An end to sitcom shame
Dave Armstrong hopes next week’s Comedy Pilot Week will break the stigma surrounding New Zealand sitcoms.
From Sunday, Mediaworks is screening five new Kiwi comedies over four nights, with a view to commissioning at least one to series.
A co-writer of noughties show Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby and script editor on much-loved animated series bro’Town, the Wellington-based stage and screenwriter Armstrong says the public seems to treat television comedy differently to other ways of making people laugh.
‘‘If you write a comedy in New Zealand that’s not perceived as funny, it’s like being a bank robber or sheep rustler – you’re in terrible trouble.
‘‘Comedians fail and know what it’s like to die. But while we all have war wounds and war stories we tell from the stage, TV seems particularly unforgiving. You think of ‘comedy moments’ like Melody Rules, or when TVNZ turned down the Conchords, that people will never let anyone forget.’’
The continued success of the likes of 7 Days, Jono and Ben and, more recently, Funny Girls meant that Mediaworks’ Three now had an established track record in creating comedy, so Armstrong was pleased they were now looking at more scripted shows.
‘‘They are more expensive and any comedy involves risk, but great BBC comedies like Steptoe and Son come out of pilot projects like this.’’
However, he admitted that while allowing the public to have their say on what show to commission had its merits, he was concerned about it becoming a ‘‘Comedy Idol’’.
‘‘I’ve already had three people ask me this morning to vote for their show. Where comedy works well is when network executives have confidence in something. I’m aware of shows like Cheers, which became massive hits only in their second or third season. The worry is that if you make a decision based purely on a public vote, you’ll get the comedy equivalent of David Seymour. Something that isn’t funny, but everyone feels sorry for.’’
Mediaworks’ chief content officer Andrew Szusterman confirmed that they would be looking at a range of factors before making a decision on which show or shows to move forward with.
‘‘We’ll be looking at things like what Stuff readers say online, the ratings they generate overnight, our OnDemand results when they go up on ThreeNow and the social pages and hashtags we have.’’
He said the pilot week concept had been inspired by a similar but broader idea introduced by Australia’s Network Ten last year.
‘‘There’s always been a challenge around comedy and especially scripted comedy in New Zealand – except for the likes of Wellington Paranormal, it has been a long time since we’ve actually had a great Kiwi sitcom and it’s about time we did.’’
He shared Armstrong’s concern that New Zealanders always seemed more focused on comedy disasters than successes. ‘‘We haven’t celebrated successes like Paranormal ,or The Jaquie Brown Diaries back in the day – we’ve always gone, ‘crikey, Melody Rules’ instead.
‘‘So we thought that because we have such an amazing group of creatives in this country, it’s about time we actually put it out there and said, not only ‘give us your ideas’, but ‘here’s some money to bring them to life with NZ On Air’s backing’. And instead of just looking at them in an enclosed space with a select group of people, we are going to broadcast them in prime-time after The Block.’’
The response to their call more than exceeded their expectations, Szusterman said. ‘‘We hoped we would get around 10 to 15, we ended up with 53 proposals.’’
As to the five they selected to become pilots, he said they were a mix of old and new writing, acting and directing talent.
Keen to see how New Zealand reacts to each of them, Szusterman added that they were aiming to make a decision in time for next month’s NZ On Air funding round, with a view to at least one of them becoming a series in 2019.