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Radio active TV

TV Tonight talks to Merrick and Rosso about the freedom of Pay TV, nearly landing John Laws and avoid the term 'radio jock.'

rosso“We decided to go with humour for the second series. Jokes. Funny,” insists Tim Ross.

“No, it’s more of the same but I think we’re in a better position with this one. Everytime you do a second series I think you’re much more comfortable. Your team gets its shit together. Not that people are always interested in what goes on behind the scenes, but we’ve gotten to know our writers and producers and editors, people who do our costumes. It’s a really nice team at the moment, everyone’s on the same page and it shows.”

The season is their second for the Comedy Channel (excluding their first stint in 1999), and credited as the channel’s most successful series yet. A variation on Tonight Show format, it includes a studio audience, celebrity guests and pre-recorded sketches.

“Merrick and I are probably working a lot more closely together on this one than last year,” he said. “A lot of the pre-production for series one Merrick was doing The Hollowmen so I was writing a lot of stuff, or doing stuff by myself.

“If there’s one thing that was probably missing from series one it was a lot of the things that we did together. It was probably a disjointed show. This one is us as united front which has been a much more rewarding experience in pre-production.”

Guests this season include Tom Williams, Myf Warhurst, David Wenham, Charlotte Dawson, Kate Perry, Sophie Monk, Russell Brand and Ed Phillips.

“We got really close to getting Lawsy to come and do the show. We said ‘it’s going to be like Top Gear but it’s called No Gears.’ And we were going to take his Rolls Royce out and not use the clutch and he said ‘no I’m f***en not doin’ that’ and fair enough too. He is almost 80.”

Having a subscription show also afford the radio hosts more freedom than their previous incarnations on commercial television.

“We just don’t feel the same pressure,” said Ross. “There’s no ratings pressure on us. They like that it rates well from a Foxtel perspective. Nobody’s sweating on the numbers. The numbers have been good but it’s not like Seven and Nine and TEN. We just do what what we do.

“At Channel TEN we got loads of stuff knocked back. Channel Nine I used to be in charge of what went to air there, it was good. Nine was pretty easy. I was in charge of how many swear words went to air. So I made the call, ‘let’s put two f**ks.’ I found that rather strange. It was a bizarre power to have.”

merrickHis comedy partner Merrick Watts has had a busy twelve months, acting for Working Dog and a cameo in Underbelly. He talks down the brief appearance in the Nine series as New Zealand drug dealer Marty Johnson. He reckons he was on screen for “about 11 seconds” and he didn’t even get to do a Kiwi accent.

“They omitted the Kiwi accent,” he said. “And I think they had some issues with Kiwi accents within the programme so they wanted to move away from them. So I was happy. It may be integral to the historical element of the events but it’s not integral to the series television show.”

As for more work in The Hollowmen, he isn’t sure if or when the show is proceeding to another series.

“The official line is they don’t know. If I was going to guess I’d say yes but they don’t know when. They don’t tell me anymore than they tell most people,” he said.

Working in breakfast radio, comedy, television and dramatic roles, one could be forgiven for thinking Watts is effecting a shift from comedy to drama. But he prefers to be seen simply as ‘Comedian.’

“One of the reasons we always do stand up is so that we don’t get pigeon holed being just radio broadcasters. You can always be in danger of hearing the magic word which is ‘jock.’ As soon as you get called a ‘jock’ you’re pigeon holed and that can be very damaging to your career. I’m not a jock. I don’t even know how to push the buttons.

“We started as stand-up comedians long before we had any real jobs. That’s why we’re always very protective about being known as comedians.”

Watts says the new Comedy Channel series is filmed in a tight turnaround, recording on Tuesdays and airing Thursdays. The upside is it keeps the show up to date.

“It gives it a freshness. You’ve got the ability to build stuff in. It’s not live but it feels fresh so it’s a nice compromise.”

As the second series premieres this week no doubt the boys will be hoping to maintain their mantle as Comedy Channel guns.

“Fortunately for us more people have liked it than any other show on the Comedy Channel. I can’t believe it. I’m a bit surprised!” he laughs.

The Merrick and Rosso Show returns 8:30pm Thursday April 2nd on the Comedy Channel.

4 Responses

  1. I’ve managed to catch quite a few episodes from the 1st series recently, and they were much funnier than expected.

    It’s nothing like a chat show… sure they have one, single guest, but they chuck them into a few skits and then genrally lampoon them and make them look like tools.

    I’ll be tuning in to the new series.

  2. Stephen, chat shows in this country usually are. Well…they are in other countries too, but they seem to be even more shamelessly EPK-centric here.

    At least they are still funnier than Daryl Jr…err, Rove.

  3. Wow…..The guest line up for this years show really has sent me into dizzy fits of hysteria.
    I used to love these guys but judging from the cavalcade of dross that’s lining up to take a seat on the program it looks like the series is a combination of a glorified TV press release and endless X promotions for the less than average….,sorry fellas you just ain’t that funny anymore.

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