Five 90s Sitcoms You've Probably Forgotten

The 1990s were a decade with VCRs, and eventually, dial-up internet. But they lacked high-speed data-sharing and Doctor Who, so it was hardly living, really. We watched our television when the free-to-air networks told us to, and we never knew that we were often missing bits and pieces that they'd chop out to make the ads fit. If, like me, you spent the majority of your childhood/teens in the 90s, then you'll probably share a certain sensibility about that era's TV: of sitting through rivers of crap waiting for the occasional nugget of gold.

I watched Seinfeld, which began "revolutionising" sitcoms, according to people who know about TV and comedy and such. Thinking back, I guess I could tell it was different, only because they didn't have the Full House-style, soppy "I've learned a lesson" scene at the end of every episode. Although the "TV has really changed" lightning bolt for me was Monica on Friends telling someone she "had to pee". Woah! Never once in all the books I read as a kid, or all the TV shows I'd seen before, had anyone ever said they needed to use the facilities. The Faraway Tree didn't have an amenities block. Mollie and Peter never parked The Wishing Chair to drop the kids off at the pool. Trixie Belden didn't have to take a quiet squat while spying on a suspicious farmhouse.

Apart from that I think the only shows with real comic "credibility" I watched during my teens were the Rik Mayal/Adrian Edmondson brawlfest Bottom, sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf (although some tell me post-season-3 doesn't count) and current affairs satire Frontline.

But I sure as hell watched a lot of sitcoms. Most were American. Most were dodgy. Many of them would be familiar to you: Home Improvement, The Nanny, Married... With Children, Family Matters.

If you can say "Did I do that?" without echoing Steve Urkel's nasally style,
then congratulations.  You are probably capable of conversing with strangers.

But what about the more obscure works in situationally comedic ouevre? Here's a few you probably don't care to remember - if you ever saw enough to forget in the first place.

Anna Bligh's 2011

It's been a busy day.

Premier Anna Bligh confirmed Queenslanders will go the polls on March 24, but the official election campaign will only start on February 19.

The Forced Smile competition was declared a draw

I'm rather excited, as this election will be my first "on the road". This means I'll actually be heading out with the leaders on the campaign bus/plane/train/boat/scooter/segue/pack mule, to provide coverage in my role as Fairfax Radio state political reporter.

It's going to be exhausting and challenging and I hope I will do it justice.

One thing I want to incorporate into my campaign experience is regular writing. So to get started, I'm going to post this review of Anna Bligh's 2011. It was originally commissioned for another publication, but ultimately not used. Of course, it's all a bit out of date now the election timetable's been determined, but here it is anyway.

Creatures of Habit

My grandmother always travels with two gold sovereigns.

That's a 1904 Edward VII, and a 1900 Queen Victoria.

In a way, that sums up Queen Pat. Born of Empire, she's never upgraded to the now-more-common practice of secreting a few US dollars about your person when venturing into foreign climes. Shillings may have gone the way of the colonies, but By George my Gran will keep her bullion coins as emergency currency.

It got me thinking about habits, and how one acquires them.

Yasur on Camera

My photographic skills remain scatty at best; but I took my Nikon D80 DSLR camera to Vanuatu, in an attempt to brush up on basic concepts such as "exposing correctly" and "taking the lens cap off".

The aim was to try some long exposure shots, to capture the incredible arcing blasts from Yasur's vents. It turns out that's a reasonable challenge when you don't have a tripod and the entire ashen mound you're sitting on regularly shudders with bubbling molten fury.

I wound up sitting with my legs pulled up, and the camera balanced on my knees. I didn't have much luck until I started using shutter priority mode, and set it to 3 seconds. The best shots I got were by accident, or extremely good luck.

Boom!

I suspect this is actually not very good technically,
but hey, I like the squiggles.

Pow!

I haven't made any adjustments to these pictures (mostly because I still don't really know how. Anyone want to teach me how to retouch photographs?).

Visiting the Volcano

The Wah and I just returned from a week's holiday in Vanuatu, country of residence of my grandmother, Queen Pat. Despite the old bird having lived there over half a century (I found out this trip she'd told my Grandad in 1960 she'd "give it two years"), and consequently seeing a lot of the place, I'd never visited the island of Tanna before.

Tanna is home to Mt Yasur, one of the world's most active and easily accessible volcanos. By "easily accessible", I mean a bumpy ride on dirt roads in a ute, before a reasonably challenging walk along narrow ridges of ash and cooled lava rocks to get to the best viewing sites. Our ute also got bogged along the way, but then as our guide John said - "It's all part of the tour!"

I loved it. Even the rotten egg sulphur smell that would spurt out with the blast waves every so often was delightful. Being so close to something so magnificently dangerous really makes one feel alive. That probably explains why I was so cautious around the edges; not an aversion to heights, no! More a keen sense of self-preservation.

The Wah, being the science nut that he is, was in absolute heaven. I'm fairly certain he was crafting scenarios that would allow to him live on or near the volcano's edge, with nothing but a sleeping bag, tins of baked beans, and his cannon-like telescope set up to examine the hot vents below, and the startlingly clear stars above.

"I'm a simple man, with simple needs," he said.

Yasur means "God" in Tannese. I hope the following presentation will go some way to explaining why.

Also, should I be calling my Gran "the old bird"? I mean, she was in the WRNS. But then, that does mean she might know various nefarious ways to punish an errant granddaughter.....

Vaccination Talk at Woodford

“What’s everyone looking at?” asked the woman.

“The plane,” I replied. “It’s towing a banner that says Vaccinations Save Lives.”

The woman shook her head and tsked. “Drug companies have all the money, don’t they?”

Welcome to the world of the anti-vaxxer.

20 Pics of 2011 (via mobile phone)

I've had my HTC Mozart Windows phone for just over a year now. It serves my purposes well enough, but I must admit that my usage remains fairly basic. Calls, texts, email, Twitter, a bit of web browsing. I've not explored the world of "apps" much; mainly because I figure there are maybe 17 or 18 that have been made for the Windows Phone.

One feature I do use is the inbuilt camera. It's not particularly great quality, as the shutter button is external, not on the screen, so it's harder to fire off those super-quick shots people with iPhones seem in the habit of doing. However, it's often the only camera I have on me, as my other camera is a big Nikon DSLR.

I thought it might be fun to have a look back at the year that was 2011, through the prism of my mobile phone camera. So often our mobile phone pictures are disposable. I thought collating a few might help me look back on the year, and the shape it was. I took hundreds of pictures, but displaying them all would be foolishly boring, or boringly foolish. So I settled on the round number of 20 to show to you. Some I've used in posts or tweets throughout the year; some are blurry; some are just plain silly.

But, here they all are anyway. 20 Pics of 2011 - via my mobile phone.

HTBAM Shenanigans

This little clip is a bit of a love song to the cast of How To Be A Man.

I know I keep harping on about it, but there are only three shows left this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and I would dearly love to pack the Brisbane Arts Theatre full.

Life is lived to learn lessons, and staging Felafel, Tassie Babes and now HTBAM have made these past three years heart-breakingly challenging and heart-achingly satisfying all at once. My twin goals through all of it have been to help the theatre, and above all to be faithful to the spirit of John Birmingham's work, which I treasure dearly.

I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to put on these marvellously crazy productions. I don't hope that they are Art, or Important, or Meaningful. I simply hope they're damn entertaining for a couple of hours, with more than their fair share of nob gags and unexpected dance routines.

Mostly, I'm thankful for the truly wonderful people these shows have brought into my life. I am richer for knowing them, and I hope some of their talent has rubbed off on me.

If you are in Brisbane, come along to How To Be A Man.