Former Kath & Kim star Glenn Robbins and Mick Molloy have known each other for a long time. Thirty-seven years – a lifetime in showbiz speak. Now the comedy legends are back together in Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention.
The show sees Glenn and Mick, with the help of guests, roasting celebrities. The first one in the hot seat is former The Project star Carrie Bickmore.
Glenn and Mick can pinpoint how they rocketed into each other’s orbits.
In 1989 Glenn was appearing on the hottest show on TV, The Comedy Company, while Mick had his first radio gig on Fox FM’s breakfast radio show.
“I remember seeing this guy and thinking he was cool and funny and that we needed him writing on The Comedy Company,” Glenn, 68, tells TV WEEK.
“We were both in the same building and The Comedy Company had just blown up,” says Mick, 59. “It was all hands on deck and I pretty much had P-plates on and was submitting scripts.”
“And what was your name in the credits?” Glenn asks.
“I was listed as Michael Molloy.”
Over the years the two would work together in radio (Glenn still regularly joins Mick on his Triple M radio show in Melbourne) and occasionally on screen.
There was the memorable 2006 movie BoyTown, in which they played boy band members. And who can forget when Mick showed up in Kath & Kim as Gary Poole – ex-husband of Kath (Jane Turner) and father of Kim (Gina Riley). Kel (played, of course, by Glenn) was fuming – especially when he discovered Gary wearing Kath’s kimono.
“There was a scene where I was sitting at the breakfast table in the kimono and Glenn and I had a half-an-hour discussion about how wide the gap on the kimono should be,” Mick recalls. “Should it be open an inch, which is just enough to disturb people, but not enough to change the rating (on the show)?”
Their enduring friendship and natural comic chemistry has finally led to Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention, which sees a cavalcade of stars roasted over the open fire of comedy.
While it was Mick who hatched the idea for the show, according to Glenn, it wasn’t the first show they’d discussed working on. The original show Mick wanted to do was something quite different – and it worried Glenn.
“It was a worry, a big worry,” Glenn reminds Mick. “It was a relationship help situation. Couples come in and Mick Molloy and Glenn Robbins help them with their relationships. You said it in passing and I’m just going, ‘Oh my God. How can I tell Mick I’m not the person to be doing a relationship fix-it show?’”
“In the meantime, I pivoted from the idea of helping people to openly goading them, although still with the idea of basically helping them,” Mick adds. “So, this kind of evolved from Glenn’s lukewarm reaction to another pitch.”
We’re not sure if we’re having our leg pulled with this origin story, but the show they’ve ended up with certainly allows both to show off their comic chops.
The format sees Mick and other guest hosts ribbing celebrities about their supposed failings. Glenn, meanwhile, offers a gentler guiding hand. It’s something akin to a good cop/bad cop situation.
While the show isn’t live, like The Front Bar – the AFL show that Mick co-hosts with Sam Pang and Andy Maher – it is filmed in front of a live audience. Mick says it gives him a “real buzz” to film this way. “You’ve got to really rise to the occasion and it gives us a thrill to reignite our passion for that style of TV,” he says.
While it might be drawing a long bow, AI – at least for now – can’t manufacture live comedy. So are Mick, Glenn et al working in one of the few future-proof professions?
“They can take out doctors, lawyers and everyone else but stupid comedians might just survive the purge,” Mick quips.
Glenn and Mick are optimistic that audiences will warm to their new comedy roast. But they also both understand the vagaries of TV all too well.
“We’d love to do another series of this if the opportunity arises,” Mick says. “But, if not, we’ll go back to our relationship advice show…”
“Good call back,” Glenn says in relief.
Glenn & Mick’s Celebrity Intervention premieres Monday, April 20, 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7Plus.
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