The Comedy Company
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The Comedy Company was an Australian comedy television series first aired from February 16, 1988 until about November 11, 1990 on Network Ten, Sunday night and was created and directed by Ian McFadyen, and co directed and produced by Jo Lane. The show largely consisted of sketch comedy in short segments, much in the tradition of earlier Sketch comedy shows, The Mavis Bramston Show, The Naked Vicar Show, Australia You're Standing In It, and The D-Generation. The majority of the filming took place in Melbourne, Victoria. (A couple of Uncle Arthur sketches were filmed outside Melbourne at the 1988 Brisbane Expo and in the Victorian Snow Fields) The show had a significant effect on Australian culture, particularly on Australian youth. The Australian adoption of the word "Bogan" was first used in its existing context by the famous The Comedy Company character, Kylie Mole.
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[edit] Background
In 1988, the Media Arts company was asked by Network Ten Australia to produce a one hour-a-week comedy program. Within a few months, The Comedy Company became the most successful comedy program of the decade being the highest rated weekly television program, particularly of note it ran against the Nine Network popular current events show 60 Minutes which shared its timeslot. Much of its success was due to it being the only family entertainment on television on a Sunday night. The Comedy Company remained the consistently highest rating weekly television program for two years.
Many of the stars of The Comedy Company came from a 1985 Seven Network show called The Eleventh Hour, which starred Mary-Anne Fahey, Ian McFadyen, Mark Mitchell, Glenn Robbins, Peter Moon and Steve Vizard. Fahey, McFadyen, Mitchell and Robbins went to The Comedy Company and Moon and Vizard went to a Seven Network series called Fast Forward.
The Comedy Company premiered many famous characters such as Kylie Mole, Con The Fruiterer, Col'n Carpenter and Uncle Arthur. Some of these characters still remain minor Australian icons. Con The Fruiterer, played by Mark Mitchell, was especially popular. Con The Fruiterer even met the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke, on the show. Con the Fruiterer appears even to this day on a variety of shows, as does his wife Marika. Kym Gyngell also created a spin off series called Col'n Carpenter (1990-1991) based on his character of the same name. Kylie Mole was also featured on the Series 2 of the ABC's Kittson, Fahey (1993). Notably, Glenn Robbins often did public appearances as Uncle Arthur and today on the show The Panel often references his days on The Comedy Company playing the character and has been known to slip in and out of character, as well as appearing in full costume as the character for The Panel Christmas 2005 special .
When the show became The New Comedy Company it featured some of the original cast and characters alongside new comedians. This series lasted one year.
In 2002, 60 minutes of footage of The Comedy Company was edited into a special called The Comedy Company: So Excellent, with the subtitle referencing a famed line by the Kylie Mole character.
Quite a large amount of merchandise was produced for a sketch comedy series, such as a flood of spin-off books and audio cassettes and records with extracts from the series, and lunch boxes featuring Kylie Mole and T-Shirts with Con the Fruiterer displaying his famous catch phrase "Couple a Days..". There was also a Con the Fruiterer doll which would randomly say one of an assortment of the character's catchphrases when a string was pulled.
Kylie Mole had a top 10 hit with So Excellent in 1988. The 'B' side of the single was the song 'I Go, I Go.'
Kylie Mole also interviewed many famous people including Julian Lennon, Sylvester Stallone, INXS and Kylie Minogue on the show.
Kylie Minogue also appeared in some sketches playing Kylie Mole's second best friend, Rebecca.
The Comedy Company is now in re-runs.
[edit] Critical acclaim
- The series won itself quite a large number of awards, however of most note is the two consecutive Logie Awards (1989 - 1990) it received for Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program.
- Mary-Anne Fahey also won a Logie Award for Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Personality for her appearance on The Comedy Company in 1989.
[edit] Notable characters
- Mark Mitchell as Con Dikaletis the Fruiterer/Stuart Parkington-Loafe/Marika Dikaletis
- Mary-Anne Fahey as Kylie Mole, Josephine, Sharon
- Ian McFadyen as David Rabbitborough
- Glenn Robbins as Uncle Arthur/Gary Dare, Darren
- Kym Gyngell as Col'n Carpenter
- Russell Gilbert as Russ the Postie
[edit] Writers
- Doug MacLeod - Head Writer
- Rob Caldwell
- Mary-Anne Fahey
- Russell Gilbert
- Kym Gyngell
- Galia Hardy
- Peter Herbert
- Andrew Maj
- Ian McFadyen
- Rob Menzies
- Mick Molloy
- Brad Oakes
- Glenn Robbins
- Peter Rowsthorn
- Tim Smith
- Jason Stephens
- Jason Van De Velde
[edit] DVD
A DVD box set has been released including four DVDs with select clips from the series, the four DVDs are;
- The Best of the Comedy Company Volume 1
- The Best of the Comedy Company Volume 2
- The Best of Con the Fruiterer
- The Best of Colin Carpenter
