''Sit Down, Shut Up'' is a short-lived

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 ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

broadcast by

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

. It ran from 16 February 2001 until 28 June 2001 for a total of 13 episodes. The series followed the staff and students at a dysfunctional fictional

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

called Carpen Heights Secondary College, and focused on the life of the teachers in and out of the staff room. A writer for the series claimed that producer/comedian Chris Lilley had borrowed ideas for characters and plots from ''Sit Down, Shut Up'' for his 2007 series ''

Summer Heights High ''Summer Heights High'' is an Australian mockumentary television sitcom written by and starring Chris Lilley. Set in the fictional Summer Heights High School in an outer suburb of Sydney (based on Summer Hill), it is revolves around high scho ...

''. The ideas Lilley reportedly borrowed included the school's name and aspects of the Mr G character.

Cast

Marg Downey Marg Downey (born 5 May 1961) is an Australian comedian and actress best known for her roles in '' The D Generation'', ''Fast Forward'' and '' Full Frontal'' Early life and education Downey grew up in a middle-class Catholic family in the Melb ...

as Sue Dirkin * Stephen Curry as Stuart Mill *

Jacqueline Brennan Jacqueline Brennan is an Australian stage, television and film actress with a career that has spanned over 30 years appearing in film, theatre and voice-over roles. Jacquie Brennan is known for her roles on '' Bullpitt!'', '' The Hollowmen,''an ...

as Helen Peters * Christopher Brown as Brent Townsend-Ross *

Jodie Dry Jodie Dry (born 20 January 1974) is an Australian actress. Career She is known for her role as Nicole Brown, a former model and a former girlfriend of Joe Hill, in ''White Collar Blue''; and as Biddy Marchant in ABC's ''Grassroots'', havin ...

as Julia Denholm-Ponsford *Paul Gleeson as Felix Sedgely *Taylor Kane as Stefan Ravazzi *Tim Mcloughlan as Chaps *Brendan Reed as Dean Tate

American remake

In 2009, an

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

remake of the series titled '' Sit Down, Shut Up'' aired on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, premiering on 19 April 2009. This American version featured the voices of

Henry Winkler Henry Franklin Winkler, OBE (born October 30, 1945), is an American actor, comedian, author, executive producer, and director. After rising to fame as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the American television series ''Happy Days'', Winkler has ...

Will Arnett William Emerson Arnett (; born May 4, 1970) is a Canadian actor, comedian and producer. He is best known for his roles as Gob Bluth in the Fox/Netflix series '' Arrested Development'' (2003–2006, 2013, 2018–2019) and as the titular char ...

Jason Bateman Jason Kent Bateman (born January 14, 1969) is an American actor, director and producer known for his roles of Michael Bluth in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox/Netflix sitcom ''Arrested Development (TV series), Arrested Development'' and of Mart ...

Will Forte Orville Willis Forte IV ( ; born June 17, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Forte is known for being a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' (2002–2010), a recurring character on the show leading to a feature film ada ...

Kenan Thompson Kenan Thompson (; born May 10, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He has been a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' since 2003, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history. He was also th ...

, and

Cheri Oteri Cheryl Ann Oteri () is an American actress and comedian. A nominee of a Primetime Emmy Award, Oteri is best known for her tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1995 to 2000. Early life The daughte ...

Nick Kroll Nicholas Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for creating and starring in the Comedy Central series ''Kroll Show'', ''The Oh, Hello Show'', the FX comedy series ''The Lea ...

, and

Kristin Chenoweth Kristin Dawn Chenoweth (; born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth; July 24, 1968)Kristin Cheno ...

. It was developed by

Mitchell Hurwitz Mitchell Donald "Mitch" Hurwitz (born May 29, 1963) is an American television writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator of the television sitcom ''Arrested Development'' as well as the co-creator of ''The Ellen Show''. He is a ...

, the creator of ''

Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...

''. Former ''

Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, a ...

'' writer

Josh Weinstein Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weins ...

acted as

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

.New Series From J.J. Abrams and Arrested Development Alums Go Forward
/ref> The series received lackluster reviews and was pulled from FOX's Sunday night line-up after four episodes. The program aired all of its episodes when FOX put ''Sit Down Shut Up'' on late-night Saturday. ''Sit Down Shut Up'' then aired on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

(in reruns, initially a number of times throughout the day).

References

External links

Australian Television Information Archive
* Australian television sitcoms Network 10 original programming Australian high school television series Australian workplace comedy television series 2000s high school television series 2000s sitcoms 2000s workplace comedy television series 2001 Australian television series debuts 2001 Australian television series endings English-language television shows Television series about educators Television series about teenagers {{Australia-tv-prog-stub