Ahoy hoy, I thought I’d do a bit of real journalism for a change and copy and paste straight from an unsolicited press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
‘Good Afternoon Adelaide’ is coming to Channel 44 Adelaide and Channel 31 Melbourne & Geelong, Monday 5 March at 9PM.
[Tuesday, 27 February 2018 – ] ‘Good Afternoon Adelaide’ was a South Australian television institution. The one-hour chat show aired live across SA and into the silver city of Broken Hill weekdays at 2PM from 1989 to 1992 during an era when Adelaide truly was the place to be (before Victoria stole the slogan for their number plates, along with the Formula One Grand Prix).
Hosted by journalist Jeremy Dome and business identity Norman Vine, the show featured news, celebrity interviews, live music, talkback callers, lifestyle segments, paid advertorials and a who’s who of Adelaide royalty.
Like a lot of local Adelaide telly, the show became a victim of increased networkisation from the eastern states and GAA was cancelled in 1992. As a final insult, the station’s master tapes were later sold and used for episodes of “Wheel of Fortune”. Hence very few recordings of the show still exist today.
However, when Hallett Cove amateur video archivist Ben Felixstove passed away last year, several Betamax tapes were uncovered by his family, featuring home video footage of Ben introducing some of his favourite ‘Good Afternoon Adelaide’ clips recorded off TV.
Ben’s tapes have been eagerly snapped up by C44 Adelaide and C31 Melbourne and six half-hour ‘best-of ‘episodes of ‘Good Afternoon Adelaide’ will be broadcast for the first time in more than a quarter of a century beginning Monday 5 March at 9PM.
It’s fabulous Episode #11 of the TV game show that makes all the other TV game shows look like TV game shows… 31 Questions! Featuring a very special appearance from 31 Questions writer Gerard Kotlowy (although, he was a little flat).
Ep #11 also features the gag round “Grammar Nazi” where contestants have to correct the grammar on poorly written signage. Are YOU a Grammar Nazi? Or were you just following orders…
I reckon this episode is my favourite so far.
As our final episode is fast approaching, as a special thank you to all our fans and supporters, we’re going to put EVERY FAN’S NAME ON TV!
“But how will you know who the fans are, fools at 31 Questions?”
Good question. Have ten points. Now, the best method of sourcing our fans’ names we can think of is just taking them from our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. So head on over there and if you click “like” before 28 August 2012, you’ll get to see your name on TV in Ep #13, which airs on Channel 31 Melbourne & Geelong on 1 September!
Now of course, the unfortunate bi-product of this venture, “stunt” if you will, is a rapid increase in Facebook fans. And well… we’re just going to have to accept that.
In other news, for the first time ever you’ll be able to watch us in TWO STATES this evening!
Regular viewers in Melbourne and Geelong can catch Ep #12 tonight at 10PM on Channel 31.
Meanwhile, 3000km away in Western Australia, Perth fans can get their first taste of 31 Questions Ep #1 on West TV (Digital 44) at 11.30PM local time.
If you’re in the great state of South Australia, 31 Questions starts on 44 Adelaide Tuesday 28 August with Ep #1 airing at 10.30PM local time. And listen out for me on some Adelaide radio stations next week plugging the show (follow 31 Questions on Twitter for reminders).
Sydney & Brisbane, sit tight. I’ll get back to you as soon as I know the time slots and start dates.
And we just got word this week that Triangle Television in Auckland has approved 31 Questions too! Of course, had New Zealand joined the Federation in 1901 with the rest of the colonies, this would be far less impressive and international. More info on dates and times soon.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
I’m working my butt off here!
I’m not quite sure how we did it, but somehow… we shot 12 episodes of 31 Questions in just six days. Not consecutively, obviously. Whoa! Don’t get me wrong!
We spread those studio dates out over six weeks…
Oh sure, that’s pretty poor by commercial TV standards. They shoot something like five “Deal or No Deals” a day. But for community TV, that is pretty spectacular.
And it’s all thanks to that great bunch of people in the photo above. We were blessed with a fantastic crew who came in week after week to work for nothing more than a sandwich and a slice of pizza.
What an incredible experience. If they had these sorts of facilities in Adelaide, I would have done a TV show years ago. But instead, I had to move to Melbourne to make this happen. But hey, can’t complain 😉
It’s given me the opportunity to work with some exceptionally talented people…
And I’ve made some new friends along the way…
The actual taping of the last two shows on May 17 went off mostly without a hitch. Oh, don’t get me wrong. There was a hitch.
During the final round of the final show, the tape malfunctioned and stopped recording. It also caused the back-up recorder to stop as well. So we lost the last segment and annoyingly had to re-shoot it.
So that being the case, you may notice a few in-jokes about deja vu towards the end of episode 13.
But these things happen. We’re lucky the guys and girls in the control room noticed it early and we didn’t lose more footage. And luckily for us, that was the only time that happened to us on the whole series.
That fear was always at the back of my mind. I could just imagine shooting two episodes back to back, only to then discover none of it had been recorded. It’s every TV-maker’s worst nightmare.
But thankfully that didn’t happen and it’s now all “in the can”, or more accurately, that little plastic case the DV tapes come in.
And before I forget, a BIG THANK YOU to the many people who made up our studio audience. Our last two nights in the studio had our biggest audiences to date. And it really made the whole experience so much better.
Fortunately also, we were able to record the important second half of the Gerard Kotlowy cardboard cutout gag. See previous blog entry.
I think cardboard cutouts are up there with boats and golf in terms of hilarious concepts. We had a lot of fun with that cardboard cutout:
Actually that video pretty much sums up the show. A few people goofing around while others freak out.
As for 2D Gerard… he seems to be developing a mind of his own…
He’s now taken his rightful place on permanent display in my apartment. I’ve set him up just inside the entrance.
The first time I arrived home after setting this up, I forgot “Cardboard Gerard” was there and upon opening the door I experienced one second of absolute terror as for some reason there was a suited screaming man in my home. I suspected that would happen. Hilarious.
However, I’m less certain how to explain this… When I arrived home the NEXT night, it was almost as if Cardboard Gerard was expecting me…
An additional side effect I’m now faced with is the prospect of finding places in my apartment for all the other props and tidbits we used on 31 Questions.
A prospect I’m very much enjoying…
So we now move on to the NEXT stage of television… the editing.
This may take a while.
In the mean time, I’m proud to announce OUR TIMESLOT!
Episodes of 31 Questions will be broadcast for the first time Saturdays 10PM on Channel 31 Melbourne & Geelong – starting 9 June – and repeated Fridays 1.30AM from 15 June.
It’s not exactly the timeslot we were expecting, but hey, we’ll take it!
I’ve done radio shows in worse timeslots. Who could forget 2007’s “Brain Damage” on Radio Adelaide 101.5FM, Wednesday nights midnight to 1AM, hilariously wedged between “The Albanian Program” and five hours of the BBC World Service?
Everyone, that’s who.
If you’re outside of Melbourne and Geelong, sit tight. We’re looking at other community TV stations around Australia. And there’s YouTube as well. So there’ll be no excuses for not watching 😉
Did someone say, “Gee, that 31 Questions is okay for a community TV show. But they could really use a once off $350 joke”?
No? Well, I’m not surprised… But for argument’s sake, let’s assume you did!
Last Thursday May 10 was our penultimate studio shoot and my good friend of 18 odd years, Gerard Kotlowy (also one of the 31 Questions writers) booked himself a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne to see his vision to appear on television and then be transformed into a cardboard cutout of himself come true.
The only problem was… the cardboard cutout only arrived today.
So we shot Gerard’s “live” bit last week and hopefully the magic of television will allow the 2nd half of our single most expensive gag to be immortalised on fabulous standard definition video tape during our final day in the studio tomorrow evening!
The rest of the taping was a bit more rocky than in previous weeks. This was thanks mainly to competition with the news programme “Newsline” over RMITV resources such as the autocues, graphics machine and other things I don’t understand.
Newsline goes live to air from 5.45PM to 6PM in the adjacent Studio B. So we had to keep it down during a time where we would otherwise be rehearsing and setting up for our shows.
I’m all too familiar with Newsline, having completed a Graduate Diploma of Journalism (with Distinction, might I add) from RMIT University two years ago. A great course. I learned a lot and especially loved the television component.
If memory serves, back then Newsline was 45 minutes. But these days it seems to only be 15 minutes. It might have something to do with my infamous gaff on the show back in ’10…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSojtnWJIf8
Man, that was some bizarre television… Exactly what community TV should be 🙂
Speaking of which, back to our show!
Ahh Anthony, will you ever change that shirt? Or even just wash it once in a while, for Christ’s sake…
We had a huge audience last week. And by “huge”, I mean like, 15 or so? Many thanks to the good folk who came down and joined in the triviality of the evening.
It’s all getting to be a bit of a blur now. We’ve done 11 of these shows. I’ve forgotten 90% of the crap I’ve said. And as yet, I haven’t even watched any of the footage back.
That’s not really how I’d like to do things in a perfect world, as I do find I’m able to self evaluate my performance much more effectively when I can see the video. I improve my sex life in much the same way.
So this brings us to the FINAL studio shoot. We’re taping the last two episodes of our 13-episode season Thursday, 17 May 2012.
We’ve got a lot to get done. As well as Eps 12 and 13, we also have to shoot four sketches and a bunch of pick-up shots; little things we missed or forgot to do in previous weeks.
So come join the fun. It’s most likely your LAST EVER OPPORTUNITY to see me host a TV show. I mean, what moron would let me loose in a TV studio again? Someone who wanted to get fired.
Hell, 31 Questions was officially cancelled by management in February last year! People have been trying to stop this show since the beginning.
So this is it, my friends and foes. It’s now or never.
So what are you waiting for!?!
Be an extra special member of our exclusive studio audience. 7PM RMIT University. Studio A, Level 2, Building 12, near the corner of Swanston and Franklin Streets, Melbourne. Join the Facebook event here. Come one, come all!
And feel free to join us cast and crew for a few drinks afterwards at an as yet undecided location.
