Pizza (TV series)

For other uses, see Pizza (disambiguation).
Fat Pizza
Genre Black comedy
Created by Paul Fenech[1]
Developed by Paul Fenech
Dave Webster
Glenn Mitchell[1]
Starring Cast of Pizza
Opening theme "That's Amore" by Dean Martin (seasons 1–4)
Country of origin Australia
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 5
No. of episodes 42
Production
Executive producer(s) Paul Fenech[1]
Producer(s) Tanith Carroll[1]
Location(s) Sydney (predominantly)
Running time 25 mins. approx.
Release
Original network SBS
Picture format PAL 4:3 (2000–2005)
576i 16:9 (22 Oct 2007 – 2007)
Original release 24 April 2000 – 2007
Chronology
Related shows Fat Pizza
Swift and Shift Couriers

Pizza was an Australian television series on the Australian television network SBS. The series has a spin-off feature length movie, Fat Pizza, released in 2003, and a best-of highlights video/DVD that featured previously unreleased footage and a schoolies exposé, released in 2004. In addition to this, a theatre show entitled "Fat Pizza", starring several characters from the show, toured the Australian east coast. In 2014, the storyline of the series was combined with that of Housos to create the motion picture Fat Pizza vs. Housos. The film was shown in Australian cinemas from November 27, 2014 onwards.[2]

Through ironic and self-conscious references, Pizza involves themes of ethnicity and stereotypes, cars, sex, illicit drugs, and violence to produce its sometimes mean-spirited dark humour.

The television program is noted for its frequent cameo appearances of numerous Australian celebrities of all varieties, including actors, comedians, professional athletes, and other public figures.

History and development

The program is written and directed by Paul Fenech, who portrays the protagonist of the series, pizza deliveryman Pauly. In a few episodes, Pauly will break the fourth wall and, as himself, the self-described "fil-um maker",[sic] present featurettes that reveal the history of the series, often in a tongue-in-cheek or parodic manner.

Pizza began in the early 1990s as Fenech's project, a black-and-white short film, entitled Pizza Man, in which he starred as the eponymous pizza man. In 1995, the short film won third place in the Tropfest film festival.[3]

Pizza itself was first broadcast on the SBS network in 2000 and aired its fifth and final season in 2007. The half-hour program was shown during the SBS Monday comedy slot, noted for its offbeat comedy shows including South Park, John Safran, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Drawn Together, and Quads!.

Premise

As introduced by Pauly in the first episode of the show, pizza delivery is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. This fact is reiterated by a news report, and the show focusses on the activities of Pauly and his fellow co-workers as they deliver pizzas for "Fat Pizza", the Sydney-based pizzeria of Bobo Gigliotti, whose slogan is "they're big and they're cheesy".

Throughout the series, the dangers of pizza delivery are exemplified by encounters with aliens, killer kangaroos, bikies, bogans, petty criminals, muggers, drug dealers and/or addicts, dominatrices, celebrities, the CIA, ASIO, the Australian Tax Office, the New South Wales Police Force, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Army, Arab and Asian terrorists, organised crime gangs, and even evil Satanic forces that conspire to bring about the end of the world. In spite of this, the characters remain unfazed and unsurprised, and they persist in their dead-end, below-minimum-wage job, which pays A$3.00 per hour.

Cast

Fat Pizza employees

Supporting cast

New employees at Fat Pizza

In the 2005 series of Pizza, new characters were introduced to accompany Pauly and Habib in delivering pizzas, after Bobo decided to turn Fat Pizza into a franchise.

The new employees at Fat Pizza are:

Guest appearances

Pizza has an extremely long list of guest appearances of many Australian media personalities (hence this list is incomplete). Many have recurring roles, or reappear in later episodes as entirely new characters. They also show a high degree of retroactive continuity.

In the "Sexpo" episode, Pauly interviews porn stars Ron Jeremy and Serenity.

In the "Voice Actor" episode, Pauly interviews actors who have done voice acting work, including Tom Kenny, Cree Summer, Neil Patrick Harris, Nancy Cartwright, Russi Taylor, Frank Welker, Haley Joel Osment and Mark Hamill.

Episodes

Season One – 2000

Season Two – 2001

Season Three – 2003

Season Four – 2005

Season Five – 2007

Special deliveries

In certain special episodes (called "special deliveries") Paul Fenech will sometimes break the fourth wall and act as "himself" (or a stylised version of himself, still much like the character he plays) and introduce the segments. These special deliveries are usually clip shows or mockumentaries on the show. In 2004 the series was a live-studio broadcast of auditions for the next series of Pizza (interspersed with stunts, music and nudity), series finales had previously adopted a similar format with the crew "hijacking" the SBS television studio. In the latter half of 2004, a mockumentary entitled "World Pizza" was broadcast which featured Pauly, Rocky and Toula travelling from Sydney to Napoli, Italy – "the birthplace of pizza". According to the show, they could only afford stopover flights, and had to stop in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas before reaching Rome. Bobo and Habib (who along with Davo had been arrested by Customs for drug possession in the airport prior to departure) appeared as talking heads through this series.

"Special Deliveries" include:

Awards and nominations

Logie Award

Australian Comedy Awards

Australian Screen Sound Guild

Filming Location

In Season 1, the internal and external shots of the Fat Pizza restaurant were filmed at 320–322 Pacific Highway, Lane Cove, New South Wales 2066. The restaurant used for filming in Seasons 2 and 3, as well as the Fat Pizza movie and live shows, were filmed at 67 Hume Highway, Chullora, New South Wales 2190. The Chullora store is known to have operated as a pizzeria between 2000 and 2009, but as of 2013 the shop has been sold and the interior has been stripped completely.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 http://www.australiantelevision.net/pizza/pizza.html
  2. "Fat Pizza Vs Housos". Hoyts. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. http://www.screendaily.com/movie-network-tropfest-launch-oz-low-budget-film-push/4024227.article
  4. Katrina Spadone
  5. . WhereIs http://www.whereis.com/nsw/chullora/67-hume-hwy/yellowId-13536945. Retrieved 2014-05-31. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

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