Melody Rules

Last updated
Melody Rules
Created by
  • Geoff Houtman
  • Mihera Paterson
Developed byGeoff Steven [1]
Written byKathryn Burnett
David Geary
Directed byMichael Robinson
Starring
ComposerSteve Robinson
Country of originNew Zealand
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes40
Production
Executive producerGeoff Steven
Producer Ross Jennings
Running time22 minutes
Production companyRoss Jennings Productions [2]
Original release
Network TV3
Release1994 (1994) –
1995 (1995) [3]

Melody Rules was a New Zealand sitcom created by Geoff Houtman and Mihera Paterson for TV3. It featured former Nightline host Belinda Todd as Melody, a hard-working sibling guardian surrounded by a gaggle of eccentric friends and family. The series was structured in a similar manner to an American sitcom, containing elements such as a laugh track and vaudeville-esque humour.

Contents

Although it ran for 40 episodes over two seasons in 1994-95, it was neither a critical nor commercial success. It has been named one of the worst sitcoms of all time.

Premise

Melody Rules centred on Melody Robbins (Belinda Todd), a conscientious and mild-mannered travel agent attempting to rein in her wayward siblings while her mother is off on an archaeological dig in Malaysia. She is aided and abetted by Fiona (Susan Brady), her ditzy air hostess best friend; Brendan (Alan Brough), her hapless co-worker; and Neville (Alistair Douglas), her nosey, filthy, and unkempt neighbour with the catchphrase "Ya decent?".

At the time, Todd was best known for her role as co-host of TV3's late news programme Nightline . She had little acting experience and was known more for her sexy, outrageous on-screen persona.

Production

Melody Rules was fledgling broadcaster TV3's first attempt at a sitcom, and it was hoped the show would form one of a number of flagship productions for the station. They received $1,262,990 funding from NZ on Air for production.

TV3 paid an American television writer, John Vorhaus, to hold workshops in New Zealand, teaching hopeful writers how to script an American-style sitcom. This influenced the style of Melody Rules.

List of episodes

Season 1

  1. "Going, Going...Goner" [4]
  2. "Basic Insect"

Season 2

  1. "Inside Job" [5]
  2. "We Are Family" [6]
  3. "The Devil You Know" [7]
  4. "Gullibles Travels"
  5. "Double Scotch"

Reception

Critical reception

Critical reception for Melody Rules was poor, and it is considered in New Zealand to be one of the worst sitcoms of all time. It has also become part of the lexicon within the Kiwi television industry to describe an unsuccessful sitcom; for example, "That show will be the next Melody Rules." The series has been labelled as "cringeworthy" [8] and "atrocious" [9] by The New Zealand Herald , one of New Zealand television's "disasters" by Scoop , [10] and "awful" by the Waikato Times . [11]

Alan Brough [12] and Belinda Todd [8] [13] both regret starring in the series; Todd compared it to Macbeth in terms of "bad luck", and described it as "absolutely ghastly." [13] Brough described working on the series as "such a horrendous experience", adding "I was so embarrassed by it, I had to go overseas." [12] Both Brough and Todd claim the series was substantial in convincing them to leave New Zealand and move to Australia and the United States, respectively. [8] [12] The series has developed a "certain cult status" for its perceived low quality. [13] Despite this, Brough and Jodie Rimmer went on to lead fruitful acting careers, while Elliott O'Donnell is now known as Askew, a successful graffiti artist.

The failure of Melody Rules has been attributed to poor comedy writing, low budget production, miscast actors, and cultural incompatibility between the American-style sitcom and the comedy that New Zealanders prefer. In the years since Melody Rules, there have been no further American-style sitcoms produced in New Zealand.

Ratings

After being pulled from TV3's primetime scheduling due to poor ratings, the series was placed in an early-morning graveyard slot and "stripped" at two episodes per screening.

Cultural references

In 2019, a comedy podcast about the creation of the sitcom titled "The Worst Sitcom Ever Made" was released by Radio New Zealand. [14] Episodes were presented by creator Geoff Houtman and featured interviews from the writing staff, crew and cast members.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy T. James</span> New Zealand entertainer, comedian, musician and actor

William James Te Wehi Taitoko better known by his stage name Billy T. James, was a New Zealand entertainer, comedian, musician and actor. He became a key figure in the development of New Zealand comedy and was a household name during his lifetime.

Nightline is a New Zealand late night news programme that premiered on TV3 on 12 February 1990. Its final host was Sacha McNeil, and Nightline ceased to air in December 2013, replaced by controversial broadcaster Paul Henry's new programme The Paul Henry Show in early 2014, and then in 2015 by a new late night news bulletin programme called Newsworthy with Samantha Hayes and David Farrier at the desk. This was replaced in 2016 by Newshub Late.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flight of the Conchords</span> New Zealand musical comedy duo

Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series (2005) and, subsequently, the HBO American television series (2007–2009). Most recently, they released the HBO comedy special Live in London in 2018. The special was concurrently released by Sub Pop as their fifth album.

Alan Brough is a New Zealand actor, television and radio host and comedian based in Australia.

St John's College is a state-integrated Catholic boys' secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand, with a school roll of 816 as of March 2019. The school was established by the Marist Brothers in 1961 from Marist School. The school crest features the eagle of St. John the Apostle, with the motto "Caritas Christi Urget Nos" strewn across the bottom, a Latin motto translating loosely into "Christ's love urges us on". The mission statement for the school is "Preparing Young Men For Life".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liam Messam</span> Rugby player

Liam Justin Messam is a New Zealand rugby union player who plays TOP14 for RC Toulonnais. In Super Rugby, he previously played for the Chiefs, and for Waikato in the ITM Cup. Messam predominantly plays as a blindside flanker but can fill in at Number 8 as well as openside flanker. After the retirement of then Chiefs captain Mils Muliaina, Messam was named the team's new co-captain from 2012 onwards, alongside Aaron Cruden.

<i>Samantha Who?</i> American television sitcom

Samantha Who? is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from October 15, 2007, to July 23, 2009. The series was created by Cecelia Ahern and Donald Todd, who also served as producers. Although highly rated during its first season, the sitcom lost momentum and viewers throughout its second season, and ABC canceled the show in May 2009 before the remaining seven episodes were burned off the 2008–09 TV schedule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose McIver</span> New Zealand actress

Frances Rose McIver is a New Zealand actress. She played Olivia "Liv" Moore in The CW supernatural comedy-drama series iZombie (2015–2019), Summer Landsdown the Yellow Ranger in Power Rangers RPM (2009), and Amber Moore in the romantic comedy film A Christmas Prince (2017) and its two sequels The Royal Wedding (2018), The Royal Baby (2019).

<i>Livin with Lucy</i> Irish TV series or program

Livin' with Lucy is an Irish television programme presented by Lucy Kennedy. First aired on 14 April 2008, the premise of the show is that Kennedy spends a weekend living with a different celebrity each episode, analysing their daily lives and interviewing them in their own homes all the while with cameras filming in the background. The show aired originally on RTÉ Two on Monday nights at 21:30. The programme has proven controversial, with Kennedy being stalked by paparazzi and some of the celebrities airing slanderous views.

<i>Outsourced</i> (TV series) American sitcom television series

Outsourced is an American sitcom television series set in an Indian workplace. It is based on the film of the same name and adapted by Robert Borden for Universal Media Studios and NBC. The series originally ran from September 23, 2010 to May 12, 2011. The show was officially picked up by NBC on May 7, 2010 and on October 18, 2010, the show received a full season order. Outsourced was filmed at Radford Studios in Studio City, Los Angeles, California.

The X Factor is a New Zealand television reality music competition, originating from the original UK series and based on the Australian The X Factor production format. The show began in 2013 and was open to anyone aged 14 and over. The winner was signed to Sony Music Entertainment New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Neilson</span> Fictional character on Shortland Street

Dr. Stuart Neilson is a fictional character in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street who was portrayed by Martin Henderson as part of the original cast until early 1995. The character returned after 22 years off screen to celebrate the show's 25th anniversary episode which aired on 25 May 2017.

Carly Flynn is a New Zealand journalist and television personality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Kahu</span> Soap opera character

Dr. Victor Katea Kahu is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street who was portrayed by Calvin Tuteao from late 2000 to Christmas Day 2004.

Paul Henry was a New Zealand morning news and talk show that aired weekdays on Three and was simulcast on Radio Live. Its final lineup consisted of host Paul Henry, news anchor Ingrid Hipkiss, sports anchor Jim Kayes and social media anchor Verity Johnson.

The second and final series of the New Zealand television reality music competition The X Factor premiered on TV3 in February 2015. Pre-auditions began in October 2014. As well as again being open to singers aged 14 and over, the series was also open to bands, which had to contain no more than five members and have at least two singers. The contestants were split into the show's four traditional categories: Boys, Girls, Over 25s and Groups.

Jazmin Felix-Hotham is a New Zealand rugby sevens player. She plays for the Black Ferns Sevens and represents Waikato provincially.

Belinda Todd is a New Zealand-born television broadcaster who rose to fame as a presenter on Nightline.

References

  1. ↑ "BFI – Film & TV Database – MELODY RULES (1994)". BFI Film & TV Database. 2010-06-17. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  2. ↑ "Robert Harte: Details". Kathyrn Rawlings & Associates. 2009-08-12. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  3. ↑ Lang, Sarah (23 November 2009). "3's company". The New Zealand Herald . Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "MELODY RULES: "GOING, GOING ... GONER" . EPISODE 1". New Zealand Film Archive. 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  5. ↑ "MELODY RULES: "INSIDE JOB". EPISODE 26A". New Zealand Film Archive. 2000. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  6. ↑ "MELODY RULES: "WE ARE FAMILY" EPISODE 35". New Zealand Film Archive. 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  7. ↑ "MELODY RULES: "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW" EPISODE 40". New Zealand Film Archive. 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  8. 1 2 3 Lang, Sarah (2009-11-23). "3's company, Page 4". The New Zealand Herald . APN News & Media . Retrieved 2010-03-09.
  9. ↑ NZ Herald Staff (2008-08-07). "Shooting stars across the Ditch". The New Zealand Herald. APN News & Media. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  10. ↑ Rennie, Philip (2000-04-10). "On The Right: Quotas A Fancy Word For Censorship". Scoop . Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  11. ↑ Waikato Times Staff (2009-03-03). "TV exec canned for jibe". Waikato Times . Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  12. 1 2 3 Lallo, Michael (2007-02-15). "Captain Alan takes his time, Page 2". The Age . Fairfax Media . Retrieved 2010-03-09.
  13. 1 2 3 Nightline 20th Anniversary Special Archived 2012-09-05 at the Wayback Machine (2010). Graham, Mark (executive producer). MediaWorks New Zealand and TV3.
  14. ↑ "The Worst Sitcom Ever Made".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.