Anthony Morris – Last Of The Mohicans : In The Spotlight

With the news of one of Australian TV’s biggest modern day success stories coming to an end in “Rove“, comedy lover and TV critic Anthony Morris sits back to reflect “What The..?” hell all the fuss was about…

I was never really a fan of Rove, but now that it’s gone I know I’m going to miss it. Not because I ever had much time for Rove McManus himself: when he was doing sketch comedy back on Rove 99 he seemed funny enough, but once he became a talk show host that was it as far as I was concerned.

And then for years his show just seemed painful to watch – I mean, whose idea was it to televise charades for God’s sake? Every time I stumbled across Rove’s “What The..?” segment I imagined Rove’s phone ringing, with Daryl Somers on the other end wanting his act back.

But in the last few years McManus seemed to lift his game a little. He stopped relying so much on wacky talk-show stunts that even David Letterman only makes work about 60% of the time, and brought in funny people to do funny segments. He also brought in Dave Hughes…

But Ryan Shelton consistently came up with sketches that were actual sketches complete with visual gags and strange moments, not just a stand-up act slapped on television. Peter Helliar’s PeteSpace segment often seemed like he was trying out for a breakfast radio gig… oh, hang on, he already had one of those and it got axed. But at least he was making jokes. Again, we also had Dave Hughes…

Still, in the real world Rove had the mix down pretty much right: Hughsie and Helliar were broadly popular, Shelton was doing quirky stuff for a different audience, and once Judith Lucy replaced Hughsie there was pretty much something for everyone.

You might not have wanted to watch every episode all the way through, but you’d always find something to like.

More importantly, Rove McManus is someone who actually likes comedy. Time and again inbetween the international guests and musicals and friggin’ Elmo – there’s a joke that got old fast – Rove would shoe horn in pretty much every comedian around.

On his recent “60 Guests” show, pretty much all the guests not dragged out of the audience or off the set of Neighbours was a comedian. Good luck ever getting another talk show on Australian television that would have Shaun Micallef, John Safran, half The Chaser, Sam Simmons, Dave Callan and a half-dozen more comedians on in a year, let alone in a night.

For that alone, the end of Rove is sad news indeed. Especially as it’s starting to look like 2010 might be yet another year when “variety” tries to make a comeback on Australian screens, thanks to the success of the Hey Hey it’s Saturday reunion specials.

Think about that for a moment: does anyone really think that Daryl Somers is going to be half as generous to comedians appearing on his show as Rove proved to be time and time again? In his prime Daryl Somers was notorious for giving anyone who got more laughs than him the stink-eye; rumour has it that at least part of the reason why Denise Drysdale left the show was because she was getting more laughs than Daryl.

It hardly seems likely that his new show, whatever from it takes, will be anywhere near as welcoming of new – or more likely, funny – comedic talent as Rove was. Daryl is well into his 50s, after all – he’s hardly going to find the same things funny as “the kids”.

Meanwhile, back on Ten there are already rumours that Shaun Micallef’s upcoming New Years Special is a trial run for a talk show of his own. Maybe that’s true. But it seems just as likely that Ten won’t bother with a talk show in 2010 – at least, not a late night one.

When Rove first started doing his talk show on Ten, one of the reasons given for why the network stuck with it despite shaky ratings was that the nations’ publicists wanted a show where their clients (visiting movies stars and the like) could appear and promote their movies and concert tours. Hey Hey was gone and The Panel only had on as guests people they wanted to talk to (not to mention they sometimes asked tricky questions), so Rove was the guy “all the stars talked to”.

He got the big names, they got national publicity, everyone’s a winner.

Sound familiar? It should: The 7pm Project is working from the exact same playbook. And with Ten throwing a lot of support behind it to keep it ticking over – it’s even going to an hour over summer – perhaps Rove (who produces The 7pm Project) figured now was the time to go behind the scenes and let his new show grab all the big name guests.

But The 7pm Project isn’t really a good home for comedians either – well, not if you’re a comedian who likes to think before you speak. Being basically breakfast radio with pictures, whoever talks the most and the loudest on The 7pm Project wins: someone like Ryan Shelton isn’t going to get five minutes to do a sketch where he wanders around making jokes about time travel.

And that’s why I’m going to miss Rove. It wasn’t the best comedy show on Australian television, but it was the best showcase of Australian comedy. Without it, anyone who likes to laugh is going to find their diet a whole lot poorer.

Anthony Morris has been the film editor for Forte Magazine since 1992, and has been writing for The Big Issue since 1997. He is currently the film and television reviewer for The Geelong Times and a regular contributor to Empire Magazine.