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Into The Bin

Metro Magazine www.metromagazine.com.au

Autumn 2003

By Dave Hoskin

In hindsight, it's typical that Channel Nine should axe something as wonderful as Micallef Tonight. There's something inherently risky in the basic talk show format, but like Dorian Gray's portrait this darker side always seems to be hidden from the public. Talk shows have become the very definition of conservative, all featuring the same personalities promoting the same products and saying the same things. Ironically, given that many of them purport to be live, there is no sense of real immediacy about these shows. Everyone behaves very professionally and the viewer begins to ache for something to actually go wrong, for someone to offer an opinion that hasn't been rehearsed, approved and microwaved before broadcast. Micallef Tonight didn't actually break all these conventions, but at times it went perilously close. Put simply, Shaun Micallef was almost a walking deconstruction of everything a talk show host is supposed to be. He was visibly nervous, particularly in the show's early episodes, and he actually seemed pleased that he wasn't the only one laughing at his own jokes. This lack of confidence usually seems surgically removed in other personalities, their professionalism ironing out any hint of spontaneity. In Shaun's case however, the mask of the talk show host had slipped just enough for us to see a real person underneath, and the constant subversion of the genre's conventions seemed as much a defence mechanism as it was comedy.

Channel Nine never seemed like a natural home for this sort of show, with Kerry Packer being notorious for buying up talent with little idea of why it actually works. The fact that Shaun has always been an acquired taste, willing to mock the sort of conventions other Channel Nine shows hold in the highest esteem, should really have triggered some sort of alarm. Far more than Micallef's native ABC, Nine is the Australian televisual Establishment. They pride themselves on their stable of stars and their years of experience in broadcasting variety and light entertainment. Micallef, by contrast, has always delighted in subverting such tired notions of what makes Good Television. He introduced the performance of a chicken parmigiana, asked visiting musicians to prove that they weren't lip-synching, and complained when Eddie Maguire overran his time slot. That precious fourth wall that maintains the illusion of professionalism was gleefully torn down, and this is probably the root of why he was sacked. In its secret heart, Channel Nine believes in that illusion, believes in that wall.

Of course it really might have been low ratings. Certainly Micallef Tonight could be an uneven show, and at the time of its axing it was still a little wobbly on its feet. However, for my money, it was those rough edges and occasional glimpses of fleeting panic that kept the show worth watching. Fittingly, my last memory of the show will be Shaun's introduction of the Dandy Warhols before realizing that he has run out of time and asking them if they would come back next week. The fact that this date was never kept is, ironically, the perfect epitaph. Even in death, Micallef Tonight still managed to surprise me one last time.

Dave Hoskin is a graduate of film and television school at the Victoria College of the Arts.

This article appeared in Metro Magazine.