The HA! Guide to Reality TV, Australian Style – Part 2
February 15th 2007 14:18
Now for the conclusion to the HA! Guide to Reality TV, Australian Style…
Dr Larry Wren from Larry’s Practice fame makes his much awaited return to television in a 3 part series called When Family Pets Go Mad. Follow the good Doctor to all parts of our wonderful country as he encounters the wacky world of pet lovers whose beloved creatures are touched by the dreaded insanity bug.
Watch as Roger, an aging Doberman Pincher, sets fire to his kennel so that he can barbeque his Pal Meaty Bites only to perish in the flames as he chases a ball that Dr Larry kicks inadvertently into the direction of the fire. We have all seen and loved Babe, the pig that thought it was a dog, but wait till you see Richard, the goat that thought it was a galah. We follow Richard in amazement as he scales a lofty Eucalyptus tree only to watch in horror as he tries to unsuccessfully fly off plummeting into the ground below, centimeters away from the outstretched hands of the Doctor.
Continuing in the style of the Survivor series, a group of young families star in a new series called Shopping Centre Marathon. Families Robertson, Chan, Poulos, Ahmed and Heath are forced to spend the entire day at an undisclosed shopping center on a budget of $50 as they vie to be the last family left and win shopper-dockets which including a 2 for 1 meal at La Italiano BYO restaurant.
The drama begins from the opening credits as the Ahmed family is plunged into chaos when Abdul accidentally locks his young family of seven in his work-van. Watch in fear as he frantically searches his pocket for his keys not realising that they were on the roof of the van all along after he placed them there so that he could set up the stroller. He quickly resigns to the fact that his family cannot win and spends the rest of the morning waiting for the NRMA to turn up and set them free.
This gripping series has all the tension and high drama of what we have come to expect from this genre including a heated argument between two of the families as they both try and claim the only free table in the Food Hall during lunchtime. If it wasn’t for the Heath family vacating their table so that young Aaron can go to the little boys room as they were about to start their meal, the situation was about to get quite nasty.
Nerves begin to fray even further after the Robertson family self-destructs under the bombardment of ‘can we go home now?’s from young Jessica causing Mr Robertson to veer out of control and head down a row of shops that they had already seen earlier that morning.
As the other families around them self-destruct under the pressure of maneuvering through an endless sea of bustling shoppers, one family miraculously makes it to the end. Watch out for the moment when the news they have won is broken to them. ‘I’m totally shocked’ says the mother accepting her shopper dockets whilst waiting in line at the supermarket, ‘I didn’t even realise that we had started. We’ve been stuck in this bloody queue all day!’
Finally, the long awaited debut of This Could Have Been Your Life has been postponed once again after a freakish accident to its host. The show was to be based on the classic This Is Your Life and honours Australians who have not amounted to anything but perhaps could have done a lot better had they applied themselves.
The freakish accident happened when honouring Val Newton a recent widow and grandmother of three. Val had resisted the temptation to share her pumpkin scone recipe by sending it into the Womens Weekly for years only to end up losing the piece of paper she had written it on.
Host, Simon Townsend, who admits that ironically he too could have been the host of the original series had he bothered to audition, was nearly blinded when meeting Val for the first time. In an effort to surprise her, Simon and his team broke into her Greystanes home in the middle of the night and proceeded to wake her while sound asleep. As the unsuspecting Val was awoken, she mistook the production crew as a visit from her late husband. ‘Murray? Is that you? Have you seen my Pumpkin recipe?’ she asked repeatedly until she was overcome by panic and attacked Simon with a spray of mace which she kept by her side incase of burglars.
Regardless of your taste for television there is something here for everyone. So why don’t you sit back, settle in and live your life this springtime through your TV set.
NOTE: The author can be seen writing this article in a new series called When Writers Block Sets In to be aired Monday nights on Channel 7.
Dr Larry Wren from Larry’s Practice fame makes his much awaited return to television in a 3 part series called When Family Pets Go Mad. Follow the good Doctor to all parts of our wonderful country as he encounters the wacky world of pet lovers whose beloved creatures are touched by the dreaded insanity bug.
Watch as Roger, an aging Doberman Pincher, sets fire to his kennel so that he can barbeque his Pal Meaty Bites only to perish in the flames as he chases a ball that Dr Larry kicks inadvertently into the direction of the fire. We have all seen and loved Babe, the pig that thought it was a dog, but wait till you see Richard, the goat that thought it was a galah. We follow Richard in amazement as he scales a lofty Eucalyptus tree only to watch in horror as he tries to unsuccessfully fly off plummeting into the ground below, centimeters away from the outstretched hands of the Doctor.
Continuing in the style of the Survivor series, a group of young families star in a new series called Shopping Centre Marathon. Families Robertson, Chan, Poulos, Ahmed and Heath are forced to spend the entire day at an undisclosed shopping center on a budget of $50 as they vie to be the last family left and win shopper-dockets which including a 2 for 1 meal at La Italiano BYO restaurant.
The drama begins from the opening credits as the Ahmed family is plunged into chaos when Abdul accidentally locks his young family of seven in his work-van. Watch in fear as he frantically searches his pocket for his keys not realising that they were on the roof of the van all along after he placed them there so that he could set up the stroller. He quickly resigns to the fact that his family cannot win and spends the rest of the morning waiting for the NRMA to turn up and set them free.
This gripping series has all the tension and high drama of what we have come to expect from this genre including a heated argument between two of the families as they both try and claim the only free table in the Food Hall during lunchtime. If it wasn’t for the Heath family vacating their table so that young Aaron can go to the little boys room as they were about to start their meal, the situation was about to get quite nasty.
Nerves begin to fray even further after the Robertson family self-destructs under the bombardment of ‘can we go home now?’s from young Jessica causing Mr Robertson to veer out of control and head down a row of shops that they had already seen earlier that morning.
As the other families around them self-destruct under the pressure of maneuvering through an endless sea of bustling shoppers, one family miraculously makes it to the end. Watch out for the moment when the news they have won is broken to them. ‘I’m totally shocked’ says the mother accepting her shopper dockets whilst waiting in line at the supermarket, ‘I didn’t even realise that we had started. We’ve been stuck in this bloody queue all day!’
Finally, the long awaited debut of This Could Have Been Your Life has been postponed once again after a freakish accident to its host. The show was to be based on the classic This Is Your Life and honours Australians who have not amounted to anything but perhaps could have done a lot better had they applied themselves.
The freakish accident happened when honouring Val Newton a recent widow and grandmother of three. Val had resisted the temptation to share her pumpkin scone recipe by sending it into the Womens Weekly for years only to end up losing the piece of paper she had written it on.
Host, Simon Townsend, who admits that ironically he too could have been the host of the original series had he bothered to audition, was nearly blinded when meeting Val for the first time. In an effort to surprise her, Simon and his team broke into her Greystanes home in the middle of the night and proceeded to wake her while sound asleep. As the unsuspecting Val was awoken, she mistook the production crew as a visit from her late husband. ‘Murray? Is that you? Have you seen my Pumpkin recipe?’ she asked repeatedly until she was overcome by panic and attacked Simon with a spray of mace which she kept by her side incase of burglars.
Regardless of your taste for television there is something here for everyone. So why don’t you sit back, settle in and live your life this springtime through your TV set.
NOTE: The author can be seen writing this article in a new series called When Writers Block Sets In to be aired Monday nights on Channel 7.
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