Just when you thought that finally Channel 9 had settled on a watermark to use, they surprise us all with their incredible creativity. And this is the result.

That watermark is so good, we need to take a close up look at it. And by close up, I mean let’s look at this thing as it would appear on your reasonable sized TV screen.

You’ve gotta love that!

What an absolute typographical nightmare. The H is cut off, but the D isn’t, so the whole circle-thing is lopsided. In fact, the first vertical stroke of the H appears to be longer than the second, though it might just be an illusion brought on by having the H cut off in that way. Spacing is inconsistent between elements, and the font itself is so vastly different from the font used on the 9 that it sticks out like dog’s balls. The watermark now takes up even more space, and of course is still in the 4:3 space.

Why would Channel 9 do this? Well, clearly they haven’t the creativity to come up with something unique, so they’ve copied the 7 HD watermark. But in Microsoft style, they’ve changed it slightly to try not to look like they’ve copied it (“Let’s use a circle instead of a square!”) and ended up with something cheap and nasty.

Channel 9 – laughing-stock of the industry.

Hands up if you missed it? The 50th TV Week Logie Awards came and went with very little fanfare. Quite bizarre really, given it was a half century.

It was all very strange. In past years the Logies have been full of hype, international guests, and an ever increasing number of hosts – reaching an incredible (and ridiculous) 5 in 2006. This year, there were no hosts at all. They maintained last years back stage team (Hamish and Andy), but that was it. Just a voice over guy, and people presenting awards.

Cost Cutting?

Perhaps. Ironically, the cost cutting actually fixed one of my biggest complaints about the Logies each year – the parade of international guests that sycophantic local TV celebrities fawn over. This year we had no international celebrities up on stage! Absolutely fantastic. If only this was done for the right reasons – it seems more likely it was done to save money, or there were no big US movies about to be released here so no Hollywood stars out here peddling their wares.

So, celebrations are in order. It really is just a shame that the whole affair was so incredibly boring. The show needed Bert as host – I almost fell asleep at times.

Highlights

Really, there were only two highlights.

The legendary Garry McDonald presented one award. His introductory speech was a ripper, but was met with uneasy laughter and the distant sound of crickets:

You know, recently audiences have been spoilt for comedy in this country, with such a diverse variety of programming culminating in nominations going to each free-to-air network.

Well except Channel 9.

Which is shame considering their programming schedule this year actually delivered the most laughs.

Ironical isn’t it, in the year that David Leckie discovered that he might never be able to give the finger again Channel 9 just keep giving him reasons to.

Sounds like Garry hates Channel 9 as much as the rest of us do.

However, best quote of the night goes to my favourite Australian comedian Shaun Micallef who started his award presentation with the following gem:

50 years ago, television was like a nymphomaniac clairvoyant…
a medium you turned on with a knob.

Comedy Gold.

The rest of the night was a snorefest.