The Chaser’s Reucassel: We’ve done nothing with production house Will O’Rourke (and I’d kill ACA and Today Tonight if I could)
http://youtu.be/O8p4rIm2tSw
Despite a fanfare around The Chaser’s involvement in ad production house Will O’Rourke when it launched a year ago, the team has “done nothing” with the company so far, Craig Reucassel has revealed.
In an interview with Mumbrella to promote the Chaser’s new project The Hamster Wheel, Reucassel said the venture had not worked out as planned.
In the launch of Will O’Rourke, Reucassel and fellow Chaser team members Julian Morrow and Dominic Knight were announced as being responsible for writing and broadcast entertainment at the production house.
But in an interview with Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes, Reucassel said: “As it stands we’ve done nothing with Will O’Rourke. The concept is interesting about bringing together different people from different groups to work together but the reality still is yet to be seen because you do work in different areas.”
He added: “Generally speaking when an advertising idea comes up we tend to critique the advertising rather than do it so we haven’t really necessarily worked that way. As yet, we don’t have any influence on the world of advertising, thankfully.”
(4.40pm update: Will O’Rourke points out that although Craig Reucassel hasn’t been involved yet, the company has collaborated with Julian Morrow on TEDx Sydney and still has ambitions to work with the Chaser team on other projects.)
The team behind The Chaser’s War on Everything will launch new show The Hamster Wheel next week on ABC1 where the media will be the topic of critique.
When asked what shows he would cancel if he could, Reucassel said Today Tonight and A Current Affair would get the chop.
“Current Affair and Today Tonight have no value whatsoever. Twenty years ago they were news programs, they are not in any way now. So they’ve got rid of all the news on those shows and now those shows are taking over the news as well. Long term that’s bad because our news is going to be about how to get rid of germs in your kitchen, and that’s not good.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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love the Chaser and Reucassel in particular but after the comments about TV v advertising work you have to wonder how they felt being named in the Will O’Rourke announcement …
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Totally agree with Craig on the lack of value in TT and ACA. Two useless programs that are peddling misinformation and untruths to those in society who are not able to think critically, or who are easily duped. And the contamination of the real news with these infomercials and consumer stories is just going to dumb down the population more.
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Great news about the new series. With Mr rAbbott ahead in the polls because of the all the sewerage the Murdoch gutter press has thrown for him, it’s past time the ABC made amends for At Home With Julia and got with the program. Signing up Grog’s Gamut for Wheel is a real coup.
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