highlights of the Day - Daily Telegraph
4/7/00
The Flacco and Sandman Unspectacular
The Flacco and Sandman Unspectacular,
9:30 pm, 10 - Sydney Morning Herald 4/7/00
In a word: Unspectacular. And all
the more refreshing for it.
Tune Out - Daily Telegraph 6/7/00
Mikey, Pubs and Beer Nuts
(Tuesday, 9:30pm, Ten)
Slim Dusty famously
wrote: "There's nothing more lonesome, morbid or drear that to stand in
the bar of the pub with no beer." And he was probably right, until this
soulless fizzer created a new drinking tragedy: the [ub documantry with
no beer. Barely a schooner is sunk in this directionless meander
through the supposed drinking holes of various minor celebrity types.
And the apperance tactic of cinducting the interviews in siad drinking
holes at about 11am, when they are entirely devoid of patrons, ensures
and risk fo capturing some atomsphere is safetly avoided. Big Mikey
Robins does his jovial best to inject some life into the conversatin and
cajole some faintly interesting acecdotes from the (mostly channel 10-employed)
interviewees. But instead we have people like Julie McCrossin sipping
water and telling us how they don't like beer and haven't drunk it in years.
All very noble, but why do we care if we're supposedly delving into Australian
pub culture? A safer was to spend the night would be to go to the
pub, where there's bound to be a whole lot less bull being spouted.
Fun and Games for Duo - Daily Telegraph
13/7/00
Triple M executives don't want to talk
about it yet, but it must be the worst kept secret in Sydney radio. Comediams
Mikey Robins and Billy Birmingham will spearhead a special coverage for
Triple M during the Olympics.
Robins, the Good
News Week star, and Birmingham, "The 12th Man", will co-host a drivetime
program for the two weeks of the Games in September. The program
for the two weeks will be networked to other Triple M stations around Australia.
Normal Triple M shifts
with be rearranged to accommodate the special program. Regular drivetime
presenters Malcolm Lees adn Vic Davies from Club Veg will present a two-hour
morning show, and other shifts will be shortened by an hour. Program
director Guy Dobson said there was more to reveal but he did not want to
comment until plans were finalised.
It's Good News for Sydney - Daily Telegraph
3/8/00
The team from
Good News Week is gearing up for another series of debates following
the success of thier previous efforts, which were all taped in Melbourne.
This time the three
debates will be recorded in Sydney at Global Studios on Augest 12 and,
is a double-header, on Augest 26. No topics or gests confirmed as
yet.
top
Channel surfing an Olympic Sport - Daily
Telegraph 31/8/00
Network Ten
confirms Rove McManus will present The Gap, the name given to its
"pase" in programming during the Olympics to allow viewers to switch to
key evernts on the rival Channel 7.
Fans of Good News
Week will know of The Gap, a regular feature on the show
with the Sandman and Flacco, which has now been adopted as a Ten marketing
idea during the Games.
Viewers can watch McManus
introdce movie previews or use their remote to dart to Seven.
Brian gallagher, Ten's
network sales development manager, said The Gap is part of the spirit
of the Games.
"We know our audience
is very selective and we're pretty sure they will want to watch key Olympic
events so we're giving them the opportunity to do that wthout missing their
favourite shows on Ten," he says.
"At the same time we
are offering something that is entertaining, although certainly not as
entertaining as watching Cathy Freeman win gold in the 400m final."
top
Thumbs up - GNW debate - The Guide 4/9/00
Went into this
one with very low expectations. After all, the format is old and
tired and waht sihould be a debate usually turns into a series of very
gimmicky and overly rehearsed stand-up routines. Once upon a time,
ANdrew Denton, a pioneer of this format, showed it was possible to be funny
and to have a structured argument. "Playing to win" helped build
an unpredictable and often magnificant momentum - sometimes which never
emerges when participants are playing it purely for laughs.
Despite that, this
so-called debate (on the topic "We must always look on the bright side")
is a welcome surprise. Whereas it doesn't deliver much spontaneity
(it skips on such niceties as prperly defining the topic and morphs into
a parody of Survivor), there are very good performances, not just
from the ever-reliable and often-hilarious Mikey Robins, but also from
new Channel Ten recruit Rove McManus and Fox's James O'loghlin.
The uncomfortable-looking
but ever-more charming O'loghlin - such a disappointment when he had his
own show on free-to-air - has improved enormously and his show on the Arena
pay channel deserves a wider audoence. But I digress.
Also enjoyable: Corrine
Grant (joining McManus and O'loghlin on the affirmative side) and GNW
regulars Paul McDermott adn Julie McCrossin. Even Kerri-Anne.