Despite audio glitch and Twitter hate, Cops LAC still rates for Nine

watched a few seconds…. The only good thing on last night was Heston on sbs. Such a good show!

C’mon it was catchy and we should be supporitng Aussie dramas and actors.

What were Channel 9 thinking? The Martin dingel wall guy was way too wooden, can’t act and Kate Ritchie looked like a stepford wife.
This show is lame, terribly acted and the writing atrocious. I wont be watching this garbage next week. From a person who has come from a family of REAL Detectives, this show is so far removed from real day life.
This show will not be sticking around the prime time slot. The show needs to go to where all the other hideous Nine shows go…..
Channel 9, if you want to put on a really good cop show, give it an ORIGINAL name, employ good writers, people who can act (preferably ones who have not been living in a botox clinic).

OMG what a disaster…..reckon this show is gone already. Got through 20 mins and changed channels – is this country so depleted of talent? Is that the best they can do? And Gary Sweet in yet another cop show…..pullllllease! Come on Channel 9, spare your loyal viewers and remove it. Put it on GO! or something. It’s terrible. MArtin Dingal Well was like watching a Mannequin in David Jones. Sorry, won’t be tuning in again. Life’s too short to watch bad tv

What a waste of time watching that. The acting was very bad …who told some of those people they could act and who was the tool who gave them a job.
The costumes are a joke and so is the writing. This gives Amateur a bad name! Why doesn’t Channel Nine just run a test pattern……far more entertaining and far more colourful. Sorry guys this doesn’t float my boat and think Channel Nine have more money than sense. I looked up ratings…..it came in fourth place from the figures I saw. So even with the hype, advertising and publicity……fourth place aint where a brand new show should be.

I was gonna not say something but can’t help myself by saying COPS LAC is crap.

And Kate Richie’s outfit????? WTF…..plain clothes detective? WTF? What about the bird who lost her hat…..was probably the wardrobe department and they wrote it in cause she never wore it again in the show and something Police don’t do.

That show would make a glass eye go to sleep

Our newest Aussie cop show premiered with 1.1 million viewers but watch it sink like a stone over the next few weeks because it truly is terrible. “There’s More to Gary Sweet/Kate Ritchie/Denise Roberts/Roy Billing Than You Know” scream the taglines on expensive newspaper ads and bus posters everywhere but guess what folks – there’s nothing more to know about any of these great actors as they are wasted in a boring cheap cliched disaster.

Reverse DNS Lookup the IP address and see if you can get a domain name out of it.

Busy household then. Was waiting for the rival channel plug…

didn’t see it, but we used to have good shows

– Skyways

– Cop Shop

– Breakers 🙂

Come on, really:
Gary Sweet again????
Vince Colosimo again????
I wonder if the rumor is true that if there were no ethnic roles in TV and film here he would be driving a taxi or, actually working for a living
Oh look, half the cast from all of the Underbelly’s, East West 101, Rush and Rescue Spec Ops.
Pity Don Hany is not in this – He might have lifted it to something approaching credible
Seriously, what is Kate Richie doing in this, or any show?
I’m sure if I look hard enough I’ll find McCune or Dimetriades lurking around there somewhere.
Is there a talent drought in Australia, or have NIDA, WAAPA, VCA, ect, just stopped churning out actors?
Lets see some fresh faces for a change.

Early this year I approached Channel Nine with a suggestion to revive their successful DIVISION FOUR – based on uniformed and plain clothes cops in a suburban police station. (For the record I have produced 500 hours of drama including the Emmy winner A TOWN LIKE ALICE. I produced three of the four most watched dramas on OZ TV in the 20th century). No-one had the courtesy to respond but mysteriously they came up with Cops LAC in-house! These people have no integrity, nor do they have the experience in-house to make this stuff. You just can’t rely on gratuitous action and tired ‘formula’ casting. Ritchie and Sweet, yet again. God help us. The brains trust at Nine just don’t know how to do, and one wonders how some keep their jobs with such poor track records which include abominations like THE STRIP. In the circumstances I do get a sort of satisfaction out of seeing the audience rushing for the door.

Henry, bravo. I grew up on Crawford produced shows and I had been wondering when or if some of iconic earlier shows would see the light of day again. Why stop at Div 4? Why not Cop Shop, Homicide, Number 96? All firm early life favourites – I’m only 40. Henry, as a developing actor with some involvement thus far in other, lesser police (Rush, Rescue Spec Ops) dramas, I very much hope you will persist with this and hopefully a network (even SBS, on a winner with Wast West 101)) will see the wisdom in resurrection of such a show. I for one would certainly love to appear in it and I know which character I would love to be! Just dont make it “too modern” as I loved the old world feeling of the original. Best of luck Henry and many thanks for your work thus far!

Nice to get some positive feedback Steve, thanks. Alas, the new guard (who oversee the current crap we see), don’t give the old guard much time of day. That, in part, is why we see such monumental failures. They think that gratuitous action solves everything but the more enlightened of us know that it’s all about character. In turn, that gets back to the casting, so you can’t just pull Logie winners out of a hat and hope that they will work in a new format. I feel qualified to make these observations with a background of having cast something like 9000 roles in TV drama, and script edited about 300 hours. Yet people like me can’t get a look in with the Networks.

Good luck with your acting career. It isn’t an easy road (I started my show business life as an actor – with Michael Caton in Brisbane!). Hang on in there and do as many classes as you can. Every bit helps.

Hi Henry, if it really is you. You make mention of “tired formula casting” and that’s fair enough, as it really does seem that there is a “cartel” of a dozen or so actors (term used sparingly for some) who seem to monopolize featured roles in pretty much all film and TV work here in the East and in the West too, for those rare times something is actually produced in Perth. But if you were to set a new standard of production would you too actually seek out new, or not so well known talent – of all ages – or just revert to the populist pap that passes for talent these days? I know it’s easy to just get on the phone to RGM or EGO or Shanahans and get hold of Sweet, Colosimo, McClune (god help us) Phelps, ect, ect ,ect, you know what I mean. A lot of these folks appeared in your earlier shows too. Given there is probably a gold mine of talent – trained or not, represented or freelance – who simply cant get that foot in the door, or get noticed or possess the industry contact to get that interview with the “Surrey Hills” agents, I wonder would you go out of your way to find these new people and give us respite from the tired hacks that infest the screens now? Such an approach and attitude would motivate and encourage many others to pursue this wonderful career, as it is obvious there are simply not enough good people out there willing to give this a try, and what there is, bar a select very few, are not up to the grade, if ever they were. I hope you succeed Henry, the TV industry her need a massive shake-up and new direction.

Looks like a lively topic, and I was not aware of the level of dissatisfaction in the current state of things and have never seen live conversation popping up in from of me here. Looks like all concerned have the same opinion, and that is TV production here is OZ has lost it’s way, is dominated by those with really no clue about well written, well produced, acted and structured drama, and the faces and voices we are subjected too, time and again, seem to be cast not their actual talent or ability, but due to some “populist” notion (as mentioned above) and the belief by the exec’s that these are the people we want to see, yet again. Who know, perhaps these people come cheap on purpose, so they are assured of a look in. I cant say much but i hope those involved will see the light and start to look to other sources for their talent, as I see little hope for prosperity in the future. PS, does anyone know if the (AWFUL, PITIFUL) COPS LAC is to come back for series 2, or die the death it deserves?

Yes Bobby – ’tis moi. As a casting director I used to audition on average 200 aspirants a month. Long before your time, I suspect, I brought many to the screen. Paul Cronin, for example, was the manager of engineering works when I found him and cast him as the motor cycle cop in Matlock Police. Jon English was known as a rock singer only when I cast him as the male lead in the world’s first miniseries, AGAINST THE WIND. Bryan Brown had only done one small role film (ATW also) when I cast him as the lead in my Emmy winner A TOWN LIKE ALICE. Lorraine Bayley had only done Playschool when I put her in THE SULLIVANS. Many more examples – too much to go into here. But it interesting to note that I had to FIGHT HARD to get Network approval for Paul and Lorraine in Sullivans. Likewise Bryan B in Alice for ‘he was an unknown’. It’s even tougher these days where independent producers have to get signoff from a network executive for all creative aspects of a show. I doubt now I would get these castings approved. To amplify matters some of these execs have little true judgement. I guess that’s why you end up with an bilious tasting rainbow cake, for there are too many cooks. Often when you try and please everyone, you please nobody.

I wouldn’t worry too much Sarah, with an audience of only 700k and diminishing, the Court of Public Opinion will ensure that Cops Load of Crap (wish I’d thought of that!) ends up in a drawer in the morgue alongside Nine’s illustrious THE STRIP. A cursory postmortem will show there is a common denominator.

Whoever thinks you need a Surrey Hills agent to further your career is probably missing the point of the need for an agent, or what they do, in the first place.
Surrey Hills is just a place – You all know where it is if you are involved or interested in the industry – that does indeed represent a quantity of well and better known actors, performers, presenters, whatever. That does not mean they are they elite of the industry and you would be surprised to learn just how many of those actors represented are among the “cartel” we are so over. Shanahans, a smaller boutique agency in SH typically only represents actors who live and work locally and have no real claim to being exclusive or elite as some would like to extoll. Still, great little agency and ACB and the ladies get the job done for their clients – maybe a little to well done as we are the ones who have to see these actors again and again. I hear Shanahans book are to open briefly in the near future, if not already, in order to receive submissions for representation from established and aspiring actors, so if you are looking for representation by a good crew check them out. Just remember, every actors agent in the country get the same casting brief, so it doesn’t really matter who you are with as your chance is pretty much equal. Some will ay that is too simplistic and perhaps naive but I do have some fath in that system.

For what it’s worth AGENCY made no difference in my many casting decisions. At the end of the day it’s about talent and performance, not who represents. The agent only came into play for negotiation – not opening a door.