Big Bite

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Big Bite's opening title.

Big Bite was an Australian sketch comedy broadcast on the Seven Network in an evening timeslot. The show starred Chris Lilley of We Can Be Heroes and Andrew O'Keefe, who would go on to fame as host of the Seven Network's Deal or No Deal and Weekend Sunrise. Other performers on the show included world champion impro comedian Rebecca DeUnamuno, who would go on to become a regular cast member on many of The Chaser team's television programs, and Kate McCartney, who has gone to success as an award-winning animator. Among the show's co-creators were Andrew Jones and head writer Rick Kalowski, who have gone on to success as a sought-after comedy writing team.

Big Bite was a 2003 Australian Film Institute Awards nominee for Best Television Comedy Series, marking the first time a comedy programme from a commercial television network had ever been nominated at the Australian Film Institute Awards in any category.

Despite high ratings and critical acclaim, the show lasted only one series before being spun-off into the comedy/variety programme Hamish and Andy, a show that would be axed after only a handful of episodes aired.

Many of the cast, directors and writers of Big Bite have, however, gone on to work on many other successful comedy series on Australian television, most notably Comedy Inc - The Late Shift (2005- ) and We Can Be Heroes (2005).

Mr.G in a sketch involving students getting ready for the school's musical.

Another notable figure in the show was a send-up of SBS news reporter Lee Lin Chin.

Another of the show's regular cast members, Tristan Jepson, who played Tom Gleisner in the show's acclaimed parodies of The Panel died tragically at the age of 26 in late 2004, a victim of clinical depression. During the television broadcast of the 2005 Australian Film Institute Awards, Jepson was honoured among the roll call of performers to have passed away in the previous year.

Despite an initially mixed critical reception to the show, it has recently begun to develop something of a cult following, due both to the success of Chris Lilley's We Can Be Heroes, and to repeats of the show, that have aired on Foxtel's The Comedy Channel, and, most recently, on the Seven Network that originally aired the show.

A 2 DVD-set of the entire series (13 half-hour episodes) will be released on DVD in Australia on November 6, 2006. It would appear the DVD will include the so-called 'lost' final episode of the series, which has never yet aired on Australian television.