Melody Rules
Encyclopedia
Melody Rules was a 1993 sitcom created by New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 TV station TV3
TV3 (New Zealand)
TV3 is a New Zealand commercial television network, owned by MediaWorks New Zealand. Launched on 26 November 1989, the first private television network in New Zealand...

. The series centred on sensible careerwoman Melody and her semi-dysfunctional family
Dysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...

 consisting of her teenage sister Zoe and their brother. Frequent recurring characters included an unkempt and filthy man as well as neighbour Crayfish. The series was structured in a similar manner to an American sitcom, containing similar elements including a laugh track
Laugh track
A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...

 and vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

-esque humour.

TV3 conceived Melody Rules in 1993 in hopes the show would form one of a number of flagship productions for the station. TV3 received $1,262,990 funding from NZ on Air for the production. TV3 hired the services of an American television writer, who held a number of workshops in New Zealand where he taught hopeful writers the craft of writing an American-style sitcom. Working with his ideas and formulas, Melody Rules was the end result. Due to poor ratings, the series was pulled from TV3's prime-time lineup in the summer of 1995, and was rerun at 2:00 and 3:00 AM on weekend and weekday mornings, only to be cancelled following two episodes per screening. 43 episodes in total were screened.

Melody Rules has received much negative criticism, including unfavourable comments on its humour and poor acting roles. It is now widely regarded in New Zealand as the worst TV3 sitcom of all time.

Premise

Melody Rules starred sensible careerwoman Melody (played by Belinda Todd) who had returned to the family home to look after her teenage brother and sister while her mother is overseas, then best known for her role as co-host of TV3's late news program Nightline
Nightline (New Zealand TV series)
Nightline is a New Zealand late night news show currently on TV3 hosted by Sacha McNeil. Nightline, hosted usually in the 10.30pm to 11.00pm timeslot, has a high focus on the arts and current events. It competes directly with TVNZ's Tonight show...

. Todd had little acting experience and was known more for her sexy, outrageous on-screen persona.

Production

The first season of Melody Rules was filmed on a budget of $1,262,990, which was funded by NZ on Air to TV3 and Ross Jennings Productions. The entirety of the series was filmed in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, while the majority of the scenes were filmed within a small living room. Geoff Steven served as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...

 for the show's entire run, while Ross Jennings functioned as producer and show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...

.

List of episodes

Key
  • In the # column:
    • The first number refers to the order it aired during the entire series.
    • The second number refers to the episode number within its season.

Season 1: 1993–1994

>
# Title Directed by Written by NZ air date Production
code

Season 2: 1994–1995

>
# Title Directed by Written by NZ air date Production
code

Critical reception

Critical reception for Melody Rules was poor; the series has been frequently labelled as "cringeworthy", and "atrocious" by The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...

, one of New Zealand television's "disasters" by Scoop, and "awful" by the Waikato Times
Waikato Times
The Waikato Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Hamilton, New Zealand, with a circulation to the greater Waikato region.The Waikato Times started out as the tri-weekly Waikato Times and Thames Valley Gazette, first published on 2 May 1872...

. Series co-stars Alan Brough and Belinda Todd both regret starring in the series; Todd described working on the series "[...] like Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

. I think that if you have to say [Melody Rules], you have to go around–you'd have to go outside and spin around because it's bad luck
The Scottish play
The Scottish Play and the Bard's play are euphemisms for William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The first is a reference to the play's Scottish setting, the second a reference to Shakespeare's popular nickname. According to a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish curse, speaking the name Macbeth...

, don't you?" and labelled the series as "absolutely ghastly", while Brough described working on the series as "such a horrendous experience", adding "[...] I was so embarrassed by it, I had to go overseas." Both Brough and Todd claim the series was substantial in convincing them to leave New Zealand and move to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, respectively. However, in spite of poor reviews, the series has developed a cult following for its perceived low quality, and is currently labelled by Todd as a moderate cult hit
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...

.

External links

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