The Working Dog crew: (top left) Michael Hirsh and Jane Kennedy; and (bottom from left) Rob Sitch, Tom Gleisner and Santo Cilauro. Credit: Hwa Goh
Imagine spending your career working with people you met at university. Then imagine that together, over more than three decades, you created some of the most successful TV shows in the country. As well, you produced films, books, podcasts, stage shows, radio programs and an animation series. Throughout, you remained close friends and enthusiastic colleagues.
Reflecting on just that kind of history, Tom Gleisner says, “I fell in with the right crowd”, neatly displaying the wit and facility with words his workmates – Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Jane Kennedy and Michael Hirsh – justifiably admire.
Their enduring partnership is at the heart of the extraordinary story of Working Dog, whose achievements will be celebrated at the upcoming AACTA Awards. The company will receive the Longford Lyell Award in recognition of its contribution to Australia’s screen culture.
The Late Show cast in 1992: (back row from left) Tony Martin, Mick Molloy, Jane Kennedy, Santo Cilauro and Jason Stephens. (Front row from left) Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch. Credit: Greg Noakes
Because of that honour, and in a departure from its established practices, the group’s members are discussing the history of their collaboration. Generally, they talk publicly about their productions when they have a new venture to promote. Beyond that, they let the work speak for itself. Also, as Cilauro notes, their natural inclination is to look forward to the next project, rather than back on their body of work. The Working Dogs are happiest when they’re working.
In another break from routine, they’re joined by producer Michael Hirsh, a founding member of the company who generally stays in the background, an alert watchdog-manager involved in doing deals, negotiating and organising. But given the award recognises the group, it’s fitting he takes his place on the podium.
I sat down with Cilauro, Gleisner and Hirsh in December, in the conference room of their St Kilda headquarters, while Sitch and Kennedy, who are also long-time partners with five children, speak separately over Zoom.
The team is keen for the accolade not to be seen as some sort of finale, a drawing of a line under something in a way they never have with their series. After all, they currently have a couple of popular shows – Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Cheap Seats – both returning this year.
Tom Gleisner hosts quiz show Have You Been Paying Attention?Credit: Tina Smigielski
But as they pause to reflect, Kennedy says starting a company wasn’t part of their thinking when they came together as members of the Melbourne breakfast radio crew The D-Generation in the late 1980s. Sitch, Cilauro and Gleisner were among the writer-performers, and Kennedy was the show’s newsreader. Soon, when they needed a female voice for a skit, she’d provide it.
At the time, Hirsh was making low-budget ads for late-night TV when he received a call asking if he’d be interested in producing a music video for a comedy team. He was, but notes that he later learnt he wasn’t the first choice, while Cilauro recalls with a grin, “Before we met you, I think we were told ‘This guy’s really cheap.’ ”
Members of the radio ensemble went on to make the sketch comedy D Generation, for the ABC and Seven, but really made their mark with the 1992 sketch comedy The Late Show on the ABC.
Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch as sports presenters Graham and The Colonel on The Late Show.Credit: ABC
Sitch describes it as “a cacophony of different ideas”, some of them coming from cast members Mick Molloy, Tony Martin, Judith Lucy and Jason Stephens. After two seasons, Hirsh says, “We were exhausted. Doing a live one-hour show on Saturday night, with no ad breaks, and literally writing on Sunday for the next week.”
The group that would become Working Dog in 1993 gathered at Cilauro’s parents’ beach house to talk about what might come next.
(From left) Jane Kennedy, Steve Bisley, Tiriel Mora and Rob Sitch in current affairs satire Frontline.
It emerged they were interested in moving to narrative comedy and, having spent a year at Nine unsuccessfully pitching pilots and watching how the place functioned, they had some ideas about current affairs shows. “There were no aspirations to set up a production company,” Kennedy recalls. “We started making Frontline and the company evolved from that. It was very organic beginnings.”
The name was chosen because they all loved dogs or owned dogs and, adds Hirsh, “We worked like dogs”. Cilauro remembers it came as a revelation when Sitch suggested that, instead of coming into the office every day, they only come in five days a week and take weekends off.
For Kennedy, space was made when she needed time at home. “I had to step back a bit from that [going into the office every day]. At one stage, Rob and I had five children under the age of six, and we were like, ‘Er, how are we going to juggle this?’ ” she recalls. “We had a chat with the guys and they were like, ‘Absolutely and whenever you want to jump back in, jump back in and we will be asking your opinion on things all the time’, which they did.”
Dave Lawson (left) and Rob Sitch go high-vis in government satire Utopia.
After The Late Show, an ABC production, they knew that they wanted to control their own work from go to whoa, from the initial brainstorming of ideas through production to promotion. Their company has a reputation for being vigilantly protective of its projects at every stage.
Over time, it has also earned and preserved its autonomy by providing its partners – TV networks, film companies, book publishers – with winners. However, they don’t take that independence for granted, aware it’s a rarity to be able to work on their projects at their own pace. “Larry Emdur made a wonderful speech when he got the Gold Logie,” Gleisner recalls. “Talking about doing things like Celebrity Dog School to pay school fees. I absolutely respect that, but we’ve never had to do that.”
Tom Gleisner, Ed Kavalee, Celia Pacquola, Tim McDonald and Rob Sitch at last year’s Logie Awards.Credit: Getty Images for TV WEEK Logie Awards
In the Working Dog ecosystem, ideas can percolate for years: maybe they’ll grow into something tangible, maybe not. Gleisner and Sitch came up with the concept for The Cheap Seats years ago, but couldn’t decide on a title. When they finally did, they thought they were too old to front it. They found the ideal hosts in Tim McDonald, who was employed by the company as a social media producer and who, Sitch reckons, “was clearly a prodigy”, and Kiwi comedian Melanie Bracewell, who’d been a contestant on HYBPA.
It’s not surprising the word “organic” comes up frequently when considering the company. The light-entertainment shows, in particular, have provided the opportunity to cast an array of established and emerging talents, and, over the years, a loose-knit troupe has evolved featuring some of the country’s most popular entertainers and comedians, including Sam Pang, Ed Kavalee, Kitty Flanagan and Celia Pacquola, artists who appear in a number of Working Dog productions.
“We’ve loved the variety that we’ve been lucky enough to achieve,” Gleisner says. “From the disposable shows, like The Panel, or even HYBPA, which really aren’t going to be watched much beyond the week they’re broadcast, through to things like Frontline, that could, metaphorically, sit on a shelf for years and be revisited. Or movies such as The Castle, where people are still quoting lines from it. I’ve loved being able to swim in both ends.”
In terms of the kinds of projects they have decided to proceed with, Sitch recalls two pieces of early advice that proved memorable and instructive. “Tony Martin said that, in the end, what we write is what matters,” he says. “I didn’t want it to be true because I went, ‘Yeah, but what about the mucking around?’ And he said, ‘It’s the construction, that’s the art: it’s about what you write.’
“And Andrew Knight said, in a lovely way when we were doing D Generation, ‘Try to make your writing about something.’ Comedy’s got an observational-satirical element, or it can be just silly fun. He was saying we should go to the effort of trying to comment on the times. And in things like Frontline, The Hollowmen and Utopia, there’s a nudge towards that.”
Lachy Hulme (left), Neil Melville and Rob Sitch starred in the political satire The Hollowmen.
Asked to define the qualities that might distinguish a Working Dog project, the secret sauce in their creations, Gleisner quips, “Catering.” And cast and crew do eat well on Working Dog productions: it’s a priority. Beyond that, though, Hirsh says, “Jokes win outright; huge amounts of heart; and there’s usually a David-versus-Goliath theme. And we do stuff that is about us, where we live. We’re not trying to make it internationally appealing: we’re using stuff that we know. Plus the work ethic is phenomenal. I’ve been in the box seat and I reckon it’s hard work and talent.”
Gleisner nominates “care and attention to detail” as key ingredients, along with meticulous planning. With the scripted series, everyone arrives on set ready to roll: multiple script drafts completed; lines learnt; visual style rehearsed. And they work fast. Long before the terms became fashionable management jargon, their operation was nimble and agile. For reasons to do with the amount of film they could afford, they shot The Castle in 10 days. There were virtually no deleted scenes or bloopers to use as “extras” for the DVD release. “Shooting a comedy show is a serious business,” says Kennedy. “They’re not sombre sets, but it’s heads down, bums up, let’s go.”
“It’s not a house, it’s a home.” The Kerrigans in the 1997 movie The Castle.
Gleisner illustrates his point about attention to detail with a memory from the making of Utopia, explaining Cilauro and long-time editor Phil Simon had completed the final cut on an episode when Sitch did another pass, literally trimming three seconds here or adding a tiny pause, “a bit of a breath”, there.
Gleisner says a guiding principle throughout has been, “We never want to do another series of anything unless we’re convinced it will be better than the previous one: we don’t want to maintain a holding pattern.”
And, he adds, “We’ve never done an announcement that ‘this is the final season.’ TGYH is a good example: we just stopped. And a decade or so later, picked up where we left off.” Given that approach, fans of Frontline, The Hollowmen and Utopia might still have reason to hope.
Yet even with a CV that shines with successes, an unshakeable fear of failure lurks. “With our projects over the years there’s always been that scary bit where we go, ‘What if we’re completely wrong? What if this doesn’t entertain anyone?’” says Sitch. He recalls driving around the block near the office three times the morning after the launch of TGYH, too nervous to go in and find out how it rated. “Over the years, the writing’s never gotten any easier and the launch of something has always been scary.”
“It’s a joy”: Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Michael Hirsh, Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch.Credit: Hwa Goh
Through their time together, the Working Dog team has discovered and developed complementary skills, even as their work remains collaborative. Gleisner – in addition to hosting HYBPA and batting back Pang’s barbs about his age – does a lot of writing. Sitch marvels that watching him churn out words when they’re under the pump – like 70 mock hotel reviews for the travel-guide spoof on Molvania – can be akin to “watching a magic trick”.
Cilauro is the cinematographer, Sitch directs, Kennedy takes the lead with casting and music, while noting that, in this group, “People couldn’t give a stuff about what their title is.”
They’re a lively bunch: perpetually curious about the world, questioning, funny, cluey, engaged and continually excited by the prospect of new ideas. The admiration and affection between them is palpable.
“By pure luck,” says Kennedy, “we all shared the same sense of humour, and over all these years, it’s just been a joy.”
The AACTA Awards Ceremony screens on Friday, February 7 at 7.30pm on Ten. An extended broadcast, including all awards from the ceremony, screens on Saturday, February 8, from 7:30pm on Binge and Foxtel.
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