"The Glass House" - 2006

[nahemah]

Here's the article on the axing.

ABC stones Glass House

By Gerard McManus

November 01, 2006 07:42am
Article from: Herald-Sun

THE ABC last night axed its popular and irreverent television comedy show, The Glass House, which has been at the centre of a storm over allegations of anti-Howard Government bias.

The ABC gave no explanation for the decision apart from telling the cast and crew yesterday that not all shows could be renewed.

Host Wil Anderson posted a blog last night promising to "go out with all guns a'blazing". "It's been a really fun five years," he said.

Co-compere Dave Hughes said axing the show made little sense.

"We have had our best ratings ever," he said.

The Glass House has become the latest casualty in the "culture wars" and comes just a day after Liberal NSW senator Connie Fierravanti-Wells said during a grilling of ABC executives that co-host Corrine Grant had been guilty of a serious conflict of interest because she was the public face of the ACTU's workplace relations campaign.

And it follows revelations the ABC will pay a new chief censor $280,000 a year to investigate and monitor instances of bias on ABC programs.

Anderson, Hughes and Grant regularly make jokes about John Howard and US President George W. Bush, provoking critics to accuse them of bias.

But during a recent show Anderson responded to criticism by saying if Mark Latham had been in power they would be having a great time.

The decision to axe The Glass House came despite the show achieving its highest ratings since it first went to air in 2001 - with average audiences of 728,000.

The program regularly outrated commercial programs in the same time slot and this year won a peak audience of almost 860,000 viewers.

The last episode of The Glass House will go to air on November 29.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment...-10388,00.html

[Mif]

Ah politics. Well hopefully this little government hissy fit will make Glasshouse viewers even more anti-Howard than if the show had been left on the air.

And $280,000 to monitor bias?!? Have the children been saying nasty things about you, little Johnny? Hiring a big tough man to beat them up for you?

Did someone whisper "sedition"?

What an arsehole.

Lets all go beat him up.

http://www.manbitesgod.com/games/anger_management/

[katrant]

This is what I just put up on my blog. Thought I'd cut and paste rather than retype

For quite a number of years I've been bemoaning the state of Australian comedy on television. Certainly since the early 90s it's been on a decline - for years before that television networks proudly supported emerging comedy talent in this country. Since then its been extremely hard for new talent to come through. It seemed that the opportunities were only there for already establish artists, and fewer and fewer of them were getting a shot.

And for the last 8 or so years it's been even worse. Few shows came along which were original, and fewer still gave new talents a go. The ones that did come along were either shortlived or just unwatchable.

In the paper today I read that the ABC has now axed "The Glass House", for reasons, if the Herald Sun is to be believed (ho hum) are dubious at best. It does state the ABC didn't disclose the reasons for the axe, but the paper speculated it was because of its "continued bias against the Howard Government". It also cites comments from Liberal Senator Connie Fierranti-Wells that Corrine Grant poses a "conflict of interest" because she is a public face for the ACTU's campaign against the Government's Workchoices legislation.

For Christ's sake it is a comedy program!! It is satire. It is out for laughs. As the article quoted Wil Anderson himself, that if Mark Latham had've won the last Federal Election, they'd be having a great time.

There are two issues at stake here. One is the continued lack of television support for a genre which enjoyed a hell of a lot of coverage from the time television because up to the late 80s/early 90s. There is also the very strong concern that the Howard Government's media policies, which on once instance supports foreign and cross media ownership which is extremely damaging to the cultural development to this country and to which the MEAA has been vehemently opposed to, and then its continued campaign against the ABC, which while is government owned, deserves to be able to operate without government interferance. Why axe a top rating show from a network which doesn't rate as well as the commercial networks? It doesn't make sense. It does however smell very suspicious, given even the Herald Sun to comment on the so-called bias the Liberals constantly accuse the ABC of showing.

[EVIL EVOR]

Wow, disappointing.

You guys must be p*ssed off big time.

[EVIL EVOR]

Any chance of a petition happening by the way?

[Mythor]

Petitions usually don't do a whole lot, but it may be worth organising a letter writing campaign as it has worked for an ABC program before. Good News Week was saved in such a fashion.
I don't think it would work though. It's not a rational decision so I don't think they'd be swayed by rational arguments.

There's an ABC News story here where Corinne points out that Senator Fierranti-Wells is full of shit. Corinne fronts no ACTU campaign of any kind. If Corinne really isn't the face of an ACTU campaign then the Senator should have to show cause why she shouldn't be fired immediately.
Pity no one will force her to do any such thing.

[katrant]

The thing with Corinne has me intrigued though. While she does state that she's not the public face for the ACTU, she does have a place on the Federal Council of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, as do quite a number of other media people, actors and comedians. I would love to hear from the Senator what makes that a "severe conflict of interest" as she puts it. By its very nature, MEAA is a trade union for people who work, amongst other industries, the television industry. If it is a conflict of interest for a comedian who works with political material to be on a council for a trade union, there would be a hell of a lot of others showing the same "conflict of interest".

Not that conflict of interest means a lot anyway. Eddie McGuire to me highlights a far greater conflict of interest being CEO of Channel 9 while being President of Collingwood Football Club. No one can convince me that Collingwood got more televised games on Channel 9 this year than any other club just out of sheer merit...but I digress....

[Mif]

I know of at least one promising satirical comedy series recently that was eventually knocked back by the abc because they "didn't want to risk a budget cut in the coming federal budget".

That's off the record, of course. ;-)

[susanjacobs]

I don't understand the reason behind the axing. I think if they had said something about the budget, we would all bemoaning the state of the ABC. But to leave it unanswered smacks of something not quite right.

[Abundance]

Here are my random thoughts on the matter:

In the past ABC have tried to sell off programs that were doing well, could we perhaps see The Glasshouse pop up on another network in the near future?

Axing the show could also be a contractual matter? Or do they just think that there isn't much more life in the show and want to axe it on a high not?

I personally wanted to see other guests than the usual ones they trotted out over and over again and felt the show started to lack freshness.

Does this axing mean a new show is being produced by GNW Productions or has GNW Productions decided to hang up it's hat and call it a day?

Has the political climate changed so much that it has managed to sensor one of the only voices of free speech in this country? If so we should be writing to Mr Howard on this matter that "if it wasn't broke John, it didn't need fixing!".

Has most of the ABC's budget been spent on The Bill that there was no more money available for The Glasshouse?

Since Aunty Jack was axed the ABC hasn't been the same...Since Countdown was axed the ABC hasn't been the same...Since GNW was axed the ABC hasn't been the same...Since DAAS was axed the ABC hasn't been the same...etc. Since The Glasshouse was axed will the ABC ever be the same????

Who threw stones at The Glasshouse????

[SammySatine]

Well, I would just like to say first off that this is tragic. I've watched the show every so often and it did have some great gags.

I just wonder though is this a result of something which I would like to call the five year curse. Sure DAAS Kapital was only on for two series. But I would think that GNW, The Glasshouse and other shows are suffering this. There's even a rumour Rove Live* is being axed. At this rate the Chasers, Spicks and Specks and Thank God You're here will be the only decent ones left.

See? I told you it was tragic.

*I do think though sometimes Rove Live is a bit tragic*

Amities,

SS

[Renee_Turner]

Funny, a satirical show that pokes fun at the government is getting its highest ratings ever, and the government-funded ABC axes it.

I thought the thousands of dollars spent on bogan babies and tax cuts for the rich were enough to keep the government going. Nope, apparently all that 'thinking' and 'questioning' is a bad idea for the kiddies too.

(I am not a conspiracy theorist...I just hate the Howard government)

[Sllej]

Originally Posted by Abundance

In the past ABC have tried to sell off programs that were doing well, could we perhaps see The Glasshouse pop up on another network in the near future?

I've heard rumours that Rove's production company is looking into picking up The Glasshouse for 10. That'd give it another year or two from history. They could just be rumours though.

[SammySatine]

Well another year or two would at least mean that it'd be there as a form of social and political comment and also would mean it'd last longer than GNW.

And the year or two thing well that was how long GNW lasted after it moved to Ten.
Mind you it changed timeslots a few times.

Amities,

SS

[Mythor]

GNW also had a spinoff-ish show as well as the regular one.
Think Glass House has already gone longer anyway.