Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation

Channel: Ten
Day and time*: Tuesday 7.30 p.m.
Watch full episodes of Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation on the Ten website.

(*as at June 2009)

Generation gaps

Australia's perennial square peg in a round hole, Shaun Micallef, has another crack at big-time TV with Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. Perhaps wisely, Micallef avoids the variety-show format that has proved a stumbling block in the past. Instead, the show is a quiz show; something that's proved amenable to other comedians turned hosts like Peter Berner (The Einstein Factor).

At this early stage - and aided no doubt by a heavy publicity schedule - the show is developing into a ratings winner for Ten. Just why is possibly slightly mysterious, as the format isn't all that vibrant; but the interaction between Micallef and his core team works well.

Basically, it's a pretty straightforward quiz show where the teams are composed of people from three different generations - Baby Boomers, Generation X and Gen Y. The captains of these two-person teams are - respectively - Amanda Keller, Charlie Pickering and Josh Thomas. Each week, they get a "special guest" second team member to help answer the questions.

These tend to be comedians or other media personalities, which should make for a lively exchange, but it's all a bit hit-and-miss I'm afraid. The individual game segments in the show also seem to have been done on the cheap, with few video and music clips to lift things (those cost money, you know).

What does work is Micallef's banter, which is arguably a bit high-brow for the show, but succeeds nonetheless. His segues between segments are usually witty, and mostly apposite, even if they will go over the heads of some viewers, particularly younger viewers.

I'm not 100% sure about the idea of inter-generational rivalry as the basis for a game show. This seems a fairly slim premise; albeit one that gets some play in mainstream media. Obviously many of the questions are geared to a particular time frame; although the spread of questions ensures no one team gets an advantage over any other. Oddly though, the Gen Y team seem to have less success than the other two - maybe it's their short attention spans (dudes, just TXT the answer in).

I don't mind a good game show, but Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation isn't a great example of the genre. As a quiz, it doesn't hold a candle to the likes of The Einstein Factor; but that's not really the point of the show. Rather, this is a platform for Micallef and his regulars to strut their stuff; which works a lot better. As I say, I'm still a bit mystified with the its ratings success; but the show has an odd attraction that should stand it in good stead.

Phil James

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