Got this email today. The boys from The Chaser are back on the TV.

The alert that keeps you alarmed.

The ABC sacked all staff in the News and Current Affairs Department today after announcing it would outsource its entire news service to the team from The Chaser. The ABC has commissioned the team behind the Logie winning comedy series CNNNN and The Chaser Decides to produce weekly 4 minute "Chaser News Alerts", commencing Thursday September 22.

Departing Director of ABC TV Sandra Levy refused to interrupt normal ABC broadcasting to take the announcement live.

Chaser News Alerts will replace The 7:30 Report, Four Corners, Media Watch, Foreign Correspondent and Lateline and will be broadcast on ABC2 and ABC Online. The Insiders will continue, however, as The Chaser team doesn't work weekends.

The Alerts will feature Andrew Hansen, Chas Licciardello, Dominic Knight and Julian Morrow, with cameo appearances from Senator Bill Heffernan, Dannii Minogue and Princess Diana (via psychic).

Since it was founded as a newspaper in 1999, The Chaser has been consistently rated Australia's second funniest current affairs team after Today Tonight. The Chaser is now a satirical media empire that rivals Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in all fields except power, influence, popularity and profitability. Although the team has recycled material in most media including TV, radio, online and books, this is the team's first foray into digital and online broadcasting.

Ten weekly episodes of Chaser News Alert will be produced and broadcast every Thursday (commencing 22 September) at 7.55pm on free to air, digital ABC2 and 24 hours 7 days a week at http://abc.net.au/chaser.

[listening to: Don't Change - INXS ]
9:35:11 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • TV

We've been watching the fourth series of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which I got on DVD recently. 

I've been a big fan of this show, despite the attempts of the local Free To Air network to destroy it.  It's one of the smartest, most entertaining shows out there.

The running theme in this season has Larry David playing a lead role in "The Producers" on Broadway.

This is what HBO says about the series - Larry David lives a charmed life-an understanding wife, famous friends, a supportive manager and an angelic singing voice so what's his problem? See Larry buy medical marijuana, take a hooker to a baseball game, steal a golf club from a corpse, ruin Ben Stiller's birthday party, attempt to cash in on his tenth anniversary present with Gina Gershon and trip the light fantastic in The Producers with Mel Brooks and David Schwimmer.

Hilarious!

I have no idea when it will be shown here in Australia. But when it finally is on, do yourself a favour and check it.

The next series starts in the states this week. Cant wait to see it soon.

[listening to: Mystify - INXS ]
9:17:13 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • TV

Since the footy season is now over (for me and my team anyways), time to refresh the DVD Collection.

I got these from Amazon during the week:

• Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Fourth Season
• Dead Like Me - The Complete First Season
• Dead Like Me - The Complete Second Season
• Firefly - The Complete Series
• Lost - The Complete First Season
• Sin City

Yup, it's a lot of TV series. I find this is a better way to watch tv shows anyway. The Aussie TV networks are run by total knobs, who have destroyed tv shows in the past, such as Arrested Development, Firefly, West Wing. I could go on...

So we just don't watch network tv much these days - apart from live sport.  We either record stuff on our Foxtel iQ for watching later, or just buy the series on DVD. (and yes, there are other options to consume this stuff too.)

It's all about time-shifted TV . Consume when required, not being dictated to the requirements of an outdated business model.

That's the way I like it.

[listening to: Holiday for Strings - The Voices of Walter Schumann ]
2:32:09 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • TV

Last Night, we sat down and watched a docu-drama called Oil Storm. It has it's own entry in Wikipedia

Oil Storm was a docudrama by James Erskine and Caroline Levy portraying a future oil-shortage crisis in the United States. It originally aired on FX Networks on June 5, 2005, at 8 PM EST. The program was an attempt to depict what would happen if the highly oil-dependent country was suddenly faced with gasoline costing upwards of $7 and 8 per gallon (as opposed to the national average of around $2 per gallon when the show first aired).

The crisis arises from a hurricane wiping out an important pipeline in Louisiana, a tanker collision closing a busy port, terrorist attacks and tension with Saudi Arabia over the oil trade, and other fictional events. The program followed several fictional people, being portrayed by actors, in various situations (a couple that owned a mom-and-pop gas station, stock market and oil analysts, government officials, etc.), and includes a substantial amount of human drama.

What's freaky is that the events of Hurricane Katrina, its economic impact and the ensuing price increases nearly parallels the events in the movie.  I guess all the facts were out there for ages, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to put it all together.

BTW - Some dude has posted a promo of the show that was running locally.

[listening to: Love Is (What I Say) - INXS ]
9:42:30 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • TV

One of my favourite character actor passed away on the weekend

Bob Denver, or as he was known to millions of his fans as Gilligan from Gilligan's Island died on the weekend.

I loved the show - it was one of my favorites as a child. I had my own hat, just like Gilligan. I dreamed of eating a coconut cream pie, as cooked by Maryanne.

I had recently gotten my kids watching the show on one of the local foxtel channels. The kids liked it too. 

See ya Little Buddy.

[listening to: Cigarettes Will Kill You - Ben Lee ]
5:47:54 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • TV