Channel 6?

[Pauro 76]

Hearing a few mentions back home of a new Irish tv channel, Channel 6? Where did it all come from? When did it first come on air? is it as bad as TV3? Did we ever even have a 5th channel? think i have been living under a rock all this time...

[Mad Moose]

I've not bothered trying to tune it in because its bad enough having to stumble across TV3 still. As I hear it Channel 6 is pretty much American programmes so its similar to TV3 in that respect. Its Channel 6 because otherwise it clashes with Channel 5 over there. Think I heard that as been as simple as the explanation for it was.

B

[Dodge]

Its channel 6 a setanta posiioned itself as the 5th channel. All imports so far but some decent ones. Similar to a chennel like e4 it has stated it won't cover news or sport...

[Jerry The Saint]

The US Office is great and it has the rights to some other good new shows that RTE/TV3 haven't shown like House, My Name is Earl and Prison Break. The rest is just poxy years-old filler like Dawson's Creek and Charmed (which is already on several other channels for some reason ).

[Dodge]

Its a girl thing Jerry, Miss Dodge is obsessed with it...

[dahamsta]

Haven't seen it, is it on Sky?

Didn't the US Office get awful writeups?

[strangeirish]

Haven't seen it, is it on Sky?

Didn't the US Office get awful writeups?

Dunno about the writeups, but it's not a patch on the original. IMHO, it's utter sh*te and that's being nice.

[Dodge]

channel 6 not on sky yet afaik. On NTl anyway.

US Office is far from ****. Got decent ratings in US and your man won Golden Globe for best sitcom actor. Judged on its own it'd be right up there with the best. NOt as good as Brit version but no point in being snobby...

[pete]

Channel 6 is not on Sky as they wanted the Channel 106 slot which Sky wouldn't give them i think.

It seems to e all repeats of shows from 10 years ago. Some shows tey claim new to "irish tv" are already shown on UK channels. If you have NTL you will have those other channels.

I read they got really good ratings for their "girls night" but was put down to all the launch hype.

[Dodge]

Well they show a couple of things that are only on channel 5 in UK (House, Prison break) and very few in Ireland have access to it (none on NTL) so I think their claims are legit.

Also show family guy which is very poorly shown on UK channels despite hige cult following

[Jerry The Saint]

Didn't the US Office get awful writeups?

The pilot episode got several knee-jerk bad reviews - "Stoopid Americans, why do they have to ruin everything, etc?" (most of which were written by Americans ) - mainly because it was the only episode that lifted the script almost completely from the UK version and definitely suffered by comparison. The rest of the shows have just used the setup and archetype of the main characters to bring their own original spin to the concept while following the same brand of awkward, uncomfortable humour.

Comparisons to the original are tricky given the differences between UK and US TV (they've already done twice as many episodes as the UK version). I couldn't say I prefer the American version but some things do work better, in particular the racism stuff which definitely has a lot more of an edge in the American setting. Ricky Gervais himself has said that the US writers are handling the Tim-Dawn/Jim-Pam office romance plot much better than they did in the original. And Steve Carell (Anchorman, 40-year-old Virgin, Bruce Almighty) is a much better actor than Gervais and has made the Michael Scott character a great individual character in his own right, while still keeping the pompous/obnoxious/insecure spirit of David Brent.

So after a tricky start, it's gone on to be one of the most critically-praised US sitcoms of the last few years, second only to the late Arrested Development.

Michael Scott: Toby is in HR, which technically means he works for corporate, so he's really not a part of our family. Also, he's divorced, so he's really not a part of his family.

Oscar: Both my parents were born in Mexico, and they moved to the United States a year before I was born, so I grew up in the United States... my parents were Mexican.
Michael Scott: Wow, that is a great story. That's the American dream right there, right? Um, let me ask you, is there a term besides 'Mexican' that you prefer? Something less offensive?

[Dodge]

First episode I saw was the basketball match episode and it was as funny as anything you're likely to see on TV

[dahamsta]

Fair enough Jerry. Must acquire a few episodes, check it out. Thanks for the review.

[Aberdonian Stu]

Was talking to somebody in there last night.

It's not on Sky, negotiations are ongoing.

Has the rights to show Prison Break 3 months after RTE start showing it. Person I was talking to reckons RTE will start in June (though this isn't based on anyone in Ch 6 saying so to them), meaning during the World Cup, so they might get lucky will have a lot of hype but a lot of folk won't have seen it so will catch up with them.

[anto1208]

they also show Family guy & american dad !!!.

us office is ok , it would be alot better if you had never seen the brit version because you cant help but compare them .

[dahamsta]

So will the next Irish channel be PAURO 7?

[Pauro 76]

So will the next Irish channel be PAURO 7?

Can I recruit all the fit weather girls for my station then?

[DmanDmythDledge]

It seems to be showing some good programmes, but I haven't bothered watching it yet.

[LeixlipRed]

First episode I saw was the basketball match episode and it was as funny as anything you're likely to see on TV

yeh thats a superb episode. i love the way he wouldnt let the fat woman play on the team even though she was brilliant. its a quality show and i dont think you can directly compare it with the office. if id never seen the Uk office id probably rank the US one above it. the acting is better and the romantic parts are dealt with in a slightly better way i think. i also like amy adams recurring part as the bag salesgirl. genius

[Macy]

Don't have ntl, but far from impressed with the line up. House and Prison Break the only shows it can really claim to be new to the wider Irish market (and even at that five is easy to get with a FTV card). It's plugging a lot of the US Programmes that BBC has the rights to, which are broadcast Free on satellite anyway, US Office being a prime example of the ones that are mentioned here - been running for ages on BBC3 and I think BBC2 subsequently.