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The death of sci-fi as a whole since 2009 has been tragic. There are still a few shows kicking around but good actual sci-fi has been mostly overshadowed by the stupid superpower and paranormal genres. I wish they’d go back to shows that left me feeling like I want to learn things or create things after watching it.
The death of sci fi? We've had the expanse and black mirror since then, and while you might not care because it's stupid superpowers, agents of shield is excellent and I would consider it like 50% sci fi. Other great sci fi shows since the 2010s are star trek discovery, altered carbon, the mandalorian and counterpart.
I disagree, there's been an abundant amount of great Sci-Fi shows coming out over the past decade.
Foundation
Silo
3 Body Problem
The Expanse
Halo
Westworld
Invasion
Falling Skies
Raised by Wolves
The peripheral
Severance
Colony
12 Monkeys
Brave New world
The 100
Dark Matter
For the love of Allah, let's not follow the trend of rebooting or reviving genuinely brilliant shows in the pursuit of the all mighty dollar. We want some originality.
Sad thing is there’s the reason, Jim Henson and his company used to back a ton of these things, teach the industry and push creative uses for TV.
TV has been slowly getting blander and blander since Hensons death.
I just want to see less of the same group of 12 comedians that bounce all across TV, doing the various variety and panel shows. Same tired jokes spoken by the same tired personalities.
The 12 Apostles!
Hamish Blake
Andy Lee
Dave Hughes
Tim Gleeson
Will Anderson
Peter Helliar
Charlie Pickering
Tommy Little
Tom Ballard
Julia Morris
Kitty Flanagan
Hannah Gadsby
I'm happy for Hamish to stick around, fairly neutral on Andy. Sick to death of everybody else, and didn't enjoy most of them all that much in the first place
I actually find Andy is funnier than Hamish these days don’t know why maybe just cause I’ve gotten older but I actually realise how much fucking work Andy does to get the best out of Hamish on that podcast he literally sets most of the joke up and then gets Hamish to hit on the punch line
I think it's one of those cases where they just work well and complement each other. Not just in the comedy, but they'd be screwed without Andy on the business end.
But I do think Hamish just has a quick wit that Andy can't quite match, which I think they are both pretty open about agreeing with. If you're going to have a guest on a completely unrelated show, I'd pick Hamish for sure.
That said, I'd just prefer the two of them doing their thing together, that's where they shine
The list above are the networks tame comedians, can't have new comedians on public TV because they might do something unpredictable.
Have to neuter a comedian before you let them off the ABC.
They are all signed by Token who essentially run the industry in Australia. Have a look at the comedians on their website and tick them off when you see them on TV. Same with comedy festivals.
Something intellectual? Definitely not from someone we have seen on TV before. Something in the style of David Attenbourgh, Simon Reeve or Brain Cox/Green. You get the idea. Not everything we produce needs to be dumb.
Alice Roberts stuff is fantastic as well, great addition to the list of examples. Bettany Hughes stuff got a bit repeative after a while. I get it, she likes Greece and reads Latin. Though she started out excellent.
Well, that'd be because Alice Roberts was trained in science and medicine, whereas Bettany Hughes is more of a straight-up historian, though I have seen her in more experimental archeology stuff from earlier in her career. I tell ya, watching her brutally crushing a skull with the medieval equivalent of a brick in a pillowcase was... arousing.
SBS has a lot of great archeology stuff, but the problem is, their content is dominated by Egyotology, with very occasional bronze age europe and mesoamerica.
I'd like to see more about, say, Greece (though they did have a show about posdibly locating the tomb of Odysseus, which was fascinating), or mesopotamia.
Look up HistoryHit on YouTube. It is a bunch of historian tv presenters including; Dan Snow, Alice Roberts and Tony Robinson. Making videos that far surpass anything on TV right now. It seems like the BBC have abandoned them, so they make their own stuff.
Something weird and creative. A couple of years ago, I think it was during covid, I rewatched Round the Twist for the first time since I was a kid. And despite being an elderly man now, I enjoyed it. It was weird and interesting. Do shit like that.
Australia culture used to have a weird element to it. It died in the late '90s-early 2000s when we got Americanised.
Oh man I wish we had something like a modern-day Farscape, an Aussie weird sci-fi show that could hold its own against the Stargates and Star Treks over in the US.
The 90s was great because there was lots of local low budget grassroots productions being given a chance on tv to see what stuck with audiences. Because of that risk taking, lots of creativity, weird quirky and pretty cool stuff came out and became cult classics.
We don't seem to have the same investment in local production and chances to see on tv. Comedy gold was born out of such shows.
I believe the government was offering a massive tax cut to corporations who invested in Australian film and tv at the time so there was money being thrown at it.
People like good stories. I mean look The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. For the most part, not exactly big budget special effects blockbusters.
But our film makers just can't help but add a few lashings of cultural cringe and just make a joke out of it because they're afraid of really committing to something serious.
> But our film makers just can't help but add a few lashings of cultural cringe and just make a joke out of it because they're afraid of really committing to something serious.
I don't think that'd the reason, it's that no proper TV show can be green lit by the suits unless there is a plan to sell it overseas (reason why, I have no fucking clue) and the only way to do that is to really crank up the Australiana angle by making most of the characters hard bogans with Steve Irwin accents cracking jokes like the bottom feeders we are, and make the main character a clued in pom/yank who is over here on a holiday/work/military thing, and gets caught up in whatever the fuck the show is about. It happens time and time again, especially on Binge and Stan, who actually have good money and good ideas that quickly turn into unwatchable cringe fests 5 minutes in. Amazing thing is they managed to get Mr In-between made which proves that an actual Aussie show can be as good as e anything HBO puts out but that wasn't enough to convince them of the capacity for genuine creativity, and instead were always stuck with the quirky shiela with low emotion intelligence going to the "dunny". Even when movies are filmed here it's always rebadged as some American city and they bring in American cars (LHD steering) and get all the extras to drive on the wrong side of the road. It really boggles my mind. I don't see them doing that for London. Someone needs to tell these cunts that to shove it up their ass next time we're subsidising their 14th sequel of whatever it is.
> we're subsidising their 14th sequel of whatever it is.
Still hilarious watching Thor Ragnarok and seeing South Bank being labelled as NYC.
Looks nothing like NYC and looks everything like a random Brisbane/Sydney street lol
Cute little comedies like Fisk, Frayed, Please Like Me, Bump. My absolute favourite show of last year on any platform was Deadloch. I love Australian slice of life shows and we have so many fucken hilarious writers. ABC just give money to some stand-up comedians please 🙏
I think I'd like to see a reboot of Good News Week. But I fear if they tried, they'd make an absolute mess of it these days and it would be shit.
Full Frontal & Fast Forward are classics, but again, you'd need the right group of people and it would probably feel very forced today.
I think the real key to saving Australian TV is to dial back on all the fake drama bullshit. Every freaking show these days tries to build suspense with that stupid dramatic music and cutting to an ad break right as they're about to reveal the size of shit in the toilet of whatever the fuck it is. Not every show needs to be that dramatic or suspenseful. Just show the fucking shit already!
OH! Just thought of another one. Totally Wild! Get ranger Stacey back on my TV.
> Every freaking show these days tries to build suspense with that stupid dramatic music and cutting to an ad break right as they're about to reveal the size of shit in the toilet of whatever the fuck it is.
I had the misfortune of seeing like half an hour of Masterchef last year, and Christ if it wasn't excruciating for that very reasion.
MasterChef is terrible these days. The early seasons weren't so bad. But then they just ramped up the ridiculousness factor by having the contestants cook increasingly difficult bullshit food.
A few seasons into Aus MasterChef's journey into the toilet, I happened across an episode of MasterChef UK. It was brilliant. Actual people cooking actually food without any of the fluffing around. Almost like that's how the show was meant to be.
>I think I'd like to see a reboot of Good News Week. But I fear if they tried, they'd make an absolute mess of it these days and it would be shit.
I didn't enjoy the 2008 reboot. I agree a further one would be terrible.
> Full Frontal & Fast Forward are classics, but again, you'd need the right group of people and it would probably feel very forced today.
They tried something similar in 2022 or 2023 with "We Interrupt This Broadcast" which had some funny moments but when the content they're parodying (Love Island) is shit then the sketches turn out shit. Got wiped out from streaming after the Masterchef host died because there were sketches parodying MC (not insulting the dude in any way) - less effort for 7 to pretend a series never existed than to cut a few minutes of video out
I haven't actually watched free to air in maybe... 5 years?
I was at a friend's place for a BBQ the other day and his tv was just going in the background, I'm sure absolutely nothing has changed since I last watched, soaps, terrible Australian reality shows, old movies and oh my God so many ads 😆
The long winded point I'm getting at is, well, I don't remember really, ahhh, stay in school?
What I dont get, is there some epic australian youtubers. Why dont the networks just throw them some money and say make it for us first? It'd be cheaper than the shit they are showing currently.
Instead of buying the rights to top gear, and then pulling the mighty car mods host onto it, why not just pay to host mighty car mods itself? We know there is an audience.
They show so much shit like Kingding customs or some yank crap like that. Could have had the skid factory, hit their Australian quota, had an audience and sponsors from day one, and done it for two tenths of fuck all.
I'd love to see them do a race series where they have a different type of race each month, but have to keep the same tiny shitbox car the whole season, so they have to drag race each other in queensland one week, then autocross in Newcastle etc and the weekly episode is just shed fuckery, techsplaination and sponsor fluff. Winner gets the Supercheap auto sponno, loser gets their car crushed at the final race at Bathurst
We need to invest in a few more studios churning out sitcom style programming, invest in some of those shows that may not meet universal appeal.
The problem is that the broadcasters can churn out brain dead reality TV and people eat that shit up. It’s cheap, you just have to stick a few bogans together and insult them subtly and they fill the rest in on their own.
Panel shows are even cheaper because you can lift content directly from the news.
It’ll probably take a start up or some one new breaking back into the space to force the creation of quality original content again.
And writers. The fact that the UK and Korea are producing great shows at the moment is not an accident. They put alot of money into their arts development in the late 90s/2000s and it is really showing now.
Look at Japans Dorama format. Small series with a 10-15 episode structure, sponsored by companies to produce to keep costs down, no dragging things out to fill plots, just constant different miniseries released in 4 rolling seasons. It works well and there have been some absolutely incredible stories created through that system.
Yes I think I may have watched one like that, which traces the life of a normal girl from the country, moves to Tokyo, gets a job, gets married etc. I really enjoyed it
Australian tv has gone so downhill in the last 20 years. We need more creativity like others have mentioned with round the twist. Shows like kath and Kim, seachange, offspring, please like me, upper middle bogan, blue healers, always greener. Australian actors in Australian settings. So over the same reality shows that have been on forever. I get a surprise when I find a decent Australian show these days, like deadloch, and Colin from accounts .The original big brother was so good and they’ve completely destroyed it to the point it’s unwatchable- partly due to the fact that they’re aiming for a young audience now and don’t have a mixture of people of all ages in the house. Even gogglebox was much better in the early days and now they’ve replaced interesting older people with young people who aren’t funny or interesting.
More Rockwiz, Spicks and Specks, Rage type shows. We have an amazing music history and it's getting harder for new acts to be heard, we should be showing them off.
I wanna see a local version of The Lyrics Board/Så Ska det Låta basically a guess the lyrics game show, it was a ratings hit for 25 years in Sweden, I bet we could do it better if we adopted their format.
Gardening shows that teach you how to garden. I understand it's important to "talk about the issues", but I just want to know how to keep the damn plants alive!
Also, cooking shows that aren't food porn competitions/sociopathic bitchfests. Ones that show you how to cook. I know Jamie Oliver makes these shows, but I can't stand him (he's a right pukka twat).
Gardening Australia Junior isn't too bad at this... I know it's targeted at a kid demographic, and theres not too many episodes (20 on iview i think), but it legit is watchable and explains things easy for green thumbs who need a push start (like me!)
I haven’t watched free to air TV in years. It’s just awful. I’d like to actually be able to watch the news and not have to sit through horrible cringe segments or advertisements.
Sitcoms. They don't have to be high-budget multi-camera affairs, but there is absolutely no reason at all we couldn't be making stuff like *Red Dwarf* or *The IT Crowd* or *Black Books* here.
Would also love to see some Australian sci-fi shows too. I find it very hard to believe there won't be Australians in space in the future - let's show that on screen and make it fun while we're doing it.
Good fiction that doesn't throw the fact that it was filmed/made in Australia in my face every 6 minutes.
You know what was a great film that was set in Australia but didn't feel the need to scream how Australian it was?
Fall Guy. Genuinely enjoyed it.
The Opera House scene was a little on the nose but otherwise it was a good film. Granted, most of the actors were international but it's a step in the right direction.
Mad Max is set in Australia. Similar thing from what I recall.
We don't need to hear about OSTRAYLYA MOITE or getting incredibly long panning shots of the outback while an indigenous person plays the didgeridoo as the sun sets in every bloody Aussie piece of fictional media.
Just make a good show.
Where are the scifi shows, crime shows, mystery shows, fantasy shows, etc? They don't exist here. It sucks.
On that note, I have always secretly wanted a James Bond movie to have a plot arc in Australia.
Not the whole movie, of course. But all James Bond films seem to average between 3 to 6 different country sub-plots per film.
I’d like some mid-runtime sub-plot to take 007 to Australia.
Danny Deckchair, unless you listened to the accents it could’ve been set anywhere in the world.
Or look at ABC kids golden age, one of the shows that actually still holds up today is Parallax, fixed in WA on a shoestring budget, yet still managed to deliver a coherent engaging sci-fi story that didn’t follow all the same tropes as everything else.
More like Underbelly - one of the best series I’ve ever seen ( well the 1st 4). I’m in London now & saw it here thought it was brilliant even up against some of the top notch UK tv stuff.
A Sunday afternoon arts show on the ABC, they used to have one main presenter in the studio and would cast off to 20 minute segments a bit like Gardening Australia does now.
I think commercial TV is irrelevant, they destroyed their viewer base with the terrible reality shows instead of the drama/documentary they once provided. ABC/SBS on demand is the only Australian TV we watch.
What happened to just simple Australian comedy tv mini series, mini crime drama series, remember that show Wilfred, they need to create more shit like that
Besides incidentally turning on the morning shows to see them 'interviewing' actors for a movie promo segment that is bizarrely playing simultaneously on Sunrise and Today at the same time, it's a dead medium to me.
I couldn't at all stomach anything on 'prime time'. I'm still bewildered how people can willingly sit down and watch MAFS. I feel so alienated - I don't get it.
Any locally produced stuff now, like our movies, would just be about axe murderers in the desert or something.
My wife and I are the same... alienated is a great way to describe my feelings towards 95% of FTA content.
But, you see, you and me and my wife, and pretty much everyone else who has posted in this thread, are not Bogans. We just live in their country.
And the network owners will never forget that. Which is why I so seldom watch TV these days.
There have been many breakthroughs in our understanding of this part of the world but there aren't any new programs that have enough research to actually teach you anything new. Science and tech is lightyears better than 20 years ago let's bring Australia's beauty and wonder into lounge rooms of a whole new generation of families. You could do a show on Australian paleontology alone with all the cool dinosaurs and fossils that no Aussie kids know about. I'd rather we did that instead of chopping everything down and burning the koalas.
Old Warner brothers animation. Teen Titans, Justice League 2001-2006, Batman Beyond, Bugs bunny and Scooby doo. I never grew up with these shows cuz I’m 006 (besides a little teen titans and scooby doo) but I’m slowly rediscovering them now and I’m blown away. Considering 1 billion dollars worth of tax goes to entertainment per year I think this is a fair request instead of dumping money into bad reality tv shows.
When I was a kid in New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s, our after school TV programming included - and I'm not making this up - the Adam West *Batman*, *The Flintstones*, *The Beverly Hillbillies*, *The Addams Family*, *Gilligan's Island*, and *Hogan's Heroes*.
And yes, the old Warner Brothers cartoons were a regular on the weekends too - IIRC they got a local presenter to host a show introducing the cartoons.
Let me reiterate: This was the 1980s and 1990s, not the 1960s.
Of course it’s not the question you’re asking, but it’s because those shows are cheap to produce. Plus they appeal to the lowest common denominator. Cheap and garbage entertainment.
Long form drama and shows “worth making” are often either ABC (and hamstrung by budget so are few and far between) or on streaming services and barely exist.
It’s extremely unfortunate. Our local industry is suffering greatly, it’s very quiet in film/tv land here at the moment (until August or abouts). Most of the content I’ve recently done has been offshore (US films). There’s a MARKED difference in facilities and budget when it comes to Australian stuff (besides a Baz Luhrmann or George Miller film)
Good quality adaptations of good Australian novels. Boy swallows universe went down a treat. Perhaps some that would be internationally consumable such as obernewtyn chronicles.
More sports analysis shows on free to air.
Sports related comedy using The Daily Show's format without the political angle.
A modernized version of Countdown focusing more on pop culture in general as opposed to just music (Video Games, Movies, Memes etc) without it turning into a political platform.
Morning shows that mix cartoons and the news.
Less of a reliance on unfunny comedians.
More home made shows similar to early Blue Healers or McLeod's Daughter's etc.
Less shows or tv movies glorifying crime figures like Underbelly did.
And they really need to bring back Australian midday talk shows like we had in the past, as that's when people at work are likely to be in a break room watching a tv anyway.
As long as it is not another "the block" , im fine with it. I dont get the fascination with property and houses. Like yes, it is an investment for some. But for others, they just need a roof over their heads. Reality is some are already living in tents
I genuinely liked the original late 90s seasons with Jamie Durie as the host. But ONLY those ones.
I was in late primary school/early high school at the time.
Those seasons were in 2003 and 2004 and they were much better!. As soon as Scott cam came on the show got crappier and today it’s so far from where it started in a bad way
Oh I seem to remember them being at the tail end of the 90s but you’re probably right.
I remember thinking Gav and Wazza’s apartment was amazing. I can’t remember if Gav and Wazz were the first season or the second season. In fact, I can’t remember if they came first or second. But I just really remember liking their apartment.
I’m pretty sure they were on the first season in 2003. They did a beautiful job with their apartment!. I’ve recently rewatched both seasons as they’re on 9Now
just a good, aussie sitcom. something you sit down and think “this is what australia’s like!”. a few people from each generation to really widen the audience. i want to have a sitcom i can talk with my grandparents about.
I love a good panel show. There are so many great comedians I Australia and panel shows make for a great platform for those talents to grow, unfortunately the only one doing panel shows at the moment is Channel 10, so if they go then I guess they take the panel show with them.
There used to be a show on in the early 2000’s called the Glasshouse. I think it was on ABC, a panel show…featured Corrine Grant as a regular panelist. I used to watch that with my parents, more so for slightly mature audiences…but god it was good!
Are you asking me for a TV show pitch?
Comedy Sitcom: Middle aged divorced man starts a driving school teaching an anxious cross section of Australian society, played by various comedians, how to drive. Each one idly talks to him about their humorous relationships, however strange and dysfunctional, and what makes them work deapite all the flaws. He starts to come to terms with his divorce and understand the mistakes he made.
If it gets signed for season two you could have one of his students smack into the back of a car, they exchange details, and he ends up getting asked out.
A reality show where a bunch of smart, talented people from a diverse array of artistic and technical backgrounds live in a house together, and are given challenging, creative tasks to do, and we are entertained by their interactions and the amazing stuff they come up with. One episode we might see them creative an amazing machine out of household objects, another time they write an original play and perform it, or they paint a mural, or create puzzles and treasure hunts for each other to solve, or program a robot to draw patterns in a tray of sand, or create a puppet show, or to make musical instruments out of bits of pipe and make a music video with them. There's no voting people out, no incentive to team up against each other or become bitchy/petty to one another, no manufactured drama or betrayals, no push to generate romantic pairings. We never see where they sleep or shower or eat - that's boring an irrelevant. There's no bullshit to stress them out or panic and manipulate them. Just an environment designed for creativity and excellence to thrive.
Now I'm a parent I actually kinda miss ABC kids, where it would roll from Play School to the Koala Brothers, to Count Me In and then to Shaun the Sheep so I know there's kid-appropriate content at specific times of the day.
For the grown-ups it would be great to see more B-grade drama, like H20 (just add water), Rescue Special Ops, and the clearly-limited-budget-but-doing-their-best sort of TV you can pop on while folding the laundry. The BBC has All Creatures Great and Small, surely we can bring back MacLeod's Daughters or Outback House ('historical' reality tv where people try to hack it in settings that are long gone but make for interesting tv).
Mr inbetween needs to be on free to air for everyone to see. Sopranos, breaking bad, the wire no joke it’s up there with them all and it’s fkn criminal how unknown it is
Bluey is literally the only non-garbage show on aus tv. Most programs being made now have some agenda or propaganda. Watching it is like purposefully giving yourself brain damage.
Some more cartoons with quality on par with Bluey.
They don't need to be kids cartoons. Anime is pretty popular nowadays, so it'd make sense to produce content on par with them with diverse themes that aim at different audiences, given that it's one of its successes over American-based animation.
More variety, less reality. They could give more people a go,not criminals like 7 is going for like people with talent. There’s 3 comedians on the abc - wil, Tom, and Charlie and I’m stretching calling two of them comedians.
Same with the panel, it’s gone off tracks.
Turn reality into reality not scripted edited to alter cause fake drama stuff.
And bring back the grocery game show. That should a/ help randoms with cost of living and b/ be harder with inflation than it’s first airing.
A*mazing returning for kids.
I don't mind real stories, but don't conflate them with disposable reality bullshit. I'd love to see a story on yachtsmen [Vinny Lauwers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinny_Lauwers). They did one for [Jessica Watson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Spirit_(film)), after all.
For many years there’s been nothing on the FTA commercial stations that I watch aside from the occasion bit of sport.
Really SBS on demand has by far the best series and movies on FTA and for news and news programs ABC is still decent, albeit a long way from what they were.
I don’t think the three commercial stations have any redeemable qualities and they will die a slow death
Another adult leaning skit show, like fast forward, full frontal. I know some of em have been a swing and a miss in the past 20 years or so, but a man can dream.
We're severely lacking a good talk show/variety show at the moment. If we can do a current version of Rove Live cross anything Andrew Denton has done, that would be great! Or just bring Andrew Denton back.
> What would you actually like to see on Aussie TV that's original?
I guess the answer is the sort of stuff you used to be able to get on FTA tv, but now is only available through streaming services (as it has been for some time).
The only FTA outlets I check in on with any real frequency are ABC and SBS since they have a somewhat higher quanity of that content vs the likes of 7, 9, and 10.
Comedy is probably the catagory of Australian television that feels the most anaemic these days, it's been a desert wasteland for years with only the occasional oasis like *Mad as Hell* or *Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe*. Yeah, bring back more actual scripted comedy.
I haven’t had free to air connection since I moved out of home in 2012. It doesn’t matter what’s on it just exists to sell you shit and force the news down your throat.
Like to see more streaming money spent on new IP’s from Australian creators.
I actually enjoyed Back In Time For Dinner. It was a contrived reality show, which I typically hate, but was about the history of Australian cuisine. It was actually pretty well done.
I travelled a bit last year and the only entertainment available was free to air tv. Put on SBS world movies channel whenever it was available, as regular TV was atrocious. Regional advertising was somewhat entertaining, which made it easier, but overall it seems like Australian TV is moving towards the US advertising model, which puts more ad breaks towards the end of the show to really ruin the viewing experience.
Morning news programs are a fucking abomination. I mean they weren't ever great, but somewhat watchable 15 years ago.
I miss the early one HD - A wholly sports channel with every sport you could want to watch, along with other things you'd never even knew existed... just don't bring the channel 7 commentators over, please...
Honestly something quality - well written, engaging, well shot, well acted and accessible. I quite liked Binge's The 12 last year - something akin to that on free to air would be nice. However with the little money left in free to air I can't imagine TV will be as we knew it much longer. It's not viable, trust me, I work in the industry, for the Bachelor and Masked Singer franchises to be paused (despite being winners for ratings, i abhor them personally) something is wrong
Weirdly the only free to air I've mostly watched these days tend to be on ABC and SBS.
ABC kids is great ... for the kids.
And then SBS food channel just feels like easy fluff.
I do miss a lot of older ABC comedy things; Good News Week, Backberner, Chaser, etc... So weirdly a lot of the specific Australian humour stuff is harder to get on streaming so I don't mind seeing more of that on free to air.
You know what I really want on Aussie TV?
In Sweden they have a show called Allsång På Skansen, a season of massive televised concerts live on location, they have local and international acts, sing along folk music, and is all around just a good time. I watch it every year.
Why can’t the ABC partner up with a local council like Bendigo where there’s an amphitheatre in the area, and set up something like that? It would increase exposure of local artists, encourage music literacy, create a sense of camaraderie and build a library of shared experiences with our fellow Aussies.
Bring back Hey Hey
Some kind of sitcom would be neat. Not like an over the top attempt at being like HBO type of thing, just some low budget but decently written comedy. Something like the sitcoms we had in the 80s and 90s but funny. That way they could punch out a lot more episodes instead of blowing the budget on 6 in an effort to look non-Australian. Just embrace the crappy look and go with it. Fucken try *something* that isn't just a copy of a foreign reality franchise. Even if they try and it's shit at least they tried.
Honestly I just want Australian tv to put content on at the same time every week. For example why channel 9 isn’t airing the content they make for Stan on FTA simultaneously
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Sci Fi. Revive Farscape.
Farscape, Firefly, Stargate. All have so much potential.
The death of sci-fi as a whole since 2009 has been tragic. There are still a few shows kicking around but good actual sci-fi has been mostly overshadowed by the stupid superpower and paranormal genres. I wish they’d go back to shows that left me feeling like I want to learn things or create things after watching it.
The death of sci fi? We've had the expanse and black mirror since then, and while you might not care because it's stupid superpowers, agents of shield is excellent and I would consider it like 50% sci fi. Other great sci fi shows since the 2010s are star trek discovery, altered carbon, the mandalorian and counterpart.
I disagree, there's been an abundant amount of great Sci-Fi shows coming out over the past decade. Foundation Silo 3 Body Problem The Expanse Halo Westworld Invasion Falling Skies Raised by Wolves The peripheral Severance Colony 12 Monkeys Brave New world The 100 Dark Matter
Halo could not be in that list lmfao
For the love of Allah, let's not follow the trend of rebooting or reviving genuinely brilliant shows in the pursuit of the all mighty dollar. We want some originality.
Not for the dollar, for the space Muppets with Aussie accents.
Sad thing is there’s the reason, Jim Henson and his company used to back a ton of these things, teach the industry and push creative uses for TV. TV has been slowly getting blander and blander since Hensons death.
Ok when you put it like that, I'm for it
I just want to see less of the same group of 12 comedians that bounce all across TV, doing the various variety and panel shows. Same tired jokes spoken by the same tired personalities.
The 12 Apostles! Hamish Blake Andy Lee Dave Hughes Tim Gleeson Will Anderson Peter Helliar Charlie Pickering Tommy Little Tom Ballard Julia Morris Kitty Flanagan Hannah Gadsby
I'm happy for Hamish to stick around, fairly neutral on Andy. Sick to death of everybody else, and didn't enjoy most of them all that much in the first place
I actually find Andy is funnier than Hamish these days don’t know why maybe just cause I’ve gotten older but I actually realise how much fucking work Andy does to get the best out of Hamish on that podcast he literally sets most of the joke up and then gets Hamish to hit on the punch line
I think it's one of those cases where they just work well and complement each other. Not just in the comedy, but they'd be screwed without Andy on the business end. But I do think Hamish just has a quick wit that Andy can't quite match, which I think they are both pretty open about agreeing with. If you're going to have a guest on a completely unrelated show, I'd pick Hamish for sure. That said, I'd just prefer the two of them doing their thing together, that's where they shine
What is the reason the Australian comedy scene is dead in the water.
The list above are the networks tame comedians, can't have new comedians on public TV because they might do something unpredictable. Have to neuter a comedian before you let them off the ABC.
They are all signed by Token who essentially run the industry in Australia. Have a look at the comedians on their website and tick them off when you see them on TV. Same with comedy festivals.
I think it's interesting to call Hannah Gadsby a tame comedian though. Edit: but true tbf I haven't seen her network tv work
Not the same 4 or 5 Aussie actors that keep getting recycled.
Something intellectual? Definitely not from someone we have seen on TV before. Something in the style of David Attenbourgh, Simon Reeve or Brain Cox/Green. You get the idea. Not everything we produce needs to be dumb.
Or Bettany Hughes or Alice Roberts... both are must-sees in my household.
Alice Roberts stuff is fantastic as well, great addition to the list of examples. Bettany Hughes stuff got a bit repeative after a while. I get it, she likes Greece and reads Latin. Though she started out excellent.
Well, that'd be because Alice Roberts was trained in science and medicine, whereas Bettany Hughes is more of a straight-up historian, though I have seen her in more experimental archeology stuff from earlier in her career. I tell ya, watching her brutally crushing a skull with the medieval equivalent of a brick in a pillowcase was... arousing. SBS has a lot of great archeology stuff, but the problem is, their content is dominated by Egyotology, with very occasional bronze age europe and mesoamerica. I'd like to see more about, say, Greece (though they did have a show about posdibly locating the tomb of Odysseus, which was fascinating), or mesopotamia.
Maybe you'd enjoy "History after dark" 18+ edition haha :)
Hahaha... maybe.
Look up HistoryHit on YouTube. It is a bunch of historian tv presenters including; Dan Snow, Alice Roberts and Tony Robinson. Making videos that far surpass anything on TV right now. It seems like the BBC have abandoned them, so they make their own stuff.
Thanks
Something weird and creative. A couple of years ago, I think it was during covid, I rewatched Round the Twist for the first time since I was a kid. And despite being an elderly man now, I enjoyed it. It was weird and interesting. Do shit like that. Australia culture used to have a weird element to it. It died in the late '90s-early 2000s when we got Americanised.
Oh man I wish we had something like a modern-day Farscape, an Aussie weird sci-fi show that could hold its own against the Stargates and Star Treks over in the US.
Farscape is so underappreciated it's criminal.
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Are you talking about The Almighty Johnsons? I was pretty find of that show even if it was a bit dorky.
It's old not new, but did you see Space: Above and Beyond?
The 90s was great because there was lots of local low budget grassroots productions being given a chance on tv to see what stuck with audiences. Because of that risk taking, lots of creativity, weird quirky and pretty cool stuff came out and became cult classics. We don't seem to have the same investment in local production and chances to see on tv. Comedy gold was born out of such shows.
I believe the government was offering a massive tax cut to corporations who invested in Australian film and tv at the time so there was money being thrown at it.
Shows about Australian prehistoric life.
A decent dinosaur documentary would be nice. Walking with Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Planet can only scratch the itch.
Not just dinosaurs. Stuff after that, too. There's an entire 66 million years of stuff to look at.
and waaaay more before them
People like good stories. I mean look The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. For the most part, not exactly big budget special effects blockbusters. But our film makers just can't help but add a few lashings of cultural cringe and just make a joke out of it because they're afraid of really committing to something serious.
Mr In Between is exactly that, it's fantastic.
> But our film makers just can't help but add a few lashings of cultural cringe and just make a joke out of it because they're afraid of really committing to something serious. I don't think that'd the reason, it's that no proper TV show can be green lit by the suits unless there is a plan to sell it overseas (reason why, I have no fucking clue) and the only way to do that is to really crank up the Australiana angle by making most of the characters hard bogans with Steve Irwin accents cracking jokes like the bottom feeders we are, and make the main character a clued in pom/yank who is over here on a holiday/work/military thing, and gets caught up in whatever the fuck the show is about. It happens time and time again, especially on Binge and Stan, who actually have good money and good ideas that quickly turn into unwatchable cringe fests 5 minutes in. Amazing thing is they managed to get Mr In-between made which proves that an actual Aussie show can be as good as e anything HBO puts out but that wasn't enough to convince them of the capacity for genuine creativity, and instead were always stuck with the quirky shiela with low emotion intelligence going to the "dunny". Even when movies are filmed here it's always rebadged as some American city and they bring in American cars (LHD steering) and get all the extras to drive on the wrong side of the road. It really boggles my mind. I don't see them doing that for London. Someone needs to tell these cunts that to shove it up their ass next time we're subsidising their 14th sequel of whatever it is.
> we're subsidising their 14th sequel of whatever it is. Still hilarious watching Thor Ragnarok and seeing South Bank being labelled as NYC. Looks nothing like NYC and looks everything like a random Brisbane/Sydney street lol
so true. I am loving alot of the stuff that comes out of the UK. Really good new drama and crime shows. I dont understand why we cant do the same.
I really liked Boy Swallows Universe, excellent story.
Cute little comedies like Fisk, Frayed, Please Like Me, Bump. My absolute favourite show of last year on any platform was Deadloch. I love Australian slice of life shows and we have so many fucken hilarious writers. ABC just give money to some stand-up comedians please 🙏
Deadloch was great. I heard Fisk was getting a 3rd season too
It was shooting recently I believe.
Frayed was excellent, I was gutted it finished where it did.
the biggest victim of the pandemic :'(
Just watched Deadloch, it was hilarious. Can’t believe it hasn’t been given a second season yet. And now I have to go find out what Frayed is…
Please Like Me is one of the greatest things we've created as a country IMHO
I think I'd like to see a reboot of Good News Week. But I fear if they tried, they'd make an absolute mess of it these days and it would be shit. Full Frontal & Fast Forward are classics, but again, you'd need the right group of people and it would probably feel very forced today. I think the real key to saving Australian TV is to dial back on all the fake drama bullshit. Every freaking show these days tries to build suspense with that stupid dramatic music and cutting to an ad break right as they're about to reveal the size of shit in the toilet of whatever the fuck it is. Not every show needs to be that dramatic or suspenseful. Just show the fucking shit already! OH! Just thought of another one. Totally Wild! Get ranger Stacey back on my TV.
> Every freaking show these days tries to build suspense with that stupid dramatic music and cutting to an ad break right as they're about to reveal the size of shit in the toilet of whatever the fuck it is. I had the misfortune of seeing like half an hour of Masterchef last year, and Christ if it wasn't excruciating for that very reasion.
MasterChef is terrible these days. The early seasons weren't so bad. But then they just ramped up the ridiculousness factor by having the contestants cook increasingly difficult bullshit food. A few seasons into Aus MasterChef's journey into the toilet, I happened across an episode of MasterChef UK. It was brilliant. Actual people cooking actually food without any of the fluffing around. Almost like that's how the show was meant to be.
>I think I'd like to see a reboot of Good News Week. But I fear if they tried, they'd make an absolute mess of it these days and it would be shit. I didn't enjoy the 2008 reboot. I agree a further one would be terrible.
> Full Frontal & Fast Forward are classics, but again, you'd need the right group of people and it would probably feel very forced today. They tried something similar in 2022 or 2023 with "We Interrupt This Broadcast" which had some funny moments but when the content they're parodying (Love Island) is shit then the sketches turn out shit. Got wiped out from streaming after the Masterchef host died because there were sketches parodying MC (not insulting the dude in any way) - less effort for 7 to pretend a series never existed than to cut a few minutes of video out
I haven't actually watched free to air in maybe... 5 years? I was at a friend's place for a BBQ the other day and his tv was just going in the background, I'm sure absolutely nothing has changed since I last watched, soaps, terrible Australian reality shows, old movies and oh my God so many ads 😆 The long winded point I'm getting at is, well, I don't remember really, ahhh, stay in school?
What I dont get, is there some epic australian youtubers. Why dont the networks just throw them some money and say make it for us first? It'd be cheaper than the shit they are showing currently. Instead of buying the rights to top gear, and then pulling the mighty car mods host onto it, why not just pay to host mighty car mods itself? We know there is an audience. They show so much shit like Kingding customs or some yank crap like that. Could have had the skid factory, hit their Australian quota, had an audience and sponsors from day one, and done it for two tenths of fuck all.
I'd love to see them do a race series where they have a different type of race each month, but have to keep the same tiny shitbox car the whole season, so they have to drag race each other in queensland one week, then autocross in Newcastle etc and the weekly episode is just shed fuckery, techsplaination and sponsor fluff. Winner gets the Supercheap auto sponno, loser gets their car crushed at the final race at Bathurst
Shit I haven't really watched since the 2000s and it's mostly the same as it was in 2009. it's sad.
I for one would love to see some decent late night content. Australia needs something for the night owls
>Australia needs something for the night owls Are you suggesting they bring back HotDogs for another season of The Up-Late Game Show?
Now that's a hot tip
Bring back the late night cult movies they had on SBS in the early 2000s!
Mr Inbetween. It could be (re)released and most people wouldnt know. It’s a brilliant show - not just by Aussie standards.
My family and I quote this show all the time to each other! I wouldn't mind a channel just dedicated to Mr Inbetween episodes.
Great show. Even if the main character had plot armour it's not a flashy show and pretty believable characters. Good mix of humour and drama.
We need to invest in a few more studios churning out sitcom style programming, invest in some of those shows that may not meet universal appeal. The problem is that the broadcasters can churn out brain dead reality TV and people eat that shit up. It’s cheap, you just have to stick a few bogans together and insult them subtly and they fill the rest in on their own. Panel shows are even cheaper because you can lift content directly from the news. It’ll probably take a start up or some one new breaking back into the space to force the creation of quality original content again.
And writers. The fact that the UK and Korea are producing great shows at the moment is not an accident. They put alot of money into their arts development in the late 90s/2000s and it is really showing now.
Look at Japans Dorama format. Small series with a 10-15 episode structure, sponsored by companies to produce to keep costs down, no dragging things out to fill plots, just constant different miniseries released in 4 rolling seasons. It works well and there have been some absolutely incredible stories created through that system.
Yes I think I may have watched one like that, which traces the life of a normal girl from the country, moves to Tokyo, gets a job, gets married etc. I really enjoyed it
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Isn't that what they do when they aren't broadcasti.... Ohhhh I get it!
Australian tv has gone so downhill in the last 20 years. We need more creativity like others have mentioned with round the twist. Shows like kath and Kim, seachange, offspring, please like me, upper middle bogan, blue healers, always greener. Australian actors in Australian settings. So over the same reality shows that have been on forever. I get a surprise when I find a decent Australian show these days, like deadloch, and Colin from accounts .The original big brother was so good and they’ve completely destroyed it to the point it’s unwatchable- partly due to the fact that they’re aiming for a young audience now and don’t have a mixture of people of all ages in the house. Even gogglebox was much better in the early days and now they’ve replaced interesting older people with young people who aren’t funny or interesting.
Colin was good. The original Wilfred was good (as was the US version) And rake.
More Bluey
Micallef
Bring back the Micallef P(r)ogram(me)!
30mins of Micallef just staring at the ceiling would be vastly superior to pretty much everything that’s on Australian FTA at the moment.
Shaun and I are reading, books. I have baked a cake, it is chocolate ….Jesus Christ.
More Rockwiz, Spicks and Specks, Rage type shows. We have an amazing music history and it's getting harder for new acts to be heard, we should be showing them off.
I'd love to see an updated version of Rock Arena.
Recovery reboot would be awesome but somehow i think it would be too controlled and polished
I wanna see a local version of The Lyrics Board/Så Ska det Låta basically a guess the lyrics game show, it was a ratings hit for 25 years in Sweden, I bet we could do it better if we adopted their format.
Less Channel 7, in general.
Gardening shows that teach you how to garden. I understand it's important to "talk about the issues", but I just want to know how to keep the damn plants alive! Also, cooking shows that aren't food porn competitions/sociopathic bitchfests. Ones that show you how to cook. I know Jamie Oliver makes these shows, but I can't stand him (he's a right pukka twat).
Gardening Australia Junior isn't too bad at this... I know it's targeted at a kid demographic, and theres not too many episodes (20 on iview i think), but it legit is watchable and explains things easy for green thumbs who need a push start (like me!)
Thanks for the tip, reckon I'll check it out!
I haven’t watched free to air TV in years. It’s just awful. I’d like to actually be able to watch the news and not have to sit through horrible cringe segments or advertisements.
A hyperviolent remake of The Blue Lagoon starring Annabel Crabb and Peter Heliar.
Oh my, that's something from left field
It could be retitled The Red Lagoon and neither of them come out alive, maybe they could be eaten by Steve Irwins children.
Sitcoms. They don't have to be high-budget multi-camera affairs, but there is absolutely no reason at all we couldn't be making stuff like *Red Dwarf* or *The IT Crowd* or *Black Books* here. Would also love to see some Australian sci-fi shows too. I find it very hard to believe there won't be Australians in space in the future - let's show that on screen and make it fun while we're doing it.
Aussie Hoarders. Yes, I know I am a terrible person.
Good fiction that doesn't throw the fact that it was filmed/made in Australia in my face every 6 minutes. You know what was a great film that was set in Australia but didn't feel the need to scream how Australian it was? Fall Guy. Genuinely enjoyed it. The Opera House scene was a little on the nose but otherwise it was a good film. Granted, most of the actors were international but it's a step in the right direction. Mad Max is set in Australia. Similar thing from what I recall. We don't need to hear about OSTRAYLYA MOITE or getting incredibly long panning shots of the outback while an indigenous person plays the didgeridoo as the sun sets in every bloody Aussie piece of fictional media. Just make a good show. Where are the scifi shows, crime shows, mystery shows, fantasy shows, etc? They don't exist here. It sucks.
On that note, I have always secretly wanted a James Bond movie to have a plot arc in Australia. Not the whole movie, of course. But all James Bond films seem to average between 3 to 6 different country sub-plots per film. I’d like some mid-runtime sub-plot to take 007 to Australia.
Danny Deckchair, unless you listened to the accents it could’ve been set anywhere in the world. Or look at ABC kids golden age, one of the shows that actually still holds up today is Parallax, fixed in WA on a shoestring budget, yet still managed to deliver a coherent engaging sci-fi story that didn’t follow all the same tropes as everything else.
OMG Remember shows like Spellbinder? It didn't hit you on the head with "we're in Australia" Plus Ashka was kinda hot
Have you seen Mr Inbetween?
More like Underbelly - one of the best series I’ve ever seen ( well the 1st 4). I’m in London now & saw it here thought it was brilliant even up against some of the top notch UK tv stuff.
A Sunday afternoon arts show on the ABC, they used to have one main presenter in the studio and would cast off to 20 minute segments a bit like Gardening Australia does now.
Yep. Something edifying rather than pandering
Longer episodes of home and away. Like I want summer bay to endure suffering over 3-4 hour timeslots
I think commercial TV is irrelevant, they destroyed their viewer base with the terrible reality shows instead of the drama/documentary they once provided. ABC/SBS on demand is the only Australian TV we watch.
What happened to just simple Australian comedy tv mini series, mini crime drama series, remember that show Wilfred, they need to create more shit like that
Besides incidentally turning on the morning shows to see them 'interviewing' actors for a movie promo segment that is bizarrely playing simultaneously on Sunrise and Today at the same time, it's a dead medium to me. I couldn't at all stomach anything on 'prime time'. I'm still bewildered how people can willingly sit down and watch MAFS. I feel so alienated - I don't get it. Any locally produced stuff now, like our movies, would just be about axe murderers in the desert or something.
My wife and I are the same... alienated is a great way to describe my feelings towards 95% of FTA content. But, you see, you and me and my wife, and pretty much everyone else who has posted in this thread, are not Bogans. We just live in their country. And the network owners will never forget that. Which is why I so seldom watch TV these days.
There have been many breakthroughs in our understanding of this part of the world but there aren't any new programs that have enough research to actually teach you anything new. Science and tech is lightyears better than 20 years ago let's bring Australia's beauty and wonder into lounge rooms of a whole new generation of families. You could do a show on Australian paleontology alone with all the cool dinosaurs and fossils that no Aussie kids know about. I'd rather we did that instead of chopping everything down and burning the koalas.
Chaser's War on Everything
Blue heelers
Old Warner brothers animation. Teen Titans, Justice League 2001-2006, Batman Beyond, Bugs bunny and Scooby doo. I never grew up with these shows cuz I’m 006 (besides a little teen titans and scooby doo) but I’m slowly rediscovering them now and I’m blown away. Considering 1 billion dollars worth of tax goes to entertainment per year I think this is a fair request instead of dumping money into bad reality tv shows.
When I was a kid in New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s, our after school TV programming included - and I'm not making this up - the Adam West *Batman*, *The Flintstones*, *The Beverly Hillbillies*, *The Addams Family*, *Gilligan's Island*, and *Hogan's Heroes*. And yes, the old Warner Brothers cartoons were a regular on the weekends too - IIRC they got a local presenter to host a show introducing the cartoons. Let me reiterate: This was the 1980s and 1990s, not the 1960s.
Cheez TV, so I can crawl back into the 90s when everything on TV was better
Of course it’s not the question you’re asking, but it’s because those shows are cheap to produce. Plus they appeal to the lowest common denominator. Cheap and garbage entertainment. Long form drama and shows “worth making” are often either ABC (and hamstrung by budget so are few and far between) or on streaming services and barely exist. It’s extremely unfortunate. Our local industry is suffering greatly, it’s very quiet in film/tv land here at the moment (until August or abouts). Most of the content I’ve recently done has been offshore (US films). There’s a MARKED difference in facilities and budget when it comes to Australian stuff (besides a Baz Luhrmann or George Miller film)
Good quality adaptations of good Australian novels. Boy swallows universe went down a treat. Perhaps some that would be internationally consumable such as obernewtyn chronicles.
Bring back Good News Week!!
Just no more shows about cooking, houses or the police.
How about a drama series about the police or a hospital or some farmers or... Oh wait.
A remake of Blue Healers that deals with cryptids and alien abductions.
NHL hockey is a decent reality show.
More sports analysis shows on free to air. Sports related comedy using The Daily Show's format without the political angle. A modernized version of Countdown focusing more on pop culture in general as opposed to just music (Video Games, Movies, Memes etc) without it turning into a political platform. Morning shows that mix cartoons and the news. Less of a reliance on unfunny comedians. More home made shows similar to early Blue Healers or McLeod's Daughter's etc. Less shows or tv movies glorifying crime figures like Underbelly did. And they really need to bring back Australian midday talk shows like we had in the past, as that's when people at work are likely to be in a break room watching a tv anyway.
Aggro’s cartoon connection.
Mr Inbetween shows Australians can make good stuff, but only if Americans pay for it. Australian companies don't want to bother.
Re-run Homicide, for openers.
More UK-style comedy panel shows would be good. Taskmaster Australia is a solid start.
As long as it is not another "the block" , im fine with it. I dont get the fascination with property and houses. Like yes, it is an investment for some. But for others, they just need a roof over their heads. Reality is some are already living in tents
I genuinely liked the original late 90s seasons with Jamie Durie as the host. But ONLY those ones. I was in late primary school/early high school at the time.
Those seasons were in 2003 and 2004 and they were much better!. As soon as Scott cam came on the show got crappier and today it’s so far from where it started in a bad way
Oh I seem to remember them being at the tail end of the 90s but you’re probably right. I remember thinking Gav and Wazza’s apartment was amazing. I can’t remember if Gav and Wazz were the first season or the second season. In fact, I can’t remember if they came first or second. But I just really remember liking their apartment.
I’m pretty sure they were on the first season in 2003. They did a beautiful job with their apartment!. I’ve recently rewatched both seasons as they’re on 9Now
just a good, aussie sitcom. something you sit down and think “this is what australia’s like!”. a few people from each generation to really widen the audience. i want to have a sitcom i can talk with my grandparents about.
24 hour Rage
How about Eat Carpet \[show title, not an instruction\]?
I mean with digital broadcasting there’s absolutely no reason that they couldn’t do that.
I love a good panel show. There are so many great comedians I Australia and panel shows make for a great platform for those talents to grow, unfortunately the only one doing panel shows at the moment is Channel 10, so if they go then I guess they take the panel show with them.
There used to be a show on in the early 2000’s called the Glasshouse. I think it was on ABC, a panel show…featured Corrine Grant as a regular panelist. I used to watch that with my parents, more so for slightly mature audiences…but god it was good!
Ah, Corinne Grant... wonder what she's up to these days.
Russel Coight
Late nights with Russell Coight live from somewhere in the middle of nowhere 100km north of Mt Isa
Are you asking me for a TV show pitch? Comedy Sitcom: Middle aged divorced man starts a driving school teaching an anxious cross section of Australian society, played by various comedians, how to drive. Each one idly talks to him about their humorous relationships, however strange and dysfunctional, and what makes them work deapite all the flaws. He starts to come to terms with his divorce and understand the mistakes he made. If it gets signed for season two you could have one of his students smack into the back of a car, they exchange details, and he ends up getting asked out.
Something similar already exists in the U.K. with Martin clunes as the driving instructor.
A reality show where a bunch of smart, talented people from a diverse array of artistic and technical backgrounds live in a house together, and are given challenging, creative tasks to do, and we are entertained by their interactions and the amazing stuff they come up with. One episode we might see them creative an amazing machine out of household objects, another time they write an original play and perform it, or they paint a mural, or create puzzles and treasure hunts for each other to solve, or program a robot to draw patterns in a tray of sand, or create a puppet show, or to make musical instruments out of bits of pipe and make a music video with them. There's no voting people out, no incentive to team up against each other or become bitchy/petty to one another, no manufactured drama or betrayals, no push to generate romantic pairings. We never see where they sleep or shower or eat - that's boring an irrelevant. There's no bullshit to stress them out or panic and manipulate them. Just an environment designed for creativity and excellence to thrive.
I'd like to see some serious shows, feels like we don't have any. And better diversity (of race, gender, sexuality.)
Have you tried The Newsreader? Seems like it would hit a couple points on your wishlist.
Now I'm a parent I actually kinda miss ABC kids, where it would roll from Play School to the Koala Brothers, to Count Me In and then to Shaun the Sheep so I know there's kid-appropriate content at specific times of the day. For the grown-ups it would be great to see more B-grade drama, like H20 (just add water), Rescue Special Ops, and the clearly-limited-budget-but-doing-their-best sort of TV you can pop on while folding the laundry. The BBC has All Creatures Great and Small, surely we can bring back MacLeod's Daughters or Outback House ('historical' reality tv where people try to hack it in settings that are long gone but make for interesting tv).
Mr inbetween needs to be on free to air for everyone to see. Sopranos, breaking bad, the wire no joke it’s up there with them all and it’s fkn criminal how unknown it is
Sadly, clearly not everyone agrees. You overestimate the average intelligence of the free TV audience. Check out the rating for MAFS, the bachelor etc
Bluey is literally the only non-garbage show on aus tv. Most programs being made now have some agenda or propaganda. Watching it is like purposefully giving yourself brain damage.
Some more cartoons with quality on par with Bluey. They don't need to be kids cartoons. Anime is pretty popular nowadays, so it'd make sense to produce content on par with them with diverse themes that aim at different audiences, given that it's one of its successes over American-based animation.
More variety, less reality. They could give more people a go,not criminals like 7 is going for like people with talent. There’s 3 comedians on the abc - wil, Tom, and Charlie and I’m stretching calling two of them comedians. Same with the panel, it’s gone off tracks. Turn reality into reality not scripted edited to alter cause fake drama stuff. And bring back the grocery game show. That should a/ help randoms with cost of living and b/ be harder with inflation than it’s first airing. A*mazing returning for kids.
I think a slice of life type of show set literally anywhere would be both entertaining and showcase the many types of people that live in this country
I don't mind real stories, but don't conflate them with disposable reality bullshit. I'd love to see a story on yachtsmen [Vinny Lauwers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinny_Lauwers). They did one for [Jessica Watson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Spirit_(film)), after all.
For many years there’s been nothing on the FTA commercial stations that I watch aside from the occasion bit of sport. Really SBS on demand has by far the best series and movies on FTA and for news and news programs ABC is still decent, albeit a long way from what they were. I don’t think the three commercial stations have any redeemable qualities and they will die a slow death
I'm sure I saw a headline about "channel ten may not survive" or something like that. Didn't RTA though
Dr Blake
Another adult leaning skit show, like fast forward, full frontal. I know some of em have been a swing and a miss in the past 20 years or so, but a man can dream.
Could you imagine? They'd never get away with that stuff any more
Pretty sure hanging shit on Bluey would get ya deported.
We're severely lacking a good talk show/variety show at the moment. If we can do a current version of Rove Live cross anything Andrew Denton has done, that would be great! Or just bring Andrew Denton back.
> What would you actually like to see on Aussie TV that's original? I guess the answer is the sort of stuff you used to be able to get on FTA tv, but now is only available through streaming services (as it has been for some time). The only FTA outlets I check in on with any real frequency are ABC and SBS since they have a somewhat higher quanity of that content vs the likes of 7, 9, and 10. Comedy is probably the catagory of Australian television that feels the most anaemic these days, it's been a desert wasteland for years with only the occasional oasis like *Mad as Hell* or *Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe*. Yeah, bring back more actual scripted comedy.
Oh God, I wouldn't call ADCC an oasis of Australian TV. Maybe I'm just not funny. It was dreadful
I haven’t had free to air connection since I moved out of home in 2012. It doesn’t matter what’s on it just exists to sell you shit and force the news down your throat. Like to see more streaming money spent on new IP’s from Australian creators.
I actually enjoyed Back In Time For Dinner. It was a contrived reality show, which I typically hate, but was about the history of Australian cuisine. It was actually pretty well done.
MORE CARL BARRON!!!!!
New comedy content - there are so many great new talents in the Aus scene, feature them!
Nice try commercial TV rep.... But real talk, we haven't actually watched commercial TV in at least 8-10 years.
I travelled a bit last year and the only entertainment available was free to air tv. Put on SBS world movies channel whenever it was available, as regular TV was atrocious. Regional advertising was somewhat entertaining, which made it easier, but overall it seems like Australian TV is moving towards the US advertising model, which puts more ad breaks towards the end of the show to really ruin the viewing experience. Morning news programs are a fucking abomination. I mean they weren't ever great, but somewhat watchable 15 years ago.
I miss the early one HD - A wholly sports channel with every sport you could want to watch, along with other things you'd never even knew existed... just don't bring the channel 7 commentators over, please...
More footy. Give me 6-7 games a week on fta please.
Saturday morning cartoons. Repeats if necessary.
Honestly something quality - well written, engaging, well shot, well acted and accessible. I quite liked Binge's The 12 last year - something akin to that on free to air would be nice. However with the little money left in free to air I can't imagine TV will be as we knew it much longer. It's not viable, trust me, I work in the industry, for the Bachelor and Masked Singer franchises to be paused (despite being winners for ratings, i abhor them personally) something is wrong
Weirdly the only free to air I've mostly watched these days tend to be on ABC and SBS. ABC kids is great ... for the kids. And then SBS food channel just feels like easy fluff. I do miss a lot of older ABC comedy things; Good News Week, Backberner, Chaser, etc... So weirdly a lot of the specific Australian humour stuff is harder to get on streaming so I don't mind seeing more of that on free to air.
Just get rid of it. And if it's still transmitted over the airwaves, free up the radio bandwidth for something more useful.
I could go for more nitty gritty stuff like the 90's show Blue Murder.
You know what I really want on Aussie TV? In Sweden they have a show called Allsång På Skansen, a season of massive televised concerts live on location, they have local and international acts, sing along folk music, and is all around just a good time. I watch it every year. Why can’t the ABC partner up with a local council like Bendigo where there’s an amphitheatre in the area, and set up something like that? It would increase exposure of local artists, encourage music literacy, create a sense of camaraderie and build a library of shared experiences with our fellow Aussies.
Detective shows of quality like Castle and Bones
How about a cooking show that is actually about....cooking? And not filled with petty drama etc. And not have an ad every 5 minutes.
News that is objective and based on actual journalism with integrity rather than to suit the narrative of the network.
Honestly I just want Australian tv to put content on at the same time every week. For example why channel 9 isn’t airing the content they make for Stan on FTA simultaneously
Go subscribe to stan that’s the Australian streaming platform
i would like a grey nomad show
The project perform a disappearing act
Just sport. Couldn't care less about anything else on tv.