Ten years with Rove

Back in the late 90s it was Channel Nine employee Rob Brearley who first brought Rove McManus to the attention of director Craig Campbell.

“Rob saw Rove on Channel 31 and kept leaving me VHS tapes on my desk,” Campbell tells TV Tonight. “And I never got to watch them because of my workload. Finally I put one on and said ‘wow’ and watched another and another.”

That was more than ten years ago. Campbell, who now manages Roving Enterprises with McManus, was working at Channel Nine at the time.

Brearley started in the mailroom at Channel Nine before working as a segment producer on In Melbourne Today. Today he is a producer on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and a Creative Producer at Roving. He has now been working with Campbell for 22 years. In a business where loyalty is easily traded, it is a measure of both Campbell and McManus that they still have so many long-term allies.

But then, McManus was the man who famously told Nine he wouldn’t dump his on-air sidekicks Peter Helliar, Corrine Grant and Dave Callan. All three return for tonight’s tenth anniversary of Rove, along with Ryan Shelton, Hamish & Andy, Judith Lucy, Kristy Warner, Dave Hughes, Meshel Laurie and Carrie Bickmore.

As the show celebrates ten years on screen (briefly at Nine, and mostly at TEN), Campbell remembers what it was he saw in the young performer.

“His warmth and his ability to think on his feet,” he recalls. “I saw instantly the reactive comedian. At the time I had been working with hosts who were very autocue bound, and probably took the role as actors trying to act the role as TV host. What I saw in Rove was someone who could think instantly and take an idea left or right.

“I thought ‘how cool would that be having someone who could double-think you and you’re double-thinking them?’ So I watched that stuff through until lunchtime and a mate rang me and said ‘I’m in town let’s catch up for a drink?’ But there was one catch. He said, ‘I’ve got to meet this other guy I’ve been working with, do you mind if he joins us for a drink as well?’ I said ‘Who is he?’ and he said ‘A guy called Rove McManus,'” he says.

“I’d just been watching him on tape all morning. The same day.”

More than ten years later, Roving Enterprises now has four shows in production, Rove, Before the Game, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? and The 7PM Project. It has previously produced the ARIA Awards, Skithouse and other projects for Hamish & Andy.

McManus’ first foray into commercial television was a variety show for Nine. But it was short-lived.

“We all ended up doing a pilot early in the following year, and while they were sitting on the pilot, which is about the time Nine signed Mick Molloy and not making a decision, I said to Rove, ‘You know what? If they don’t go with it let’s just get out of here. I believe in it so much that it’s got legs.’

“So at that point I became not the network guy but the Roving guy.”

Nine wanted to retain McManus but not his on air sidekicks.

As Campbell tells it, “Rove just went, ‘Nuh.’

Then the network offered other hosting opportunities in the booming lifestyle genre.

“They had weddings and parties, all these ‘great’ formats they wanted Rove to host. He just kept going ‘No not me, no not me.’ To his credit he kept saying ‘Thanks for the offers but it’s not what I want to do, I’m not here to take the money.’

“We sat out in the wilderness for the best part of 6 to 9 months until we started the show on Channel TEN,” he says.

As Campbell explains, it is important to remember the climate in the late 90’s.

“At the time Hey Hey had been axed, The Midday Show was gone, variety was dead officially –I think that was the headline. And here’s a guy that wants to do a variety show but dressed it up as an ensemble comedy piece. Because they didn’t dare want us to actually have guests come on and talk to them because variety was gone.

These days Roving has over 100 staff to run its four shows. The company sits in the same production realm as Working Dog and Zapruder’s Other Films.

Producing simultaneous television is a constant challenge, including nurturing newer formats such as The 7PM Project. Despite the network’s pledge to stick with the show until the end of the year, and the Roving’s tweaking of the format, there are those who are quick to tear down the show, or even McManus himself.

“I read it a lot on websites and blogs but I’m yet to meet anyone in person who says that,” says Campbell. “But Rove has grown a lot in ten years. When he started he was the guy who had toys on his desk. He was a big kid in a television shop, having a great time. But I think you’ll find Rove‘s grown up now –a lot. Even his style of humour has developed and is more sensitively attuned than ten years ago. So maybe people haven’t come back and sampled him, and have preconceived ideas of what he is.”

With McManus, what you see is what you get, says Campbell. He is guarded on his private life, frequently fodder for women’s magazines, criticised for his interview style, and derided Tall-Poppy-like for being successful.

“Tall Poppy? Yeah. Isn’t that the way?” Campbell poses. “‘Young guy gets successful runs his own company, oh that’s wrong.’

“He’s an incredibly reactive, incredibly generous performer. And to be honest the genuine feedback we get from overseas about Mr. McManus is incredible.

“I read with interest people having a go saying he rips off Leno, or he’s not as good as Dave or whatever. Those people might be very interested to know that there are people from those camps in America that think he’s amazing. People like Jay Leno are a fan. They think he’s got an ability that’s not seen in their country.

“They’re also amazed that he’s survived for 10 years in an environment that isn’t late night, but primetime.”

Rove Turns Ten airs 9:30pm tonight on TEN.