Laugh ’til you cry
Three’s given us a lot to smile about
It may be hard to believe now, but there was a time when Kiwis didn’t believe their fellow countrymen and women were funny.
In the wake of Melody Rules, a 1990s sitcom experiment so terrible it’s still etched in local TV lore, New Zealanders were loathe to take a chance on local laughs.
It’s a situation 7 Days star Dai Henwood remembers well from the early days of his own career.
‘‘When I started doing comedy in New Zealand, no-one wanted a bar of it,’’ he says.
‘‘We were in what we sort of labelled the Melody
Rules decade, where we just didn’t trust New Zealand comedy.’’
But Henwood says these days the local comedy scene is in the best state it’s ever been, helped in no small part by the body of work produced by Three since that first, ill-fated attempt at a sitcom. From early sketch shows such as LaughInz and Skitz, cult classics The Jaquie Brown Diaries and
Hounds, through to beloved institutions such as 7 Days, Three’s impact on local comedy has been significant.
As the network marks its 30th anniversary next week, writer and actor Oscar Kightley says he remembers the excitement within the industry when the new channel launched.
‘‘It was such a change in the broadcasting landscape, which for so long had been one main player with just two channels.’’
Kightley says having a whole new avenue for TV expertise and creativity made for a wholly different environment in which to make content.
‘‘There was a real enthusiastic spirit about [TV3],’’ he says. ‘‘People were getting to do things that they wouldn’t normally get to do otherwise. I think because it was new, they were prepared to take risks.’’
It was an energy that Kightley saw brought to
Skitz, a mid-1990s sketch show that lasted four seasons and spawned a spin-off in The Semisis ,a satirical show about a Kiwi-Samoan family.
‘‘A lot of creatives got to work on something a bit riskier and a bit braver, you know, because comedy was evolving then,’’ he says.
Initially brought on to Skitz as a writer, Kightley took it upon himself to add to his duties when he clocked some of the actor benefits.
‘‘I noticed that the actors always got catered lunches. So I knew that was me. I knew that Dave [Fane] and Robbie [Magasiva] were in the core cast, so I would always write three characters – and they would always need one more [actor].’’
Kightley found himself immersed in Three’s comedy culture again in the 2000s, particularly through the creation of New Zealand’s first primetime cartoon, bro’Town.
With the support of then head of comedy Caterina de Nave and executive Kelly Martin,
bro’Town went on to have five successful seasons, collecting three NZ Screen Awards for Best Comedy along the way.
Kightley puts the show’s success down to two things: it was funny, and it was ‘‘unashamedly local’’, screening at a time when New Zealanders were starting to accept that perhaps Kiwis could make good comedy.
Kightley says this new attitude coincided with Helen Clark’s Labour government from 1999 to 2008.
‘‘[Clark] was the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and, you know, I feel like that whole time there was a real explosion of New Zealand creativity, not just on screen but in music and in the arts generally, because they were being well supported.
‘‘New Zealanders were reacting to local stuff that they realised was world-class.’’
Henwood agrees that this belief in Kiwi comedy has played a significant part in his 10 years as a team captain on 7 Days.
‘‘What’s happened . . . is just a belief in New Zealand comedians that we’re funny and that we are as good as anyone else in the world,’’ he says, although he admits he wasn’t quite so confident when the popular panel show first aired.
‘‘To be honest, I thought we were good for maybe 10 episodes, just having known the nature of how our shows come and go in New Zealand.
‘‘But then we just sort of went from strength-tostrength and it was very obvious, after a couple of episodes, that we were on to something.’’ Having recently celebrated 10 years on air,
7 Days has arguably become an institution, with people frequently coming up to Henwood and the rest of the show’s core cast to say they now watch it with their teenage children.
Henwood puts the success of 7 Days down to Three being proponents of local comedy and trusting their talent to make a show they know will work.
‘‘Comedy is very much the underdog, sort of seat-of-your-pants type of art form, and Three’s always had that underdog Kiwi battler-type of vibe,’’ he says. ‘‘I think comedy’s flourished under Three for the past decade because they let comedians be comedians.
‘‘No-one at Three really tried to change anything too much [at 7 Days]. They trust us. They trust the comics to tell good jokes. They trust the editors to make the show look good.
‘‘And I think that’s the best thing to do, because once you start sticking your fingers in, with people who aren’t comedians trying to change what the comedians are doing, things get watered down. And comedy never works when it gets watered down.’’
Henwood says Three also helped some now very successful comedians get started.
‘‘One who springs to mind is Rose Matafeo,’’ he says. ‘‘Now, she’s the hottest ticket in London, and she’s making these amazing moves on the global stage.
‘‘But before then, she was on Jono and Ben, she was a regular on 7 Days, and Three is sort of a testament to probably honing a portion of her skills – aside from the fact that she’s also very talented and has worked her butt off, of course.’’
MediaWorks’ head of internal production, John McDonald, says that while there are plenty of people doing great work in comedy outside of television, TV shows such as Funny Girls, Jono
and Ben and 7 Days created a unique environment for developing comedic talent.
‘‘The great thing about the longer-running TV shows is they give people stability and security for a while and they help them grow their talent,’’ he says.
‘‘In terms of writing talent, particularly, and even comic acting – like sketch, we did so much sketch [on those shows] – and that just gives people the kind of comedy chops in terms of delivering something fast and smart. I love that. I love watching it. It’s incredible.’’
McDonald says Kiwi comedians have also got better at delivering the gags on screen.
‘‘We’re better at comic-timing now, our good comedians are so good, I think, at seeing where the gag is, and stopping and being able to let it happen, instead of just kind of bowling on awkwardly. I think, in the past a lot of times we lost good gags because people were too afraid to just kind of own them.’’
Those writing and performing skills have also transferred to Three’s renewed focus on sitcoms, with in-house production Golden Boy banishing the ghosts of Melody Rules this year, something McDonald hopes to see continue next year.
‘‘I think that having local comedy on television is hugely important,’’ he says.
‘‘I think it’s a great kind of reflector and celebrator of our specific culture and our issues. To me, it’s just tremendously important that there be a variety of it and that Kiwis are able to see themselves in this humorous way.’’
Although Three is now for sale, and has been forced to make large-scale cutbacks to its local comedy output, McDonald says he’s pleased 7 Days is still slated for 12 episodes next year.
‘‘We’re doing it kind of as a lead-in to the United States and the New Zealand elections, because it keeps things real, you know. It gives people a comic perspective on things that can be pretty serious. I think that’s really important.’’
Despite the uncertainty his employers are facing, Henwood says he’s feeling ‘‘bullish’’ about the network’s future.
‘‘We’ve still got a lot of talent there. And I think that if [Three] is bought by a media company who’s really keen on making great television, there’s all the factors there for Three to continue doing what it’s doing.’’
Henwood says it would be ‘‘absolutely tragic’’ to lose Three.
‘‘People from every other media outlet in New Zealand would say that you need to have a strong, competitive marketplace to make the best content.
‘‘I think when Three’s making great comedy, you’ve got TVNZ going ‘shivers, we need to do it as well’. And we egg each other on.
‘‘And all the performers love each other. I don’t mind who you’re making content for – if you’re making awesome New Zealand content, that’s primo, and I think it’s crucial that Three stays.’’