Full Frontal (1993–1997) User Reviews (9)

Chronicles of a generation

[borkoboardo · 8/10 · 12 May 2011]

To start off: Full Frontal is neither innovative, nor ultra-funny, nor super-sophisticated... in fact the show can be seen as a rip off of many formats that have preceded.

But there is one thing that makes it original: it's Australian - to the core!

Yes, you're reading right, I'm Austrian, not Australian, and I picked up this show when I visited this lovely country in the mid-1990'ies. I wasn't that impressed when I first saw it but I smelled a certain irony in the air which charmingly dropped from the grid of rather generic jokes. This irony mirrors the development of the country's national identity in many ways.

Reflecting current issues and making fun of it, add the Australian spirit to the whole thing - it became rather understandable to me how most Australians actually tick. And after some episodes I didn't just like it - I ended up loving it.

Full Frontal particularly shines with reoccurring topics such as Milo Kerrigan, David McGahan's World, The Netty Show, Fabio's Love Tips or stupid commercials (which most likely mock an ad recently on TV) which gave the characters depth and room for a little bit of unpredictability. At the same time it had a solid balance between outback-slapstick-humor and taking a charming poke at politics. Every show is basically the same: you, the viewer, are switching through TV channels for 42min - what you are about to see is obviously odd but somehow related to what people really encounter in their daily program - so the makers suggest that everything on TV is stupid.

This show was the cradle for many great careers of the participating actors, at he head Eric Bana and Shaun Micallef. It was definitely the chemistry between all these incredibly creative and versatile people that made this show so special. Full Frontal is with no doubt a chronicle of Australian humor history, not only because it was so extensive, it also never struggled or aspired to be a historical gemstone but by doing what they wanted that's what it became.

Definitely worth a peek!!!

Great comedy show, but went a year or 2 past its use-by date

[Leviathan_ · 28 May 2002]

Initially starting off as an extension of the program 'Fast Forward' with the title 'Fast Forward's Full Frontal', within a year the show had totally replaced it's great but slowly aging predecessor to become one of the great comedy shows on Australian television. With the simplified title 'Full Frontal', every Thursday night was a guranteed blast.

It made a great start back in 1993 but the show really began to hit its stride around 1995. By this time the cast had settled down into well-developed roles and skits such as Australian National Nightly Network News, A Current Affair (featuring Eric Bana as Ray Martin), David McGahon's World and skits involving a former boxer named Milo Kerrigan (both played by Shaun Micallef) amongst others, whilst at the same time keeping ideas fresh and original.

Unfortunately nothing lasts forever and during the 1996 season things started to go downhill. Some of the skits were beginning to show their age and this was beginning to be a bit of a drag on the laughs. The producers seemed to be aware of this as well judging by the alterations they made, most notably with Shaun Micallef in the phasing out of his Milo Kerrigan character in favour of Nobby Doldrums, as well as finding alternate uses for his David McGahon character (such as the Roger Explosion series). Despite this however the alterations didn't really push far enough.

By 1997 'Full Frontal' was really starting to nosedive. Not only were the skits really starting to scrape for laughs, but the disappearance of some key cast members certainly didn't help matters. The new cast members that were recruited honestly weren't that good and further hurt the show. Despite continued attempts to keep the show fresh the ratings were falling and at the end of 1997 the show was cancelled.

All in all, a great show but judging from the way it ended up it was probably pushed for a year or 2 too long.

Best Australian Sketch comedy ever.

[The_Dinosaur · 10/10 · 1 November 2006]

This was the greatest sketch comedy show in Australian history. I have the DVD's (the ones that have been released anyway) and I can watch them many times over and still find them funny.

The key to the success of this show was it's great characters like the unforgettable Milo Kerrigan, a former boxer, who became the World heavyweight champion by default and is a Australian icon (played by the excellent Shaun Micaliff!) but is impossible to understand for us because of damaged vocal chords, but for the other characters on the show can understand him. Another great character was Peter (pronounced Poiter) a stereotypical Australian bogan who was a presenter on channel 31 community television (Played by a young Eric Bana).

But this show had excellent sketches as well as running jokes which made the classic characters which people watched to see, but unlike it's successor 'Totally Full Frontal' it didn't need to rely on it's running jokes.

The show also did excellent parodies on Australian celebrities and politicians, one of which was John Walker's parody of Australian Prime minister John Howard (played by John Walker). Shaun Micaliff also did a parody on Fabio 'The most beautiful man in the cosmos'.

This show was actually the successor to 'Fast Forward' but it kept the same format but the cast was nearly entirely new. Fast Forward was a excellent series but Full Frontal was far better.

This show was great and most Australians would love it.

Without a doubt, THE best comedy made in this country

[ryan8024 · 12 January 2002]

This is the funniest Australian made show ever (with the possible exception of some episodes of Fast Forward).

They were a lot better ever since they started making fun of shows, as well as the usual stuff. Australian National Nightly Network News, is possibly the funniest part of the show.

It's just a pity they didn't just end the show after the good writers left. You have to admire them for trying to revive the humor and rename the show to Totally Full Frontal, but it just didn't work.

But that dosen't mean that we can't still get the video tapes out, or put on the comedy channel (on cable) and watch old re-runs of it, and still be able to laugh at them. i've seen the entire series at least three times (some four), and i am still laughing at (most of) the jokes.

Lets just hope that there are other comedians in this country, just waiting for the right moment to start another series like this, and make us laugh all over again.

absolutely hilarious

[chris89 · 23 April 2005]

Full Frontal's most effective accomplishment is establishing the camera's voyeuristic nature. The camera portrays some imagery abstractly, mainly by shooting some scenes out of focus and/or on grainy film, bringing itself to the attention of the viewer. Often, the camera also tracks back to reveal a "bigger picture", reestablishing its actors as the same subjects of a film within the film. Acting in this manner in several scenes (yet inconsistently throughout the film), the camera reveals several films within the film and aims at tricking viewers and, ultimately, at showing its ability to force viewers to shift their perspective between fictional representations of truths (the initially perceived film) and the staging of fictional representations of truths (the film within the film). What ultimately results from the camera's overall split and unreliable "recording and reporting patterns" is an uncertainty over the narrative validity of a film whose narrator (the camera) hides the true identity of its players and exploits the irresoluteness of their games. In this sense, the viewer may argue that the camera itself seems to suffer from the same identity crisis as its subjects: a crisis that fails to transmit a clear picture of its narrative and visual identity.

• Chris

can you say "Fast Forward?"

[funkie_sparkels · 3 December 2001]

I'm sorry, even though Full Frontal was one of the funniest shows on television, all it really did was copy what Fast Forward was doing about 5 years or so earlier. Fast Forward did it better too. So, nothing really original here. It was still funny though.

It's mental madness

[Overlord-4 · 24 December 1998]

Although this show is full of people with mental illnesses, it's still funny, but who found these people. One part that's not funny is when they copy other shows and make it more funny, I wouldn't like myself being imitated and making fun of me by these mentally gifted people, they're totally out of control. I only liked some episodes.

One of the best Australian comedies

[HugoBall · 30 April 2001]

This is one of the best Australian comedies ever. The sketches are hilarious and every time you watch an episode again you'll notice even more jokes you may have missed the first time. The second series "Totally Full Frontal" is still funny but not as funny as the original series. If you can, see every episode! You won't be disappointed.

DA BOMB

[Lollie69 · 1 December 2001]

Full Frontal was the best thing that ever happened to Australian TV. It's a pity that Totally Full Frontal ruined that. It's also a shame there isn't any more Aussie sketch comedy on TV at the moment. This show will be (and has been) sadly missed. I'm glad it's on cable.Shaun Micallef is the funniest comedian in the country today.