The Panel
Encyclopedia
The Panel was an Australia
n television
talk show
broadcast by Network Ten
and its affiliates; it was also simulcast
on the Triple M
radio network. The show was produced by Working Dog Productions
and included several members of the former D-Generation and The Late Show
casts.
The show featured a panel of five (originally six) people who discuss and joke about items in the news, current affairs, and pop culture. Episodes of The Panel screened at 9.30pm on Wednesday nights. Episodes were scheduled to run one hour but would often finish late, delaying the live news broadcast
scheduled for 10.30pm immediately afterwards.
The series premiered in 1998 and was very popular in its first few years. The show is currently considered to be on hiatus
with the last regular episode airing in 2004. Between 2003 and 2007 the show also broadcast an annual Christmas special.
, Rob Sitch
, Tom Gleisner
, Kate Langbroek
and Santo Cilauro
(usually sitting in this order from screen left to right at the desk). Gleisner would act as the MC, introducing guests and bookending segments, however if he didn't appear in the episode, Cilauro would often play this role.
The series also frequently featured guest panelists, with other Australian comedian
s, actor
s, and international guests (such as American
actor Harry Shearer
) regularly taking a spot at the desk. Jo Stanley
replaced Langbroek, who was on maternity leave, as a regular panelist for a number of shows in 2004.
Brian Nankervis
performed warm-up for the audience. The floor manager was Annie Maver, the then-wife of comedian Tony Martin
.
, or sexual health physician Dr. Cindy Pan
. A number of regular guests also appear to help present segments. These include sports reporter Stephen Quartermain, film reviewer Lawrie Zion and Hollywood correspondent Jeff Stilson
.
One of the most "excruciating" interviews, as Tom Gleisner described it, was in 2002 when Tommy Lee Jones
was in the studio with Will Smith
to promote their film Men in Black II
. Jones did not respond positively to any of the good humour of the interviewers and provided very brief answers.
All Aussie Adventures
host, Russell Coight (played by Glenn Robbins) appeared in character on one episode. Robbins did not appear as a panelist that week. Robbins also appeared as both himself and his Kath & Kim
character Kel Knight
during the 2007 Christmas special.
The extended length episode (usually two to three hours long) combines regular segments of the show, including live music performances and celebrity guests, with retrospectives on the past year. Live advertorials for the show's sponsors are also performed by the cast, with the proceeds going to charity. The specials always finish with a pantomime
of deliberately dubious quality revolving around the birth of Jesus
.
Christmas specials continued to be produced for some years after regular series production ended, with the latest special broadcast in 2007. Although initially planned, there was no special in 2008 due to Working Dog's commitment to The Hollowmen
(hosted by Dara Ó Briain
; see The Panel (Irish TV series)) and New Zealand
(hosted by Cal Wilson
). Another spin-off, supposedly the Afghanistan
version, was introduced on the 2005 Christmas special.
It has also led to the release of several albums in the Music - Live from the Panel series, consisting of songs performed on the show by local and international artists. Performances on The Panel were frequently performed acoustically or with minimal instrumental backing, as opposed to a full band.
and The Panel have been parties to a number of media law cases. They are in a long running dispute with the Nine Network
in the Federal Court of Australia
regarding an episode of The Panel and its broadcast of footage from Nine shows. Several appeals and related decisions have been made in the Federal Court (FCA), the Full Court of the Federal Court (FCAFC) and the High Court of Australia (HCA):
In its first year, the show gained some notice when Rob Sitch uttered the word "fuck
", then taboo for a live program, on air when inquiring about television presenter Donna Gubbay. Gubbay had presented a story on her program E! News where she introduced a story about panelist Kate Langbroek with the words "Who the hell is Kate Langbroek". After playing the footage, Sitch retorted "who the hell is Kate Langbroek? Well, who the fuck are you?"
In an episode in mid-2001, footage from Channel Seven
's then-popular game show The Weakest Link
was used in a segment to mock a contestant's imminent departure from the show .
In 2003 Langbroek faced some criticism after breastfeeding her first born child live on air shortly after giving birth.
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 television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
broadcast by Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
and its affiliates; it was also simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
on the Triple M
Triple M
The Triple M Network is an active rock radio network in Australia owned by media company Austereo, who also own the Today Network.- History :...
radio network. The show was produced by Working Dog Productions
Working Dog Productions
Working Dog Productions is a small film and television production company based in Melbourne, Australia. It was originally known as Frontline Television Productions Pty Ltd...
and included several members of the former D-Generation and The Late Show
The Late Show (Australian TV series)
The Late Show was a popular Australian comedy show, which ran for two seasons on ABC from 18 July 1992 to 30 October 1993.-Cast:The Late Show has its roots in the 1980s comedy group, The D-Generation...
casts.
The show featured a panel of five (originally six) people who discuss and joke about items in the news, current affairs, and pop culture. Episodes of The Panel screened at 9.30pm on Wednesday nights. Episodes were scheduled to run one hour but would often finish late, delaying the live news broadcast
Ten News
Ten News is the national news service of Network Ten in Australia. The majority of its news bulletins are presented from the TEN-10 studios in Pyrmont...
scheduled for 10.30pm immediately afterwards.
The series premiered in 1998 and was very popular in its first few years. The show is currently considered to be on hiatus
Hiatus (television)
In television scheduling, a hiatus refers to a break of at least several weeks in the normal schedule of a broadcast programming. It can occur during a season of a television program, or can be between television seasons .- Planned hiatus :Many times television stations will implement a hiatus...
with the last regular episode airing in 2004. Between 2003 and 2007 the show also broadcast an annual Christmas special.
Panelists
The regular panelists are Glenn RobbinsGlenn Robbins
Glenn Maxwell Robbins is an Australian comedian, writer and actor.Robbins attended Strathmore Secondary College and graduated in 1975...
, Rob Sitch
Rob Sitch
Robert Ian Sitch , is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comedian.-Early life:Sitch attended St Kevin's College and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Trinity College. He worked at the Royal Womans Hospital...
, Tom Gleisner
Tom Gleisner
Tom Gleisner is an Australian director, producer, writer, comedian, occasional actor and author. He was educated at Xavier College in Melbourne, Australia.-Television, radio and film:...
, Kate Langbroek
Kate Langbroek
Katherine Elizabeth Wilhelmina Beuving Langbroek is an Australian television and radio personality of Jamaican, Jewish and Dutch heritage...
and Santo Cilauro
Santo Cilauro
Santo Cilauro is an Australian television and feature film producer, screenwriter, actor, author, comedian and cameraman, a co-founder of The D-Generation...
(usually sitting in this order from screen left to right at the desk). Gleisner would act as the MC, introducing guests and bookending segments, however if he didn't appear in the episode, Cilauro would often play this role.
The series also frequently featured guest panelists, with other Australian comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
s, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s, and international guests (such as American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
) regularly taking a spot at the desk. Jo Stanley
Jo Stanley
Joanne "Jo" Stanley is an Australian television and radio personality.Stanley has appeared as the host of Network Ten's Bread TV program, a show that focuses on small business and is currently the host of The Matt and Jo Show on Austereo's FOX FM, a show she joined in 2003.- Biography :She...
replaced Langbroek, who was on maternity leave, as a regular panelist for a number of shows in 2004.
Brian Nankervis
Brian Nankervis
Brian Nankervis is an Australian comedian. He was originally best known for his character of Raymond J. Bartholomeuz, an eccentric beat poet. The character was popular during the 1980s and 1990s in regular appearances on Hey Hey It's Saturday...
performed warm-up for the audience. The floor manager was Annie Maver, the then-wife of comedian Tony Martin
Tony Martin (comedian)
Tony Francis Martin is a comedian and writer from Te Kuiti, New Zealand who has had a successful TV, radio, stand-up and film career in Australia.- Career :...
.
Guests
Guests include music and movie stars, sports heroes and political figures, but also many lower profile individuals who have interesting stories to tell, such as round-the-world sailor Jesse MartinJesse Martin
Jesse Martin is an Australian sailor who in 1999 became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop, and unassisted, taking the record from David Dicks, who was 24 days younger when he completed his circumnavigation, but had obtained assistance. Martin's journey in the S&S 34...
, or sexual health physician Dr. Cindy Pan
Cindy Pan
Cindy Pan is an Australian physician and television personality, who specialises in sexual health and women's health. Pan was born in Sydney, and was raised on a CSIRO research station in Badgerys Creek where her father was a scientist...
. A number of regular guests also appear to help present segments. These include sports reporter Stephen Quartermain, film reviewer Lawrie Zion and Hollywood correspondent Jeff Stilson
Jeff Stilson
Jeff Stilson is an American stand-up comedian.He has appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show, Comedy Central, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and is a regular guest on The Panel in Australia. He has also won two Emmy awards and received 14 nominations as a comedy...
.
One of the most "excruciating" interviews, as Tom Gleisner described it, was in 2002 when Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
was in the studio with Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
to promote their film Men in Black II
Men in Black II
Men in Black II is a 2002 science fiction action comedy starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. The film also stars Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville, Rosario Dawson and Rip Torn...
. Jones did not respond positively to any of the good humour of the interviewers and provided very brief answers.
All Aussie Adventures
All Aussie Adventures
All Aussie Adventures is an Australian mockumentary television series that parodied the travel-adventure genre. Glenn Robbins plays Russell Coight, a survival and wildlife expert who charts his disastrous travels through Australia, spreading misinformation and causing accidents...
host, Russell Coight (played by Glenn Robbins) appeared in character on one episode. Robbins did not appear as a panelist that week. Robbins also appeared as both himself and his Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim is a Logie Award-winning character-driven Australian television situation comedy series. The series was created by, and is written by Jane Turner and Gina Riley who play the title characters: a suburban mother and daughter with a dysfunctional relationship...
character Kel Knight
Kel Knight
Kel Knight is a fictional character in the Australian television show Kath & Kim, portrayed by comic actor Glenn Robbins.John Michael Higgins portrayed his American equivalent in the American Series.-Background:...
during the 2007 Christmas special.
Christmas specials
Starting in 2003 a special Christmas episode of the show aired on Christmas night, outside the regular broadcast season of the series. It has been promoted under varying titles including The Panel Christmas Special and The Panel Christmas Wrap.The extended length episode (usually two to three hours long) combines regular segments of the show, including live music performances and celebrity guests, with retrospectives on the past year. Live advertorials for the show's sponsors are also performed by the cast, with the proceeds going to charity. The specials always finish with a pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
of deliberately dubious quality revolving around the birth of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
.
Christmas specials continued to be produced for some years after regular series production ended, with the latest special broadcast in 2007. Although initially planned, there was no special in 2008 due to Working Dog's commitment to The Hollowmen
The Hollowmen
The Hollowmen is an Australian television comedy series set in the offices of the Central Policy Unit, a fictional political advisory unit personally set up by the Prime Minister to help him get re-elected. Their brief is long term vision; to stop worrying about tomorrow's headlines, and focus on...
Spin-offs
The success of the show has resulted in successful spin off shows in IrelandRepublic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
(hosted by Dara Ó Briain
Dara Ó Briain
Dara Ó Briain is an Irish stand-up comedian and television presenter, noted for hosting topical panel shows such as The Panel and Mock the Week....
; see The Panel (Irish TV series)) and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
(hosted by Cal Wilson
Cal Wilson
Cal Wilson is a New Zealand stand-up comedian and radio and television personality. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is well known in Australia through her appearances on television and radio.-Biography:...
). Another spin-off, supposedly the Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
version, was introduced on the 2005 Christmas special.
It has also led to the release of several albums in the Music - Live from the Panel series, consisting of songs performed on the show by local and international artists. Performances on The Panel were frequently performed acoustically or with minimal instrumental backing, as opposed to a full band.
Controversy
Network TenNetwork Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
and The Panel have been parties to a number of media law cases. They are in a long running dispute with 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 the Federal Court of Australia
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...
regarding an episode of The Panel and its broadcast of footage from Nine shows. Several appeals and related decisions have been made in the Federal Court (FCA), the Full Court of the Federal Court (FCAFC) and the High Court of Australia (HCA):
- 1st [2001] FCA 108
- 2nd [2001] FCA 841
- 3rd [2002] FCAFC 146
- 4th [2004] HCA 14
- 5th [2005] FCAFC 53
- 6th [2005] FCAFC 194
In its first year, the show gained some notice when Rob Sitch uttered the word "fuck
Fuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
", then taboo for a live program, on air when inquiring about television presenter Donna Gubbay. Gubbay had presented a story on her program E! News where she introduced a story about panelist Kate Langbroek with the words "Who the hell is Kate Langbroek". After playing the footage, Sitch retorted "who the hell is Kate Langbroek? Well, who the fuck are you?"
In an episode in mid-2001, footage from Channel Seven
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...
's then-popular game show The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link (Australian game show)
The Weakest Link was an Australian game show based on the successful UK format, which aired from February 2001 until April 2002 and was broadcast on the Seven Network. Presented by Cornelia Frances, the show featured nine contestants competing for a potential prize of $100,000...
was used in a segment to mock a contestant's imminent departure from the show .
In 2003 Langbroek faced some criticism after breastfeeding her first born child live on air shortly after giving birth.