Why can’t anyone but the ABC make an Aussie sitcom work?
Every decade or so, an Australian commercial TV network decides to completely throw out the rule book and attempt something absolutely crazy, an insane experience on their viewers that finds them wildly wading into the vast unknown. They commission an Australian sitcom.
This decade, it’s Ten’s turn, and instead of going with a completely unproven concept, they’ve sensibly opted to adapt the hugely popular BBC comedy, Ghosts, which wrapped its five-season run last Christmas with a finale that was the most-watched British comedy show of the year, pulling over 6 million Brits. It has also been successfully adapted for the US by CBS, with German and French versions also in production.
The US version of Ghosts aired in Australia on both Paramount+ and Ten, which helped them quantify the commissioning of a local version. Daniel Monaghan, Paramount ANZ’s senior vice president of content and programming, told Mumbrella last week after announcing the new show that “we’ve had the benefit of seeing how well the US series has done on Paramount Plus and how well it’s done on 10 – and it just felt like it was right – the Australian version was the right thing to do”.
Outside of the free-to-air channels, Prime Video is also having a swing at a sitcom this year, commissioning the lucky 13th international version of The Office, also originally a BBC production, with the fresh twist of building the Australian series around a female boss, played by Felicity Ward.
But, outside of two local adaptations of proven BBC properties, there’s scant little out there, as the Brits would say.
Now, for the sake of clarity, let’s define a sitcom. Technically speaking it’s a show revolving around a central cast, where the comedy (com) occurs in a consistent setting or situation (sit), such as a city office, a family home, or a quirky small town.
Traditionally, they were defined by a few factors: a live audience or canned laughter track, and a multi-camera set-up. As time has passed, the term has broadened to include single-camera shows without canned laughter, such as Arrested Development, or indeed, The Office.
Given Australian TV’s usual reliance on the tried and tested formats that drive reliable ratings in both the US and the UK – reality TV shows based around food or fake tans; shiny floor entertainment shows; procedurals set in police stations or hospitals – why is it that the ABC is the only Australian network consistently developing sitcoms?
It’s not like they are the only ones having success in a field filled with contenders, either – they seem to be the only network actively commissioning and/or airing Australian sitcoms.
I’m not even talking recently – but for the past quarter-century and even stretching back further. Seriously, stop reading and search your cerebral cortex for an Australian sitcom that aired on Ten, Seven or Nine after the turn of the century.
Welcome back.
The most recent Aussie sitcom success from the commercial networks was a single season of Kath and Kim, which Seven nabbed from the ABC after three seasons and countless merchandise tie-ins. This was in 2007. What else has there been? Do we really need to stretch back to the 1990s, when Hey, Dad! and Acropolis Now were on Seven, and All Together Now and The Bob Morrison Show was on Nine? It would seem so.
So, why aren’t the commercial networks interested in launching local sitcoms? Maybe attempts are happening behind closed doors – with commissions that never get out of development hell, or stall at an unfunny pilot. After all, Monaghan told me last week, “everyone’s been trying to get a comedy right,” noting that “our competitors had success with Colin from Accounts”.
Ah yes, Colin From Accounts. This was an even rarer beast when it debuted on Foxtel last year: an Australian TV rom-com. And not only this, but an internationally successful Aussie rom-com.
How did this happen? Well, according to co-creators, co-stars, and co-inhabitants Harriett Dyer and Patrick Brammall, it was an accident. They just tried to write a funny show they could star in together, and it came out the other side as a romantic comedy.
“We didn’t set out to do it,” Brammall told Mumbrella. “We conceived of an idea, which was, you know, a relationship comedy. We wanted it to be funny, and a relationship – you know, ‘cos we’re actors by trade – it’s something we could do opposite each other.
“And then, it was only really after we’d fleshed out the idea, and written the pilot, we started pitching it. We pitched it as a rom-com because we did a bit of research and realised that Australia had never produced a TV rom-com. And so we went, ‘Oh, this is a first, you know, a bit of a selling point.'”
Dyer admits this was “helpful in the pitches”, which seems counter initiative, given the lack of a track record for this genre in Australia.
You’d have to look back to ABC show Seachange in the late ’90s to find a legitimately successful Australian rom-com – and even this definition is a stretch (Nine tried to reboot it in 2019, but the magic – and David Wenham – was missing).
Alison Hurbert-Burns is Foxtel Group’s executive director of entertainment content and commissioning, meaning she green lights local shows, looks to buy overseas content, and takes Foxtel productions to market in an attempt to sell them overseas.
“We’re always meeting with commissioners and the equivalent roles at all of the major platforms,” she told Mumbrella a few months ago. “And I’m a big believer that all boats rise. So when something cuts through, like when Colin really had its moment in the UK, we were at the next markets at Nipcom and Content London, and people are like, ‘Comedy! Australia! Oh my God!’
“And then [ABC show] Fisk does well on Netflix. And then all of a sudden people are really looking at [dark noir Prime Video comedy] Deadloch”.
Hurbert-Burns believes Australian television is having a moment, internationally.
“I think it’s the stage we are in the streaming cycle where all platforms are challenged and are having to look at different ways of getting great content onto their platforms,” she reasoned, noting the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike helped this along further.
So maybe it just hasn’t been the right time for the humble Australian sitcom to shine before.
After all, the time-honoured tradition of scooping up a bunch of American shows and hoping the next Friends or Big Bang Theory is sitting in your net has worked fine, so far. It’s certainly less risky than commissioning an entirely new series.
But the landscape has changed. It’s no longer Ten vs Seven vs Nine. It’s the old free-to-air networks battling with Netflix, and Amazon, and Disney, and also Playstation and TikTok and YouTube and the entire history of televised programming. And books and art galleries (just kidding!).
Ten is focusing on comedy in 2025. Sure, they may only have one sitcom at the moment, but they have a huge stable of comedians under contract – everyone from improv master Ed Kavalee to quick wit Melanie Bracewell, plus the power of Working Dog Productions in their corner. Working Dog currently makes scripted comedy Utopia for – do I need to say it – the ABC.
They also created Frontline, roundly considered the best Australian scripted comedy series of all time, and The Castle – which could make a strong case for the best Australian scripted comedy film of all time. If Ghosts Australia is a success, Ten needn’t look too far for its next sitcom commission.
And once they have a bunch of successful sitcoms, Seven and Nine may start paying attention and launch their own sitcoms, and we’ll suddenly find the freshest new thing on Australian TV is a one-line premise, an ensemble cast of comedians we half-recognise, and a script heavy on laughs and light on drama.
It’s been a tough decade and we’re not even halfway through. Maybe it’s time to add a laugh track, and see if it becomes contagious.
Enjoy your weekend.
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
topics
ABC
Colin From Accounts
Foxtel
ghosts australia
Nine
Prime Video
SBS
sitcom
Ten
The Office Australia
The Brits simply know how to be bold and inventive with their SitComs. The classic stuff like Allo Allo, Black Adder, Faulty Towers, Red Dwarf and Yes Minister were all very unique concept driven shows.
Even the more modern post 2000s UK shows like Peep Show, The IT Crowd, Extras, The Inbetweeners and Toast of London don’t hold back and allow the writers to be inventive and push the boundaries. The Office was this when it first launched. Now it’s just become the norm, with most modern sitcoms aping it’s style. Some brilliantly like the US made 30 Rock, Parks and Rec and of course the US Office and others not so well.
The best Aussie sitcom at the moment is Utopia and you could almost not even call that satirical comedy, because it’s so close to the reality of working for public service. Once again though, Utopia is a concept series and it’s also the spiritual follow up to one of Australia’s best, Frontline.
User ID not verified.
There was also Fam Time which was buried on 7Plus
User ID not verified.
While I agree, sitcoms on commercial networks have been few and far between this century, there are a couple that came quickly to mind for me, and I reckon there’d be at least a couple more.
Here Come the Habibs had two seasons on Channel Nine in 2016-17.
Peter Helliar’s How to Stay Married had three seasons on Channel Ten between 2018-2021.
While that one is a spin off from an ABC production, it’s still a credit to Ten that they gave it three seasons. How quickly we forget!
User ID not verified.
Strictly speaking rom-com is drama. It must resolve, therefore, conclude, bringing hoped-for and audience-satisfying transformation, usually for the male of the couple. This kind of fun for audiences is best suited to a movie or a very short series. An extended series like Colin From Accounts has already evolved into sit-com. It is almost too late to compete the rom-com cycle, which according to the conventions must end with a final scene known in the trade as Wedding Bells – and even with a contemporary take on relationship manners such as The 40 Year Old Virgin, they couldn’t avoid the conventions with their wacky/cynical take on Wedding Bells. Same goes for The Silver Linings Playbook – a rom-com between a couple under psychiatric treatment, whose loving family and friends arrange the Wedding Bells.
User ID not verified.
Have your say