The Chaser Report - ARVO: Mitch McTaggart on ACA's Greatest Hit (pieces)

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Comedian and host of SBS's "Last Year In Television" Mitch McTaggart joins Zander and Charles for an Arvo Chat! Mitch and Charles wade through the last 50 years of A Current Affair to celebrate the lows, and the even lowers. Reminisce fondly on such great stories as the All Asian Mall, and the doll-bludging Paxton family, to find out where ACA's iconic format all began. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chase of Report. Hello and welcome to The Chase Report. I'm Zanda. Today we are joined by Mitch McTaggart, the host of the backside of television and the Year of Television in Review on SBS. Thank you so much for joining us, Mitch. Hello and thank you. And today we're going to talk about the 50th anniversary of a program that's very close to our hearts. None of the medical advice contained in the Chaser Report

should legally be considered medical advice. The Chaser Report. Recently, one of our favourite programmes has had a very special anniversary. It's been 15 years of the current affairs and we are joined by Mitch McTaggart to talk about one of Australia's greatest ever programs. Hello. Did you say 15 years?

Or 50? 50? It's 50. It's definitely 50. I mean, it would be, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, Hang on, it's not 50, but that means it's older than me. I'm ancient. So even before we get into the details of it, I just want to clarify a few more things.

So like 50 because it's, that itself is a stretch because it technically hasn't been on air for 50 years. It's only been on air for 40 because there was a period from 78 to 88 where it was off air completely. And then the original run of it, which arguably was probably an entirely different show, to begin with was only on air for eight so we're already down to 33 years of a current affair in its like current iteration and also I don't know about you Mitch but when I was growing up it wasn't called a current affair it was called the Willisie report wasn't it well I think this is where it gets so confusing because there's been so many of those kinds of shows and a lot of them chaired by Willisie that it's just like well what the fuck one are you

hosting now and like it yeah so so So for our younger audience, and that would be anyone under about the age of 70, I think. And certainly I don't think Xander would have been alive when it happened. But Mike Willisie was, he was sort of like the biggest host in Australian television during the 1980s. He was just, he was absolutely, he was sort of Ray Martin on steroids. He was Tracy Grimshaw, but, you know, absolutely, it was the golden era of television. and he I mean

do you want to describe it how he exploded his career do you remember were you there were you did you were you alive when that happened I was I was totally not there I was alive during the

the 80s era of a coming affair but how old do you think I am I don't know but but I'll just tell I'll just just before we move on I'll just describe what happened to Mike Willissey which is he was on top of the world like he had his own fucking named TV show every night on television the Willisie report and then one night he got really really really really really really

really really drunk like really drunk like even drunk than I have ever been right that drunk right and he went on air drunk and started just giggling and he was just a wreck like he was just So it's like the movie network just completely destroying himself. Yeah, and I think even sort of like, I think that night he had like Bob Hawke on as a guest or something like that as the Prime Minister. And he just giggled all the way through it. And they kept on, that's right. And everyone was ringing up each other going, you've got to turn it to Channel 9. This is amazing.

This is the greatest moment in Australia's television. Because I think they ended up, didn't they just end up going to ads? And there were just five-minute stretches of ads just to sort of hide the fact that he was there. On his trusty old corner. I shouldn't be laughing, but I'd already thought of something funny to say. And can I start this all again?

I can't remember the broadcast itself, but they did actually play that clip of, like the most notorious bit of him being drunk and stuff in the 40th anniversary package for a car. an affair, which they played up. So it's interesting that they're kind of viewing it now as a, ha ha ha, whoopsie, daisy. Yeah, whereas at the time it was a total, utter fucking disaster.

Yeah, it was a scandal, because nothing was allowed on TV back then. Like, you weren't even allowed to say whoopsies. Like, that was too rude. Oh, I, and I think TV is better now, purely because we can say whoopsie now. Yeah. So, but the question is, so how many years are. are we celebrating of ATA? Look, I think it depends how you want to splice it.

I'm personally celebrating 33 years because I think that's the... It's fair. Yeah, because it's the modern iteration of it. And I mean, people who are even more hardcore, a current affair, and I don't know who those people would be, would probably split it up again into the Tracy Grimshaw era because that was when I think really kind of ramped up into that modern, supermodern, supercharged outrage fest that probably is today, I think.

So shall we restart the episode? Welcome back to The Chaser Report and we're celebrating 50 years of the trademark, which is a current affair. And Mitch, do you know, is it true that there is actually an American version and it's just an imported format? Is that true? I don't know. I'm not like, we steal from everybody.

So, I mean, did we steal that from them or did they steal from us? I don't know. I don't know. Who knows? Nobody knows. Yeah, because we've ripped off 60 minutes. And that's an easy one. But, I mean, I would love to see the American current affair version and see if it's as white goods heavy as our one.

Well, I mean, there was, like, for many years, Mike Willisie, I know, got paid a license fee for the, even after he. got drunk and disgraced, he then had to leave Channel 9, but then they had to pay him a license fee for the format rights to a current affairs show, which is like, well, how, what is the format of that? You run sensational, occasionally racist, usually classist pieces of shit at 630 at night. Wow, what a genius. I don't understand how that would work. What a minefield to be the legal team there.

legal team generally for that show i mean christ they've they get their money's worth out of that that's sure i think i was going to say though like the the um the thing that kind of prompted my awareness of the 50th anniversary in how they're measuring it is um that they posted about it on on social media like what's your favorite story in the 50 years of a current affair but why would anyone never ask a question on a billboard at ground level do you know what i mean like because people are just going to deface it and pile on about it. But the thing that really shocked me about it was the replies were maybe 50-50, positive negative, which was like balanced.

It shows you that there's a lot of people that I don't like on social media. The other big one that I remember was, you know, the neighbors, I mean, the trope was neighbors from Hill, but there was the original neighbors from Hill, which were just fucking hilarious because it was like. Is this the Paxton family? It was the Paxton? Oh, no, that was different. That was the unemployed.

That was, you've got to tell the Paxton story. So the Paxton's were pretty notorious. So in 1996, I don't even know how they came across the Paxton's, but they ran a story. Central casting, maybe? Yeah, probably. Where there was a family who did not want to work. They decided that they didn't want to be employed. They'd rather not work and just live off.

benefits in a low-income kind of capacity. Living the Aussie Drain. Yeah, totally. Is this what, like, News Corp depicts is the Labor Party? Look, sure, probably. Who knows? But then what happened was they flew the Paxton kids off to this resort in Queensland or whatever, like super nice resort.

I don't remember this. And offered them jobs that they pretty much knew they would not take. and so then it kind of became more of an outrage machine where it was like oh look they get off of jobs and they turn them down even in an idyllic paradise and stuff yeah but you'd be cleaning shit off a bed for something like it's a hotel it'd be disgusting and like I don't want to belittle hotel stuff

but I mean they current affair deliberately found employment that would be unsuitable for them personally yeah they got everybody on board who was an old boomer at the time to like come on and drum up the outrage about, you know, young kids these days, they're terrible, they suck, God, they're pieces of shit. And they just pummeled them into the ground. It was terrible.

But great television. Sure. The Chaser Report, news a few days after it happens. Yeah, they were the sort of quintessential. It was a sort of encapsulation of the dull bludger. Absolutely. It had been sort of there in the zeitgeist, you know, I think John Howard had run big on it throughout the 1980s.

The Libs had unsuccessfully run an election after election saying the whole problem with Australia is dull bludging because it was sort of at a time of quite high unemployment and things like that. And so it was victim blaming for, you know, just coming out of recession. And, yeah, the Paxton's copped it. Totally. And just a fun fact, kind of. unrelated. A couple of years later, John Saffron did this practical joke thing on Ray Martin where

he went to his house with one of the Paxton kids. I can't remember who it was. And just accosted Ray Martin in the same way that the show itself had accosted the Paxton kids. And Ray Martin was apparently so furious that that sketch in a pilot never eventualed, like the series never eventuated because of raised contacts. It's pretty, it's pretty full on. But also, that kind of brings me to the hosts of the show, especially in the modern era, Ray Martin, Mike Monroe, Tracy Grimshaw kind of people, is that there has to be at least some level of awareness of the content you're presenting. I'm surprised that Ray Martin was so surprised that it had kind of bit him on the asked so much. Like, what were you expecting? Like, you're, you're, you're perpetuating and

pushing forward these stories of outrage and, and classism and racism and all that kind of stuff. And, and what, that's one blowback? Big fucking deal. Like, it's, which is also like the, uh, the segment that we, that we did on the backside of television, specifically about a current affair and more specifically the all Asian mall story, which is another one of the classic kind of terrible terrible things. What's the all Asian mall? So the all Asian mall

in... It doesn't sound good. In 2012 the story went that a bunch of people were getting a bunch of white shop owners sorry

Aussie battle of shop owners were being booted out of a shopping mall in Sydney and replaced with Asian run businesses or Asian themed businesses and so therefore it was becoming an

all Asian mall, you know, the suburb's going all Asian now, it's terrible, what's going to happen to us hardworking Australians when it was later discovered after the broadcast that of all of the shops, there'd be maybe about 50 shops in the center, four of them were changing to an Asian-themed kind of supermarket, gross or whatever. Imagine what they'll do when they find out about Chinatown. I know, I'm surprised I haven't done it They've had 50 years to figure that out First tonight

The battle between Aussie shopkeepers And the centre management Who are kicking them out To make way for businesses That directly target the suburb's Asian population I think it'll be pretty much Like an Asian invasion I don't like it

I get angry about it And it shouldn't be happening Ah, stop worry Yeah, just don't worry They're not turning the whole shopping centre into Asian This would never be allowed in any other country. Welcome to the Great Mall of China. All-Asian Mall was one of the few times where a current affair were absolutely taken to task.

They had no support for that one. And I think it was quite significant in their history because most of the times they could kind of argue, well, it wasn't really that racist or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we can justify it. But this one, they fell off the tightrope entirely. and it was the only time up until that point where the ACMA had ruled that they'd breach the broadcast code. Wow. It was a big deal.

And the fact that I'm, I mean, I'm not expecting everybody to remember it, but like it's so, it is such a stain on their history. And it's also just so appallingly awful. Oh my God, it just makes me furious. Did anyone note that as their favorite story in the Twitter? Twitter response. Well, I did. They have such an appalling record, though,

and one of the fascinating things I found about the backside of television was just how much a current affair had fueled the anti-vaxxed debate over the last decade. A lot of it as well, I tended to focus a bit more on the, more the race stuff, but they're definitely the anti-vax side as well, because anyone gets a platform because there's and this is also the other kind of thing that I realized in watching so much a current affair is that no one on the show on these kinds of shows is ever explicitly racist it's that the bigger thing is that there's a drive to merely produce half an hour of content a day and they don't have time to think about the subtleties or the the the nuances of how their content is coming across and and so like they've just got to go at it with a sledgehammer and then there's our story, who cares? And so I never think there's any maliciousness in it,

which is malice or whatever. But it's, of course, like producing that amount of content, you're eventually going to start alienating groups of people. I mean, that's just, it's statistics, not so much blatant racism, if that makes sense. Isn't the art of storytelling is, you know, there's a goody and a baddie? Sure.

And so suddenly, you know, And sub-editorially, you sort of go, well, who are our baddies? Yeah, no, look, that's fair. But I think also primarily it's how can we make a goody and baddie story as quickly as we possibly can. Yes, yes. Because I think, I'm reasonably sure no one in their right mind would consciously plot out a story and go, oh, Asians are pushing everybody out of a shopping centre. Like already that's so fucked.

be fucked to a normal. Did we check the executive producer wasn't Pauline Hanson? Well, she was interviewed for the segment, which is, which is they're not being actively racist. They're going and picking someone who they know will give them a sound bite in the time they have to put the story together. And I know how that sounds. Obviously, it doesn't really matter what their intention is because at the end of the day, it was still fucking racist. And that's, that's what's important. But I think that when they go into a lot of these stories, it's just kind of like, well, let's fucking do anything. What lies ahead for the next 50 years of the current affair?

I don't know. It's such a dynamic format. Yeah, where can we take it? There's so many directions that it can go, and it's so exciting, another 50 years for current affair. What is the rating status? Like, is it true that it's going up? It's audience.

What? It's going up. No. But is it true that its audience is essentially dying out? It's basically blue-collar baby boomer type people who've always had it on in the background and then out yet dying. Yeah, it still rates regularly in the top 10 shows every night.

That's still a thing. But the audience as a whole in terms of who's watching free-to-wear is diminishing, especially the age group of the current affair. But at least for now, ratings-wise, it's never been better. It's a juggernaut. Yeah, it truly is. is and and why would why would they change that format because look at the ratings we can manage putting six shows per week on air so let's keep fucking doing it and until someone tells us to

stop or until the 80s gets more power when's the sixth one Saturdays they've got a Saturday a current affair yeah I've really got to I've got to turn my channel nine back on I mean who who's got time to watch a Saturday a current affair Fuck's sake. So Mitch, just before you leave, if you had to pitch on a current affair story from your life right now, what would it be? Well, actually, I was quite prepared

to be featured on a current affair as a result of my criticism of it on the backside of television to the point where I was thinking about what I would do if I was suddenly, like, had a camera in my face and I was like walking to work or whatever because, like, you don't know how people

are going to react when you're, you know, write a 17 minute criticism about how racist they are and and so I mean it never happened but I think I would love to be described by Tracy Grimshaw as like a national disgrace or something because I think that just the phrase national disgrace is such a current affair current affair thing like I'd be a badge of honour like I would have done something like um it's like Australian the year yeah exactly it's as iconic as there yeah and it's it's It's deployed so often on a current affair. And like, I would love to just fall on the wrong side of a current affair to just...

Like, the Daily Mail is also kind of doing a lot of that kind of national disgrace outrage kind of stuff. Like, real petty shit. Yes, yes. Like, just a daily mail thing, I saw an article from... About Chris Lilly, and it was like, it was a photo of him walking into an Australia post. He was like, posting a letter, like a normal person. And the article was, Chris Lilly looking lonely after his show canceled, looking sad, posting a letter. Like, it's that kind of, like, what are you, what are you trying to do?

It's just a man posting a letter. Like, he just, he had to be with someone, did he? And it's like that kind of, just attempts at humiliation for content. And anyway, my point is. You just want to be humiliated. Yeah, I want them to humiliate me. Well, a very lonely Mitch McTaggart You know, your show on SBS is called

What's it called? The backside of television I really should know that, you know No, that's fine And there's an end of year special called The Last Year of Television And has it been on for 50 years? Look, we're trying

It's getting there It would be great to catch up With the current affair somehow If time and space doesn't work The way it normally does maybe you should call people national disgraces more often on your format yeah i reckon i will Mitch it's been fantastic talking with you can we have you back on another time to talk about something nicer than the current affair i would i would love that i'm so ready uh especially

television related absolutely but you know anything whatever we can talk about cooking and yeah thank you Mitch awesome thanks guys our gear is from road microphones and we are of the ACAS CRADA Network. Catch you again tomorrow.