SA Footy

Bloody ABC


THE ABC last night axed its popular and irreverent television comedy show, The Glass House, which has been at the centre of a storm over allegations of anti-Howard Government bias.

The ABC gave no explanation for the decision apart from telling the cast and crew yesterday that not all shows could be renewed.

Host Wil Anderson posted a blog last night promising to "go out with all guns a'blazing". "It's been a really fun five years," he said.

Co-compere Dave Hughes said axing the show made little sense.

"We have had our best ratings ever," he said.

The Glass House has become the latest casualty in the "culture wars" and comes just a day after Liberal NSW senator Connie Fierravanti-Wells said during a grilling of ABC executives that co-host Corrine Grant had been guilty of a serious conflict of interest because she was the public face of the ACTU's workplace relations campaign.

And it follows revelations the ABC will pay a new chief censor $280,000 a year to investigate and monitor instances of bias on ABC programs.

Anderson, Hughes and Grant regularly make jokes about John Howard and US President George W. Bush, provoking critics to accuse them of bias.

But during a recent show Anderson responded to criticism by saying if Mark Latham had been in power they would be having a great time.

The decision to axe The Glass House came despite the show achieving its highest ratings since it first went to air in 2001 - with average audiences of 728,000.

The program regularly outrated commercial programs in the same time slot and this year won a peak audience of almost 860,000 viewers.

The last episode of The Glass House will go to air on November 29.

wouldnt mind the censors job i would make all sanfl games available on abc

Bull shit decision by the ABC, I'm a Liberal voter and I find it funny. Christ I thought one of the great things about this country is that you could laugh at yourselves....

As a rider I do find the repetive jokes about Howard and Bush tiresome - how many times can you keep going back to the same well??

Christ rubbery figures used to lampoon the Hawke and Keating.....in the 80s

If this is proven as a definate case of Censorship on behalf of the Government and that certain senators from the 'unrepresentative swill" have got there way I will be one disappointed liberal voter...

1980 Tassie Medalist wrote:Bull shit decision by the ABC, I'm a Liberal voter and I find it funny. Christ I thought one of the great things about this country is that you could laugh at yourselves....

As a rider I do find the repetive jokes about Howard and Bush tiresome - how many times can you keep going back to the same well??

Christ rubbery figures used to lampoon the Hawke and Keating.....in the 80s

If this is proven as a definate case of Censorship on behalf of the Government and that certain senators from the 'unrepresentative swill" have got there way I will be one disappointed liberal voter...

In same boat as you Wrinkles and will feel similarly aggrieved ...

Yeah it is a load of carp - the only reason that Howard/Bush get targeted is because they are in power - duh! Which other Australian PM or US President are they going to get stuck into???

Good old ABC up to it's usual tricks again. Same thing happened last year when they decided not to show the Ashes - SBS won big out of that one.

Throw me on the list, Ive thought they've paid our Labour pollies just as much as Liberal pollies when Ive been watching it, Beazley cops heaps.
Carp decision.

the main target of the show is the government, if the ALP was competent enough to get into government, no doubt they would cop a similar amount of jibes.

It wasn't my favourite show, however I think its really sad that a government has to resort to censorship. Besides who changes their vote from liberal to labor on the basis of a bushy eyebrow joke?

If the chaser gets done over as well ill be mighty pissed off.

Thank Christ they finally got this piece of crap off-air...

Does anyone watch the IT Crowd which is on between Spicks and Specks and The Glasshouse?
That's one damn funny show, cracks me up.

i didnt mind that show, thought it was funny...poor form if its axed

Wedgie wrote:Does anyone watch the IT Crowd which is on between Spicks and Specks and The Glasshouse?
That's one damn funny show, cracks me up.

Love it Wedgie. I try to get my technician at work to watch it but he doesn't see the humour. Love the goth! The black guy - sorry, don't know his name - was brilliant in Garth Merenghi's Darkplace, another fine show to check out

Wedgie wrote:Does anyone watch the IT Crowd which is on between Spicks and Specks and The Glasshouse?
That's one damn funny show, cracks me up.

yes, absoulute cracker show. Which one best represents you Wedgie, Roy or Mossy? guessing Roy the drunk who doesnt like working



back on the glasshouse I think that they are going to go down swinging with some of the jokes they used last night

heater31 wrote:yes, absoulute cracker show. Which one best represents you Wedgie, Roy or Mossy? guessing Roy the drunk who doesnt like working

Definately although I've never worked in the IT admin area but the weird part about it is he has the same voice as Dogsbody, a semi regular on here!
Ive just downloaded the first series but there's only 6 episodes and conjecture on if there will be another series, I hope so, an absolute cracker of a show.
As mentioned previously the goth is a pisser, Mrs Wedgie pisses herself laughing everytime he comes out of his room.

Its almost like IT meets the Young Ones.

Wedgie wrote:

heater31 wrote:yes, absoulute cracker show. Which one best represents you Wedgie, Roy or Mossy? guessing Roy the drunk who doesnt like working

Definately although I've never worked in the IT admin area but the weird part about it is he has the same voice as Dogsbody, a semi regular on here!
Ive just downloaded the first series but there's only 6 episodes and conjecture on if there will be another series, I hope so, an absolute cracker of a show.
As mentioned previously the goth is a pisser, Mrs Wedgie pisses herself laughing everytime he comes out of his room.

Its almost like IT meets the Young Ones.

the series is released on DVD next week but dont know if its available in Oz


but can confirm from the website that the BBC have given the go ahead for series 2 to air early 2007 in the UK

heater31 wrote:

Wedgie wrote:

heater31 wrote:yes, absoulute cracker show. Which one best represents you Wedgie, Roy or Mossy? guessing Roy the drunk who doesnt like working

Definately although I've never worked in the IT admin area but the weird part about it is he has the same voice as Dogsbody, a semi regular on here!
Ive just downloaded the first series but there's only 6 episodes and conjecture on if there will be another series, I hope so, an absolute cracker of a show.
As mentioned previously the goth is a pisser, Mrs Wedgie pisses herself laughing everytime he comes out of his room.

Its almost like IT meets the Young Ones.

the series is released on DVD next week but dont know if its available in Oz


but can confirm from the website that the BBC have given the go ahead for series 2 to air early 2007 in the UK

Cool, good news.
Already downloaded them all today.

This is disgraceful that the ABC would axe a vehicle for some of our best home-grown talent to shine.
In an era of having American comedy/values forced down our throats, an original Australian series, made in Australia, using Australian talent, should be given every opportunity to thrive, especially a quality production such as the Glass House.
Should the ABC choose to maintain it's stance on this issue, it will be to the detriment of the ABC, & further signal their intention to ensure a bland diet of programs deemed "safe" & "pc", are to be presented to a shrinking audience.
It is time the ABC backed & promoted local, quality productions, not string them out to dry, in the mis-guided interests of political correctness.


as entered in the petition

Punk Rooster wrote:This is disgraceful that the ABC would axe a vehicle for some of our best home-grown talent to shine.
In an era of having American comedy/values forced down our throats, an original Australian series, made in Australia, using Australian talent, should be given every opportunity to thrive, especially a quality production such as the Glass House.
Should the ABC choose to maintain it's stance on this issue, it will be to the detriment of the ABC, & further signal their intention to ensure a bland diet of programs deemed "safe" & "pc", are to be presented to a shrinking audience.
It is time the ABC backed & promoted local, quality productions, not string them out to dry, in the mis-guided interests of political correctness.

I loved the Glasshouse. Original and spontaneous jokes. Often laughed at themselves as well - is that bias?

Wouldn't be surprised if Media Watch was in the sights of the ABC next.

I hope the Glass House gets picked up by Channel 10 or even better, Channel 31 to be screened before Total SANFL!

Punk Rooster wrote:This is disgraceful that the ABC would axe a vehicle for some of our best home-grown talent to shine.
In an era of having American comedy/values forced down our throats, an original Australian series, made in Australia, using Australian talent, should be given every opportunity to thrive, especially a quality production such as the Glass House.
Should the ABC choose to maintain it's stance on this issue, it will be to the detriment of the ABC, & further signal their intention to ensure a bland diet of programs deemed "safe" & "pc", are to be presented to a shrinking audience.
It is time the ABC backed & promoted local, quality productions, not string them out to dry, in the mis-guided interests of political correctness.


as entered in the petition

It is also time that the ABC was given a decent amount of funding instead of having it constantly cut by the Current Government. The Current Government has cut back the ABC's budget every year it's been in office until the last Budget, when they were given "extra" funding to produce more drama with. That's close to a decade of having their budget cut every year. If there isn't money in the kitty you can't produce local programmes. Trust me on this one it's something I have had first hand experience with.
As for the ABC being "safe" and "PC" take that up with the current ABC board. A board I think you'll find was put there by the Current (there's that word again) Government.

As for The Glasshouse I felt it had run its race two years ago. I was honestly surprised they didn't wind it up at the end of 2004 and move onto other things. Obviously I'm in the minority here. I'm just of the opinion that shouting doesn't substitute the lack of a punch line or joke. But then again I don't think I am in the demographic they were aiming at