''Magda's Funny Bits'' was a television comedy featuring Magda Szubanski that was broadcast on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

, Australia in early 2006. The Nine Network commissioned five episodes, four of which were aired prior to the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 (Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...

Format

The series was a

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 ...

and clip show featuring popular Szubanski characters from '' Fast Forward'', '' Big Girl's Blouse'' and '' Kath & Kim''. * Mary McGregor hosted the show and told stories about her love life and family. The character is a Scottish alcoholic, who sought a

scotch Scotch most commonly refers to: * Scotch (adjective), a largely obsolescent adjective meaning "of or from Scotland" **Scotch, old-fashioned name for the indigenous languages of the Scottish people: ***Scots language ("Broad Scotch") *** Scottish G ...

company as a sponsor. * Chanelle from Chanelle's Institute de Beauty and House of Hair Removal. Chanelle first appeared in '' Fast Forward'' advertising outlandish hair and beauty products. In this series she advertised faulty products which were more threat than help. As with the '' Fast Forward'' sketches, the format was an advertorial segment on a fictional television show ''Mornings with Janelle''. Janelle, the host, was played by Marg Downey. * Lynne hosted an

Australia's Funniest Home Videos ''Australia's Funniest Home Videos'' (''AFHV'', also known as ''Funniest Home Videos'' or simply ''The Video Show'', originally ''Graham Kennedy's Funniest Home Video Show'' in its first season and ''Australia's Funniest Home Video Show'' until ...

in competition with the real life host Toni Pearen. Lynne showed funny videos in her sketches but also made fun of both Pearen and then

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Eddie McGuire. * Sharon Strzelecki hosted ''Sharon's Wider World Of Sports'', a spoof of '' Nine's Wide World of Sport''. Strzelecki showed clips of sporting disasters in her sketches and, as in '' Kath & Kim'', had a new sporting injury in each episode.

Reception

Despite Szubanski being one of Australia's most popular actors and comedians, critical and public reception of the series was poor. '' The West Australian'' described the series as "a classic example of safe but uninspired programming". The ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'' described it as one of the "least accurately titled shows to appear on Australian TV". '' The Australian'' and the ''

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'' labelled it as one of the biggest flops of 2006. The '' Courier Mail'' was even more scathing, saying "It is truly an embarrassment.

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

would be turning in his grave." TV writer Andrew Mercado blamed the network, saying "What an abysmal thing to do to her. She's putting all those great comic characters into the worst possible scenario." The series also performed poorly in the ratings, receiving only a quarter of the viewing audience of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''. At the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games, the fifth episode remained unaired.

External links

References

2000s Australian comedy television series Nine Network original programming 2006 Australian television series debuts 2006 Australian television series endings {{comedy-tv-prog-stub