The Micallef Program
Encyclopedia
The Micallef Pogram(me) is an Australia
n sketch comedy
TV series hosted by Shaun Micallef
, and written by Micallef and Gary McCaffrie
, that ran from 1998 to 2001 on ABC TV. It was known as The Micallef Program in its first series, The Micallef Programme in its second series and The Micallef Pogram in its third series. The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) is an umbrella title used for the DVD releases.
that featured mock interviews, host monologues, audience participation segments and competitions, bookending character-based sketches. The characters of Milo Kerrigan and David McGhan from Micallef's previous sketch series Full Frontal
also reappeared in this series. The show was written and produced by Micallef and Gary McCaffrie
: the small number of writers and small cast, as well as the different requirements of the ABC, meant that the show was far more surreal and abrupt than Full Frontal
- the humour was frequently bizarre (notoriously evidenced by Attentione il est MYRON!, a recurring parody of European claymation programs).
As host, Micallef adopted the persona of an arrogant, thin-skinned, self-obsessed pedant. His monologues featured a large amount of deliberately confusing wordplay (garden path sentence
s; for example, "As a Chinese person who is bilingual might say, "gute Nacht!"), and his interviews would revolve around him confusing and belittling his guests, both real and fictional: these included John Clarke
, Tim Freedman
of The Whitlams
, Tim Rogers
, and Andrew Denton
. To balance this out, however, Micallef tended to play shabby and frequently crazy "low status" characters (such as Kerrigan) in the sketches, and was himself frequently humiliated by the other members of the cast.
As the program went on, it became stranger and more surreal. The third series was particularly notable for this, and gained much media coverage from a sketch that never made it to air. The sketch was supposed to show Shaun introducing a segment in which war hero Weary Dunlop would be shown as a transsexual and a few seconds into the sketch it would cut to the ABC switchboard lighting up with complaints. However, the sketch got complaints before it was even shown and subsequently never went to air - the irony of the situation lost on many of those who complained. Micallef made light of this by putting several sketches in his book Smithereens
that ended with Dunlop entering in a dress. The sketch is however contained in the DVD release of the third series.
Although the show made frequent use of minor celebrities, it shied away from direct parodies of television or actors, although the David E. McGhan character performed in stereotypical medical and legal dramas in the first two series. Its use of popular culture was better demonstrated in the opening show of the third series, where chanteuse Julie Anthony
gave a strange rendition of Mi-Sex
's 1979 hit "Computer Games" while a small dog pulled around a plastic cart with a single orange in it.
The show featured the talents of Wayne Hope
, Roz Hammond
, Francis Greenslade
and, in the third series, Daina Reid. Micallef would go on to host a short-lived "real" variety show, Micallef Tonight
, for the Nine Network
in 2003.
spelling of "program". This linguistic issue is particularly sensitive among viewers of ABC, which broadcasts a relatively large amount of British content. In the second series, the title was changed to the British
spelling of The Micallef Programme, and Micallef "thanked" his viewers in the series premiere:
In the third series Micallef continued this gag by settling the linguistic debate with the arguably more offensive The Micallef Pogram (an allusion to the word pogrom
).
in 2004, preceding the first and third series because the distributor, Shock Records
, thought that the second series was most marketable. The third series was released in November 2005, and the first series was released in early 2006. A combined boxset of all three series called Micallef in a Box was released on 28 November 2006. Writing on the cover of the boxed set notes: "You own the award winning second and third series, now for the sake of completeness you can own all three".
The Incompleat Shaun Micallef, a compilation of his work on Full Frontal
together with a Seven Network
pilot Shaun Micallef's World Around Him, is also available on DVD
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
TV series hosted by Shaun Micallef
Shaun Micallef
Shaun Patrick Micallef is an Australian actor, comedian and writer. After ten years of working in insurance law as a solicitor in Adelaide, Micallef moved to Melbourne to pursue a full-time comedy career in 1993...
, and written by Micallef and Gary McCaffrie
Gary McCaffrie
Gary McCaffrie is an Australian television comedy writer and producer, best known for his work on Fast Forward and Full Frontal, and his many collaborations with comedian Shaun Micallef...
, that ran from 1998 to 2001 on ABC TV. It was known as The Micallef Program in its first series, The Micallef Programme in its second series and The Micallef Pogram in its third series. The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) is an umbrella title used for the DVD releases.
Format and cast
The show took the loose guise of a fictional variety showVariety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
that featured mock interviews, host monologues, audience participation segments and competitions, bookending character-based sketches. The characters of Milo Kerrigan and David McGhan from Micallef's previous sketch series Full Frontal
Full Frontal (TV series)
Full Frontal was an Australian sketch comedy series which debuted in 1993. The show first aired on the Seven Network on 13 May 1993, and finished on 18 September 1997....
also reappeared in this series. The show was written and produced by Micallef and Gary McCaffrie
Gary McCaffrie
Gary McCaffrie is an Australian television comedy writer and producer, best known for his work on Fast Forward and Full Frontal, and his many collaborations with comedian Shaun Micallef...
: the small number of writers and small cast, as well as the different requirements of the ABC, meant that the show was far more surreal and abrupt than Full Frontal
Full Frontal (TV series)
Full Frontal was an Australian sketch comedy series which debuted in 1993. The show first aired on the Seven Network on 13 May 1993, and finished on 18 September 1997....
- the humour was frequently bizarre (notoriously evidenced by Attentione il est MYRON!, a recurring parody of European claymation programs).
As host, Micallef adopted the persona of an arrogant, thin-skinned, self-obsessed pedant. His monologues featured a large amount of deliberately confusing wordplay (garden path sentence
Garden path sentence
A garden path sentence is a grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that the readers' most likely interpretation will be incorrect; they are lured into an improper parse that turns out to be a dead end. Garden path sentences are used in psycholinguistics to illustrate the fact that...
s; for example, "As a Chinese person who is bilingual might say, "gute Nacht!"), and his interviews would revolve around him confusing and belittling his guests, both real and fictional: these included John Clarke
John Clarke (satirist)
John Morrison Clarke is a New Zealand-born Australian comedian, writer, and satirist. He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s...
, Tim Freedman
Tim Freedman
Timothy "Tim" James Freedman is the mainstay lead singer and keyboardist of the Australian band The Whitlams formed in 1993...
of The Whitlams
The Whitlams
The discography of The Whitlams consists of six studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, and eighteen singles.-Studio albums:-Live albums:-Compilation albums:-Singles:-Videos:-Music videos:-Awards:...
, Tim Rogers
Tim Rogers
Tim Rogers is the frontman of Australian rock band You Am I. He is also a solo artist, as well as having fronted and released albums with bands The Twin Set and The Temperance Union.-History:...
, and Andrew Denton
Andrew Denton
Andrew Christopher Denton is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...
. To balance this out, however, Micallef tended to play shabby and frequently crazy "low status" characters (such as Kerrigan) in the sketches, and was himself frequently humiliated by the other members of the cast.
As the program went on, it became stranger and more surreal. The third series was particularly notable for this, and gained much media coverage from a sketch that never made it to air. The sketch was supposed to show Shaun introducing a segment in which war hero Weary Dunlop would be shown as a transsexual and a few seconds into the sketch it would cut to the ABC switchboard lighting up with complaints. However, the sketch got complaints before it was even shown and subsequently never went to air - the irony of the situation lost on many of those who complained. Micallef made light of this by putting several sketches in his book Smithereens
Smithereens (book)
Smithereens is a 2004 book written by Australian author/comedian Shaun Micallef. It is a collection of essays, plays, poems and sketches that he has written over the years. Some of the articles have previously been printed in The Age....
that ended with Dunlop entering in a dress. The sketch is however contained in the DVD release of the third series.
Although the show made frequent use of minor celebrities, it shied away from direct parodies of television or actors, although the David E. McGhan character performed in stereotypical medical and legal dramas in the first two series. Its use of popular culture was better demonstrated in the opening show of the third series, where chanteuse Julie Anthony
Julie Anthony (Australian singer)
Julie Moncrief Lush OBE AM , better known as Julie Anthony, is an Australian entertainer. She sang the Australian National Anthem at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics with Human Nature....
gave a strange rendition of Mi-Sex
Mi-Sex
Mi-Sex was a New Zealand new wave rock band active from 1978 to 1984. Led by Steve Gilpin as vocalist, they were best known for their singles "Computer Games" in 1979 and "People" in 1980.-History:...
's 1979 hit "Computer Games" while a small dog pulled around a plastic cart with a single orange in it.
The show featured the talents of Wayne Hope
Wayne Hope
Wayne Hope is an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer. He is married to comedienne and actress Robyn Butler. Together they run the production company Gristmill. He is mainly known for his comedic roles in television and film.-Television:...
, Roz Hammond
Roz Hammond
Rosalind Hammond was born in Western Australia, often credited as Ros or Roz, is an Australian comic actress and writer.Her television appearances include 3 series of The Micallef Programme...
, Francis Greenslade
Francis Greenslade
Francis Greenslade is an Australian comic actor. He and comedic partner Shaun Micallef appeared on the legal comedy Welcher and Welcher, as well as Full Frontal...
and, in the third series, Daina Reid. Micallef would go on to host a short-lived "real" variety show, Micallef Tonight
Micallef Tonight
Micallef Tonight is a short-lived Aria Award–winning Australian variety show that aired on the Nine Network in 2003. It was hosted by comedian Shaun Micallef and also featured the talents of Francis Greenslade, Jason Geary, Livinia Nixon and Pete Smith....
, for the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
in 2003.
Name changes
The name of the show changed each series, due to audience complaints which Micallef turned into a running gag. The first series, entitled The Micallef Program, encountered complaints from ABC viewers who objected to the AmericanAmerican English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
spelling of "program". This linguistic issue is particularly sensitive among viewers of ABC, which broadcasts a relatively large amount of British content. In the second series, the title was changed to the British
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
spelling of The Micallef Programme, and Micallef "thanked" his viewers in the series premiere:
- There's been a few changes since last series: we're spelling "programme" correctly this time – the French way with two m's and an e. That's entirely due to your feedback and we thank you for that. Certainly don't get that level of pedantry from viewers of commercial television.
In the third series Micallef continued this gag by settling the linguistic debate with the arguably more offensive The Micallef Pogram (an allusion to the word pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
).
DVD releases
The second series was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2004, preceding the first and third series because the distributor, Shock Records
Shock Records
Shock Records is Australia's largest independent record label. It helps distribute records from overseas records labels such as Epitaph Records, and also for small record labels designed specifically for that band such as Cement Records...
, thought that the second series was most marketable. The third series was released in November 2005, and the first series was released in early 2006. A combined boxset of all three series called Micallef in a Box was released on 28 November 2006. Writing on the cover of the boxed set notes: "You own the award winning second and third series, now for the sake of completeness you can own all three".
The Incompleat Shaun Micallef, a compilation of his work on Full Frontal
Full Frontal (TV series)
Full Frontal was an Australian sketch comedy series which debuted in 1993. The show first aired on the Seven Network on 13 May 1993, and finished on 18 September 1997....
together with a Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
pilot Shaun Micallef's World Around Him, is also available on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
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2006 |
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2004 |
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| The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) Series Trois | ||||
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