Rollercoaster (TV show)

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For other uses, see Roller coaster (disambiguation).

RollerCoaster is a children's television show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia. Hosted by Elliot Spencer, it is aimed at an older audience than ABC For Kids.

RollerCoaster is a "wrapper" show, usually incorporating three to five externally produced animated (formerly a mix of animated and live action shows) of varying lengths, which alternate with locally-produced studio or location segments hosted by Spencer. It is aimed at older children and young teenaged audiences. The host, Elliot Spencer is usually the sole presenter, dressing up as characters for short sketches sometimes; on occasion members of Rollercoaster crew also appear in gags and sketches. The show currently also includes regular features jointly presented by Spencer and Ruben Meerman, "The Surfing Scientist".

Rollercoaster follows a well-established format for Australian children's television. Mainly in order to comply with government-mandated Australian content regulations, local broadcasters have traditionally engaged a local presenter or team of presenters to "wrap" (or "top and tail") pre-produced segments such as cartoons. These shows offer a relatively inexpensive means of filling children's viewing times on Australian TV—the wrapper segments are generally made with a small crew and feature minimal production values; in the early days of Australian television the wrapper segments were performed live, although today they are now usually pre-recorded. The outsourced content is often purchased at relatively low cost, and for many decades Australian networks have been offered package-deal rates by American production houses and networks, as an incentive to purchase bundled content.

The 'outsourced' segments of the show are most commonly short animated series. Many of these programs are produced outside Australia with most sourced from other English-speaking countries, chiefly the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. RollerCoaster alternates these short programs (e.g. Shaun the Sheep, The Mr. Men Show) with longer animated or live-action children's programs in a variety of genres, such as Roman Mysteries, Wolverine and the X-Men, Naturally Sadie, Young Dracula, and more recently, the children's reality competition Escape from Scorpion Island. Such programs are usually produced for American or Canadian commercial or cable TV and are structured to allow the insertion of advertising breaks, so they have a slightly shorter running time on Rollercoaster, since the ABC carries no external advertising.

The locally-produced portions of RollerCoaster featuring Spencer include a number of recurring segments -- "Fetch", ""Feed Me", "Now Poll", "MEE News", and "The Surfing Scientist" and "Professor Slo and Doctor Mo" (Slo=Elliot, Mo=Ruben). Many of these segments include elements of audience participation or contributions via email or the RollerCoaster website's moderated chat rooms and message boards.

[edit] History

The series began in February 2005, filling a slot once occupied by The Afternoon Show. It breaks during the Australian summer school holidays and is replaced by a special Christmas line-up. During the holidays there are generally three or four popular shows repeated every day, rather than interchanging every day.

Sometimes instead of the usual three or four shows a 'special' will be shown. These have included 'double episodes' of Degrassi: The Next Generation and the Edgar and Ellen Specials. Wallace and Gromit stop motion animation movies are shown as well. On the last week of the show each year there will also be Christmas Specials.

From Monday June 19, 2006, Rollercoaster Rewind began on ABC TV in early weekday mornings, which is a repeat of the programming from originally 4 months earlier in reverse order. (As of 9 July 2007, that was changed so that the programmes were in the correct order, but later reverted to reverse order). Because Rollercoaster Rewind runs in the non-ratings season and the regular show does not, in early 2008 it ran out of shows and caught up to the end of the 2007 season. It was replaced with Black Hole High, Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids, and Shoebox Zoo for a while and then Rollercoaster Rewind resumed from where it left off.

Friday December 21, 2007, was the last show of RollerCoaster TV on ABC-TV for 2007, and it returned on Monday February 25, 2008 for its first show in 2008. Monday March 2, 2009 was its first show in 2009 on ABC1.

From 2009, the show had a radical change. The show was moved from its previous time slot of 5:00–6:00 p.m., and is now shown an hour earlier, from 4:00–5:00 p.m.. The show changed to filming in a real set unlike previously where they would film in front of a green screen. It is still a wrapper program, and the segments are still the same, however the programs are no longer interchanging, as each day features the same line-up of shows. Another change is that it only includes cartoons now, with live action shows following after in the 5pm-6pm hour.

[edit] Segments and features

Regular segments include:

'Feed Me', a cooking segment where Elliot attempts to cook and then try a recipe sent in by an audience member (on Wednesday)

'Feedback', when viewers send in letters to Elliot (on Tuesday and Thursday)

'Chatter', Elliot reads chats that had been sent on the website on a particular topic. He also reads jokes and acronyms (on Tuesday, sometimes)

When they are acronyms the segment is called LOCIW (Laughing Only Cause It's Weird, on Monday)

'Fetch', a segment where people send in their made-up words with their definitions. Elliot tries to put all these words into a weird anecdote (on Friday).

'What Career am I?', where Elliot gives clues and then reveals a career. He introduces someone that has that career and gives them a challenge. Similar segments called "Where in the world am I?" and "Which Olympian am I? Past or present" have also featured in the past. Now they no more showing it.

'Elliot and The Surfing Scientist', where Elliot and Ruben Meerman do simple experiments (on Tuesday).

'El Lamo World Records', where viewers send in record attempts for Elliot to 'attempt but not necessarily complete' one or even two at once of these on air (on Tuesday, sometimes).

'Roller Tale', where viewers send in stories which must be about Elliot's fictional alter egos Tapioca Toe Maker and Pocket Waffle. These are acted out by Elliot (on Friday, now the story finished).

'Sponge Brain Quiz', a true or false quiz, shown before Naturally Sadie with nature-themed questions. In the past it has been about Roman Mysteries and Dinosapien and themed to these shows. Since Naturally Sadie ended, the Quiz is still present in the same time slot. In 2009 it was renamed Whizz Quiz and was not nature-based. (on Wednesday).

'MEE News', Eliot dresses up as Michael Eion Everyringtone and presents a news bulletin. (on Friday)

'NOW', Elliot presents the audience a poll, hypothetical situation or question on one day. Viewers vote on the show's website and the results are featured on the next day's episode. (Monday/Tuesday for polls, Tuesday/Wednesday for HPS, Wednesday/Thursday for questions)

'Replay Bits That we've played already', where viewers request segments previously aired to be replayed (on Thursday).

'Professor Slo and Doctor Mo', where Elliot and Ruben Meerman dress up as the segment's namesakes and show a science experiment in slo mo (on Thursday).

'Triple Triple Triplets', 'The Kransky Sisters', where music critics review an album or explain it (on Monday, sometimes)

'Jaxon's 5", a play on the Jackson 5, this features a food corrospondent explain a meal's top five highlights (on Wednesday, sometimes).

Booked out, a book review performed by Geoff Hutchison's son Hugh (unknown day).

'Jade's Movies', a play when a movie corrospondent explain a movie, past or present, and gives how many reviews out of 5 is the movie (on Monday, sometimes).

'T5', Elliot reads tongue-twisters (On Friday, sometimes).

'Talk To Me', Elliot tells a question from the viewers and answer it.

'Best of ABC3', Elliot to be Rollercoaster from the viewers and answer it from Rollercoaster in ABC3. See a ABC3.

Other segments are used only once or rarely, as in Your Jokes, a division of Chatter, where viewers send in jokes. It is sometimes used as fill-ins for upated segments, such as when the Now technology was being "re-now-ified".

Rollercoaster sometimes show special weeks either to celebrate an event or an incoming show, like Roma Week, which centres on the incoming show of Roman Mysteries in 2007; Christmas week, celebrating Christmas by showing programs relating to Christmas; magic week, celebrating magic by showing a magic trick done by a professional every episode. Theme weeks have also included Feed Me Week with Feed me being presented every day, also done in a similar way with Elliot and the Surfing Scientist on National Science Week. There have also been Sports Week, with Elliot finding out about different sports; and a character week when Elliot dressed up as characters that he has dressed up as before. In 2009 there are themed days as well as weeks.

As well as special segments, special weeks and days are sometimes scheduled according to a general theme. In 2007 'All New Tuesday' made all shows shown on Tuesdays new, and on Thursday the theme was 'Rollertoons Day'. In 2008 'All New Tuesday' has been replaced by a new 'Rollertoons Day', Thursday shows are all Australian-made, Friday shows all have a "creepy" theme, and Mondays have been set aside purely for comedy shows as 'LOL Day'. This is not used anymore in 2009 since the same shows are on each day of the week. One time, Elvis Presley ( acted out by Elliot Spencer) was on Rollercoaster on Wednesday of June in 2009 and included a Whizz Quiz about Elvis and a NOW Excuses about Elvis' CD.

Graphics for the studio segments are produced using Chroma Key or green screen technology. This means many gags, information segments, and backgrounds, can be used and changed quickly. Props are kept to a minimum, like in the Feed Me segment where a preparation table and mixing bowl are used, or in Chatter and other segments where a retro style yellow table appears, now a Rollercoaster signed table with green and black stripes on the front and a storage on the back.

The theme tune "(Rollercoaster)" was performed and co-written by former ABC-TV Creature Features presenter Nick Hardcastle. It was fully played in 2005 along with a video clip featuring Hardcastle and a man dressed as a rabbit. The opening graphics are computer generated and feature an interdimensional trip through a fantastic world of images and 3D graphics, culminating by racing through a portal into a white universe with a complex 3D image of a space station style city with roads, skyscrapers, cars, butterflies and robots before the Rollercoaster logo appears from outside the screen to form itself in front of the base of the floating city. This theme has remained unchanged since 2005 ( except in 2009, the Rollercoaster is longer, in 2005 to 2008 and Thursday to Friday in 2009, the theme song was 23 seconds, and in Monday to Wednesday in 2009 it was 28 seconds).

[edit] Website

"Rollercoaster" is also the name of the show's website, which was created a few years previous to the show itself and features the phrase 'Rhymes with toaster'. The website itself was advertised as 'Rollercoaster' on the current timeslot taken by the show for a couple of years before the show began. The website features articles on shows and games and other entertainment related to shows or the general youth genre. This site is also where polls, voting and feedback is submitted and together the show and site form the overall Rollercoaster. To log in the Roco Club go on This and to enter the Best School Ever 2009, go on BSE2009and to enter the Triple J's Unearthed High Competition, go on That

[edit] Sections

On the Rollercoaster website, you could see different sections. There are 11 sections. They are:

Another old one is called Tails that was now renamed it Spark, another one is called Rollercoaster TV that was now renamed Elliot's Blah, one other is Create and one other is calledStoopid. For more info go on Grown Ups Details

[edit] Elliot's Blah

Elliot's Blah is a section most people go on it. Here are the subjects:

[edit] See also

ABC Kids (Australia)

[edit] External links

Rollercoaster (TV show)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Segments and features

[edit] Website

[edit] Sections

[edit] Elliot's Blah

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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