Yesterday I was watching Upper Middle Bogan, and I recognized two of the actors from another TV show: Very Small Business. They both had guest-type roles. One appeared as a race car driver coach, and the other was a stuck up, bully doctor.
Later I was playing around on IMDb and looked up the creators of Upper Middle Bogan. I clicked on Wayne Hope's name and saw that he's the guy who starred in Very Small Business!
Now I'm thinking I'd like to know more about him. One thing I know is that he and other stars of Very Small Business are on another TV show: The Librarians. I haven't seen that yet, but it's on my to-watch list.
I wonder if Wayne Hope also created Very Small Business. Or did he just act in it? I'm guessing he DID create/write it. But I shall stop wondering and go look....
Yes. He's a writer and a producer for Very Small Business. Though he doesn't have directing credits for that. He DOES have directing credits for Upper Middle Bogan.
Hope didn't create Upper Middle Bogan on his own. He has co-credits with a woman named Robyn Butler. And I just learned she's Hope's wife. Butler appeared in an episode of Upper Middle Bogan and also an episode of Very Small Business. She's in many episodes of The Librarians.
Hope and Butler have an official website. It's called Gristmill. I think that's because it's the name of their company.
They have a showreel. I'll watch that.
At 1:28 is one of the actors from The Secret Life of Us—the doctor who was dating Alex (Claudia Karvan).
It looks like The Librarians pokes fun at political correctness. I like that kind of stuff. Sometimes.
The clips for Very Small Business begin at 2:45. I thought that show was a lot of fun, but I much prefer Upper Middle Bogan. I think both shows have a similar type of comedy. Don't ask me what it is. Maybe satirical? Pathetic? Is there a pathetic type of humor? I think maybe there is, but it has a different name.
Anyway...the difference between both shows is Upper Middle Bogan has more heart. I wouldn't say there's drama, but I feel it does have some tear-jerker moments. It reminds me a little bit of Modern Family. Do you know what I mean? When I watch these shows, I laugh at loud but then other times I have little specks of tears. The tears are for tender moments, though, and not the shocked tears you get when watching a woman cry over her dead boyfriend on the day they were supposed to be having their baby shower.
Back to the pathetic thing. Maybe a better term for it would be cringe-humor. It involves laughing at the low aspects of human nature—sometimes because we can relate to it and other times because we're so relieved that we can NOT relate to it.
Very Small Business probably has more of this cringe-humor than Upper Middle Bogan. Or they might have a similar amount. But Upper Middle Bogan balances the cringe moments with endearing moments.
The Gristmill site has a page for Upper Middle Bogan. There's a link here that's called International Sales. I guess that's in hope that overseas people will buy the show. I mean networks...not individuals. It IS available on Hulu. That's how I'm watching it. But it would be awesome if they actually showed it on a network/channel. I mean in America. I'm sure many other countries have Upper Middle Bogan on their regular television programming. But America is really slow with all that. We rarely have international programming on our regular channels. Instead we remake stuff. Today I learned that this TV show (Secrets and Lies), I kept seeing commercials for on Hulu, is a remake of an Australian program. The US has also remade The Slap, Wilfred, and Kath and Kim. Maybe other Australian stuff? I wouldn't be surprised if they remade Upper Middle Bogan, House Husbands, Wonderland, and Offspring. I think those shows would do very well in the US, though, I think it would be much better if we were given the Australian version. Why not?
And I'm going on a tangent here. Let me get back to the Gristmill stuff.
They have a link to their Instagram accounts.
Wayne Hope's most recent picture is from a film festival in Bentonville. Where is that?
Arkansas!
That's not too far from me! Well, I mean it's closer than Australia.
According to Google Maps, it would take us six hours to drive there.
If I was good at driving, I might jump in my car and make an attempt at being a Wayne Hope stalker. It's not like I've become a super obsessive fan of his suddenly. But we have been wanting to go to Arkansas. I think they have some good cottages there, maybe?
From the previous photo, I see that before Arkansas, Hope was in Los Angeles.
A month ago, he was in Tasmania. Or at least his wife and some other people were. I'm guessing Hope took the photo.
And shit. I just lost my Internet.
I shall wait here and see if it comes back on.
What if it doesn't?
What if the Internet is gone forever?
That would be weird.
Recently I read this thing about bucket lists. It asked people to think about their bucket list and figure out what things they'd still want to do, from their list, if they weren't allowed to talk about it. I thought that was very deep. I think these days we do a lot of things mainly for the purpose of blogging about it and posting about it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. I'm going to try to keep that in mind when I plan our next trip to Australia. What am I wanting to do because I truly want to do it;, and what am I wanting to do because I want to blog about it?
If I'm going to be honest.... If I did know how to drive well, and I did drive to Arkansas, it would probably be more for the fact that I think it would be an amusing blog post and not because I actually want to be there.
The Internet is still not on.
Jack and I are going to play Monopoly.
I'll be back later...hopefully.
I'm back! Finally. We actually had an hour or so of being offline. We didn't play Monopoly, unfortunately. We played Mario Party. I'm not a big fan. I don't think Jack had that much fun either, so we probably won't play that again for awhile.
But guess what! I got a Mother's Day gift! Tim and Jack sent me a bunch of stuff from Simply Australian. We took a few photos. If they turn out, I'll do a post about that later.
Crap. Now the Internet is gone again.
I feel like maybe Wayne Hope is a curse for me.
I'm going to do some way overdue dishwashing.
I'm back again and so is the Internet.
I did some thinking while washing dishes. I decided if I was going to stalk an Australian celebrity, I'd much rather use my stalking as an excuse to go to Australia than Arkansas.
I miss being in Australia.
Jack and I talked about Sydney this morning—got all nostalgic about it.
I say I'm fine waiting 7+ years to go again, but sometimes I'm wanting to go...tomorrow. Or maybe Monday. I'd need a few days to pack.
I would need to find someone to take care of my cricket.
I should get back to Wayne Hope before the Internet vanishes again.
I'm looking at his Instagram again. There's a post from March 18. It's a promo photo for the third season of Upper Middle Bogan, but I guess it's some kind of mistake that Hope caught. It was on Qantas, apparently. Hope says, Stan, Presto, Netflix and now it seems even Qantas are getting into making original content. It’s bold but we really think they should have asked us permission to make series 3.
That's very funny.
Actually, when I first read it, I didn't think much of it. But then when I read it again, I found it hilarious. Maybe my humor is slow today.
Here's a post about the US changing the title of Upper Middle Bogan. It's pretty funny too. I mean the post is funny...not the new title.
Here's a photo of some kind of dessert involving Freddo Frogs. Although they look more like cookies than chocolate. Are there Freddo biscuits?
According to the Cadbury site, the answer is...YES.
What is this dessert, though? It looks like a bunch of Freddos are doing some kind of Jello wrestling activity. Some commenter says this was their favorite dessert as a child. So maybe it's a common Aussie thing?
Here's a recipe. They say to use chocolate Freddos. But is that chocolate chocolate or a chocolate Freddo biscuit?
Anyway, I think I shall end this here. Then I might see if I have a good enough photo to do a post about my Mother's Day gift.
Later I was playing around on IMDb and looked up the creators of Upper Middle Bogan. I clicked on Wayne Hope's name and saw that he's the guy who starred in Very Small Business!
Now I'm thinking I'd like to know more about him. One thing I know is that he and other stars of Very Small Business are on another TV show: The Librarians. I haven't seen that yet, but it's on my to-watch list.
I wonder if Wayne Hope also created Very Small Business. Or did he just act in it? I'm guessing he DID create/write it. But I shall stop wondering and go look....
Yes. He's a writer and a producer for Very Small Business. Though he doesn't have directing credits for that. He DOES have directing credits for Upper Middle Bogan.
Hope didn't create Upper Middle Bogan on his own. He has co-credits with a woman named Robyn Butler. And I just learned she's Hope's wife. Butler appeared in an episode of Upper Middle Bogan and also an episode of Very Small Business. She's in many episodes of The Librarians.
Hope and Butler have an official website. It's called Gristmill. I think that's because it's the name of their company.
They have a showreel. I'll watch that.
At 1:28 is one of the actors from The Secret Life of Us—the doctor who was dating Alex (Claudia Karvan).
It looks like The Librarians pokes fun at political correctness. I like that kind of stuff. Sometimes.
The clips for Very Small Business begin at 2:45. I thought that show was a lot of fun, but I much prefer Upper Middle Bogan. I think both shows have a similar type of comedy. Don't ask me what it is. Maybe satirical? Pathetic? Is there a pathetic type of humor? I think maybe there is, but it has a different name.
Anyway...the difference between both shows is Upper Middle Bogan has more heart. I wouldn't say there's drama, but I feel it does have some tear-jerker moments. It reminds me a little bit of Modern Family. Do you know what I mean? When I watch these shows, I laugh at loud but then other times I have little specks of tears. The tears are for tender moments, though, and not the shocked tears you get when watching a woman cry over her dead boyfriend on the day they were supposed to be having their baby shower.
Back to the pathetic thing. Maybe a better term for it would be cringe-humor. It involves laughing at the low aspects of human nature—sometimes because we can relate to it and other times because we're so relieved that we can NOT relate to it.
Very Small Business probably has more of this cringe-humor than Upper Middle Bogan. Or they might have a similar amount. But Upper Middle Bogan balances the cringe moments with endearing moments.
The Gristmill site has a page for Upper Middle Bogan. There's a link here that's called International Sales. I guess that's in hope that overseas people will buy the show. I mean networks...not individuals. It IS available on Hulu. That's how I'm watching it. But it would be awesome if they actually showed it on a network/channel. I mean in America. I'm sure many other countries have Upper Middle Bogan on their regular television programming. But America is really slow with all that. We rarely have international programming on our regular channels. Instead we remake stuff. Today I learned that this TV show (Secrets and Lies), I kept seeing commercials for on Hulu, is a remake of an Australian program. The US has also remade The Slap, Wilfred, and Kath and Kim. Maybe other Australian stuff? I wouldn't be surprised if they remade Upper Middle Bogan, House Husbands, Wonderland, and Offspring. I think those shows would do very well in the US, though, I think it would be much better if we were given the Australian version. Why not?
And I'm going on a tangent here. Let me get back to the Gristmill stuff.
They have a link to their Instagram accounts.
Wayne Hope's most recent picture is from a film festival in Bentonville. Where is that?
Arkansas!
That's not too far from me! Well, I mean it's closer than Australia.
According to Google Maps, it would take us six hours to drive there.
If I was good at driving, I might jump in my car and make an attempt at being a Wayne Hope stalker. It's not like I've become a super obsessive fan of his suddenly. But we have been wanting to go to Arkansas. I think they have some good cottages there, maybe?
From the previous photo, I see that before Arkansas, Hope was in Los Angeles.
A month ago, he was in Tasmania. Or at least his wife and some other people were. I'm guessing Hope took the photo.
And shit. I just lost my Internet.
I shall wait here and see if it comes back on.
What if it doesn't?
What if the Internet is gone forever?
That would be weird.
Recently I read this thing about bucket lists. It asked people to think about their bucket list and figure out what things they'd still want to do, from their list, if they weren't allowed to talk about it. I thought that was very deep. I think these days we do a lot of things mainly for the purpose of blogging about it and posting about it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. I'm going to try to keep that in mind when I plan our next trip to Australia. What am I wanting to do because I truly want to do it;, and what am I wanting to do because I want to blog about it?
If I'm going to be honest.... If I did know how to drive well, and I did drive to Arkansas, it would probably be more for the fact that I think it would be an amusing blog post and not because I actually want to be there.
The Internet is still not on.
Jack and I are going to play Monopoly.
I'll be back later...hopefully.
I'm back! Finally. We actually had an hour or so of being offline. We didn't play Monopoly, unfortunately. We played Mario Party. I'm not a big fan. I don't think Jack had that much fun either, so we probably won't play that again for awhile.
But guess what! I got a Mother's Day gift! Tim and Jack sent me a bunch of stuff from Simply Australian. We took a few photos. If they turn out, I'll do a post about that later.
Crap. Now the Internet is gone again.
I feel like maybe Wayne Hope is a curse for me.
I'm going to do some way overdue dishwashing.
I'm back again and so is the Internet.
I did some thinking while washing dishes. I decided if I was going to stalk an Australian celebrity, I'd much rather use my stalking as an excuse to go to Australia than Arkansas.
I miss being in Australia.
Jack and I talked about Sydney this morning—got all nostalgic about it.
I say I'm fine waiting 7+ years to go again, but sometimes I'm wanting to go...tomorrow. Or maybe Monday. I'd need a few days to pack.
I would need to find someone to take care of my cricket.
I should get back to Wayne Hope before the Internet vanishes again.
I'm looking at his Instagram again. There's a post from March 18. It's a promo photo for the third season of Upper Middle Bogan, but I guess it's some kind of mistake that Hope caught. It was on Qantas, apparently. Hope says, Stan, Presto, Netflix and now it seems even Qantas are getting into making original content. It’s bold but we really think they should have asked us permission to make series 3.
That's very funny.
Actually, when I first read it, I didn't think much of it. But then when I read it again, I found it hilarious. Maybe my humor is slow today.
Here's a post about the US changing the title of Upper Middle Bogan. It's pretty funny too. I mean the post is funny...not the new title.
Here's a photo of some kind of dessert involving Freddo Frogs. Although they look more like cookies than chocolate. Are there Freddo biscuits?
According to the Cadbury site, the answer is...YES.
What is this dessert, though? It looks like a bunch of Freddos are doing some kind of Jello wrestling activity. Some commenter says this was their favorite dessert as a child. So maybe it's a common Aussie thing?
Here's a recipe. They say to use chocolate Freddos. But is that chocolate chocolate or a chocolate Freddo biscuit?
Anyway, I think I shall end this here. Then I might see if I have a good enough photo to do a post about my Mother's Day gift.