Acropolis Now

Infobox Television
show_name = Acropolis Now


caption = The Cast of "Acropolis Now"
genre = Situation Comedy
creator =
developer =
presenter =
starring = Nick Giannopoulos
George Kapiniaris
Simon Palomares
voices =
narrated =
theme_music_composer = George Kapiniaris
opentheme =
endtheme =
country = flagicon|Australia Australia
language = English
num_seasons = 5
num_episodes = 63
list_episodes =
producer =
executive_producer =
location =
camera =
runtime =
network = Seven Network
picture_format =
audio_format =
first_run =
first_aired = August 9, 1989
last_aired =
November 4, 1992
preceded_by =
followed_by =
related =
website =
imdb_id = 0122333
tv_com_id = 6430

:"For the Lynne Truss radio series see Acropolis Now (radio)."

"Acropolis Now" was an Australian sitcom set in a Greek bar of the same name that ran for 63 episodes from 1989 to 1992 on the Seven Network. It was created by Nick Giannopoulos, George Kapiniaris and Simon Palomares, who also starred in the series. They were already quite well known for their comedy stage show, Wogs out of Work. The title is a play on the film "Apocalypse Now". Each episode was 30 minutes in length and filmed in front of a live audience.

Jim's father asks him to run the family business, the Acropolis café, when he suddenly leaves Australia to return to his homeland Greece. The series centres around the activities of the cafe staff. Greek Jim Stephanidis (Giannopoulos), is the immature owner and his best friend, Spaniard Ricky Martinez (Palomares) is the sensible manager. Memo (Kapiniaris) is the traditional Greek waiter, Liz is the liberated Australian waitress. Skip is the naive new cook from the bush and Manolis is the stubborn cook from the old cafe. Hilarity prevails from the clash of cultures and beliefs.

Jim's hairdresser cousin Effie, played by Mary Coustas, became a hugely popular and enduring character during the run of the show. Coustas later reprised the role for several TV specials and series including "Effie, Just Quietly", an SBS comedy / interview show and "Greeks On The Roof", a short-lived Greek-Australian version of the British talk show "The Kumars at No. 42".

Acropolis Now helped popularise the term "skippy" or "skip" to refer to Australians of Anglo-Celtic descent. This term became popular with Mediterranean-Australians, and to a lesser extent non-Mediterranean people, especially in Melbourne.

The program was produced by Crawford Productions which is presently owned by WIN Television.

Cast

* Nick Giannopoulos - Jim Stephanidis
* George Kapiniaris - Agamemnon (Memo) Aristotle Hatzidimitropoulos
* Simon Palomares - Ricardo "Ricky" Martinez
* Tracey Callander - Elizabeth "Liz" Wilson
* Mary Coustas - Effie Stephanidis
* Simon Thorpe - Gavin "Skip" Farrell
* George Vidalis - Manolis
* Sheryl Munks - Sophie
* Nick Carrafa - Alfredo
* Nicki Wendt - Suzanna Martin
* Georgie Parker - Despina Hatzipapadopoulos
* Simon Wilton - Lars
* Katerina Kotsonis - Julia

Awards

The show itself did not win any awards, but Mary Coustas won the 1993 Logie for Most Popular Comedy Performer for her role as Effie.

See also

* List of Australian television series

External links

*
* [http://www.crawfords.com.au/libary/sitcom/acropolis.shtml Crawfords]
* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=138557;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10 Acropolis Now at the National Film and Sound Archive]