Rollercoaster (TV show)

RollerCoaster is a children's television show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia. Hosted by Elliot Spencer, it is aimed at an older audience than ABC Kids, and is time-shifted between ABC1 and the digital-only ABC2. Elliot does not present RollerCoaster Rewind on ABC1 or RollerCoaster TV on ABC2.

It is a wrapper show incorporating generally three or four animated or live action shows aimed at old children and young teenage audiences. The host, Elliot Spencer is usually the only person on camera, dressing up as characters for short sketches sometimes, though on occasion the Rollercoaster film crew appear in gags. Elliot generally tells a few "did you know?" style facts about the shows or random events linked to the show or current affairs. There are also several recurring segments.

chedule

* 6am-7am ABC1 (Channel 02)
* 3pm-4pm ABC2 (Channel 22)
* 4:55pm-5:55pm ABC1 (Channel 02)

History

The series began in February 2005, filling a slot once occupied by The Afternoon Show. It breaks during the Australian summer school holidays and is replaced by a special Christmas line-up. During the holidays there are generally two or three popular shows repeated every day, rather than interchanging every day. In 2006/2007 summer these were: "Angela Anaconda", "Bernard", "Parallax", "Corneil and Bernie" and "". In 2007/2008 they were "Being Ian", "Planet Sketch", "Atomic Betty", and "Blue Water High", although the last two were not shown during the 2007 season (Atomic Betty did have a Christmas special though).

("Time Cracks" was shown in Tasmania in place of "Bernard", which is a short program created by the Tasmanian Government featuring cartoon characters Emily the echidna, Milo the dog, and 58 the sheep who are time travellers working for a magazine.) Sometimes instead of the usual three or four shows a 'special' will be shown. These have included 'double episodes' of "" and the "Edgar and Ellen" Specials. "Wallace and Gromit" stop motion animation movies are shown as well.

From Monday June 19 2006, Rollercoaster Rewind began on ABC TV, which is a repeat of the programming from originally 4 months earlier in reverse order. (As of 9 July 2007, this was changed so that the programmes were in the correct order, but currently this has only been applied to the new Monday line-up). Because Rollercoaster Rewind runs in the non-ratings season and the regular show does not, in early 2008 it ran out of shows and caught up to the end of the 2007 season. It was replaced with "Black Hole High", "Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids", and "Shoebox Zoo".

Friday December 21 2007, was the last show of RollerCoaster TV on ABC-TV for 2007, and it returned on Monday February 25 2008 for it's first show in 2008. From Monday February 11 2008, RollerCoaster TV on ABC2 moved from 6pm-7pm to 3pm-4pm.

egments and features

Regular segments include:
*'Feed Me', a cooking segment where Elliot attempts to cook and then try a recipe sent in by an audience member
*'Feedback', for feedback on general related issues concerning the show
*'Chatter', Elliot reads chats that had been sent on the website on a particular topic. Often they are jokes or acronyms. When they are acronyms the segment is called LOCIW (Laugh only 'cause it's weird)
*'Fetch', a segment where people send in informal new vocab or words with their definition. Elliot tries to put all these words into a weird and humorous anecdote.
* 'What Career am I?', where Elliot gives clues and then reveals a career. He introduces someone that has that career and gives them a challenge.
* 'Eliot and The Surfing Scientist', where Elliot and a scientist, Ruben Meerman, do simple experiments.
* 'El Lamo Challenges', where viewers send in challenges for Elliot to 'attempt but not necessarily complete' one or now frequently two of these on air.
* 'Roller Tale', where viewers send in stories which must be about Elliot's fictional alter egos Tapioca Toe Maker and Pocket Waffle. These are acted out by Elliot.
* 'Sponge Brain Quiz', a true or false quiz, shown before "Naturally Sadie" with nature-themed questions. In the past it has been about "Roman Mysteries" and "Dinosapien" and themed to these shows.
* 'Mee News', Eliot dresses up as Michael Eion Everythingtone and presents a news bulletin. Other segments are used only once or rarely, as in the 'Rollocracy Polls'. In these the viewers vote on a viewers question, like what name their pet or musical band should be. Also, on occasion Elliot travels to a school to do a segment with the students. Rollercoaster is filmed in the Perth ABC studios, and so the schools have so far all been in Western Australia.

In the 2005 and 2006 the Chatter segment featured Elliot reading out chat board discussions from the website of the show. When a new show is scheduled to begin, a news style segment is generally featured a week earlier, with Elliot using a microphone prop and news set graphic. He will show a short clip of the new show and generally after this make a comment or joke about it.

Rollercaoster sometimes show special weeks either to celebrate an event or an incoming show, like Roma Week, which centres on the incoming show of "Roman Mysteries" in 2007; Christmas week, celebrating Christmas by showing programs relating to Christmas; magic week, celebrating magic by showing a magic trick done by a professional every episode.

Elliot often makes references to other ABC shows in humour or information and before his Friday segment with Rosie Beaton began, he informed viewers about jtv. He has referenced such shows as "Arthur", "Doctor Who" and "Play School".

As well as special segments, special weeks and days are sometimes had to celebrate events or general themes. In 2007 'All New Tuesday' made all shows shown on Tuesdays new, and on Thursday the theme was 'Rollertoons Day'. In 2008 'All New Tuesday' has been replaced by a new 'Rollertoons Day', Thursday shows are all Australian-made, Friday shows all have a "quirky" theme, and Mondays have been set aside purely for comedy shows as 'LOL Day'.

Graphics for the show are made using Chromakey, or a green screen. This means many gags, information segments, and backgrounds, can be used and changed quickly. Props are kept to a minimum, like in the Feed Me segment where a preparation table and mixing bowl are used, or in Chatter and other segments where a retro style yellow table appears.

The theme tune was fully played in 2005 along with a video clip featuring Nick Hardcastle and a man dressed as a rabbit. The opening graphics are computer generated and feature an interdimensional trip through a fantastic world of images and 3D graphics, culminating by racing through a portal into a white universe with a complex 3D image of a space station style city with roads, skyscrapers, cars, butterflies and robots before the Rollercoaster logo appears from outside the screen to form itself in front of the base of the floating city. This theme has remained unchanged since 2005.

Website

Rollercoaster is also the name of the show's website, which was created a few years previous to the show itself and features the phrase 'Rhymes with toaster'. The website itself was advertised as 'Rollercoaster' on the current timeslot taken by the show for a couple of years before the show began. The website features articles on shows and games and other entertainment related to shows or the general youth genre. This site is also where polls, voting and feedback is submitted and together the show and site form the overall Rollercoaster.

ee also

* ABC Kids

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/ Rollercoaster website]