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The series was written, directed, and produced by the tight-knit team of Jane Kennedy, Tom Gleisner, Rob Sitch, and Santo Cilauro. They had met at university in Melbourne and after a stint on radio they created and performed in the popular ABC comedy series The D-Generation and The Late Show; after Frontline they moved into feature films, making several popular Australian movies including The Castle and The Dish, and for several years they have hosted the popular panel discussion show The Panel.
Kennedy, Sitch, Cilauro also acted on the show, as well as Tiriel Mora , Alison Whyte , and numerous other notable Australian actors appeared in guest roles. Gleisner also appeared in a regular cameo role as a photocopier repair man.
The series was based in part on two groundbreaking overseas comedy programs. One was the cult American 'Tonight Show' parody The Larry Sanders Show, which was one of the first TV situation comedies to have no 'laugh track' (most are either taped before a live audience or dubbed with canned laughter). Another inspiration was the British topical news satire Drop The Dead Donkey.
The series followed the fortunes of a fictional current affairs show, Frontline, and satirised the machinations of the ruthless producers, the self-obsessed airhead host, and the ambitious, cynical journalists, all of whom resort to any sort of underhanded trick to get ratings and maintain their status -- including the use of hidden cameras, foot-in-the-door, bullying interview techniques and cheque-book journalism -- not to mention ingratiating themselves with the all-powerful network bosses -- while all the real work is in fact done by their long-suffering production staff.
But what gave the show its special edge was that the stories and the actions of the characters were often thinly-disguised parodies of recent real events and real people. The dimwitted, egotistical host of the ficitonal show, "Mike Moore" (played by Sitch) was widely considered to be a parody of Stan Grant , who at that time was host of the Seven Network current affairs program Today Tonight , one of the shows that Frontline satirised.
Sitch has claimed that none of the characters were directly based on a single person, but it is evident that some of Moore's characteristics, and the storylines of the third series, were clearly inspired by Today Tonight, by its rival, A Current Affair , and the travails of Ray MartinRay Martin is a Canadian politician. Martin, a teacher by profession, was first elected to the Alberta legislature in the 1982 Alberta provincial election as one member of a two member Alberta New Democratic Party caucus. He became leader of the Alberta N, the show's host at the time, and also by Martin's predecessor, Mike Willesse .
Parallels might also be drawn between Frontline and ABC's Media WatchMedia Watch is an Australian television series screening on the ABC. It currently screens from 9:15 to 9:30 pm on Monday nights, repeated on Tuesdays at 1:45 pm. Despite the limitations of this timeslot and its small production budget, it has been one of. Much of the real life journalistic misconduct reported on Media Watch later appeared on Frontline in fictionalised form, and one episode of Frontline involves a Media Watch episode critical of the show.
One memorable episode of Series 1 ("The Siege") featured an incident in which the hapless Moore causes havoc when he finds himself negotiating by telephone, live to air, with a gunman who is holding some children hostage – this was a thinly veiled parody of a very similar and highly controversial real-life incident involving Mike Willesee.
A scene in another episode, in which Moore performs an embarrasingly bad version of Eric ClaptonEric Clapton CBE (born Eric Patrick Clapp March 30, 1945 in The Green, Ripley, Surrey), is a British guitarist and composer, nicknamed slowhand or, in the 1960s, God . Born as an illegitimate son of the 16 year old Patricia Molly Clapp and Edward Walter F's Tears In Heaven while accompanying himself on guitar, is considered a clear dig at Grant, who is an amateur musician. It was claimed in the media at the time that Grant hated the show, was convinced that Mike Moore was a caricatureAlan Greenspan by Jan Op De Beeck A caricature is a humorous illustration that exaggerates or distorts the basic essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. Although caricatures can be made of inanimate objects such as c of him and supposedly forbade any mention the series in the Today Tonight offices.
The series also contained a number of running gags which continued from program to program, including the fact that young sound man Jason Cotter (Torquil Neilson) never spoke.
The first series of Frontline was, sadly, the final screen role for renowned musician and actor Bruno LawrenceBruno Lawrence born David Lawrence ( February 12, 1941 June 10, 1995) was a musician and actor born in Brighton, England, who spent most of his life in New Zealand and also worked extensively in Australia. Bruno was a renowned jazz drummer, playing drums, who played the fictional series' devious, golf-loving producer, Brian Thompson. Lawrence was diagnosed with inoperable cancer shortly after the end of the first series, while he was working on the Australian film Cosi and he died on 10 June 1995. For the second series he was replaced by Australian actor Kevin J. Wilson and in the third series the producer was played by Steve Bisley .
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