Every year is a lottery of hits, misses and masterpieces. Michael Idato looks into the crystal ball to preview some of 2009's most anticipated new and revamped shows.
ALL SAINTS: MRU (Seven)
The long-running and much-loved medical drama gets a facelift. More action-oriented storylines are promised with a shift of focus out of the Emergency Department and into the Medical Response Unit.
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (most likely ABC)
Jonathan Harvey (Gimme Gimme Gimme) adapts the rich and colourful memoir of Barneys window dresser Simon Doonan into a musical comedy. Samuel Barnett and Luke Ward-Wilkinson play adult and teenage Simon but it is the overly theatrical Kyle (Layton Williams) who steals the show.
CARLA CAMETTI PD (SBS)
A smart, intriguing drama about a street-smart detective (Diana Glenn) who is grappling with a family full of gangsters and a relationship with the dashing Detective Luciano Gandolfi (Vince Colosimo).
THE CONTENDER (FOX8)
Local cable television has delivered some of the best format adaptations on the box, including Australia's Next Top Model - which returns for a fifth season with new host Sarah Murdoch - and the flawless Project Runway. Next is this US boxing series, a local version of which will launch mid-year.
THE CUT (ABC)
In a world where sports achievement is as much about medals as it is about money, this is a timely drama from writer John Misto (The Damnation Of Harvey McHugh) that delves into sports management.
DRUGS, DEATH AND BETRAYAL (ABC)
The inescapable impact of Nine's peerless 2008 drama Underbelly has even reached the ABC. Crime writers John Silvester and Andrew Rule, who wrote the book Leadbelly, on which Underbelly was based, will explore police corruption in this documentary series.
GANGS OF OZ (Seven)
Another crime-themed series but this one is an observational documentary about Australia's real-life gangs.
HOME RUN (Nine)
Nine will try to regain its mojo with this renovation-competition format from Julian Cress and David Barbour, creators of The Block. The pedigree is solid but observers remember Ten mounting a similar show (The HotHouse), which failed.
JOHN SAFRAN'S RACE RELATIONS (ABC)
Absent for too long from television screens, the original enfant terrible, John Safran (Race Around The World, John Safran Vs God), tackles the very grown-up subject of race relations.
LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE (SBS)
An illuminating sitcom about a small town, Mercy, Saskatchewan, on the Canadian prairies, where the local Christian community and their new Muslim neighbours are settling in - sometimes nicely, sometimes not.
MAD MEN (SBS)
While the West Wing set were talking up the brilliant US drama The Wire, the really cool kids spent most of 2008 chatting about Matt Weiner's deliciously brilliant series set in the 1960s advertising world. It has spent a year on cable but next year comes to free-to-air.
MASTERCHEF (Ten)
Originally just a replacement for Big Brother, MasterChef has become Ten's great white hope for 2009. Based on a BBC format, the local version will be produced for Ten by FremantleMedia.
MISSING PIECES (Nine)
No doubt kicked from development into production by the astonishing success of Seven's very teary, very compelling Find My Family. This series tracks down lost friends and relatives for their loved ones.
THE PAM ANN SHOW(Comedy Channel)
Australian comedian Caroline Reid brings the nation's favourite flight attendant, Pam Ann, back home for a series of studio-based shows. Each episode jets the audience to a new destination, with celebrities packed on the trolley like little Vodka bottles.
THE PHONE (Foxtel)
Justin Melvey does his best Matt Damon impersonation in this Bourne Supremacy-on-a-budget series, which sends unsuspecting members of the public on a mobile phone-guided race through the city.
PRISON SINGS (ABC)
Choir Of Hard Knocks maestro Jonathan Welch assembles a choir of female prisoners and trains them for several months for a Christmas concert.
PROJECT NEXT (ABC)
A sort of Gruen Transfer for big issues, producer Andrew Denton will entice "original thinkers, movers, mischief-makers and cage-rattlers" into a room to "to create an irreverent program about serious things".
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS (Nine)
The charitable work of Nine's Domestic Blitz came in for a kicking from Seven's Outdoor Room this year but emerged a winner. This series, described as "heart-warming and feel-good, making dreams come true for deserving Australians", expands on the concept.
RESCUE SQUAD (Nine)
Maybe Nine was a little too clever for its own good with The Strip (cops on a too-cool Gold Coast) and Canal Road (legal-medico-murder mystery). It's back to basics with Rescue Squad, a "high-octane drama" that will focus on the professional and personal lives of rescue squad cops.
SPIRITED (Nine)
Packed To The Rafters proved that nice shows can come first, so Nine may be on a winner with this - a modern version of the 1960s classic The Ghost And Mrs Muir from Claudia Karvan, who will produce and star. It is rare for a show to sound this perfect on paper.
SUNDAY NIGHT (Seven)
Hoping to replicate Nine's long-running success 60 Minutes, Seven is launching a one-hour Sunday-night current affairs show (imaginative title, no?) though it will likely do so in the earlier timeslot of 6.30pm which could steal Nine's thunder.
TEN YEARS YOUNGER IN TEN DAYS (Seven)
Sonia Kruger helps challenged couples reverse the age cycle using a variety of non-scalpel techniques, including a revamped lifestyle, health and fitness, and a dash of new hair and make-up.
THANK GOD YOU'RE HERE (Seven)
Don't expect too many changes to the rules but front and centre is a change of channel. Easily one of the most successful commercial TV show launches in recent memory, Seven has acquired the rights and will re-launch the series next year.
30 SECONDS (Comedy Channel)
A scripted comedy from Andrew Denton's production company, Zapruder's Other Films, this sounds infinitely harder to imagine than it will be to watch. The surreal world of an ad agency's egomaniacal creative director will "lay bare the truth behind the ads that surround, manipulate and influence us every day".
UNDERBELLY 2 (Nine)
Easily the most anticipated drama of 2009, Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities will be set in the 1970s and 1980s, exploring the dope trade in NSW and the lives of two infamous drug lords - "Aussie Bob" Trimbole and Terry "Mr Asia" Clark. Same writers, same directors, new cast - we're expecting a hit.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THAT GUY? (Comedy Channel)
A comedy mockumentary that asks the very compelling question - whatever happened to comedian Peter Moon, once a radio and TV star and now in the wilderness occupied by so many. Directed by Ted Emery (Kath & Kim).
Media Man Australia Profiles
Television
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Bumper television line-up for 2009 - The Daily Telegraph - 27th December 2008
The nation's appetite for local television productions has been whetted and audiences want to taste more.
While Australian content all but destroyed overseas programming this year, thanks to high-rating TV gems such as Packed To The Rafters and Underbelly, networks risk taking has led to a record number of homegrown programs hitting the small screen next year.
New pictures: Filming of Sydney's Underbelly and its stars
Gallery: The stars of the original Underbelly
More sex, nudity, swearing in Underbelly prequl
Local production boasted a bumper season, with more than $256 million invested in Australian drama and an extra 75 hours of TV made this year.
With the mayhem of Channel 7's Packed To the Rafters, mystery of City Homicide (also on Seven) and the blood-shed of Channel 9's Underbelly returning in the New Year, networks have invested heavily in local-produced TV shows.
``We've got Australian drama more spot-on than we have for a long time,'' Seven's head of programming Tim Worner says.
``Television drama and comedy are possibly the healthiest we have seen in the last 10 years and looking forward it will just get better.''
Tapping into Underbelly's ratings triumph, Seven will premiere new docu-drama series Gangs of Oz, exploring the violence and deceit of Australia's ganglands, as well as unveiling makeover show 10 Years In 10 Days.
To counter-balance the violence of the original Underbelly and the wild antics of wayward girls in the first Australian version of Ladette to Lady, uplifting programming will dominate Nine next year with shows including Random Acts of Kindness, Bert Newton's When I Grew Up and Missing Pieces premiering.
New high-action Aussie drama Rescue Squad, is also expected to give the second series of Ten's Rush a run for its money.
``We are making more shows than we ever have,'' Nine chief executive David Gyngell said.
``Financially, we have got ourselves into a better position than we were. It gives the schedule a bit more variety.''
Vince Colosimo and Diana Glenn lead an ensemble cast for SBS's Carla Cametti PD, while new factual series Food Detectives and the drama series starring Claudia Karvan, Saved, will also debut.
Ten hopes to bounce back from a rough year with new seasons of Natalie Bassingthwaighte-fronted So You Think You Can Dance Australia and Biggest Loser Australia. MasterChef Australia, Bondi Vet and Recruits, a glimpse at the inner-workings of the NSW Police College in Goulburn, will also premiere.
ABC TV's director of television Kim Dalton says the public broadcaster's main vision for next year new is locally produced programs including The Cut, Project Next, a new development by Andrew Denton, Darwin's Brave New World and after a year off a new series of The Chaser's War On Everything.
Australia's Next Top Model, Project Runway Australia, plus new reality competition program The Phone and satirical Denton offering 30 Seconds will show on subscription TV.
``Our Australian production slate is more extensive than ever,'' Foxtel's Brian Walsh said.
(Credit: The Daily Telegraph)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Television
Media Companies
While Australian content all but destroyed overseas programming this year, thanks to high-rating TV gems such as Packed To The Rafters and Underbelly, networks risk taking has led to a record number of homegrown programs hitting the small screen next year.
New pictures: Filming of Sydney's Underbelly and its stars
Gallery: The stars of the original Underbelly
More sex, nudity, swearing in Underbelly prequl
Local production boasted a bumper season, with more than $256 million invested in Australian drama and an extra 75 hours of TV made this year.
With the mayhem of Channel 7's Packed To the Rafters, mystery of City Homicide (also on Seven) and the blood-shed of Channel 9's Underbelly returning in the New Year, networks have invested heavily in local-produced TV shows.
``We've got Australian drama more spot-on than we have for a long time,'' Seven's head of programming Tim Worner says.
``Television drama and comedy are possibly the healthiest we have seen in the last 10 years and looking forward it will just get better.''
Tapping into Underbelly's ratings triumph, Seven will premiere new docu-drama series Gangs of Oz, exploring the violence and deceit of Australia's ganglands, as well as unveiling makeover show 10 Years In 10 Days.
To counter-balance the violence of the original Underbelly and the wild antics of wayward girls in the first Australian version of Ladette to Lady, uplifting programming will dominate Nine next year with shows including Random Acts of Kindness, Bert Newton's When I Grew Up and Missing Pieces premiering.
New high-action Aussie drama Rescue Squad, is also expected to give the second series of Ten's Rush a run for its money.
``We are making more shows than we ever have,'' Nine chief executive David Gyngell said.
``Financially, we have got ourselves into a better position than we were. It gives the schedule a bit more variety.''
Vince Colosimo and Diana Glenn lead an ensemble cast for SBS's Carla Cametti PD, while new factual series Food Detectives and the drama series starring Claudia Karvan, Saved, will also debut.
Ten hopes to bounce back from a rough year with new seasons of Natalie Bassingthwaighte-fronted So You Think You Can Dance Australia and Biggest Loser Australia. MasterChef Australia, Bondi Vet and Recruits, a glimpse at the inner-workings of the NSW Police College in Goulburn, will also premiere.
ABC TV's director of television Kim Dalton says the public broadcaster's main vision for next year new is locally produced programs including The Cut, Project Next, a new development by Andrew Denton, Darwin's Brave New World and after a year off a new series of The Chaser's War On Everything.
Australia's Next Top Model, Project Runway Australia, plus new reality competition program The Phone and satirical Denton offering 30 Seconds will show on subscription TV.
``Our Australian production slate is more extensive than ever,'' Foxtel's Brian Walsh said.
(Credit: The Daily Telegraph)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Television
Media Companies
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