''Double Take'' is an Australian sketch comedy series which premiered on the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

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 Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

's " 9 to 5") that became highly popular viral internet items, and led to the appearance of two of the programme's stars,

Amanda Bishop Amanda Diana Bishop (born 10 December 1979) is an Australian actress and comedian, known for her comedy portrayals of Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister of Australia, in the television comedy '' At Home with Julia''. Bishop had previous ...

and Paul McCarthy, in the

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel an ...

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

Cast

Hollie Andrew Hollie Andrew is an Australian film, television and stage actress. Early life and education Andrew was born and raised in Adelaide. She graduated from Flinders University (SA) in 1999 with an Honours Degree in Drama. She then attended the Wes ...

Helen Dallimore Helen Dallimore (born 31 October 1971) is an Australian actress, known for originating the role of Glinda in the West End production of ''Wicked''. Early life Dallimore grew up in Oxford, England and Sydney, Australia. She trained at the Nat ...

Guy Edmonds Guy Edmonds is an Australian born director, writer, actor and author. He co-created, wrote, acted in and directed the Emmy award-winning comedy series Hardball. He co-authored the hit book series Zombie Diaries and Zoo Crew. As an actor he is b ...

* Robin Goldsworthy * Paul McCarthy * 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 Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'' and ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', while earning negative criticism only from the more tabloid '' Daily Telegraph''.

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