Throng

Comedy Rules.

Last week on Media 7 we did a show on NZ comedy.

In it we touched on FOTC- -because it is impossible to talk about
comedy in NZ without doing so – their mega success has changed the game.

Their cool, cult, high-production-value kooky comedy that explores awkwardness and the spaces around relationships has left many wondering why we can’t make that kind of thing here on NZ TV.

Many have moaned that TVNZ missed the comedy boat - -or have used the fact that FOTC had to go overseas as evidence that TVNZ are clueless.
It is a matter of legend that TVNZ turned them down.

Well, on the show we were able to go behind this legend.

It turns out it is kinda true – and kinda not.

TVNZ were keen. They asked the FOTC fellows to come up with a project.
As with most NZ produced stuff they would then take the idea to NZ on Air to get funding.

I’m not sure everyone knows how NZ on Air funding works – but here is a basic guide.

The Government has decided it is a good thing to get NZ content on screen. The basic market model won’t produce much of this content because it is nearly always cheaper to buy in an international show, regardless of how much it cost them to make in the first place, than it is to try to make something decent here.

TV costs heaps. Even some of the most successful local shows – like Outrageous Fortune –still attract NZ on Air funding to make them. So even very popular shows are sometimes still not economically possible if left to compete against international fare.

Now, how the funding is allocated is through a relationship between the networks, independent producers and NZ on Air.

A typical way a show is developed may work like this:
A producer goes to a network to try to get a broadcast commitment for a show idea they have. This means that if the show gets made then the network will put it on the telly on their channel.

They then together go to NZ on Air and ask for money.
If NZ on Air like the look of the project and think it ticks one of
the boxes they have decided need ticking, then they fund it.

These boxes change depending on the season and fashion. NZ on Air will actually put a call out for things they are looking for at certain times – like gay themed tv or teenager fare, serious docos or drama.

Soooooo - -in short – for something to get made there are a number of parties who all have to be interested.

And one other important point: because the pot of money available is limited each spending decision impacts on every other decision. For example they aren’t going to give funding for three comedy productions to TVNZ and nothing to TV3 if they can help it – they like to spread it round a bit.
There is also the basic opportunity cost – if they fund one thing then there will be no money to fund another thing.

Right – so this is important because when TVNZ asked the FOTC to come up with something they came back with an idea that was very different to what they ended up successfully making in New York.

It was a concept called something like ‘Folk the World’ – and it was like a history of music where the FOTC boys were inserted into each period.

It was going to need a lot of CGI work – and was going to be an
expensive undertaking. $300,000 for 90 minutes. Which is quite a lot in NZ for a one-off TV special. Quite a lot but not unheard of.

TVNZ maintain that they really liked the idea. But that it was going to be too much in one hit to get the idea past NZ on Air.

I can’t tell you if they ever put it to NZ on Air to check - -the
producer who was developing the idea with FOTC says that the NZ on Air people seemed keen and it wasn’t taken to them to even check– but there are those other factors at play – maybe
TVNZ thought that if they took this project to them then they wouldn’t get other projects over the line - -or maybe they thought there was something else that they wanted to spend that chunk of money on – going back to the opportunity cost idea.

But what we do know is that it wasn’t a simple case of TVNZ turning them down and then they took the same idea overseas and look –now they are massive stars and how dumb is NZ.

TVNZ was never in a position to make anything that would have
been anything near as cool as what did get made.

This is for a bunch of reasons:

For one - -budgets. If they were stressing about 300,000 then the amazing set design, art direction, and crew who worked on FOTC in America would never have made it. I mean they had Michel Gondry directing episodes!.
Two – it is in Amercia. The idea is that they are Kiwis in NY. Can’t do that in Auckland.

And Three - -interference.
At the HBO they make lots of different kinds of shows. FOTC is very culty. It actually doesn’t rate very well here. Moon TV rates better.
If TVNZ were to use a great big chunk of their available money supply on a project they would probably, understandably, want it to appeal to the greatest number of people. Imagine if they had done this to FOTC– there would be mainstream comics in there, fart jokes, etc – it would be a mess – they’d get writers in who worked on every other show and it would be like every other show.

This would have meant that had TVNZ gone and done it it probably would have sucked.

So in many ways – TVNZ actually did everyone a favour by not trying to make this show.

We talked to lots of comedians to try to find out what it does take to make good comedy – and the answer we found is a mixture of trust and freedom.

We need to make more cheap comedy – so we can try more things that don’t need to appeal to everyone. When only making a few things programmers will need them to appeal to everyone from Nana to Grandson. The whole of our telly will look like Full House if we do this.

So we need to make more risky little productions - -like Wayne Anderson or the Night at The Classic show in production now.

And we need to leave the comics to it. Often networks interfere and have a say in what jokes are ok and which aren’t. Network people don’t know and have to stay out of this. They need to trust comics. Too many cooks and all that. As a number of comics said – they are the ones out every night doing material in front of crowds - -they know what works and what doesn’t.

Another thing to emerge was the lack of training and development grounds NZ has. In the UK for example they have a lot of radio comedy being made. The BBC develops people by giving them first a shot on radio – then TV. In fact - -the FOTC first made a great BBC series before the HBO series. There aren’t these outlets in NZ.

I spoke to Jon Plowman when he was last here. He was the head of BBC Comedy for many years – and oversaw everything from The Vicar of Dibley to Little Britain. He said that the recipe for success is that he is able to make enough comedy, and enough failures to have a few successes.
Wise words. In NZ if we have a failure we let it poison the future - -like Melody Rules. We still talk about it and let it stop us from attempting stuff because we say - -‘we don’t want another Melody Rules’. Well, maybe we need a few more of them, and a few more Welcome To Paradises - -just so we can get over them and make better stuff.

There is some hope at the moment. With the digital channels there is real room for more comedy. They are doing a great job in getting quality special interest arts, books, politics, media and children’s programming (disclaimer: I work on a digital channel show, so I would say they are great…) but there isn’t much comedy - -that could be improved upon.
These channels are the natural home for edgy, less commercial, risky comedy.

So – we have a recipe - -more trust, more freedom and more attempts will hopefully make more hits.

And now, from here we can do two things. We can stop endlessly talking about FOTC as if we missed the boat and could have done anything except **** it up be making it here - and also stop talking about Melody Rules. It was a step on the way, not the end point, it wasn't great, but it wasn't much worse than some of the American stuff we happily wallpaper our screens with.

What do you reckon?