TV
What Really Happened
Taken from NZ Herald, TimeOut.
The docu-drama What Really Happened - Waitangi (played Sunday 6 February TV One, 8.30pm) looks at the days before the signing of the treaty and the day of February 6, 1840.
While it is typically portrayed as a stuffy and officious occasion, in reality it was set against a back drop of chaos, humour, and mixed motives. A little bit like Billy T. James sketches from the 80s perhaps? Well, not quite.
Written by Gavin Strawhan (This Is Not My Life, Go Girls), with novelist Witi Ihimaera as story consultant, What Really Happened stars George Henare, Rawiri Paratene, and Craig Parker. It is based around a time-travelling reporter who goes back to 1840 where he comes across main players in the signing, such as Maori chiefs Hone Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti, and James Busby and William Hobson.
In ground-breakng 1970s TV series The Governor, Henare played Heke, who was among the first to sign the Treaty, but in this latest story he plays Te Ruki Kawiti who refused to sign until he succumbed to pressure three months later.
While the pair were not in agreement at that time, they were in cahoots five years later when Heke famously chopped down the British flagpole at Russell.
What Really Happpened also featured Auckland Actors Antonio Te Maioha and Peter Daube and Stig Eldred.
Spartacus Lead Cast
Taken from Throng, by Brad Kreft.
Former Neighbours actor Liam McIntyre has been officially named as the new lead for the second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
The Australian was today confirmed as Andy Whitfield's replacement after a lengthy casting process.
"Since no one can really replace Andy, we realized that we should instead find an actor who can truly lead Spartacus forward," said Starz president and CEO Chris Albrecht in a statement. "It was important to us to have Andy endorse the idea of recasting this part, which he did in the same heroic manner that he's dealt with his whole ordeal. And that, coupled with our fortune in finding a young actor with the gladiator credentials and the acting ability of Liam, makes it easier for us to keep this hit franchise going."
McIntyre played Bradley Hewson on Neighbours in 2010 as well as appearing in Steven Spielberg's war epic The Pacific.
NZ Comedy has a Cracker Year
Taken from NZ Herald, by Jesse Mulligan.
NZ comedy had a cracker year with Boy a box office hit, 7 Days wooing critics and audiences alike and a record attendance at live Comedy Festival shows. Are we finally getting funny? Jesse Mulligan reports on the highs and lows of working in the joke factory.
I've met more strangers than usual this summer. They stop me in supermarkets, on buses, at weddings, and they tell me, "You're that guy from 7 Days!" And then, embarrassingly, they want to say thanks. Thanks for all the laughs, and for making them look forward to Friday nights, and for creating some New Zealand comedy that is actually funny.
Being quite a modest person, I usually feel obligied to concede that I'm not solely responsible for 7 Days' success. There are other comedians who make small contributions. And the crew: cameramen, directors and producers who each play a part. But yes, I eventually admit under some duress, as a semi-regular panellist and occassional writer it is essentially my show.
You can't blame a Kiwi comic for wanting to take a little credit. We've taken plenty of credit for the bad stuff over the years. It was tough enough having to say sorry to those poor sods who'd witnessed my own bad performances, but sometimes they'd expect me to apologise for other people's too.
Comedian Jeremy Elwood remembers the bad old days when "you'd tell someone you were a comedian and the first thing they'd do is share an anecdote about a terrible experience they'd had".
Ben Hurley, one of our biggest successes on the sometimes brutal English circuit, says the most common thing he encountered at home was ignorance.
"People would ask, 'What sort of things do the audience throw at you?' They just assumed we performed behind chicken wire at rural sports bars in return for beer."
But over the last few years, things have changed. Nowadays, when people find out you're a comedian, the snorting and derision has been replaced by smiles and admiration. The change is as clear as the difference between telling someone you're a tow truck driver, and telling them you work for the SPCA.
Those negative anecdotes seem to have gone, says Elwood. "The first reaction now is almost always positive: it's 'our family watches 7 Days every week', or they went to an amazing show at the festival, or they really enjoyed the Comedy Gala."
This palpable shift in attaitude - palpable to us comedians doing the palping - is due to us getting a few good runs on the board. 7 Days has been huge - a critically acclaimed ratings hit which is regular, reliable, yet still happily unpredictable. But there have been other successes too, some of them surprisingly free of my involvement.
The 2010 New Zealand International Comedy Festival put a record 103,000 bums on seats, many of them at local shows. Taika Waititi's comedy Boy overtook Once Were Warriors at the box office, showing that Kiwis like to laugh in the dark even more than they like to cry. And Flight of the Conchords have reached such stratospheric levels of international success and fame that they've now received the ultimate accolade from the Kiwi public: being taken for granted.
Read the full article here.
First Annual On the Box Awards
Taken from On the Box, by Chris Philpott.
For the final full post of 2010, I thought we could do something completely different - so, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the First Annual On the Box Awards! Let's call them the Boxies, for short.
The Boxies are a random selection of awards I'm handing out to the shows I loved - and loved to hate - in 2010. But this isn't just a Best/Worst award ceremony; we'll be going through a few more obscure categories in an attempt to cap off the year.
Single Best Scene of TV
For me, there is one scene that stands out here - the final scene of True Blood's third series episode "Everything Is Broken": the Vampire King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, shows up during a live news broadcast, murders the anchorman, and delivers one of the greatest speeches on any television show, ever ... before comically flipping the broadcast over to the weather.
The "Great Idea 5 Years Ago" Award, Sponsored By Myspace
Seriously, how has Two and a Half Men been going for seven damn years?! I can see how the premise might have been interesting for a little while back in 2003, but now we've got a middle-aged Charlie and Alan living together with a completely grown-up Jacob. Never mind that the show isn't funny anymore: the living arrangements are just weird. By the way, how come Charlie Sheen gets to use his own name instead of a character name, and the others don't?
Biggest "WTF?!" Show (Drama)
This year proved that Kiwis can also make confusing mystery shows, with the launch of This Is Not My Life. Okay, I'm kidding about the "confusing" bit. Mostly. Either way, This Is Not My Life was one of the highlights of the year for me, following Alec Ross as he woke from a concussion and found himself in the mysterious town of Waimoana, caught in the middle of an attempt to reveal the true nature of the town.
The "Surprisingly Decent" Award
This one is a tie, and goes to both Cougar Town and Glee - shows which I had dismissed as "for girls" and "for teenage girls", respectively. Surprisingly, I enjoy them both.
Biggest On-Screen Disaster
To be fair, I nearly gave this award to Eruption, the horrible TV movie about a volcanic eruption in Auckland that marked the first time a TV audience wished that the disaster portrayed on screen would actually just happen in real life. Instead, I'm giving it to Sarah Murdoch and the team at Australia's Next Top Model, who made international headlines after announcing the wrong winner in the Cycle 6 finale. In related news, Sydney readers: you can catch the ANTM producers working at a Hungry Jacks near you!
Most Outrageous Hairstyle
I nearly gave this award to Stan Walker, whose changing style in each music video makes the United States of Tara chick look consistent and reliable. Instead, I'm handing it to occasional Close Up host Mike Hosking. My theory is that Mike is all ready to go at 6.59pm, the cameraman starts counting down - "5 ... 4 ... 3 ..." - and when he gets to "2", some assistant quickly runs in and ruffles the hair right before they go live. Incidentally, this also explains why Mike looks flummoxed at the start of each episode.
Biggest "WTF?!" Show (Sport)
One of the biggest criticisms of professional sport is that it allows individuals to chase financial gain in exchange for their services instead of remaining loyal to a club and helping build a great team from the ground up, and allows teams to try to "buy championships" by bringing in the best players (see: Madrid, Real). These criticisms rang true when NBA star Lebron James decided to "take his talents to South Beach", announcing his move to the Miami Heat - where he would join fellow stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh - while simultaneously ripping the hearts out of his former teams' fans. How did he announce this? In a one-hour special titled The Decision on ESPN. The future of professional sport looks bleak, my friends.
The Meg White Award For "Wait, Is She Hot?" Female Star
I'm giving this one to Ellen Pompeo, the star of Grey's Anatomy, who alternates between looking good and looking like she accidentally ate several of those Fijian peppers. I mean, there are stars who make you say "wow, he/she is really good looking" (Stana Katic, Alexander Skarsgard, Siobhan Marshall, to name three), and then there are stars like Pompeo who I just can't figure out.
Best 10 Minutes of Comedy
Did you see the Comedy Central Roast Of Mike King? Following a mediocre intro by Willy DeWit, Jeremy Elwood took the podium and delivered the most exciting 10 minutes of stand-up comedy I've seen on television in years. He absolutely nailed his short set, and raised the bar for the show so high that the other "roasters" had no chance.
Best Documentary
What do you get when you cross the story of Colombian drug-lord Pablo Escobar with the sad story of 1994 FIFA World Cup favourite Colombian soccer captain Andres Escobar? One of the best documentaries ever made. The Two Escobars ran as part of the 30 for 30 series, over on ESPN.
Best Single Episode of TV
I'm going to get called names for picking the final episode of Lost, "The End", for this award - but the truth is, the climax of the series was as relieving as it was entertaining. For a Lost fan like myself, to have reached the end of a six-year journey with the show's writers and producers was a pretty big deal. That said, I can completely understand the criticism levelled at the show - and by other fans, following the finale. But for me? It was as satisfying as any television episode could be.
NZ On Air Platinum Fund
Taken from Throng.
A drama about the events of the 1981 Springbok Tour, a New Zealand installment of Underbelly, and a biopic of iconic comedian Billy T James have all received funding from NZ On Air's television Platinum Fund.
The $15.1 million Platinum Fund was created last year to stimulate new high-quality local programmes.
The dramas are Rage, the first drama centered on the events of the Springbok Tour and written by Tom Scott, Billy, about the life of Billy T James written by Briar Grace Smith, and Underbelly NZ, the Kiwi connection to the multiple Logie-award winning Australian drama, written by John Banas.
"The Platinum Fund allows us to fund high-end works that have something important to say about New Zealand that will appeal to a broad cross-section of New Zealanders," said NZ On Air chief executive Jane Wrightson.
"Underbelly has been hugely successful here and internationally with its gripping stories and exceptional production values. This installment will be New Zealand-based and cover the Marty Johnstone story," said Ms Wrightson. "It was a dramatic part of New Zealand's history - in some ways the end of innocence for us and our police force."
"Not far behind, in historical terms, was the Springbok Tour. This too is an important story of change in our nation, and we are delighted to support the Rage, telling the tale, both from the police and the protestors' point of view.
"With Billy rounding out the mix, productions of this quality and scale are expensive to make without funding support. NZ On Air is pleased to be able to support these important dramas telling quite different aspects of 'our story'," she said.
Along with the three dramas, NZ On Air has also funded four Platinum documentary projects. Descent from Disaster will review notable incidents in Kiwi history from the perspective of the descendents of the people involved. The Story will provide an opportunity for four leading documentary makers to create works that will provide insight into some of New Zealand's important institutions associated with health, welfare, education, and law and order.
"Wild Coasts will allow renowned wildlife photographer Craig Potton to provide another perspective on some of our special places and The Hunt for the Pink and White Terraces will cover a current geological investigation.
"Initiatives like The Story, which could take each film maker up to two years to produce their episode, are all too rare in New Zealand because they're costly and time-consuming. Yet they have the power to genuinely impact the viewer, and make a significant contribution to New Zealand culture and society," said Ms Wrightson.
These factual series join the funded current affairs series Q+A and The Nation which were also recently confirmed.
Meet the Rogers family
Taken from Throng.
An on-line, comedy sketch series to remedy the nearing Christmas panic and stress.
Feature film production company Four Knights Film, Tom Hern and James Napier Robertson (the team behind indie feature I'm Not Harry Jenson) have been looking for the right way to try their hand at this alternate distribution model, and when emerging Kiwi comedy theatre writer Joel Herbert came to them with his concept for The Rogers Family Xmas, it seemed they had found the perfect fit.
"We are and have always been focused on developing and producing 'cinema', but are also mindful of the constant evolution of the distribution models," says 4K company director and producer Tom Hern. "We would be mugs to ignore the progression towards this online madness, and when Joel came to us with his over the top comedy concept, we felt it would be a bloody fun way to have a punt."
Four Knights Film got in behind Joel and his festive freak-show. Herbert also came on board to act on the smell of an oily production, playing a fruity, German spiritualist. The goal for the Rogers Family team - one million youtube hits across 11 Christmas comedy sketches; and a better understanding of the illusive direct-distribution system.
Herbert's sketches take place in and around a classic Kiwi family bach at Christmas time. Herbert explains: "The family are complete nutcases. The comedy is ridiculous and 'Christmassy'. I relished in the fact that I knew that youtube audiences would want me to push the envelope. I've certainly done that, and I'm pretty confident they're going to dig this crazy s**t."
Ex Shortland Street and The Biggest Loser star Karl Burnett shines in his role as pervy, idiot 'Uncle Levi'. Adam Gardiner (Eagle vs Shark, Lovebirds), Rachel Blampied (I'm Not Harry Jenson, Go Girls), Hera Dunleavy, Simon Ward and veteran Mick Innes (Jacquie Brown Diaries, The Insatiable Moon) round out the cast.
Hern says Four Knights Film is determined to get a finger into the youtube pie: "Look at what Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow have pulled off with their Funny or Die site. Cinema is our number one priority, but with the entertainment game changing so fast and so many rules being thrown out the window, I think we could end up seeing the funny live and the rest die. We don't want to miss that revolution."
Watch The Rogers Family Xmas youtube clips here.
Shortland Street Fan Awards 2010
Taken from Throng.
The winners in Throng's Fifth Annual Shortland Street Fan Awards have been announced.
2010 has been another successful year for Shortland Street helping deliver TV2 100 consecutive weeks of the highest ratings among 18-39 year olds. The Kieran Mitchell (Adam Rickitt) storyline came to its dramatic conclusion with the show's highest rating since April 25, 2000.
This year, viewers gave the show an average rating of 7.7, up from 7.5 in 2009 but slightly lower than the 7.8 / 10 in 2008. 13% scored the season a perfect 10; equal to last year (19% in 2008).
Both Benjamin Mitchell and Kimberley Crossman and their characters TK Samuels and Sophie McKay were voted favourites. Ben was also voted Hottest Male while Hottest Female went to Faye Smythe.
FULL LIST OF CATEGORIES - winners in italics
Favourite Male Character
TK Samuels
Daniel Potts
Favourite Female Character
Sophie McKay
Tania Jefferies
Favourite Male Character - Recurring Role
Brodie Kemp
Luke Durville
Favourite Female Character - Recurring Role
Bella Cooper
Ula Levi
Favourite Actor
Benjamin Mitchell
Adam Rickitt
Favourite Actress
Kimberley Crossman
Faye Smythe
Hottest Male
Benjamin Mitchell
Ido Drent
Hottest Female
Faye Smythe
Kimberley Crossman
Best Dressed Character
Sophie McKay
Brook Freeman
Worsed Dressed Character
Yvonne Jefferies
Bella Cooper
Best Hair
Tania Jefferies
Sophie McKay
Worst Hair
Tracey Morrison (Sarah Thomson)
Brooke Freeman
Most Missed Character
Kieran Mitchell 32% (Adam Rickitt)
Gerald Tippett 11%
Favourite New Character
Brodie Kemp 42%
Rafe Durville 13%
Favourite Couple
Tania and TK
Brodie and Bella
Worst Couple
Maxwell and Vasa
Callum (Peter Mochrie) and Rachel
Which (non-dead) character would you most like to bring back
Gerald Tippett
Libby Jefferies
Favourite Major Storyline
Kieran's (Adam Rickitt) demise
Scotty's stalker
Best thing to happen on Shortland Street in 2010
Kieran's (Adam Rickitt) death
Tania finding true love with Rafe
Funniest Moment
Libby and Gerald's disastrous wedding
Brodie meeting Bella's dad
Saddest Moment
Kieran's (Adam Rickitt) death
Ben's death
Most Boring Storyline
Chris and Rachel's relationship
The Cooper family
Biggest Letdown
Kieran's (Adam Rickitt) death
Sarah (Amanda Billing) and TK not ending up together permanently
Our One Wish for 2011
Sarah (Amanda Billing) to return and have a baby with TK
More love and happiness for couples
More drama, excitment and action
Read the Throng Shortland Street blooger's picks on the categories HERE.
Outrageous Fortune Exhibition
Taken from Stuff, by Victoria Robinson.
Robyn Malcolm, aka Cheryl West, says the Outrageous Fortune exhibition opening in Auckland this week proves the programme wasn't just another television show.
The exhibition at the Auckland War Memorial Museum provides insights into almost every aspect of the show, from original scripts to actors' audition tapes, Pascalle's soft toy unicorn and the famous living room set.
Malcolm says she never thought the show, which lasted six seasons, would become a cultural icon.
"Most of the time you'd say 'yes' to a New Zealand gig and then you'd cross your fingers that you might get a second series out of it," she says.
"As things grew exponentially from year to year, I think we just kept pinching ourselves. Now that it's moving to the museum, I just think that's amazing. It sort of says to me that that show wasn't just another television show."
The exhibition begins with a behind-the-scenes look at the programme. It reveals what inspired the writers - such as the real-life headlines - the scripts and the brainstorming that went into each episode.
There is a section dedicated to the show's art department, with a display of the fake brands created especially for Outrageous Fortune, including a beer called "Old Brown", and the underwear label "Hoochie Mama".
Each main character gets a display dissecting his or her personality - complete with a psychologist's analysis. Visitors to the exhibition can take a quiz to find out which character they most resemble. Turning a corner, fans will find themselves suddenly in the show's main set - the West's living room, grandpa's armchair looking as though he just left it to go and urinate on someone's leg.
The exhibition closer is grandpa's caravan: a never-seen-before 3D film featuring the actors from the show.
Malcolm and the other actors have been "really engaged with the whole idea" of the exhibition, says museum exhibitions manager Amanda White.
"I think they have that sense of [the show] being finished, and wanting to have a good finale for it, and also an idea of giving it back to the New Zealand public."
White says the museum hopes the exhibition appeals to a broad audience, in the same way the show did.
"When you looked at the statistics of the series, it's not just that it was a big audience, it's that it was a really broad audience.
"For a series that is about a dodgy family of criminals, that's one thing that compelled us to dig into the content."
Malcolm agrees. "I think [the show] reflected back to New Zealanders who we really are. As Mark Beesley, one of the original directors, said, 'despite what we think we are, we're funny and we're horny'. And that's what the Wests are like."
The exhibition opens to the public on Wednesday and closes on May 1 next year.
Shortland Street's Final Week
Taken from Throng.
It's that thrilling time of year again, with Shortland Street's gripping final week on air for 2010. Well known for leaving fans of the show on the edge of their seats, this year's cliffhanger is no exception. So what can audiences expect?
"In the tradition of cliffhangers past, it's true to say that this is event television," says Shortland Street's producer, Steven Zanoski. "Viewers can expect to be in for some shocks in the Christmas episode and the weeks immediately preceding it."
Shooting the exciting final episode proved to be quite a challenge for the Shortland Street crew.
"We destroyed one studio set completely and quite by accident - necessitating a new build for 2011," says Zanoski. "Meanwhile, an actor on location would up in the real-life emergency department when he threw himself into the perilous action. Apart from a few stitches here and there, the actors seem to have enjoyed shooting this year's cliff."
This year there will be several key cliffhanger storylines involving many of Shortland Street's most loved characters, including CEO Callum McKay (Peter Mochrie).
"This year's cliffhanger is brimming with danger, excitement and suspence. I think it is among our best work and certainly exhilarating to be involved with," says Mochrie. "Shooting the final episode was extremely dangerous and every take pushed us to perform the very best we could."
Mochrie says this year's finale will focus on stories that have been told throughout 2010, bringing them all to an emotional climax.
"I think this is riveting television that will no doubt leave people anticipating an exciting return," says Mochrie. "2011 will bring nail-biting conclusions and suspence second to none!"
Peter Rowley in NZ Herald
Taken from NZ Herald, by Scott Kara.
With a new DVD out, Peter Rowley talks to Scott Kara about being Billy T. James' right-hand man.
Billy T. James and Peter Rowley were like Jon and Ponch from CHiPs. Or perhaps Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice.
They were different - with James "the hori fella from up north" and Rowley "the honky from down south" - but they worked well as a team. And during their time writing together on The Billy T. James Show in the mid 80s they did a hilarious job of taking off both those American shows, especially with the chest-beating slap-stick of Turangi Vice.
Now, more than 20 years on, Rowley has put together a stand up comedy-meets-This Is Your Life-style documentary about working alongside one of the funniest and certainly the cheekiest person to ever come out of New Zealand.
It's like a trip down memory lane, with footage of all the Billy T classics such as Te News, Lands For Bags ("Where did I get my bag? I pinched it. Heeheehee."), A History of New Zealand, and Turangi Vice, with the majority of footage taken from 1985 and 86 which Rowley rates as The Billy T. James Show's best years. But with Rowley's stories about how the gags and skits evolved, and the off-screen friendship the pair developed, it also offers a very personal insight into the life of his old mate who died of a heart attack in 1991.
"I haven't really said anything for 25 years about what it was like to work with him," says Rowley. "But I just wanted to focus on the comedic associations, what the public saw but also the humour that went on behind the scenes, and just the fun and laughter that we had in those four years. We were close because we were together for four years and we became good mates and when we wrote I actually liveed at this house."
They not only shared a love for comedy, they also both loved guns and used to go shooting together.
"Just target shooting," laughs Rowley. The thing is, they didn't go down to the rifle range. They would buy black and white TVs, load them onto the back of the ute, drive to a secluded spot along Muriwai beach, hook them up to the generator, turn them on and shoot them up.
"They don't explode, they implode, because it's got a vacuum. It's real cool, the pyrotechnics were fantastic," remembers Rowley foundly.
He says they used to go out to parties, but James was happier either playing pool, or staying at home blowing things up and having a laugh.
"We were just a couple of kids really, having a lot of fun."
The pair met in a corridor of TVNZ in the early 80s where the unlikely pair bonded by sparring with accents, from Irish and American to the posh lilt of the British most famously brought to life in A History of New Zealand about Captain Cook's dealings with the natives ("Air Hair Leer... how do you do?").
"I was pretty good [at accents]," says Rowley, "but this guy was really good. His mimicry was sensational. And we started getting into conversations about doing skits that were authentic as opposed to spinning bow ties. You know, wouldn't it be cool to do Captain Cook dressed like Captain Cook, with real muskets, and the Maori look real from back in the day to make it look like a period piece with modern influences."
A few years passed after that initial meeting and Rowley was living in Melbourne when he got a call from James asking him to come back and write with him for The Billy T. James Show.
"It was a real synergy because we bounced off one another constantly. And I was totally okay with the fact it was his show because he was the iconic dude, and I was so privileged to work with him, but when we were together I wasn't bowing to him or whatever. We just got together and it was one of those rare synergies that occur. And I loved being the pakeha dork and his cohort."
LOWDOWN
Who: Comedian Peter Rowley
What: Billy T. James' sidekick
Watch: Billy T. & Me, out on DVD