Thanks to Ames for this one.

ABC director of television Sandra Levy made the announcement yesterday, countering mounting criticism the ABC was not broadcasting enough local content.
The changes, effective from August 5, will see repeat screenings of British imports such as Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), Jim Hacker and Hyacinth Bucket dumped to make way for Australian programming.

The most significant change sees a Monday-Thursday line-up of Australian half-hour consumer-oriented programs at 6.30pm.

Under the umbrella title of Dimensions, Monday will look at the media, Tuesday health, Wednesday people, while Thursday will cater for people on the move.

The rural series Something in the Air, currently screening in one-hour blocks on Saturday evening, will revert to its original Monday to Thursday format at 6pm.

The Friday 6.30pm slot will continue with Gardening Australia.

British oldie Fawlty Towers will make way for a local panel comedy program Thank God It's Friday, from the team that created Good News Week.

Backchat returns, replacing Media Watch, while Catalyst will fill the science vacuum left by Quantum.

Saturday night at 9.30 will feature landmark Aussie films, while the Sunday 7.30pm slot will feature programs adapted from classic Australian novels.

Former Foreign Correspondent host George Negus will present Australia Talks, a series of live debates from different Australian regional locations on Thursdays at 9.30pm.

Ms Levy insisted the new line-up was not a grab for ratings.

"The science magazine show, the health show – none of them are shows that in any way come to mind as shows that are other than traditional ABC material," she said.

Ms Levy defended the decision to reveal the programs before details, such as hosts for some programs, were finalised. It was because the ABC "leaked constantly", she said.

"I could either wait until it all leaked out, bit by bit, inaccurately, or I could try to tell you the way I see it," she said.
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Thanks to Xavier for this.

*heh heh* Typed by ME!

He describes McGuire as a dream guest for ABC's new panel-style comedy show, The Glass House.

Starting tomorrow night, the hosts of The Glass House will be taking a fast-paced, satirical look at the week's news, spiced with guests, games and sketches.

Mirroring the popular panel format of shows such as The Fat, The Panel and the now-departed Good News Week, The Glass House will have three hosts - Anderson, Corinne Grant and Dave Hughes - plus new comedians, actors, politicians and others to complete the picture.

Produced by the team behind Good News Week, Auntie's best comedy, which departed to Network Ten, the question of similarity between The Glass House and its popular predecessor is unavoidable.

"It is massively diferent from GNW," says Grant, a regular guest on Good News Week and the female face of Rove Live. "There is no point-scoring. GNW was also very stadium-oriented. This is more informal."

Anderson, Grant and Hughes first got together two weeks ago to work out the specifics of the half-hour show. "It was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of thing," says the famously laid-back Hughes, who can currently be heard on Triple M on Saturday mornings.

"I flew back from the Montreal comedy festival at one that morning. It was one of those situations where you are so tired that you're funny because you're in a daze."

The Glass House, which had the working title Thank God It's Friday, was named when the three comedians, who all "grew up" on the Espy comedy circuit, met to discuss the show. "The name describes it all; we have no real right to commenting on these sorts of things (news)," Anderson says.

Hughes and Grant describe Anderson, co-host of Triple J's Breakfast Show, as the "main guy", but he denies it, singing the praises of his co-hosts.

"I just throw them the segments, it's got nothing to do with me. They could replace me with one of the Bananas in Pyjamas," Anderson jokes.

But laughs aside, there is a real sense of camaraderie between the three, which Anderson says will boost the show's success - they will make fun of each other as well as those in the news, he says.

All three hope The Glass House will become a breeding ground of Australia's new comedy talent, as well as attracting fans of the hosts' comic personalities.

He says that although there were similarities between the formats of Good News Week and The Panel, the different personalities, energy and the performers' relationship to each other made both shows successful.

No permanent guests for The Glass House have been penciled in yet but Anderson is hoping for ABC icon Kerry O' Brien. "They could tell him that it's the 7:30 Report and that Dave is Peter Costello and Corinne is Amanda Vanstone," Anderson jokes.

But he still hasn't forgot about his personal favorite, Eddie McGuire, and that long-unanswered question:
"For a million dollars, how many chins do you have?"

The Glass House begins on the ABC tomorrow at 8pm
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Thanks to Manda for typing that up.

There’s a rash of shows that feed off current affairs (In fact, it’s time someone realised that news isn’t the only source of comedy: thank goodness for Pizza, in that respect at least.) But The Glass House works: it feeds off the news, but not to the point where you feel you’re watching The 7:30 Report with a laugh track.

It’s funny, cheeky, and not afraid to be silly – and its three stars and their changing guests bounce well off each other and the studio audience. The latter seems to relish proceedings, which is a good sign. It’s still early days for The Glass House but I, for one, won’t throw the first stone.

Jenny Tabakoff

Something about them had been bugging me for quite some time, and in watching the debut episode of The Glass House, it all suddenly became clear: these shows are the fusion of the worst traits of both these generations (or if you prefer, marketing invention – the idea that an entire generation embodies a particular personality trait is a tad of a stretch).

In the baby boomer corner, we have the arrogant assumption that anything you say is automatically interesting and that it’s important to share your feelings with others. Add to that the generation X belief that sarcasm is a universal substitute for any emotion and , what’s more, it makes you a wit on par with Oscar Wilde, and you can see where the formula was born.

In his book Balsamic Dreams: A Short But Self-important History of the Baby Boomer Generation, US satirist Joe Queenan argues that, despite their traditional antipathy, the baby boomers and generation Xers are two sides of the same coin and that together they can make life miserable for anyone under the age of 28 or older than 56.

Thinking about the panel-style comedy show, I can’t help but think he has a point.  Exactly why anyone should tune in to catch a comedian weighing on matters of the day – matters that they very possibly know no more about that you or I – with the odd sarcastic comment is mystifying. My friends and I can all read the newspapers, pick up out the kooky story of the week and make a few jokes about it and I assume, so can you and yours. Yet I don’t see anyone clamouring for us to have our own TV show.

Events-in-that-morning’s-newspaper humour is nothing new, it’s been a mainstay of breakfast radio for years. But people have an entirely different relationship to radio. Without getting all Marshall McLuhan, radio is where to keep us company while we fight the traffic, and perhaps to offer some conversational fodder when we get to work. TV is supposed to entertain us, not just keep us company, and if it expects to get our undivided attention, the least it can do is come up with a script, instead of just winging it.

Which brings us to The Glass House (thankfully, they dumped the blandly generic working title of Thank God It’s Friday). Since only the first episode was available at the time writing, I’m not going to say too much on the quality of the gags, because I’m willing to write off any flatness as first-night nerves.

Certainly, the show has assembled an impressive cast, and finds its feet. While Corinne Grant didn’t get as much airtime on Rove (Live) as perhaps she deserved, her efforts both on the earlier Nine show Rove and doing live stand-up demonstrate she is a genuine comedy talent. Similarly the former The Australian Financial Review political report turned comedian Wil Anderson has eked out a legion of fans doing Triple J’s breakfast slot with Adam Spencer.

Dave Hughes may be less familiar to a national audience unless they are regular watcher of thecomedychannel’s little skits that fill in the gaps between longer programs, but the hosts of the Saturday morning breakfast show on Melbourne’s Triple M.

As well as the regulars, The Glass House includes a couple of guests who join them in that whole events of the week discussion which we’ve seen so much before.

I don’t really blame Anderson et al for giving The Glass House a go – comedians have to eat and if these sorts of shows are the only paying gigs in town, then what choice do they have? But if they can’t find a way to make this program their own, they may find themselves bearing the backlash from a united group of under-28-year-olds and over-56-year-olds who’ve had enough of this sort of cheaply made TV. And a few boomer and gen Xers our there might be tempted to join them

- Kerrie Murphy

(Accompanied by Picture of cast - my apologies, I was sent this article without the picture)
Impressive cast, stale formula: Wil Anderson, Corrine Grant and Dave Hughes

Dave Hughes is so laid-back he borders on lethargic. So it’s no wonder his “ooh, you know” drawl is striking a chord with exhausted workers on a Friday night.

As a panel member on the ABC’s new current affairs satire, The Glass House, Hughes’ comedic tangents gently transport viewers from the stress of the working week then return them to reality in a weekend state of mind.

But ensuring others are relaxed requires a surprising amount of brain power, he stresses. “It can be hard work when you’re thinking ‘no-one’s been funny for about a minutes, maybe I should be funny’.  You don’t want to turn it into Lateline.”

But the chances of that are slim with laugh-meisters Wil Anderson and Corinne Grant joining him on the show, which Hughes admits is quite similar to Good News Week and The Panel.

While The Glass House may not a be a highly original concept, he thinks he and Anderson and Grant have a chance of making it past the initial 16-episode commission. “What I hope is that the different personalities make it a different kind of show,” Hughes says. “I like to think my personality is my own.”

It is that “unique” view of life that has won hit at least one great review in the new show in Sydney – not that this is a good thing, apparently. “I read that review all day and by the time we got to do the show I’d done my head in,” Hughes admits. “All the pressure was on me, apparently I’m funny. You have a bad time because you’re battling your own ego.”

Hughes made his name in Melbourne with a weekend radio show on Triple M with Dave O’Neill, the guy who once sat on the couch in Mick Molloy’s ill-fated TV show.

The two Daves’ show is pure banter rather than anything cerebral, but it contains the sort of humour that has also seen Hughes a favourite in the stand-up comic and comedy festival circuit. Now almost considered a regular on the Melbourne Comedy Festival, he was also a guest comic this year at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, where one critic said he was “killing them”.

And on his way to Canada, he stopped in New York to perform at the Gotham Comedy Club. A spokesman for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival reported at the time: “The reports from New York are great. Dave is as Australian in New York as he is in Melbourne and the Yanks are lapping it up.”

Hardly a shattering view to those familiar with his humour, but one that should help cement his reputation in the broader community.

The Glass House, ABC, Friday, 8pm.

Allison White
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Those last three courtesy of Laney