Ronnie Johns

The Ronnie Johns Half Hour
Created by	The 3rd Degree
Starring	Heath Franklin Jordan Raskopoulos Dan Ilic Felicity Ward James Pender Caz Fitzgerald Becci Gage
Country of origin	Australia
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	23 minutes per episode
Release
Original network	Network Ten
Original release	October 2005- – December 2006
External links
Website

The Ronnie Johns Half Hour (full name The Ronnie Johns Good Times Campfire Jamboree Half Hour Show (Now on Television)) was an Australian sketch comedy show produced by Jigsaw Entertainment and the Ten Network, which premiered in October 2005. The shows ran for approximately 30 minutes.

The cast of the show came from a series of stage shows called The 3rd Degree, produced by Laughing Stock Productions, which featured selections from Australian university revues, and consists of Heath Franklin, Jordan Raskopoulos, Dan Ilic, Felicity Ward, James Pender, Caroline Fitzgerald and Becci Gage. Gage only appeared as a supporting cast member in the first series but has a more significant role in the second. Chris McDonald, creator and producer of The 3rd Degree stage shows, acts as the show's head writer and co-producer. Nikos Andronicos and Justin Heazlewood are credited as non-performing writers.

The first season of the Ronnie Johns Half Hour ran for thirteen episodes The first six aired from October 2005 and the remaining seven aired from February 2006. The first series began airing in New Zealand on the C4 Network from 25 July. The second series began airing on 17 August 2006 at 9pm on channel 10, and is 13 episodes in length.

In 2006, the show received a Logie nomination for Most Outstanding Comedy Series, and Franklin was nominated for the 2006 Inaugural Graham Kennedy Logie Award for Most Outstanding New Talent. The show hasn't been on since November 2006 and has not been on Network Ten's programming since.

The 3rd Degree, although not officially disbanded, since 2006 has worked on solo projects, notably Heath Franklin as Chopper and Jordan Raskopoulos in The Axis of Awesome. The first and second series are available on DVD and are distributed through Sony.

The Ronnie Johns Half Hour was created after representatives from Channel 10 saw a performance of The Third Degree's stage show, and were impressed by the cast and characters. They offered the group the chance to film a pilot. Originally, the cast was going to call the show The 3rd Degree, after the name of their performance group. Channel 10, however, liked the idea of Ronnie Johns being the host, so they asked if the show could be renamed after him. In response, The 3rd Degree came up with a title that they felt was ridiculously long, The Ronnie Johns Good Times Campfire Jamboree Half Hour Show (Now on Television). The network shortened it to The Ronnie Johns Half Hour. Despite this, the writers, cast and prop designers try to sneak in The 3rd Degree's logo as much as possible in sketches. For example, football jerseys will have The 3rd Degree as their sponsor.

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