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Herald Sun, 1st April 2001. By Tony Johnston.
Foxtel's retro channel TV1 hit town in a big way recently with a Melbourne launch for their new locally made comedy series Shock Jock.
Here is Australia's latest homegrown TV comedy-drama series, courtesy of whacky clip-show guru Tim Ferguson's obsession with all things past and tacky (he was a founding member of The Doug Anthony Allstars, and also played a hand in the creation of that overplayed '70s TV parody Funky Squad).
Despite these convictions, this time Ferguson, with the help of co-producer and director Marc Gracie (Acropolis Now, Jimeoin), a good writing team headed by Chris Thompson (Fast Forward, BackBerner), and an excellent cast, has come up with a charmingly tacky and humorous 13-part TV comedy series.
Shock Jock stars Matt Dyktynski (Love and Other Catastrophes, Raw FM) as central character Barry Gold, a slick, brash, charmingly rude DJ from the bush who has no firm opinions except a desire to outrage his listeners.
Backing up CHAT-AM's newly arrived ratings saviour (the station has been on the skids since the arrival of FM), are Gold's feisty, emerging feminist producer Tracy Tracey (Sancia Robinson, Whatever Happened to Mary Jane?, Good Guys, Bad Guys) and the station's eccentric young sound engineer Clive Rank (Toni Budge, Round The Twist).
Other main players are Rod Mullinar (Rush, Ryan and Rafferty's Rules) as pompous morning-show host Basil Hannigan, Michael Veitch (D-Generation, Fast Forward) as insipid station manager Jack Piper, Fiona Todd (Blue Heelers, Janus) as corporate lawyer Ruth Sharp, and Tim Ferguson as Vox, the station's eye-in-the-sky traffic reporter.
While I can generally rave about the cast, be warned that Shock Jock will appear a little rough around the edges in production values, because the whole series was shot for the cost of a single episode of Blue Heelers. But, for sheer cleverness of ideas and heaps of retro affection for the era of tasteless fads and big hair, the show is a real hoot.
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