The Librarians: big in Mongolia
The third series of The Librarians is bigger than its predecessors. Miguel Gonzalez visited the Melbourne set of the cult ABC comedy.
Most of the time, the Melbourne Showgrounds are an exhibition and functions venue, but occasionally, they are also the home of the Middleton Interactive Learning Centre and her manager, head librarian Frances O’Brien. ABC TV’s comedy The Librarians – launched in 2007 – was originally shot at an old car dealership in Melbourne, but people kept trying to come in thinking it was a real library. Taking advantage of the fire that destroyed the original library in the first series, the show moved during its second season to building 13 at the Showgrounds, a much more private and spacious location.
Gristmill’s Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope – wearing their writing, producing and acting hats as Frances and her husband Terry – pitched the ABC their idea for a third series just as the second was about to go to air.
“We said to [ABC head of comedy] Debbie Lee, ‘If we’re going to do it, there’s no point in doing it in two years time because the audience would have possibly drifted,” explained Hope.
“We still thought that more life was to be had out of this show. We eventually made the decision based on when the Showgrounds location was available, and there was only a seven-week window,” added Butler.
The eight-week shoot was divided into two blocks: four weeks at the ‘library’, and four at locations in and around Melbourne – including a dance audition in a theatre, two weddings (one at the top of a cliff) and a scene at a crematorium.
“Since we only had four weeks shooting time at the Showgrounds, we had to write a lot of locations in, more than in previous years,” explained Butler.
This year, the number of episodes has increased from six to eight, with a “slightly” extended budget as a result. “Eight is the new six,” said Hope.
“There was a moment as the construction boys were building this set when I thought ‘we’re not doing six again, it’s stupid; it’s a lot of work for six episodes. Eight is fine, in terms of production and storytelling,” explained Butler.
The extension also allowed Hope, who had directed all previous 12 episodes, to share the responsibility with Tony Martin.
“We wanted to work with him in some way, and we knew there was a bigger storyline for [my character] Terry, so we called him to do two episodes,” explained Hope.
“They’re not self-contained episodes; it’s one long storyline, like a movie that has eight reels and they all have to match,” said Martin. “I know how Wayne and Robin think, so it’s not about coming from the outside to do two episodes and leave. I started during pre-production, so by the time we got to my episodes (five and eight), I knew how they do it and everyone was used to me being around.”
The location has a huge glass front, as seen on the show. The second series was shot during summer, but the third had to be shot during the winter, when, according to DOP Darrell Martin (new to this
production), “the light is different and at particular times the sun comes in from angles you don’t want. We’re losing daylight at 5pm, so we’ve been shooting a lot of day scenes at night”.
“But the light is funnier in winter,” said Hope.
“If I look at my favourite comedy films and ask myself ‘what do they look like?’ I can’t remember; all I remember is it’s a funny film.
“That been said, in comedy it is paramount to see the faces; this is not the show to start trying out your film noir lighting. It’s about flexibility and trying to get as much coverage as possible. It should look like it just happened and you’re just a fly on the wall,” explained Martin, who used the Sony HDW-F900 on this series.
HEAVY ON JOKES
In series three, Frances and her team are told they have to turn a profit, so they open a video club in the library’s facilities. It’s Butler and Hope’s way to express their “old leftie beliefs”.
“In reality, kids are being brought up by sponsorship left right and centre. In the story, it allows us to keep the overall library storyline, as well as something to battle against, and privatisation felt like an obvious thing to draw upon, pushing it to the extreme” said Butler.
“You couldn’t really privatise a library, but it’s a nice idea to think that you could go that far. One of the reasons why it’s hasn’t happened it’s because libraries service too many sections of the community, but it’s a nice comic idea,” said Hope.
The day Encore visited the set the team was shooting one of the very last scenes in the series, resolving a storyline involving an enormous amount of canned tuna which was in possession of the O’Briens. Life is not easy for the neurotic and intolerant protagonist, who this year faces two main antagonists: a government official played by Angus Sampson, and her own mother (Victoria Eager).
Additionally, her husband Terry takes his long-service leave to reform his Midnight Oil tribute band (“it’s allowed us to get heavier on music this series; it hasn’t turned into Glee, but very close,” said Hope).
According to Butler, the writing process has become easier because she can now create stories and lines for the characters based on the actors’ interpretation, and expand on what the audience already knows about the Middleton librarians.
“We’re trying to explain Frances and why she is the way she is. We’re showing her as a mother in a more realised way than we’d seen her before, and we’re making her more vulnerable,” explained Butler. “It was a natural place to go. Who made Frances, what stock is she from? We go into her world and show this rather horrible mother figure and present her as the root of all the evil.”
Although a mother from hell might sound dark, the creatives have actually tried to make the show “funnier”.
“This series is joke-heavy, and that was a real emphasis. We realised we had a very strong audience, a big fan base that really like our work. I don’t think it’s a change of tone; it’s just really pushing forward in an area. A lot of comedies aren’t as joke-based, and we decided we wanted to tell jokes, and we can do that now that we have very strong characters,” explained Butler. “Frances finally made a good joke in episode six. It is quite a big scene; she made a good joke and got hit by a rock.”
“Yeah, that went badly,” Hope joked.
BIG IN MONGOLIA
The show was been sold to a number of European territories, with a particularly outstanding performance in Ireland that saw the broadcaster requesting the “making of” documentary from the DVD to put it to air. It has also aired in Mongolia.
“I’d love to get the dub of that version,” admitted Hope.
“Seriously, we’re big in Mongolia,” added Butler.
There has been international interest in the format of this show. According to Hope, one of the reasons is that it’s one of very few comedy shows with a female protagonist, making it an ideal choice for pay TV channels focusing on a female audience.
Will there be more Librarians? The pair gave Encore a ‘maybe’: “There’s a sense of completion in this series, a sense of finality. All the stories are resolved. You could leave it there, but in the world of sitcom, you can always come back. The characters might have things that change in their lives but essentially, they don’t change.”
The Librarians starts October 13 at 8:30 on ABC1.
This is the very first episode:
Yeah..big in Mongolia…and boring as all hell here. Who is the target audience? My Mother hates it, my girlfriend hates it, all my friends actually groan when its mentioned, so why all the back slapping? Is it the best script out of a shit bunch?
Who cares?
User ID not verified.
I love The Librarian. And so does my partner and my daughter and several of my colleagues. It’s a great light heatred laugh for the middle of the week. Sometimes Fran is so honest she makes me squirm. Maybe it cuts too close to the bone for you Tom?
User ID not verified.
No Mich,
“The Office” cuts close to the bone, this is just your same old contrived shite that people like yourself has come to think of as engaging and entertaining drivel, because we seem not to be able to make anything else, the problem is studios want unoffensive dribble that offends nobody, is impartial and is usually watered down by layers of producers and script editors who know nothing about comedy or how to write it, the characters of the Librarians are cardboard cut outs of characters that seem funny on the page and translate into one dimensional on the screen, predictable writing going nowhere interesting..”its a great light hearted laugh” generated by characters I can’t sympathize with nor care one bit whats happens to any of them..in short boring an unoriginal…the comedy just falls flat…I tried watching it the another night..bored me senseless, I turned and looked at paint flaking off the wall next to me..had me in stitches compared to this Librarians bollocks
The English do it well…we…we just really suck when it comes to comedy and I don’t know why..sometimes we hit it, but very rarely…I think producers, bad writers and bad script editing are to blame
User ID not verified.
Terrible script. OK characters/comedic acting.
Couldn’t watch more than 2 episodes.
User ID not verified.
Thanks Sam G…I mean how could this show get the green light for how many seasons? I am yet to meet anybody who it actually appeals to…just like Bed of Roses and so much stuff thats been produced on the ABC and I think…”Who is into this?” my parents hate it, my friends hate it, so who likes it and why do they keep making it? Why do Producers keep producing stuff that is so on the nose and when somebody comes along and says “I don’t like it” the automatic response…”you just don’t get it”..what I get is that I have given up thinking that anything dramatic or comedic produced in Australia, is going to appeal to me or most of the other people I know. I mean lets be honest…when most of the people you know just roll their collective eyes and groan when Australian content is mentioned…you know something is really really wrong with an industry hell bent on continuing to use the same old people to recycle the same old ideas over and over again with the constant mantra “You just don’t get it”…I get that this industry doesn’t get that their audience is a hell of a lot more intelligent than what they give us credit.
Terrible scripts, contrived bollocks..could never watch more than ten minutes
User ID not verified.
Tom you are just so spot on. It’s baffling why the programme commissioners at the ABC are so enamoured with this talentless pair. I honestly don’t know anyone who finds them funny.
User ID not verified.
Have you met the people who commission at the ABC? Then you will understand why this boring tripe is trotted out over and over and over and over again. After I watched an episode I felt like I’d been sodomised by the banality stick. Isn’t it time we privatised the ABC!
User ID not verified.
Nice one Suzanne….what is going on at the ABC?..Bed of Roses…the Librarians, why are we told something is “Outrageously Funny” when it isn’t,. here’s an idea for the ABC..you want to make comedy…go an intern at the BBC or Channel 4, or go through the BBC library and watch some of what they produced over the years, maybe hire somebody like Sean Locke, get him to come out here and help our writers write a show that is actually funny!! How can anybody at the ABC honestly stand up and say “We got it right with the Librarians” I don’t know one person who likes it, from a very wide demographic…so if a wide demographic doesn’t like it…WHY KEEP MAKING IT? WHY? One day I’d like an answer…as a creative nation..we are in the toilet. When you play it safe , you’re always going to lose…everything we produce on TV is so banal and safe…and BORING!!!!!
User ID not verified.
Why indeed, Jim, WHY?? Sadly the ABC these days is like a bad swingers party in Haberfield – the only people they get to play with are themselves – and no happy endings.
Don’t know Sean Locke – will check him out.
User ID not verified.
I cringe even when I see the ads for this show.
User ID not verified.
Hey suzanne check out sean lockes tv series 15 storeys high.
User ID not verified.
15 stories high, comedy gold..of course never shown here on the ABC or any other channel that I can remember, but I might be wrong. In terms of how that show was shot, predominately in a studio and other external locations, the writing is brilliant and the show is a great character study by Sean Locke…I’m serious ABC hire this man, bring him out here get him on as a staff writer/producer…this man has real wit and a great sense of the absurd, something that just comes across as contrived bollocks and quirky with show’s like the Librarians..you can purchase it here for nine pounds plus postage http://www.amazon.co.uk/15-Sto.....B000LRYT9K
enjoy..especially the Blue Rat episode and you can see a sample of that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG3p5KHySMg
User ID not verified.
Thanks for the heads up – I’ve been watching 15 Storeys High on youtube – am going to buy the dvd! Brutal!!
User ID not verified.