Frontline

Between 'Frontline'and 'Media Watch', the credibility of 'tabloid tv' was destroyed. Brilliant playing, great scripts, and all this, on a shoestring budget. Like 'The Games', 'Frontline' often prophesied actual stories. Journalists both loved it and hated it. It's a shame these guys did 'The Panel'. It's not likely that tv comedy will get as good as this in the near future.

This series is just marvellous, another gem by the great team of Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Tom Gleisner etc.

It is basically a satirical look at the ficticious current affairs program 'Fronline'. It has a great cast of characters including Mike Moore, the slightly naive host of the show.

Each episode revolves around a storyline, usually involving the team trying to chase a big story or, for example, their night at the Logie awards. Each episode is carried along brilliantly by it's humour, sometimes subtle but none-the-less excellent.

Definently a must see.

As I am so far the only non-Australian to post a comment, I'll assume no-one in the UK knows much about this gem of a show. In fact I happened to catch it when I was on holiday and haven't seen it anywhere in Britain, whether it be on Sky or terrestrial TV.

Anyway, to get a flavour, it is 'The Larry Sanders Show' crossed with 'Drop The Dead Donkey'. It doesn't have a laughter track but unlike 'DTDD', there is no attempt to make it topical ('DTDD' had segments that were filmed the day before to get a current, satirical comment in the script).

The real star of this show was Bruno Lawrence (such a shame to hear he died in 1995), who was simply hysterical as the Executive Producer Brian Thompson. He was the first person I saw as EP and so far (I've only seen him and Sam Murphy) the best by far.

The script is tight, although sometimes, albeit very occasionally, it does decend into pure sit-com territory. While this does not prevent the show from being funny, I feel that the show succeeds more as a satire.

I feel that it could work in Britain as the humour is very similar to British humour, although we do not have these daily tabloid current affairs programmes that seem so popular in the USA and Australia. So assuming no-one in the UK has bought it already, SOMEONE GET THE RIGHTS AND SHOW THIS DAMN FUNNY COMEDY! NOW!!!

Now I'm off to watch 'The Castle'. I'll let you know...

Frontline is the best, most intelligent series to have come out of Australia. It is as insightful as it is funny. For anyone who believes in the validity of what you watch on current affairs television, this show is for you.

Rob, Santo, Tom, and Jane (the creators, and producers) should have kept making these episodes, television is worse off without them. They did go on to great things though, and their same brand of humour is evident. These people, are the creators of the brilliant Australian movies "The Castle", and "The Dish", and you would enjoy this series if you liked those movies.

This series is made up of a host of hilarious characters who help to expose aspects of journalists that we all can identify with, like the huge egos, (Brooke van den Burg), the stupidity and lack of talent accept as an actor pretending to be serious and intelligent (Mike Moore - the classic anchorman), and the drive for ratings (executive producer Brian Thompson was the best of the three - R.I.P Brian).

"Frontline" was an apt satire that exposed current affairs television for the uncaring, sexist, ratings-grabbing, irresponsible shows they are.

What's more, the show is hilarious! Funny in an intelligent way.

9 out of 10

This show came to Canada via PBS in the mid 90s and I really, really loved it then. Even 10 yrs later watching the various news networks, I cant help but think of the cynical manipulation that goes on in the name of ratings and the various "show ponies" we all see on TV as depicted in various Frontline episodes. The scripts are tightly written and the actors all have impeccable comic timing and none of it is encumbered by an idiotic laugh track. There is a lot of funny material here really well executed and we don't need to be told when to laugh and what to laugh at. I don't understand why this show never took off in North America as its truly a gem! I was really excited to see the DVDs available, even though they are PAL format. I figured I would rip them to my computer and then watch the converted files. I took a chance and ordered it from ABC… 6 to 8 weeks later, I had all 3 seasons. Even better it worked on my NTSC DVD player. I suspect any player bought in the past 2 yrs that does xvid/divx will play them. Great stuff! 10 yrs later the episodes all hold up really well! You don't need to know anything about Australian politics to get the humor as it will all be familiar to western audiences. My wife and I had a 10 day Frontline fest and are still chuckling weeks later after watching all 39 episodes