Posts by James Griffin
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Just for the record, City Life was already in production (or pre-production or very close to production) when This Life started screening so there was no influence whatsoever - just coincidence.
Funny old world, eh?
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Just to bring things back down to a much more earthly level, sorry Zippy but OF wasn't hat-tipping Vincent's play. Tutaekuri Bay came from the Tutaekuri River in Hawkes Bay, the fine province in which both the co-creators of the series spent many of their formative years.
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Thanks for that, Russell.
Love and best wishes to you and your family.
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Friday night. Back in December 1979, I think. Hastings. Toy Love on the back of a truck in Heretaunga Street, outside the EMI store.
It was some kind of market thing going on for Friday night shopping, as I recall. The shopkeepers of dear old Hastings were really getting into the spirit of Christmas and rampant commercialism by hawking their goods on the street. There was a flat-bed truck parked outside EMI and a few bands were playing - some hippies from Palmerston North, if my failing memory is correct - and, in a stroke of perverse genius, Toy Love.
I was working in a sports store and managed to wangle my dinner break to coincide with Mr Knox et al performing for the late night shoppers. They were probably late starting because I remember thinking 'shit, I need to get back to work' pretty much as they kicked off. What followed, however, was so mesmerizing that all thoughts of selling fishing rods to the good sporting goods consumers of Hawkes Bay buggered right off out of my head.
To get all kind of wanky and analytical about it, it was the juxtaposition of Toy Love and nice middle-class people trying to get their Christmas shopping done that has made this stick in my memory. I saw Toy Love a couple more times after this, but nothing ever came close to the surreal nature of this gig, this assault on what was considered an acceptable way to behave in Hastings, circa 1979.
Next door to EMI there was a fish and chip shop. From this shop Chris Knox had purloined a huge bowl of half-cooked chips. In a Jesus-like gesture, he took to sharing this bounty with passing shoppers - sometimes by the handful; sometimes half-chewed and gobbed in their general direction. To this day the image of this little old lady, about three feet tall, pulling her shopping trolley as fast as her little legs would carry her, trying to escape the mad people, with chips raining down on her, is burned into my psyche.
Being a consummate professional and showman, Chris managed to make the rain of chips last until the last song (I don't even remember what it was but in a moment of serendipity as I'm writing this "I Don't Mind" shuffled onto my iPod so it will forever be that song - even if it wasn't). So there is the last note of the last song ringing out and Chris throws the empty bowl (it was a big bowl too) high into the air. It missed decapitating Alec Bathgate by about an inch.
Then they all jumped off the truck and I went back to work and almost got fired for being so late back from dinner.
In a way I wish I had - it would have given the story a much better ending.
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Barry Butterworth, as in speedway Barry Butterworth?
Legendary!
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By 'censor' I mean whoever people at networks take things to when they think 'whoa, are we allowed to put this shit on air'? For all I know it could be the receptionist or that guy who walks around all day with a piece of paper in his hand and no-one really knows what he does.
Someone took it to someone else and they said it was okay, that's all I know - I just write the stuff.
Educational? Indeed, I know one parent who wasn't quite prepared for having that level of education foisted upon his kids. We told him that's why they put warnings on the front of shows like this.
Still, it's nice we can give a little something back to the education system.
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Russell, I take it you refer to what I now term the 'finger lickin' good' scene. For the record - and because I am taking so much heat for this one scene - the stage directions are as follows....
At the top of the page it reads:
"VAN and AURORA are in bed."
Then there is a page of dialogue, largely about Snow White and dwarves.
At the bottom of the page it reads:
"And they stay in bed doing naughty things to each other."
And that is it. Innocent, playful fun turned into something altogether different through a conspiracy of actors and director.
It was, by the way, the first OF scene ever to be sent to the censor for checking. Their response was simply that if you can't see anything, then it's not a problem. And good for them, I say.
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Okay, about that 'Outrageous Fortune' name and the episode titles. Here, as far as the failing memories of Ms Rachel Lang and myself can make out, is the story...
The working title for the series was 'White Trash', but that got ditched pretty early on and 'Outrageous Fortune' was plucked from thin air because, I guess, of the word 'outrageous' - something that implied a certain boldness to the story-telling.
This, of course, was a working title that would inevitably change before we went into production. So a great search took place and a great many names were canvassed. 'West'. '16 West' (after the state highway). 'Straight Up' (too gay). 'Honour Among Thieves'...
I have a memo in front of me now with about fifty suggestions on it - 'Nefarious' anyone? 'They Know Where You Live'? 'The Family Way'? Or, my personal fave, 'Not The Sopranos'?
Naturally, inevitably, after a lot of time was spent in discussion (and alcoholic bribes were offered as inspiration) everyone suddenly decided that 'Outrageous Fortune' would do just fine and it joined the illustrious ranks of working-titles-that-become-actual-titles. ('Shortland Street' is a working title, by the way - any suggestions?)
(NB: very rarely was the film of the same name mentioned in these discussions - even though it is undoubtedly Shelley Long's finest work outside 'Cheers'.)
As to the episode titles? They're all from 'Hamlet'. We started giving the episodes titles on the front page of the script because writers like to waste time giving names to things when they should be writing. Also it's quite fun to search 'Hamlet' and find those few words that kinda encapsulate the feel of the episode.
The episode titles were never meant to be seen (they don't appear at the beginning of each episode), so they started to get sillier and sillier - Ep.10 from Series 1 is the particularly lyrical "The Fat Weed That Roots Itself". (So called because Pascalle was rooting an up-himself TV celebrity.)
Then they put them on the cover of the Series 1 DVD and now in the billings for Series 2, so our little time-wasting game rather got outed. I don't know if this is a sad indictment of our education system or of our television writers who like to dick around when they should be delivering their scripts on time.
So there we go.
Oh, by the way, 'Life On Mars' is an absolutely cracking little series - a joy to watch.