''Double Take'' is an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

series which premiered on the Seven Network on 23 July 2009. The series ended just over two months later on 24 September 2009. Although it was a show of mixed quality and only passable ratings, it featured a number of sketches (notably, the song "9 to 9" (parodying Dolly Parton's "

9 to 5 Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid Wage labour, labor. Unpaid work, Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Many countries regula ...

") that became highly popular viral internet items, and led to the appearance of two of the programme's stars, Amanda Bishop and

Paul McCarthy Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued ...

, in the ABC1 sitcom '' At Home With Julia'' (2011), in turn, co-written and produced by one of the show's co-creators,

Rick Kalowski Rick Kalowski (born 9 May 1972) is an Australian television and film writer/producer, best known for his work on the high-rating but controversial ABC1 sitcom '' At Home with Julia''. Before becoming a writer, Kalowski spent several years working ...

Cast

* Hollie Andrew * Amanda Bishop * Helen Dallimore * Guy Edmonds * Robin Goldsworthy *

* Darren Weller

Format

''Double Take'' involves the presentation of a variety of skits, parodying famous people and television shows. Instead of fewer, longer sketches, episodes are usually structured to include many skits with longer sketches broken up into segments often concluding after a second or third run.

Impersonations

Notable programs

''Double Take'' features original skits, parodies of other television programmes and films. There are parodies of community television's Channel 31 or many TV shows on other networks (such as Channel 7, 9, 10, SBS and the ABC). As well as various sport coverage or news bulletins, and Australian films to classic movies.

Reception

The debut episode of ''Double Take'' rated reasonably well, attracting an audience of 1.08 million people and winning the night among the coveted 25- to 54-year-old viewers' demographic. Subsequent ratings varied wildly between as many as 1,000,000 and as few as 400,000 viewers, although the show remained very popular among younger viewers throughout its run. Surprisingly, for a sketch comedy show (typically regarded by critics as a 'low art'), ''Double Take'' was well received by reviewers writing for Australia's major broadsheet newspapers '' The Sydney Morning Herald'', '' The Age'' and '' The Australian'', while earning negative criticism only from the more tabloid ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''.

External links

* Australian television sketch shows 2009 Australian television series debuts 2009 Australian television series endings Television series by Fremantle (company) Television shows set in Australia Seven Network original programming {{Australia-tv-prog-stub