"Seriously, I would do this show for free."
— Wil Anderson
After Good News Week was shipped over to Channel Ten and cancelled in 2000, GNW TV Productions decided to start a new show with a similar format, but rather than play games about the news like Good News Week did, instead the regulars and guests would just talk about the news.
The Glass House, which ran on the ABC from 2001 to 2006, was hosted by Wil Anderson, Corinne Grant and Dave Hughes, and every week they invited two guests to join them behind a odd-looking desk to talk about the events of the past week. The guests themselves varied quite wildly, ranging from comedians, musicians and sports stars to scientists and even the occasional politician, and the discussions themselves would often be as diverse, mostly based on headline grabbing oddities of the past week. Once an Episode, Wil would get Dave to pretend to be a person recently in the news (such as a gay penguin) and everyone would "interview" him. The discussions could turn very controversial, very funny or even informative, depending on the guests and the topics.
As the ABC produced a gajillion (read: 218) episodes of it over five years, and most of it dated quite badly, the only DVD release available is a collection of the four best-of specials. The first five seasons (spanning 2001-2002) was released by the ABC on the iTunes Store in 2011.
Not to be confused with the 2001 thriller starring Leelee Sobieski, Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgard, or the 2012 American Reality TV series of the same name.
The show itself includes the following tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: When Cosmopolitan editor Mia Freedman talked about how simple male sexual chemistry is, the women in the audience cheered, and Wil said "I would genuinely get offended at that, but it's true."
- Audience Participation: Dave would get vox pops from the audience waiting in the ABC foyer seeking their answers for Tonight's Question, which would somehow relate to the persona that he would later adopt for the interview.
- Wil would also mix with The Great Unwashed, where he would go into the audience and ask people for some topics they'd like the panel to discuss.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: The show always made fun of the ABC for its low budget, its programming, its complaints department and - particularly towards the end of the series - its policies.
- Butt-Monkey: Dave at the best of times, but he usually gets a reprieve whenever Molly Meldrum makes an appearance.
- Wil and Corinne both cop it a fair bit, especially in the first few seasons.
- Call-Back: The panel would often reference past discussions of note, often to embarrass someone over something inappropriate or strange that they said or did.
- Molly Meldrum: You know, you're a lot funnier since you've taken off all this fingernail stuff. Why have you gotten rid of that?Wil: You sucked it off last time you were on the show!
- Ross Noble first pitches Ray Martin Fights A Pig in 2005. It makes Wil's list of Australia's shortest running TV programmes the following year.
- Clip Show: The Season Finale from 2002 and the six "Double Glazed" specials.
- Wil: For the next two weeks, it's "Best Of The Glass House"! Classic Glass House! Special, unseen Glass House! And cobbled together, contractual obligation Glass House. Wow!
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Again, Dave at the best of times. He takes a back seat whenever Pinky Beecroft, Jason Byrne or Dr. Cindy Pan make an appearance, though.
- Corinne (to Cindy): You're just a whole lot of non-sequiturs strung together. If you were my doctor, I wouldn't fill out a prescription you gave me....Pinky: For example, and this is just off the top of my head...Wil: Really? As opposed to all that written down, coherent thought you've had so far?
- Content Warnings: Parodied during the early years of the show, where Corinne would voice an ABC content advisory screen and list the standard warnings that would apply to the particular episode ("Adult themes, material that may offend, sexual references...") before throwing in an amusing "warning" about the episode itself ("... and a cheap attempt to make a Best-Of show look new.")
- Disorganized Outline Speech: Most (if not all) of Dave's opening monologues.
- Dave: If you want to know what any of that means, email the ABC.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first season had lot of filler segments (Quantum, Eurotrash, That Bastard Santa Claus, Cherish The Children, Dear Glass House, etc.) that would appear for only one or two episodes before never being seen again.
- The very first episode was the only episode to end with an audience singalong.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Trophy segment, the (very irregular) Create A New Segment For The Glass House Competition, and in the first season only, Other Stuff.
- Fun with Acronyms: Acronyms often made an appearance, either in the opening vision (The Scientific Hunting And Marine Expedition, on Japanese whalers), the monologues (The Federal United Collective Kicking Out Foreign Fighters, on a possible Australian equivalent of the FBI), or within the discussions themselves.
- Wil: The Canberra University Netball Team had a rather unfortunate acronym. Spell it at home, kids.
- Grand Finale: The Sekken Awards for Eksalince.
- Guest Host: All three hosts have had others fill in for them during their respective absences - Wendy Harmer and Adam Spencer filled in for Dave, Mia Freedman and Terri Psiakis for Corinne, and Corinne for Wil (with Meshel Laurie taking Corinne's position).
- Hurricane of Puns: Most prevalent in the introductions to each story and in the Trophy segment. One of the best examples comes from the Trophy segment at the end of one 2005 Best-Of special.
- Wil: (on a hospital for fish) There's no limit to what these aquatic angels of mercy can do. They can make a blowfish suck and turn a blue-eye brown. They can spay a catfish. They can lance a lumpfish, transplant a lungfish, even circumcise a jewfish!
- Inherited Illiteracy Title: The Enorgrull/Sekken Awards for Eksalince.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Almost guaranteed to happen at least Once an Episode - if not from Corinne's Wil-pun, then from the host's opening monologues and/or the general discussion of the night.
- Charlie Pickering: If you don't get your car serviced, is that bad karma?Everyone else: *groans*Wil: No, but that joke is.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Dave usually comes across as a bit slow and not really up to speed with current affairs. He does slip up occasionally, though.
- Dave: They're diametrically opposed, so that means one of them's actually telling the truth!Corinne: ... that was the most intelligent thing you have ever said!'...Dave (on Mel Gibson): What's going on with him? What have the Jews done to him? Mel is a very rich man - why would he hate anyone? Not that anyone should hate anyone, but often the oppressed want to hate other people because they're oppressed! No one's oppressed Mel!Corinne: This is the deepest I've ever heard you get!
- Off the Rails: During one MICF episode, comedian Phil Kay hijacked Wil's monologue on robot teddy bears to set up and play a game of table tennis with Dave. Hilarity ensues.
- Not to mention how they got from talking about Las Vegas to talking about how Wil's cat sleeps on his groin.
- Or that 2003 episode with Molly Meldrum and Adam Richard. Yeah, the entire episode.
- Not to mention how they got from talking about Las Vegas to talking about how Wil's cat sleeps on his groin.
- Political Overcorrectness: Frequently parodied whenever a story on political correctness is discussed.
- Wil: (on a re-worded Baa Baa Black Sheep): Bleat, bleat, creature of non-specific colour and species, have you any home-spun fabric? Yes sir or madam, yes sir or madam, enough to share, but not in a communist way. One is for the titled person of non-specific gender, one is for the other titled person of non-specific gender, and one is for the child of non-specific age, height and gender, who co-exists in harmony with the lane, but not in a gay way.
- Precision F-Strike: Compared to Wil and Dave, Corinne was usually pretty tame with her swearing. Usually.
- Corinne (after Wil insults her): Everything that was running through my head involved a lot a swear words that probably wouldn't be appropriate to say, but fuck you.
- Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Dave's thought processes aren't all that quick; during his interview segment, he will very frequently respond to a question with "Uuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm..."
- Real Men Wear Pink:
- Corinne: See, [Dave] can speak with authority on women tonight because he's wearing a pink shirt.Dave: It's the new century, Corinne. Relax.
-
Real Song Theme Tune: Only one episode dared to deviate from the usual theme song... to use ZZ Top's "La Grange" instead. -
Spiritual Successor: To Good News Week. The Glass House then had its own spiritual successor... in Good News Week. - Straight Man: Corinne. Most of the time, anyway.
- That Came Out Wrong: Someone will usually have one of these Once an Episode.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Pretty much Dave's catch phrase.
- Toilet Humor: What starts as intelligent discussion about the news and current events often turns into a stream of dick jokes. Lampshaded in the following exchange from the 'half-arsed' extras segment from the DVD.
- Dave: It's a show that relies on its wit.Corinne: Well, cock jokes, Hughesy. Cock jokes.Wil: Well, Hughesy says wit. You say cock jokes. Tom-ay-to, tom-ar-to!
