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Ed Kavalee hearts TV

TV Tonight meets TV Burp, or more specifically, host Ed Kavalee, who explains his passion for drama, reality and factuals -and why news and comedy are off limits.

Ed KavaleeIf you truly love your television, you should cast your eyes Ed Kavalee’s way this Thursday night. Sure, it’s a clip show with gags, unapologetically. Sure it’s a format ripped from the UK. But boy do we have some bad telly. And it’s Ed’s job to remind us.

TV Burp, as Kavalee explains, is not out to critique television. It’s an affectionate look at the week in TV. It’s an absurdist time capsule of the last seven days, slicing scenes out of context, giving them inappropriate set-ups, and letting the shows provide the punch lines.

“We look for gaps, such as something that happens with the storyline where we can get in and show it in a different context,” he explained to TV Tonight. “So it’s not about good or bad but whether we can have some fun with it.

“We’re more a Lover’s Guide to Television, but it’s not all just promos.”

Kavalee sits on a brightly coloured living room set, cheerfully reminding us of some of the obscure moments we might have missed on Neighbours, Airways, Rush, Home and Away, Recruits, Hot Seat, Ready Steady Cook, Gardening Australia and Dancing with the Stars.

If the grabs weren’t already funny in their original form, they will prove more so out of context. The idea stems from Kavalee’s unashamed passion for TV which he took to Seven programme developer Brad Lyons.

“I said, ‘Brad I’ve got an idea.’ And he said ‘Before you say anything, look at this DVD,’ and he put TV Burp on the table in front of me. So it was one of those fortuitous ‘right place, right time’ deals.”

Seven had been sitting on the UK series Harry Hill’s TV Burp for a while, but hadn’t found the right home or the person to front it.

“Harry Hill is a legendary stand up in England. It was his idea and he’s now 8 series down,” said Kavalee.

The other successful format is the US TV skewer, The Soup, which airs in Australia on E!

“I like The Soup and Joel McHale, but it’s a bit more ‘critiquey.’  I don’t want to attack anything because I don’t want to see them taken off. I want True Beauty to run its course and find its audience.”

Although it is looking back at the week in television, TV Burp avoids politics. It sticks like glue to drama, reality, light entertainment and factual television. News and current affairs are off limits, left to the domain of Media Watch, The Chaser and The 7pm Project. Comedy is also off the list.

“We have a lot of shows that deal with current affairs or gags on panel shows and they’re great. But we want to turn the comedy light towards things that we perhaps take for granted. All Saints, Home and Away, Neighbours, Packed to the Rafters, Underbelly when it was on, Airways, World’s Strictest Parents, things like that.”

It effectively means Gordon Ramsay v Tracey Grimshaw, The Chaser‘s “Make a Realistic Wish” sketch or Karl Stefanovic the morning after the Logies are not typical targets.

“The Karl that we’re interested in? We’re interested in the Karl who hosts Random Acts of Kindness,” he explains. “We’ll leave others to look after Karl after he’s allegedly had a few after the Logies.”

Kavalee says Channel Seven has been very embracing of the show featuring programmes from rival networks.

“I said to them during the pilot, ‘Ok, let’s just say I love Farmer Wants a Wife. Are we going to get in trouble if I want to have some fun with that?’ To their credit they said, ‘No we don’t mind that.’ And let’s be honest our first show we’ll be talking about MasterChef. That’s the biggest show.”

The first episode tackles almost all the networks, including getting stuck into Seven shows. Before a studio audience Kavalee introduces comical moments, including putting himself into some scenes. Foxtel makes a brief appearance, SBS seemed absent -perhaps when its big sporting events are over it will provide plenty of mirth. There were several scenes from earlier weeks, no doubt included for the first week.

Kavalee admits he’s now watching relentless chunks of programming along with the show’s researchers. But it’s all coming from a place of devotion.

“We’re not reviewing, we’re not critiquing, we’re a celebration,” he said.

“I don’t want to be harsh for the sake of it. I just love telly.”

TV Burp premieres 9pm Thursday on Seven.

47 Responses

  1. I’m looking forward to this and Double Take. Cant people be excited about both? Doesn’t seem like it from some of the comments here and on the piece about DT, where people seem to be up for one and have it in for the other. Hope they’re both good, and I really like Kavalee.

  2. I’m showing my age but it sounds a hell-of-a-lot like the very old b&w show “Fractured Flickers” which re-cut old silent movies and added goofy voices and SFX. It was created by the guys behind “Rocky & Bullwinkle” and was reasonably funny – except to the offspring of the silent movie actors (i.e. Lon Chaney’s son, Creighton aka Jr., who took legal action against the prog). Nothing new under the sun, eh? By the way, I think Ed’s a great talent with so much more to come – break a leg, kid! (FF was hosted by Hans Conreid, who constantly took the mickey out of the show, himself, the writers and the producers – all scripted by Bill Scott and Jay Ward – the writer and producer!)

  3. I’m looking forward to this show so much, not so much to double take, hey I’ve got an idea for channel 7s new sd channel, a ‘get this’ channel, a 24hrs talk show/comedy channel/music channel, just like a fm radio station on tv

  4. It makes me so happy to see the Get This love that still turns up everywhere!

    I wonder if Police 10-7 would have made a few appearances if it was still on…. (How come?!)

  5. I am not familiar with the english show, but I love The Soup.
    If Ed’s show can take the best aspects of both these shows, it would be great.

    I don’t want you to jump off the harbour bridge.

  6. The show is going to be great.

    I haven’t watched Channel 7 at that time on a Thursday since the Out of the Question/Family Guy days.

    I hope they have the sense not to bring back Medical Dramas back to Thursdays once they finish the series off

  7. This show is going to be great. I have seen UK’s version and if its like that then bring it on. I love these type of shows although i am not liking the premise of Double Take. It looks exactly the same as Comedy Inc which was on Nine. I cant wait.

  8. i went to the filming of the first episode last night.although it has promise it didnt quite hit the mark. kavalee is a good host, but some of the clips they chose were odd-unlike the soup (which i watch all the time, and figured this show would be like) some clips were just used to further a joke instead of actually having their own comedic value. some joke fell really flat and the audience just sat there in silence.
    i dont think the soup critiques, but when something is blatantly stupid (eg. dance your ass off, rock of love, the coverage of MJ’s death) joel mchale just says what we are all thinking-i think this show could really benefit from something like that. i guess all it really needs is a couple of regular gags that everyone gets to know and look forward to. also there should be someone or something the constantly stick it to-its just funnier that way-overall a good show…

  9. im an ed kavalee fan from back in his “get this” days but i was a bit doubtful about this concept at first…
    but based on this interview i’ll definitely give it a go
    looks like it might be half decent!

  10. After reading that interview it doesn’t actually sound like a bad show. Might give it a go. But the previews for Double Take look horrible. Might flick to this during Rush ads.

  11. Sooo, they don’t want to be ‘The Soup’ because it’s too critiquey… I was actually interested in this show until I read this.
    Typical Seven, no risk, trying to do something young, but don’t want to alienate the oldies too much.
    We don’t need a celebration of TV. I’m sure 20 to 1 can do a show that celebrates funny/awkward TV moments. Critique is the unique point of difference!

  12. I’ve been watching the Harry Hill version for years and it seems like I have been waiting forever with the hope to see a local version… that’s actually funny.
    Hopefully this will be great!

  13. It hasn’t been Talk Soup for years (back when it just focussed on daytime talk shows) it has for several years been known as simply The Soup.

    I’m prepared to give this a go but the deck is stacked because I doubt this can match my Sunday night obsession!

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