0/5

First Review: Out of the Question

Here’s a question. Who on earth thought this was right for an 8:30pm timeslot?

It’s not that I didn’t want to like Out of the Question, though it did pitch itself as a hybrid of various other shows we have already seen on the box.

I like Glenn Robbins. On The Panel, Kath & Kim and way back to “Uncle Arthur.” I certainly came to this feeling like I could sit down with some TV mates.

But last night’s premiere episode felt like a pilot that should have been pitched to network execs. There were lots of problems in its first outing.

Robbins almost forgot to mention the show’s title and format before introducing his panellists. Wandering his way through a show that has deliberately called itself “loose around the edges”, Robbins joked that he should have read the questions before the show. That might have helped him know ‘Amy Whitehouse’ is really Amy Winehouse and know what an MP3 player actually is. He also seemed to be looking a lot to off-camera crew (although Daryl did that for years and made it work), and trying to remember to update scores.

One of the gags at the expense of Wayne Carey saw Robbins joke that a security guard had been flogging CCTV footage around to some TV network. It was Seven, but that was overlooked.

Based loosely around trivial news questions (as in the NZ show Out of the Question) Robbins’ guests seemed as unclear of the format as the host. There were a few funny answers here and there. Ed Kavalee continues to prove an encouraging emerging talent. Fifi Box is either perfecting an act of being daffy, or merely is daffy. So far she fooled everyone that she deserved a Logies co-hosting gig, so good for her.

The team were stuck behind a Panel-style desk that lumbered the show with a decided lack of visuals or movement. Instead it was left to a camera bordering on vertigo to provide slow dollys in and out. Have the producers seen that Spicks and Specks manages to get its team out from behind the desks?

Many of the questions on Out of the Question mirrored the style of questions once used on Good News Week: “Here’s a question, which multiple choice answer is right?” So what is the point of difference with Seven’s new show? And more worringly, how will they compare when GNW returns?

Like The Panel this is essentially radio on television, which to return to my earlier point, might work in a later timeslot. Were this on at 10:30pm when we settle down for the night, or tune in for some light entertainment before dozing off, it might build a following. Better yet, consider it for the alternative HD channel (curiously the show was also “available in widescreen” -what for?).

And can we replace the cheap buzzers before next week?

Out of the Question airs 8:30pm Thursdays on Seven.

32 Responses

  1. Robbins stinks in a very malodourous show. Only got half way through it. I suggest he quits before he looses any more credibility. It will be difficult to watch him in anything else now.

  2. I remember talking to the night guard at C& when i rocked up for work and they were in shift change.
    They take the calls late night when the operators go home for work, they get the odd call about shows from usually intoxicated users, and 3/4 of the time they dont even write it down.
    ANd by the sounds of these comments, people love to whinge and hate more than they like to say anything good. Its the pack mentality, Dave can think for himself and puts up opinions and the rest just jump on board because theres an open mike handy.
    Its pretty simple, dont like it, dont watch it.

  3. I cannot believe that channel seven took Bones off to air Out of the Question. No disrespect to Glenn Robbins guests, but the show lacked all the things you look for in a prime time show… humour, storyline, action, and basically order. I’m sorry seven, but you hit rock bottom with this show. Take it off and let us finish Bones. I’m sick of Australian television interrupting a show mid-season to put B-grade Australian shows. I love Australian tv, but at the moment, many shows are second rate, quite poor compared to previous shows. BRING BACK BONES!!!!!!!! Not that Channel Seven will even listen to us…

  4. After the first 15min I rang ch7 switchboard and told them I thought it was the worst television I had seen in 40yrs of viewing.I said that even though i am a great fan of Glenn Robbins this whole format was like a poorly executed segment on David Letterman that went on and on.
    It was painful watching Glenn trying to extract humour from benale subject matter.Watching this show brought to mind the immortal words of Kerry Packer in response to Doug Mulray’s death on screen humour…”Get this shit off”
    Glenn ‘ole son You should know better!!!

  5. Thats a new one!!
    First it was praising the writers strike for forcing Australian Networks to air new Aussie shows.
    Now its the Writers Strikes fault for giving us new “under par” Aussie content! lol

  6. jeez dave! you have a rough nite or something mate?
    Flicking back to your first few posts on here you wernt exactly Sir Barry Blog yaself dude!! Over time you improved and people decide to check it out.
    On one hand you guys complain that shows get taken off the air in a matter of weeks not giving them a chance, and then in the next post your saying this show isnt good enough to air!! Jezzuz people!
    Its been on the air for a matter of minutes and your expecting 5 star value! What ever happened to support as oppossed to being so cynical!
    I cant wait to see what your shows are like when they air 😉

    (BTW, Im sure the argument of “its TV we expect top value at professionalism etc etc” but then why the hell does Big Brother and Sunrise rate huh? Even thinking of ROve when he first aired back on nine, he was awful!)

  7. This show was more boring than watching my backyard grass grow or paint on my freshly painted walls dry.. it was that boring, and i turned it off straight after the first tv break..

  8. 2 stars David? That is too many stars! Too kind!

    I think “Out of the Question” was basically ‘Out of Questions’ before it even began, this show would have been cancelled the morning after if the writers strike wasn’t on in the USA!

    Bring back ‘Roy and HG’ instead Mr. Seven, you’ve got their set out already, Glenn was just warming it up!

    Alternatively, get him to host it as “Uncle Arthur”, because this show looks like it’s already dying a slow painful death!

    I really hope this isn’t a taste of the kind of quality we should expect of the new HD-only chat shows launching on 7HD soon!!?

    PS. “available in widescreen” only to meet quotas!?

  9. Have Australian TV writers also gone on strike? First GNW is enlisted for a blah comeback and now comes this. If I have to go back 20 years I’d rather watch It’s A Knockout – at least it coughed up a concept, a few ideas and a bunch of stupids de-shirting and hitting each other with inflatable pool toys for points. Even Perfect Match had more kudos than some of today’s mis-hits. Come on networks, show some a) imagination and b) integrity! Just because it’s free, doesn’t mean it should be BORING. Excuse me for the wine(hous)ing, but I feel like a dingo stole my… blank. What’s next? The Mike Walsh Show featuring Partyboy Corey? (Or Carey?) Well, at least The Chaser was good.

  10. Missed recording this due to suspicion it would be a bit crap, and it looks like that was an understatement…!

    By the way, it’s “Available in widescreen” because it’s produced in 16:9 widescreen, just like pretty much all local production these days.

  11. We need to give shows like these time to develop, which commercial networks aren’t usually a fan of. We should not judge it purely on its first episode.
    Look at Spicks and Specks. That ran for a whole season and then gradually built up a following, then became really popular.

  12. Great concept but poor execution.
    Don’t they rehearse as it looks like they need alot of fine tuning.
    Ed Kavalee was fantastic as usual.
    I hope Glenn gets more organised.

  13. Didn’t like it at all. Ed Kavalee is overrated and not anywhere near as hot as what he thinks he is, so I’d appreciate him not trying to sleaze onto everyone on the panel, as well as the camera and the audience. Yuck.

  14. The problem with doing a Panel-esque show is that they tried that with ‘The Chatroom’, and look what happened there.

    I suppose at least Seven did try something different this time.

  15. Being a fan of Glenn Robbins in pretty much all his guises I was primed to like this show but found it extremely disappointing.

    Spicks and Specks has shown us that you don’t have to have snazzy sets or loads of money to be entertaining but you do have to have something of a structure and a host who doesn’t look like he woke up in an alternate reality from the one he went to sleep in.

    In deference to Glenn Robbins I’ll give it another try but next week will need to be a very different product for me to stay with it any longer than that.

  16. I missed most of it but by the sound of things that was for the best.

    I’ve always felt that Ed Kavalee has alot of TV potential. He is quite good on ‘Get This’ and you’d think he could be the next Hamish and Andy.

    I don’t understand why they didn’t just do another Panel- esque show. I know it wouldn’t be original but I think it would be more successful. The Panel, The Fat and the Glasshouse are much the same but have still managed to be a success in their own right. The questions just made it seem awkward and non-engaging.

  17. God it was really, really awful I didn’t even sit through the whole 30 mins, what was Seven thinking exactly, they better get their act together quickly and shove lost back in at 830, let this run at 930 at a minimum, its going to kill what is left of Lost.

  18. I actually thought it was a lot better than what I was expecting. I don’t know how much of that bumbling from Glen is real and how much of it is him playing it up for laughs. I think he actually knew what an MP3 player was but because someone was taking the piss out of him about being too old to understand new technology, he played along and acted like he was unsure about what it was. Anyway, I think it had plenty of laughs but it will really depend on the quality of the guests/contestants. Ed Kavalee was great!!! Ch 7 should sign him up and develop something that really takes advantage of his talents.

  19. I really wanted to love “Out of the Question”. I love all four of the host/guests on last night’s show but the whole thing just looked like a shambles. Glenn has been made look good on tv in the past by good hosts like Tom Gleisner. A host – he ain’t I’m afraid. Without Ed Kavalee, the whole show would have been even more of a disaster. Glenn came off looking like a senior citizen asking questions of the “young folk”. If he really did know what an MP3 player was, he did a great job of looking like he had no idea.
    I’ll give it a couple of weeks – at least as ratings haven’t started yet, there might be a bit of time to get used to it before the show gets some serious competition.
    Let’s hope it improves. The only way is up at this stage!!

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