Seven staff weren’t Bounced
Former production staff on The Bounce have spoken out about reports last week of behind the scenes trouble.
- Published by David Knox
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Former production staff on The Bounce have spoken out about reports last week of behind the scenes trouble.
The troubles emerged between the staff, who had worked with Peter Helliar on Rove, Executive Producer Rick McKenna.
Former Head Writer of Rove, Jason Marion was one of five who quit after the departure of series co-producer Rachel Miller. Three other writers and a part time Script Co-Ordinator followed.
Marion has told the Sunday Herald Sun he and other former staff had no faith in new producer actor-writer Pip Mushin, who had previously shared the series producer role with Miller, who was allegedly driven out by management, according to the article.
“Rick made that decision on his own,” Marion told the newspaper.
“We all worked really well with Pete and once you realise that he didn’t know, it was very distressing.
“It was the icing on an awful cake. But there were many things that happened leading up to that.
“Things had become unworkable in there anyway because we had no confidence in (Mushin).”
Another former writer had concerns about the way Miller was treated, noting that staff had concerns about the creative atmosphere.
This week Rick McKenna told TV Tonight exclusively that there had been differences over the brief of the show.
“You bring together a bunch of people and hope it will work out,” he said.
“Of the dozen people who contributed writing to the show, four had trouble dealing with the brief of a family show.
“We agreed on Friday after episode one that it hadn’t worked out.”
Later reports this week speculated that staff had been sacked.
Source: Sunday Herald Sun
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- Tagged with Rove, The Bounce
9 Responses
Finally Jillian, What sort of world do you want to live in when people can’t defend themselves against egregious insults?
Also, when did tv stations become so obsessed with the idea of “family friendly” content? It’s simply a horrible euphemism for bland, boring, non offensive content which doesn’t take any risks. The success of masterchef had nothing to do with being family friendly, it was just a good idea executed very well. Likewise your generation is nothing to do with family friendly it’s just an old idea with an exceptional host. Producers should stop worrying about family friendly tv and just make something good. Can we all just go back to sleep now?
Spot on boogie howser. Mckenna fired the first shot, the writers defended themselves, because the only thing they have is their reputation. Australia doesn’t have screen writers union like the states, so thankgod someone has actually stood up for themselves. How Jillian can have a crack at writers for protecting their reputation and their livelihood is well beyond me. Sounds like she’d make a great producer.
@ jmgirl & m
Thank you. I was perhaps hasty in my opinion however I still stand by what I said.
You are correct at pointing out that Jason felt the need to defend himself and his fellow workers. I absolutely commend him for this as it was a brave and very honorable thing to do.
I do however, question how this public display will be perceived within the industry. This sort of thing happens every day in all sorts of workplaces and not everyone gets the opportunity to air their laundry in a public forum.
Regardless of where the first strike came from I still question whether quotes such as “no faith” and “no confidence” in regard to a person named was a particularly smart move. I’m no lawyer but it seems a little close to the edge.
Sounds increasingly like the writers walked in solidarity with the producer, and were retrospectively bounced for “having trouble dealing with the brief of a family show.” In that case they have a right to defend their reputations. Not that any of them have been named, but I would assume the industry knows.
Makes me wonder, if ex-Rove staff are having trouble dealing with Seven’s “family show” brief, just how insipid Seven are trying to make TV?
@ Jillian – I think you’re overlooking the context of the writer’s remarks. He was responding to a quote, published nationally, by the show’s main producer, saying certain writers were dismissed from the show (which it turns out isn’t accurate), because they couldn’t respond to the show’s ‘brief’ (which, to me, involves an implication by the producer that those departing writers were incompetent).
So, I think, his comments were reasonable to defend himself (and others) against those statements, both to correct inaccuracy and safeguard their reputation.
Jillian – so how did the story break in the first place? An exclusive to David Knox courtesy of Rick McKenna, EP of The Bounce. Now why would that be, I wonder?
M: As noted previously, Rick McKenna answered the questions when I brought the story to him. No doubt everyone would have preferred it didn’t hit any media, including here. Given that happened, I think it’s reasonable to expect the other side of the story to put their view across. Also worth noting, the original article here never mentioned anything about sackings.
What part of working behind the scenes doesn’t this writer understand?
He is behind the scenes… he works behind the scenes… he should remain behind the scenes.
Coming out and publicly and saying he “had no faith” in the producer is not only something the public really don’t need to know about but is also, I would imagine, now a black mark against his name. If I were a producer I know I would now question hiring him since he is happy to openly criticize someone in the press and name names.
Regardless of whatever actually happened within the offices of “The Bounce” – what happened to professional discretion?