David Farrier reflects on how a pivotal X-Files casting decision eventually led to Bryan Cranston’s explosive role on Breaking Bad.// It was 1998 and I was 15 years old. It was season six of The X-Files, my favourite show in the whole wide world. It was a brilliant season – the mythology was in place, and … Read more
Andrew Todd watches the unaired pilot of Blackadder, one of English comedy’s foundation stones, and finds a very rough draft with shards of brilliance. // Blackadder is a cultural keystone as vital to English TV comedy as Fawlty Towers or The Office. Over its four series, Richard Curtis, Ben Elton and Rowan Atkinson delivered what is … Read more
Each Thursday a Spinoff correspondent will discuss a nugget from television’s rich and distinguished past. This week José Barbosa argues for the enduring tensions of A Dog’s Show. It’s become part of our vague national perception of New Zealand culture to catalogue A Dog’s Show as a crusty anachronism. The show played during a time when stubbies (sartorial … Read more
Luke Ward started life on The OC credited only as a guest star, an All American tough guy jerk dating Marissa Cooper, the troubled rich girl neighbour of the central Cohen family. He had two core functions to perform on the show, both of which required garden variety jerkiness performed to an extremely high level. Firstly … Read more
For this throwback, we skip school to look at a failed Ferris Bueller’s Day Off television reboot starring a young Jennifer Aniston and a scary Scott Disick clone. // This week in TV has been all about old favourites getting a reboot in this golden/platinum/silicon age of television. The world put the collective coffee on at the news of Twin … Read more
Every Thursday we trawl the internet for golden nuggets of New Zealand nostalgia. This week we found rare footage of pop megastar Kimbra, giving it heaps on a children’s TV show. // What Now? ran a series of segments called “Do Your Thing” in the early 2000s, where a sassy kid host would investigate a particular … Read more