Pizza is 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 27 November 2014.
Through ironic and self-conscious references, Pizza involves themes of ethnicity and stereotypes (similar to Acropolis Now), 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.
Video Pizza (TV series)
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 parody 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.
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!.
Maps Pizza (TV series)
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 focuses 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
- Paul Fenech as Pauly Falzoni - main protagonist, pizza delivery man, boxer, and aspiring "fil-um maker". His favourite derogatory comment for people is "stooge", originating from a comment a teacher once made to him. Pauly has been one of Bobo's longest-serving employees at Fat Pizza and has provided Bobo with some good ideas over the years. During the 2005 series of Pizza, Pauly's parents, relatives, and Pauly were shown with a cousin named Luigi, who lives in Italy. In one episode, it is shown that Pauly's dad was a Maltese spy for British Intelligence and his mother was a Mexican woman whom Pauly's father had met on a boat from Hong Kong to Australia. Pauly's ethnic background consists of Maltese, Italian, and Spanish roots. He makes an appearance in Housos telling his cousin Franky that their uncle Fred has died.
- Paul Nakad as Sleek the Elite - so named because he is "slicker than slick", an aspiring rapper, ladies' man and a pizza delivery man who self-titled himself the "Lebanese Lover" or "Lebanese Legend". He was the main co-star in the first two series and the movie. He is a lady killer, hence the name "Lebanese lover". In the third series (2003, after the movie) it was revealed Sleek had been kidnapped by Islamic terrorists while holidaying in his homeland of Lebanon for "rooting all their women". In several episodes, Sleek was portrayed as the closeted bisexual male. He was replaced by Rocky's other cousin, Slick, who is killed off by Bobo in season three, episode one.
- Tahir Bilgiç as Habib Halal Habib - meaning "Friend" in Arabic. Habib featured as a supporting character in the earlier series of Pizza; a friend of Sleek's, he is a stereotypical young Lebanese (Bilgiç is actually Turkish) drug-dealer and fence of stolen goods (typically mobile phones). He played a larger role in the theatrical version of Pizza. In 2003 after the loss of Sleek, he was employed at the shop as a deliveryman, a position he regularly uses as a front for his illegal activities. He is socially inept, and used to be moderately successful with attractive women (which played a part in developing his fetish for "fat chicks" due to him being unable to get the kind of girls Sleek and Rocky picked up on a regular basis as well as Sleek and Rocky regularly cockblocking Habib from getting the attractive girls (as seen in the Fat Pizza movie)), but has hitched up with Toula.
- Jabba as David "Davo" Dinkum - a stereotypical bong-smoking Aussie bogan. Being the only non-"choco" at Fat Pizza sometimes leaves him at the end of discrimination, but he gets on well with the drug-dealing Habib. Introduced in the movie, he has appeared since. Since 2005, Davo was sacked from Fat Pizza and now he is unemployed, spending most of his time smoking his bong, getting drunk and looking for chicks (the vast majority of them pot-smoking bogan chicks that reside in Hashfield). He is the one who wears thongs as training footwear.
- John Boxer as Bobo Gigliotti - the psychotic pizza chef and the owner/manager of Fat Pizza. He has little patience and those that cross him usually end up on the wrong end of his chainsaw. He is a horrible boss, imposing dreadful working conditions and abuse. Additionally, he is consistently docking the delivery-boys' $3/hour pay for any deviation from schedule. The few things that he likes are his mother, referred to by him as Mama; his mail-order bride, Lin Chow; and making pizzas. Since Lin Chow was deported back to Vietnam, Bobo has been single and, during the 2007 series of Pizza, he has recently met a former erotic film actress named Ruby a.k.a. "Mama Jugs" (Angela White) and the two have since gotten engaged, much to the disgust of Bobo's mother. Bobo makes a cameo in the Housos episode "Uncle Fred" with his trademark chainsaw.
Supporting cast
- Annalise Braakensiek as supermodel Claudia MacPherson - pronounced "Clow-dia", the name is an obvious play on models Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson. She is dimwitted, rich, blonde, bulimic, and attractive. She is a regular customer at Fat Pizza and often has run-ins with both Pauly and Sleek.
- Rob Shehadie as Robert "Rocky" Shekazbah - self-stylised "Lebanese Rambo". A tall, muscular, homophobic egotistical Lebanese friend/second cousin of Habib (often role of enforcer), seems to be able to score with any number of young (and likely underage) women.
- Maria Venuti as Mama Gigliotti - Bobo's overbearing Italian mother who actually owns Fat Pizza. Despite her being quite physically abusive, Bobo still loves his Mama and still lives with her.
- Tuyen Le as Lin Chow Bang - Bobo's diminutive mail-order bride from Vietnam. The Fat Pizza movie partly dealt with the arrival of Lin Chow (and her family), and as such she only appears since 2003. She has not been seen since 2003 after the Department of Immigration deported her back to Vietnam due to Habib and Rocky informing both the police and Immigration so they could avoid drug dealing charges and time in jail.
- Rebel Wilson as Toula Maccalopolous - an obese Greek-Australian girl who was Habib's girlfriend and now wife, whom she refers to as her "Habibi". She is a voracious eater. She accompanied Pauly and Rocky in the "Pizza World" mockumentary. In Los Angeles she asks a tourist centre if they have star map, but one that marks all the fast food places rather than celebrity residences. In the fourth series of Pizza, it is revealed that Toula has a gang of obese girls called the "Fat Chick 12" (because although there are only 6 girls in the gang, they are as large as two people). It is also revealed that Toula is an obsessive control freak, domineering and controlling over every aspect of Habib's life, especially in the later stages of their engagement and after Habib married her. Before the wedding, Toula used the members of the Fat Chick 12 to spy and stop Habib from enjoying his last days of bachelorhood by preventing erotic dancers from going to Habib's buck's night. After the wedding, Toula's control over Habib has become more extreme with Toula preventing Habib from returning to work and forcing Habib to wear pink tracksuit pants. In the 2007 series of Pizza, Habib has returned to work and has successfully been avoiding Toula by saying that he is "really busy" with work.
- Anthony Salame as Omar, Habib's cousin and best friend of his cousin Mohammed. He was introduced in Pizza in 2007, when he helped Habib do an insurance job on the old Fat Pizza premises. He is often shown to be with Habib and Rocky in most episodes. He was shown to be friends with Pauly when they went to the fireworks factory in Canberra to pick up fireworks for Habib.
- Katrina Spadone as Katrina, or Kat for short - a best friend of the obese Toula, and girlfriend to Rocky. In the recent series of Pizza, Katrina started to develop a crush on Pauly since Rocky was not treating her right. She has broken up and re-united with Rocky several times (much to the torture and torment of Pauly who is keen on having Katrina as his girlfriend). In World Record Pizza, she joined Pauly, Habib and Kev in their trip around the globe, much to Rocky's disgust, so that Pauly can try to get Katrina. However, before they left Brazil to return to Australia, Katrina decided to stay in Brazil with her new boyfriend. She has since re-appeared, featuring in the Season 5 episode 'Doctor Pizza'.
- Murray Harman as Murray the Cop - A Cop who didn't like too much paper work.
- John Mangos as the Newsreader
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:
- Kevin Taumata as Kev the Kiwi - A stereotypical M?ori-Australian, who is obsessed with alcohol. Whenever on/off duty, he will sneak to a local pub to "git on thuh puhss." Kev often uses New Zealand slang including "choice!" and "bro'". He also has a small rivalry with Junior. He is always seen with his sunglasses on.
- Andrew Ausage as Junior - Bobo's apprentice chef, who, like Bobo, abuses the other employees. He and Kev have a small rivalry, and sometimes fight each other for reasons unknown. Sometimes Junior would add Samoan-inspired ingredients on pizzas, such as pig snouts and turtle meat and cooked meat in a H?ngi.
- Alex Romano as DJ BJ ("BJ" standing for Big Jams) - A young employee, who is more abused and yelled at from Bobo and Junior more than the others. He enjoys playing his turn-table but is also clumsy and a weakling, resulting in occasional accidents and injuries (e.g., a snake chasing him at Uluru, being electrocuted by fiddling with plugs on Melbourne Cup Day).
- Anh Do as Chen Chong Fat (a.k.a. Keith) - A stereotypical Asian, who tries to get into Australian culture, eating pies and sausage rolls and talking in outdated slang. In Season 5, he was framed for eating a police dog (Davo Dinkum, Habib and Rocky were the ones responsible for stealing the police dog) and was sent to jail, and was not seen after that episode.
- Hollie Meyer as "Baby" and "Toula's gang". A stereotypical "fat chick" who is one of Toula's girls. She forces herself on DJ BJ who becomes her boyfriend and she is not shy to push her weight around. She is the butt of the fat jokes and happy to retaliate violently when ridiculed. Hollie also played a variety of other roles including Toula's double in series 5, the Ghost, and "Voula" in the 'Italy' episode, season 4.
- Khalid Malik as Indian doctor
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.
- Angry Anderson - as a bikie, as well as an ANZAC commander in a flashback to the Battle of Gallipoli
- Chris Franklin - as Dazza, a stereotypical bogan alcoholic, often seen putting up with his equally-stereotypical wife Shazza.
- Anthony Mundine - as himself
- Tony Mokbel - as himself
- Carl Barron - as a machete-wielding armed robber who attempts and fails to rob Bobo
- Nick Barker
- Tony Bonner - as a murderous Special Air Service commander.
- Bessie Bardot - as Pussy Galore, a female British assassin who worked with Pauly's father in one episode of Pizza
- Richard Carter - as a police detective
- Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen - as Selina, one of Sleek's numerous girlfriends.
- Bob Ellis - as Premier of NSW
- Michael Diamond - as himself on one episode of Pizza Live.
- Peter Everitt - trying to steal money from Pauly for cigarettes, already has a cigarette on his ear.
- Jeff Fenech - as himself
- Mario Fenech - as Pauly's Uncle Shiba
- Tim Ferguson - as magician David Cockerfield
- Cornelia Frances
- Kym Gyngell
- Nathan Harvey - as Dougie, one-time Pizza Hut mascot
- Merv Hughes - as Ivan Milat
- Bill Hunter - as a police detective
- George Kapiniaris - as Ronnie McDoggle, also as an Albanian war criminal.
- Bernard King
- Jack Levi (Elliot Goblet) - as a Health Inspector and Driving Instructor
- Lex Marinos - as Sleek's lawyer
- Margaret Pomeranz - as herself
- David Stratton- as himself
- Shane Porteous - as a doctor who has shady connections with the illegal human organ market.
- John Seru - playing numerous characters, sometimes playing as a bodyguard for celebrities.
- Gary Sweet
- Red Symons
- Michael Veitch
- Kirsty Lee Allan - as Sharona, an attractive waitress who Bobo hires. She appears in only one episode, where she is eventually killed by Chong Fat in a carnival dodgem car accident.
- Garry Who - as Golfing Instructor, The "Stooge" Teacher & Lifesaver Les.
- Jim Webb - plays various characters including the bikie and Jim Smith from season 5.
- Craig Ward - as Stomach Rumbling Guy & Aussie Pub Guy
- Bruno Xavier - as Mahatma Gandhi during many flashbacks throughout the series
- Renzo Bellato - Leonard the disabled nut.
- Andrew Doyle - as Ronnie McDoggle from 'Freaky Pizza'.
- Bill Bentley - various characters including Dr. Freeman (one of the golfing doctors).
- Tim Shaw - as a financial consultant who helps Bobo revamp Fat Pizza.
Episodes
Series 1 - 2000
Series 2 - 2001
Special - 2001
Feature - 2003
Series 3 - 2003
PIZZA LIVE - 2004
Pizza: Special Deliveries - 2004
Series 4 - 2005
The DaVinci Cup - 2006
World Record Pizza - 2007
Series 5 - 2007
Feature - 2014
Stage Show - 2016
Other appearances
- Fat Pizza (2000): A single disc comedy album featuring sketches about Pauly, Sleek and Bobo. The album also features numerous rap songs performed by Paul Nakad (Sleek).
- Pizza: The Stage Show: A live stage show that toured Australia during the series early run, featuring many of the shows performers.
- Fat Pizza Fully Prank'd (20 November 2006): Shock Records WRXXX01. A compilation album of material from the banned "Fat Pizza Radio Show" and "Fat Pizza" soundtrack.
Awards and nominations
Logie Award
- 2001: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)
- 2002: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)
- 2004: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)
- 2005: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)
Australian Comedy Awards
- 2003: Outstanding Australian TV Comedy - character based (nominated)
Australian Screen Sound Guild
- 2004: Best Achievement in Sound for a Television Program (won, for episode "School Pizza")
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. 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. 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.
See also
- Fat Pizza vs. Housos
- Swift and Shift Couriers
- Housos
- Bogan Hunters
- List of Australian television series
References
External links
- Pizza on IMDb
- Pizza at TV.com
Source of article : Wikipedia
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