In an interview with David Knox, Shaun revealed a lot about what we can expect from Mad As Hell this year, plus a few other tidbits.
Firstly, there will be two seasons this year, each of 10 episodes.
His original plan for Mad As Hell was to push to 5 nights a week, similar to shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (although that’s only four nights). And Shaun still wants to get there: “A proper, nightly show. And the idea is to eventually have it 2 nights a week, then 3 and then be on every night.”
This season, he’s looking forward to the new content provided by a change in government. “It’s great. If we had more of the same we’d be worried about repeating ourselves. But it’s a very different dynamic.”
Some favourite characters will return: “Roz Hammond seems to have the best hit ratio. She has lots of characters that everyone loves writing for.” But Shaun will continue to avoid any shots of the audience: “I loathe them.”
And there’s a few hidden gems in this season for fans like us: the humorous episode synopsis will continue, with inspiration from some Three Stooges episodes; plus the Micallef Tonight sign, saved from the old GTV9 building before it was demolished recently (or “burned down” as Shaun put it), will make a background appearance somewhere on the set.
Finally, he also confirmed that his decision to pursue two seasons of Mad As Hell this year has halted any chance of Mr & Mrs Murder returning, had Channel Ten been interested.
And the winner for Best Performance in a Television Comedy? Shaun Micallef (of course), for Mad As Hell. Apparently he gave a cheeky speech poking fun at his fellow nominees (
It’s a Date has been an eight part comedy series on the ABC focusing on couples and the rules of dating. Each episode has featured 2 couples, and revolved around topics such as “How Important Is Honesty On A First Date?”. It featured an all star cast, including Asher Keddie, Lisa McCune, Shane Jacobson and Ross Noble, and was created and primarily written by Peter Hellier.
