ABC Rollercoaster
| Rollercoaster | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Children's block |
| Presented by | Elliot Spencer Ruben Meerman |
| Opening theme | "Great Adventure" by Nick Hardcastle |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 1,000 (as of 7 August 2009) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 mins (2005-2009) 120 mins (late 2009-2010) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
ABC1 ABC3 |
| Picture format |
576i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 31 January 2005 – 29 January 2010 |
Rollercoaster is a children's television show which was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from between January 2005 and January 2010. Hosted by Elliot Spencer, it was aimed at an older audience than that for ABC For Kids.
Rollercoaster was a "wrapper" show, usually incorporating three to five externally produced animated programs (formerly a mix of animated and live action shows) of varying lengths, which were interspersed with locally produced studio or location segments hosted by Spencer. It was aimed at older children and young teenaged audiences. The host, Elliot Spencer was 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 also included regular features jointly presented by Spencer and Ruben Meerman, "The Surfing Scientist".
Rollercoaster followed a well-established format for Australian children's television. 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 were 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.
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