One of Australian television’s iconic comedy shows Thank God You’re Here is now available to stream for the very first time, with the full first season of the show available on 10Play.
The show was the brainchild of Working Dog Productions, the TV production company formed by Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy, Tom Gleisner and Michael Hirsh in 1993. Their catalogue also includes Frontline, All Aussie Adventures and Have You Been Paying Attention? as well as classic films The Castle and The Dish.
It debuted in Australia in 2006, and ran for three seasons with Network Ten, before a fourth and final season moved to Seven.
The show, hosted by Shane Bourne and judged by Gleisner, forced contestants to walk into an unknown scene “through the blue door” where they would be greeted by an ensemble cast with the line ‘Thank God You’re Here’. They’d then have to act in character, with absolutely no idea what’s going on.
The show helped launch the careers of several of Australia’s best-known comedians including Hamish Blake, Rebel Wilson, Ed Kavalee, Merrick Watts and Angus Sampson. It also featured some well-established performers including Shaun Micallef, Frank Woodley, Dave Hughes, Peter Heliar, Julia Zemiro and more.
Check out Hamish Blake on Thank God You’re Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ8bK8Sa9Ps
Several musical guests including Natt Bassingthwaite, Mark Holden, Kate Ceberano, The Veronicas, Nikki Webster and Anthony Field appeared, with many playing themselves.
Thank God You’re Here was hugely successful in Australia, becoming the most-watched new show of 2006. It was so well-loved that the format was sold to an incredible number of international markets, including Armenia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, the US and UK.
The US version even starred Fran Drescher from The Nanny and Jason Alexander of Seinfeld!
Check out the whole first season on 10Play now.
Check out Jason Alexander on the US version:
