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The Age Green Guide, 29th March 2001
TV1's new series is a comedy drama hybrid, writes GORDON FARRER.
Walking onto the set during filming of Foxtel network TV1's new series Shock
Jock is like stepping into a time warp.
The culture of the place screams 1980's; distressed denim, Rubik's Cubes and
mobile phones the size of house bricks. It's a place where you get your coffee
from the cafe Bar and where vinyl still rules; Flock of Seagulls, Billy Idol,
Laura Branigan and Boy George queue for the turntable. Linger too long and the
feeling crawls up your spine that you are drifting back into a nightmare you
hoped would never return. New Romanticism still has that effect on some of us.
Like the oft-denigrated 1970s, the '80s is a decade full of comic potential --
some say the '70s zeitgeist didn't end until 1986 when our disco-fuelled
optimism burst into flames along with the Challenger space shuttle -- so it's
not surprising that the decade's comic vein is now being mined. It's also no
surprise that it is being mined by Foxtel's TV1 -- the channel makes its living
out of things retro and humorous.
But is Shock Jock a comedy or a drama? Despite the elbow-nudging '80s
references sprinkled through the script, there is no laugh track and most of the
action isn't played for laughs. Without wanting to be pigeonholed in either
genre -- or to create expectations that might be misleading -- the makes of the
series prefer the hybrid term 'comedy-drama'.
You can call it a comedy with drama elements, or drama with comedy elements,"
says TV1 director of programming and acquisitions Selena Crowley, the series'
executive producer. "I think (it fits into the) genre that is comedy-drama,
something like Larry Sanders."
Producer Mark Gracie also describes Shock Jock as a comedy-drama. What it
definitely is not, he says, is a sitcom.
Explaining that the show is not meant to be thigh-slapping hilarious, Gracie
says "I like to say that the show's witty... We always have a (radio) subject
that we handle, but it's not the overriding (storyline) of the show. In fact,
that's usually where the jokes are. And the character-based stuff is where the
drama is."
Developed by Gracie, playwright Chris Thompson and Tim Ferguson from an original
idea by Ferguson (one-time Doug Anthony Allstar and host of Channel 10's Unreal
TV), Shock Jock is set in the fictional radio station Chat-AM. In one corner
there's the brash up-and-coming star Barry Gold (Matt Dyktynski: Love and Other
Catastrophes, plus some roles in Blue Heelers, State Coroner and Water
Rats) and his producer and moral centre of the show, Tracy Tracey (Sancia
Robinson: NIDA graduate and former producer for the legendary Martin/Molloy
drivetime program on Fox). Opposite there's fellow DJ and obstacle to Gold's
ambitions to take over the breakfast shift, the velvet-voiced John Laws-like
Basil Hannigan (Rod Mullinar: Dead Calm, Breaker Morant and many theatre and
TV roles); and in the middle is Jack Piper, the ineffectual and ever-torpid
station manager with New-Age girlfriend half his age (Michael Veight:
D-Generation, Fast Forward, World's Weirderst TV, Bligh), Office Boy
Friday Clive Rank (Tom Budge: Round the Twist, Neighbours, Blue Heelers
and the current Pepsi ad featuring Kylie Minogue) oils the machinery.
As we sit in the back room of the former Moorabbin Town Hall where Shock Jock
is being filmed Gracie and Ferguson talk about the origins and structure of
their creation.
Gracie, whose producer/director credits range from well-received productions
such as The Craic, The Adventures of Lano and Woodley and the Full Frontal
series to the critically bollocked sitcom Sit down, Shut Up, describes the
characters' dynamics: "Basically, the metaphor -- excuse that word -- is they're
a surrogate family where Michael's the dad, Clive's the kid, Tracy's the mum and
Barry's the recalcitrant child."
"This gives you a while lot more territory to play with," adds Ferguson. "We've
got a couple of episodes where it's not about media events or working in radio,
it's about someone being sick. Or someone's going to get fired and leave the
family. It's just the human stuff."
Shock Jock was born of pay TV's obligation to produce local content. When
word went around that TV1 was looking for product, more than a hundred scripts
came in -- most of which had previously been rejected by the free-to-air
networks. Ferguson came up with the idea of Shock Jock and pitched it to the
channel.
TV1 responded because of Ferguson's reputation and the program had the retro
feel they were after. Ferguson teamed with Gracie -- with whom he had worked on
Unreal TV -- and Thompson and the result is 13 half-hours of local product,
fully funded by TV1.
"It's probably the first long-run (television series) for Australian pay TV,"
says Crowley.
Crowley says they've had "fantastic feedback" about the series from US partners
Columbia Tristar, Paramount and Universal. She says a decision on a second
series will be made after it has been seen on air.
Shock Jock premieres on TV1 on Sunday at 8 pm.
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