''The Wedge'' was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

sketch show 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 i ...

created by Ian McFadyen and produced by Cornerbox for Network Ten. The show stars Dailan Evans, from the ABC sketch show'' Eagle & Evans''; Adam Zwar, best known for his roles in '' Wilfred'',

Rebel Wilson Rebel Melanie Elizabeth Wilson (born Melanie Elizabeth Bownds; 2 March 1980) is an Australian actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. After graduating from the Australian Theatre for Young People in 2003, Wilson began appearing as Tou ...

, who at the time was best known as 'Toula' on the comedy show '' Pizza'';

Jason Gann Jason Gann is an Australian-born actor, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known for his role as the title character in the Australian comedy series '' Wilfred'', directed by Tony Rogers, and the U.S. reboot of the same name. Biography ...

, two-time winner of best actor at

Tropfest Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. It has also become known as the world's first global film festival. Founded by actor/director John Polson, Tropfest began in 1993 as a screening for 200 people at the 'Tropicana Caffe' in ...

for his roles in Wilfred, as well as regulars

Kate Jenkinson Kate Jenkinson is an Australian actress, known for her various roles on '' The Wedge'', as well as her role of Kendall Quinn on '' Super Fun Night''. She is known for her role as Allie Novak in the Australian TV series '' Wentworth''. Educati ...

, Anthony Ahern, Katrina Mathers, Julie Eckersley and Ross Daniels. Marney McQueen, Aidan Fennessy and Cori Hooper were also regulars in Series 1, and

Damian Callinan Damian Callinan is an actor/comedian from Melbourne, Australia. Entertainment career Callinan has performed in many mediums, including TV, film, radio and live stand-up. He came to national prominence in 2003 as an actor in the Australian ske ...

and Cal Wilson were regulars in Series 2. It ran for two seasons, airing 2006 and 2007. A spin-off

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

of one of the show's characters, Mark Wary, was produced by Network Ten in 2008. The show, titled '' Mark Loves Sharon'' premiered at 9:30pm on 30 June 2008.

History and premise

The program was first advertised by Network Ten in December 2005, with promos depicting Wedgedale, a stereotypical Australian

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

suburb. The show’s pilot debuted on Network Ten on 30 May 2006. It is a sketch based format similar to ''

Fast Forward To fast-forward is to move forwards through a recording at a speed faster than that at which it would usually be played, for example two times or two point five times. The recordings are usually audio, video or computer data. It is colloquially ...

'' or '' The Comedy Company''. The difference is that nearly all the sketches take place in the same town, so the transition from sketch to sketch often involves a reference to the previous one. Most transitions involve a timelapse shot that takes the audience from one location to another, but sometimes the reference is more direct and seamless. This is used so often, that a sketch based on it was made. In one episode, the character, Sandra Sultry said "Next up, I'll turn my head to the TV behind me; it's a clever transitional device which will put you through to the next item..."The first season finale was broadcast on 21 November 2006. "Sounds Funny" is the show's theme. Hunter Kaine was recommended as the singer by a production team member's friend. A second series was commissioned by Network Ten;Bridget McManus
"Wedge drives through"
theage.com.au, 31 August 2006, URL last accessed 24 November 2006. production began in September, and was filmed in

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at ...

. The second season's status was updated by a news bulletin posted on its official website, which was advertising for a live taping with an audience. The second season was broadcast on Network Ten in 2007. The second season was first hinted on Network Ten in 2007 promoting a Mother Energy drink, featuring the character, Sandra Sultry (played by Katrina Mathers) and unknown voice actor as a frog. Along the bottom of the screen scrolled a web address for the Mother energy drink. The official website was relaunched with new information on the second series on 10 August. The second season began on 12 August 2007, with two episodes screened back to back with the new rating of 'M' at 9:40 PM. However, from 19 August onwards, the timeslot was inconsistent from week to week. The season took a break for almost a month and was continued at the later time of 10.25 PM on 16 September with a single episode airing. It was dropped from the timeslot was once again due to the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

. Despite such movements from Network Ten, the show retained a much more popular feedback than its first season and has been having consistent ratings of around 500,000 viewers per episode. On 26 October the show returned with a 10:30 PM timeslot, and was not renewed for a third season.

Cast and crew

Season 1

Cast Crew

Season 2

Cast Crew

Characters and sketches

DVD releases

*¹The 20th episode of season one was repeated in the That's Valid and Thanks for Coming DVDs.

Episode guide

Critical reception

''The Wedge'' had mixed success with audiences and critics during its first season. The ratings for the first season were initially strong, with the first episode receiving 1.5 million viewers and later episodes averaging over one million viewers. The shows recent popularity waned nearer the end of the first season, with episodes reaching a much smaller audience (681,000 viewers for the episode that aired on 21 November 2006). Despite the show's first season initially receiving high ratings, it was criticised by some TV reviewers. Issue was taken with the perceived over-use of canned laughter and what they considered to be poorly written, dated, cheap humour that attacked easy targets and propagated offensive stereotypes. Shortly after the series debuted, Catherine Deveny, one of the writers, wrote an article for

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 ...

in which she revealed that the producers had insisted on re-writing and blanding out the scripts in the hope of appealing to a wider audience, but maintained that the writers and performers were themselves talented comics. Although the show had its share of negative reviews, critics from Famous magazine quoted that it had "Some of the most outrageous, loopy, and colourful residents God ever put on this world", while Sean Fewster from the

Adelaide Advertiser Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demo ...

remarked that "This could well be the first truly great ensemble of the 21st Century" and "The Wedge is a near perfect blending of The Comedy Company's family-friendly, occasionally bizarre jokes and Fast Forward's nasty, satirical edge.... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Australian sketch comedy". Sean Lynch remarked that "We may very well look back on this...as the beginning of one of Australia's greatest comedy shows of the new millennium", Neil Mitchell from 3AW remarked that the show was "one of the freshest things on TV" and a writer from newspaper

said "Such a rich vein of comedy, you can't help wonder why someone hasn't mined it sooner". Memorable TV remarked "At last we have a comedy sketch show worthy of the mantle of Fast Forward and Full Frontal. Very funny." shortly after the release of the DVDs. The show's second season had a much more popular feedback from audiences during its second season, hence reflecting from its consistent ratings at its 'dead-zone' timeslot. The Age, who had panned the show's previous season remarked, "... (The Wedge) delivers enough flashes of brilliance to confirm it's on the right track". British television and radio presenter Jonathan Ross recently reviewed it on his ''film 2009'' show, in which he condemned it saying "it tries to hard to follow the much better British alternatives and fails badly" in which he added "not one to watch".

Side projects

* Karingal Park Secondary College won a competition called "Art Cooney Comes to Your School" that was first advertised on ''The Wedge'' website. As a part of the prize, the school received a visit from Adam Zwar, portraying the character Art Cooney. Another competition to get on set of 'The Wedge' was set, winners were invited onto the set for a tour. * ''The Wedge'' characters Mark Wary (Jason Gann) and his manager (Dailan Evans) made an appearance on the ''50 Years of

Comic Relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

'' show broadcast on

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 ...

. In addition to this,

Russell Gilbert Russell Gilbert (born 17 October 1959) is an Australian comedian and actor from Footscray, Victoria, best known for his radio and television appearances, on programs such as '' The Comedy Company'', ''Hey Hey It's Saturday'' and ''Thank God You'r ...

and

also made an appearance on the show. * Cal Wilson, Dailan Evans and Kate Jenkinson have made an appearance on Australia's improvisation show, ''

Thank God You're Here ''Thank God You're Here'' is an Australian television improvised comedy program created by Working Dog Productions, which premiered on Network Ten on 5 April 2006, and aired for the first three seasons and on Seven for the fourth season. Each ...

'' during its second season.Thank God You're Here's Episode Guide
, ''Australia Television'', URL last accessed 29 November 2006 Rebel Wilson has also made appearances on the third season of Thank God You're Here (as well as Kate Jenkinson's second appearance).

References

External links

*

on Australian Television {{DEFAULTSORT:Wedge, The Network 10 original programming Australian television sketch shows 2006 Australian television series debuts 2007 Australian television series endings English-language television shows