Newstopia

Newstopia
Newstopia Intertitle
Format	Satirical
Created by	Shaun Micallef
Starring	Shaun Micallef Kat Stewart Ben Anderson Nicholas Bell Peter Houghton Julie Eckersley
Country of origin	Australia
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	30
Production
Running time	30 minutes per episode including commercials
Broadcast
Original channel	SBS TV
Original run	10 October 2007[1] – December 3, 2008
Chronology
Related shows	Micallef Tonight (2003) The Micallef Program (1998) Welcher & Welcher (2003)

Newstopia is an Australian half-hour satirical comedy programme hosted by Shaun Micallef. The first series premiered at 10:00 pm on SBS TV on 10 October 2007 and concluded on 3 December 2007. A second season began on 27 February 2008^[2] and concluded on 30 April 2008.^{[citation needed]} A third season of the show screened from 1 October to December 3 2008.^[3] The show was developed by Micallef, Gary McCaffrie, Michael Ward and Jason Stephens, with McCaffrie and Ward working as writers on the programme.^{[citation needed]} A fourth series in 2009 was planned, but cancelled due to production clashes with Talkin' 'bout Your Generation.^[4]

The show's contributors include Matt Cameron, Doug MacLeod, Dave O'Neil, Tony Moclair and Richard Marsland.^{[citation needed]}

Format

The show is presented in the style of a news bulletin, with Shaun Micallef acting as anchor. The programme begins with a statement by Micallef about history and/or news and their relation to the show. The rest of the programme features segments detailing often factual events, but told from a humorous or satirical angle. Like much of Micallef's earlier work, the humor depicted is mostly surrealism and some social satire.^{[citation needed]}

The programme also has several fictional commercial advertisements placed throughout the real commercial breaks, dressed up to appear as authentic SBS commercials; for example, Inspektor Herring is a parody of Inspector Rex. Because these commercials are fictional creations of Newstopia, for the first two seasons, SBS broadcast them with the SBS watermark in the bottom right corner, whereas genuine commercials did not show the watermark. Starting in the third season, the show removed the SBS watermark during the fictional commercial advertisements.^{[citation needed]}

The show also features subliminal parodies of Australian politicians and a vampire-like character, where still images are flashed on screen for a fraction of a second — long enough to be noticed, but not long enough for the viewer to have a concrete idea of what they had just seen.^{[citation needed]}

Nicholas Bell portrayed an English reporter called Martin Palsy in an exaggerated urgent tone that rose in mock hysteria as the imaginary story escalated.

Cast

Regular cast

• Shaun Micallef
• Ben Anderson
• Nicholas Bell (plays Aaron Cheviot, a balded, bearded and bland political pundit)
• Julie Eckersley
• Miyuki Watanabe (plays Harmonica Thirsty, a geisha who is Shaun's co-anchor)
• Peter Houghton
• Kat Stewart

Special guests

• Ed Kavalee
• Roz Hammond
• Les Murray
• Bob Franklin
• Daina Reid
• Lee Lin Chin
• Francis Greenslade
• Barry Jones
• Tony Martin
• Anton Enus
• Chris Taylor
• Andrew Hansen

Internet streaming

Following the conclusion of each episode's initial broadcast, the Newstopia website featured a web stream of the current week's episode. This was only available for 7 days, and only to Australian residents, after which it was taken down and replaced by the latest broadcast. International visitors were blocked by an IP blocker. A guestbook was also available for commenting on the newest episode.

References

1. ^ David Knox (2007-09-14). "Airdate: Newstopia" (Web). TV Tonight: Australia's Leading TV Blog (tvtonight.com.au). http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2007/09/airdate-newstopia.html. Retrieved 2009-01-29. .
2. ^ David Knox (2007-12-17). "TV Tonight: Newstopia back in 2008" (Web). TV Tonight: Australia's Leading TV Blog (tvtonight.com.au). http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2007/12/newstopia-back-in-2008.html. Retrieved 2009-01-29. .
3. ^ AAP (2008-09-24). "Newstopia takes on Rudd v Turnbull" (Web). The West (West Australia Newspaper Holdings Ltd). http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=517387. Retrieved 2009-01-29. .
4. ^ Knox, David (12 March 2009). "Bad news for NEWStopia". tvtonight.com.au. http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2009/03/bad-news-for-newstopia.html. Retrieved 12 March 2009. 

External links

• Newstopia SBS TV program Website (Not accessible everywhere; see SBS TV official "Program Sites" for link)
• Newstopia at the Internet Movie Database
• Newstopia at TV.com