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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Frontline-Series 1 (1994)

Frontline-Series 1 (1994)

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Released 9-Sep-2004

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Menu Audio
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1994
Running Time 346:03 (Case: 345)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (14:47)
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Santo Cilauro
Tom Gleisner
Jane Kennedy
Rob Sitch
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Rob Sitch
Bruno Lawrence
Kevin J. Wilson
Steve Bisley
Jane Kennedy
Tiriel Mora
Alison Whyte
Santo Cilauro
Anita Cerdic
Trudy Hellier
Linda Ross
Genevieve Mooy
Lynda Gibson
Case Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI $39.95 Music Craig Harnath


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    After the success of The Late Show in 1992 and 1993, and before they made The Castle in 1997, the team behind those classic Australian comedies made what is widely regarded as one of the smartest and funniest satire comedy series ever created in this country. The series was of course Frontline and the fact that many of the episodes are still used as parts of media syllabus in universities around the country is testament to the esteem in which it is held. Thankfully for us, after a very long wait, series one of Frontline has been released as a two-disc DVD set. Hopefully series two and three are not too far behind.

    This series is a satirical fly-on-the-wall account (with an almost documentary style) of the background workings of a commercial television current affairs programme. Frontline is the name of the program shown each weeknight on an unnamed commercial network. Think of a cross between A Current Affair and Today Tonight (or whatever the name for Channel 7s flagship current affairs vehicle is at the present time - it changes frequently) and you are pretty much on the money for the style of story that Frontline is after. It is hosted by former ABC journalist Mike Moore (Rob Sitch). Mike was the finance reporter for the 7:30 report in Perth before being poached by the commercial network. He thinks he's hard hitting and in the same league as Laurie Oakes or Kerry O'Brien, but in reality he's pretty light weight and not much more than a talking head. He spends a great deal of each episode trying to prove his journalistic worth and increase his standing in the hierarchy of Australian television, all without much success.

    The on-air reporting duties are handled by Brooke Vandenberg (Jane Kennedy) and Martin Di Stasio (Tiriel Mora). Brooke is a highly ambitious upwardly mobile young lady who will let nothing get in her way as she scrambles to the very top of the television pile and the dream job of celebrity interviews on 60 Minutes. Marty is a rather cynical, hard-bitten and extremely rough around the edges veteran journalist of many years. Marty has seen and done it all and really can't be bothered with all the shenanigans of those wannabes around him. But like Brooke, he has been known to bend a few rules and stretch the journalist's code of ethics to breaking point to secure the exclusive story.

    The man charged with the responsibility of getting the show to air each night and keeping the ratings on the upward trend is executive producer Brian Thompson (the late Bruno Lawrence), a man with one eye on the ratings, one on his staff, and one on the executives pushing for higher ratings. His life is one extreme stress attack and he is never settled. The real brains and effort behind each of the stories is program producer Emma Ward (Alison Whyte), who comes up with most of the ideas for the stories, does almost all the research, writes most of the copy, and is also probably the only staff member with any hint of integrity. Incidentally the packaging states Emma's surname as Thompson which is an obvious mistake.

    Frontline opened up the eyes of the unsuspecting viewing public to some of the more dubious and completely immoral practices of commercial tabloid television, all while raising many laughs. It covered everything from the use of hidden cameras, the classic foot-in-the-door bullying style of interview, the crassness of cheque-book journalism and the need to consider ratings wins above everything else (but only in Sydney and Melbourne - nobody cares about the rest of the country). It also dealt with the huge egos obviously present in commercial television and the inability for many television stars to stop thinking about anything apart from themselves. It satirised many events that were topical at the time such as the time Mike Willesee interviewed two children during a siege in 1993 and the scramble by the commercial television networks to interview mountain survivor James Scott.

    Look out for a small, but pivotal role throughout the entire series by Tom Gleisner as the photocopier repair man and of course the critical role of station weatherman Geoffrey Salter played with naive abandon by Santo Cilauro (who was also camera operator for the whole series). There is also a who's who (circa 1994 anyway) of Australian television included in many small guest roles each episode.

    13 episodes comprise series one. Here's a brief rundown of each:

Episode 1 - The Soufflé Rises (26:23)

    Frontline host Mike Moore is suffering from a crisis of credibility. After he is accused of being light-weight and the nice-guy of Australian television, Mike decides to get tough. Things backfire though when he editorialises on a topic he knows nothing about and the office receives death threats as a result. Meanwhile Marty has his hands full with a classical piano-playing child prodigy and Brooke gets some unexpected results from her interview with national treasure, comedian 'Ugly' Dave Gray. Special guest on the show this week is opposition leader John Hewson.

Episode 2 - The Desert Angel (27:13)

    The ugliness of cheque-book journalism comes to the fore after a young Australian aid worker, presumed missing in the Sudanese desert suddenly reappears after being lost for six weeks. With rival networks falling over themselves to get the exclusive, the Frontline executive producer pulls out all stops to ensure his team gets the story. Mike's attention is elsewhere though, when he has a secret meeting with some Channel Nine executives intent on poaching him to the Packer network. Meanwhile Brooke is setting tongues wagging when she must interview tennis legend Pat Cash. Everybody is in on the secret that Brooke once had a secret fling with the tennis star and this interview should be good for a laugh.

Episode 3 - City Of Fear (26:37)

    In an effort to keep Mike's spirits up and make him feel popular, the Frontline office staff filter out all the bad and derogatory mail that many people send him each day. But somehow it looks like Mike has got hold of a large pile of negative mail and he's not happy. It's the least of his problems though, when the Frontline team are accused of a sensationalist media beat up when they link two completely unrelated crimes into a serial killer story.

Episode 4 - She's Got The Look (27:40)

    Frontline producer Emma Ward is feeling pretty disgruntled this week. Executive Producer Brian Thompson has decided to employ an attractive Olympic athlete as a guest reporter, in a hope of boosting ratings. Emma's feathers are ruffled since she knows this girl has no journalistic talent and was merely employed because of her looks and the ability to pull in a few more male viewers. Mike of course backs Emma's concerns, but still manages to flirt outrageously with the new reporter.

Episode 5 - The Siege (26:12)

    It's a big news day when a crazed gun-wielding father of two kidnaps his children from his estranged wife and holds them hostage in a remote Victorian farmhouse. The race is on with all the current affairs shows tripping over themselves to get the best coverage possible. But they are all thwarted in their attempts by a police imposed exclusion zone around the farm. This doesn't stop Brian who insists on getting exclusive footage and has Marty and a film crew circle the farm in a chopper, much to the chagrin of the police. Meanwhile Emma manages to get the phone number of the farmhouse and arranges a one on one interview between the gunman and Mike Moore to be broadcast on the show.

    This classic episode was inspired by the real-life antics of Mike Willesee on the Nine Network's A Current Affair in 1993 when he managed to speak to two children being held hostage during a siege at Cangai in NSW.

Episode 6 - Playing The Ego Card (27:58)

    Mike is again suffering from a credibility crisis, feeling he is nothing more than a light-weight talking head. He suggests to Brian that he be allowed to go on an overseas assignment for a week, to Bougainville, in an effort to get some real hard-hitting stories and prove he's no light-weight. Brian reluctantly agrees, but then must deal with another problem as Marty and Brooke battle to take on the role of acting host for the week.

Episode 7 - We Ain't Got No Dames (27:19)

    Frontline is losing its female viewers by the truckload. Some proven methods for getting them back are employed with a general softening of Mike's image and more stories angled at women's interests commissioned. Special guest star this week is senator Cheryl Kernot.

Episode 8 - The Art Of Gentle Persuasion (26:39)

    The grubbiness of foot-in-the-door tabloid journalism is evident for all to see when Marty uses some highly unethical means to get an interview with a man who has just lost his wife to a crocodile attack. Meanwhile Mike is convinced to drop a boring story idea he was working on to tackle an expose on the sleazy world of table top dancing. Mike is dead against anything sleazy that might damage his credibility, but when he meets the attractive and very intelligent dancer, his attitude suddenly changes.

Episode 9 - The Invisible Man (25:10)

    The classic hidden camera style of story gets an airing on Frontline this week, when reporter Brooke Vandenberg exposes women shoplifters. Brian is happy when the camera is hidden in the changing room of a clothing store providing some titillating and ratings winning footage. Meanwhile Mike is doing his best to fix up his profile which is still slipping, making him almost invisible to Australian audiences.

Episode 10 - Add Sex And Stir (27:03)

    More sensationalist antics this week when the Frontline team takes a rather dull story about a female sports star being dropped from the national team and turns it into an exposé of lesbians in sport. Mike organises a cocktail party which nobody in the Frontline office seems particularly keen on attending. He is also set for a higher national profile when he becomes the celebrity gardener on the Nine Network's Burke's Backyard lifestyle programme. Special guests on this week's episode include George Negus, Glenn Ridge, and of course Don Burke.

Episode 11 - Smaller Fish To Fry (26:06)

    Frontline is again criticised for going after the small fish - the likes of video and washer repairmen for example. But when Mike is passed some information from an out-of-work tabloid journalist that could result in the biggest story of his career, this looks set to change. But Brian is not convinced about the story and tries to brush Mike off. Will the hard hitting Mike Moore see this one through to its conclusion?

Episode 12 - Judge and Jury (26:26)

    Brooke interviews a young woman who claims she was raped by a priest, and the results are not what any of the crew would have expected. Meanwhile Marty is assigned to cover a story about the butterfly enclosure at Melbourne Zoo, the results of which are quite environmentally damaging and equally amusing.

Episode 13 - This Night Of Nights (25:17)

    It's Logie night, the night of nights where the Australian television industry come out to congratulate each other and drink copious amounts of alcohol. Mike is not amused that he is not presenting a Logie, so Brian has to pull a few strings to get him on stage. This isn't the end of Mike's troubles though since he is having trouble finding a date for the night. Special guests in this episode abound, with Channel 7 news reader Anne Fulwood playing a key role.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Anyone who is familiar with either the original television broadcast on the ABC or the VHS tape version of this series will know exactly what to expect in terms of video quality. Not much is the short answer. But really that is part of the charm of this show. The highly variable video quality contributes to the overall style and mood of the show. The majority of each episode was recorded on a simple hand-held video camera (probably Hi8 or S-VHS), while the on-air segments of the actual Frontline show were shot using a higher resolution Betacam SP video camera. The difference between the two is quite remarkable but allows the viewer to instantly switch between the professional controlled on-air environment and the slapdash chaos that is the behind-the-scenes action. Grain is highly problematic for the majority of each episode, particularly the lower resolution video footage. This is in no way a mastering issue though, since it has always looked like this. Shadow detail suffers on the odd occasion, but again this is not a mastering fault, rather the use of poor lighting during filming. It was a pretty low budget production after all. Unfortunately edge enhancement on the lower resolution shots is rife throughout, especially when the lighting drops to lower levels. Overall the video transfer for these DVDs mirrors exactly how the show looked on television and is as good as can be expected.

    The original made-for-television aspect ratio of 1.33:1 has been maintained and this transfer is not enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

    Colours are fairly drab, but again this is exactly as expected.

    Compression artefacts are absent, but there are plenty of video artefacts present throughout many of the episodes. Examples of various analogue tape noise problems and the like occur at 13:42 in episode 2 and at 9:16 in episode 3.

    Unfortunately there are no subtitles.

    Both discs are dual layered with Disc 1 featuring a layer change mid episode. It occurs during episode 4 at 14:47. Thankfully it's on a fade to black and is virtually impossible to detect. Disc 2 features three episodes on each layer so there is no layer change to contend with.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio soundtrack contained here is a Dolby Digital 5.1 effort encoded at the bit rate of 448 Kb/s. Don't get too excited by the promise of a fully remastered 5.1 surround soundtrack though. This is basically anchored to the front three channels for pretty much the entire program, with just a little leakage to the rears on the odd occasion. In all reality, a simple Dolby Digital 2.0 surround soundtrack would have probably done here and most likely would sound almost the same as the one we ended up with.

    Dialogue levels are adequate with no obvious audio sync problems.

    The main Frontline theme plays at the beginning of each episode, over the end credits and also pops up during the episode whenever the 'real' Frontline show goes to air. It's a fairly dynamic tune with quite an authoritative feel to it.

    As mentioned there is very little surround channel use, and I'm pretty sure the subwoofer received no discrete channel use.



Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu Audio

    The two-disc set is effectively devoid of extras. That's a shame since I'm sure a commentary track at the very least from some of the Working Dog crew would have proved of immense benefit and probably been good for a laugh as well.

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Frontline has yet to be released in Region 1.

Summary

    Frontline is perfect proof that Australian comedy (in this case satire) can rank with the best in the world. Watch this series and you will never, ever look at A Current Affair, Today Tonight, or the myriad of other current affairs shows that have long come and gone in the same way again.

    The video quality presented on this DVD is exactly the same as when the series was first shown on television and is on a par with the VHS release. It at least benefits from the fact it will not wear out.

    The audio quality is average, despite the promise of a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. A standard surround encoded stereo soundtrack would have probably sufficed.

    There are no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Darren Walters (It's . . . just the vibe . . . of my bio)
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDLoewe Xemix 5106DO, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Calida (84cm). Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL).
AmplificationHarmon/Kardon AVR7000.
SpeakersFront - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10

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