Acropolis Now
Acropolis Now was an Australian television sitcom set in a fictional Greek cafe, called the "Acropolis Cafe" in Melbourne that ran for 63 episodes broadcast from 9 August 1989 to 4 November 1992 on the Seven Network. It was created by Nick Giannopoulos, George Kapiniaris and Simon Palomares, who also starred in the series. They were already quite well known for their comedy stage show, Wogs out of Work. The title is a nameplay on the film Apocalypse Now. Each episode was 20 minutes in length and filmed in front of a live audience.
Synopsis
Jim's father asks him to run the family business, the Acropolis café, when he suddenly leaves Australia to return to his homeland Greece. The series centres on the activities of the cafe staff. Greek Jim Stefanidis, is the immature owner and his best friend, Spaniard Ricky Martinez is the sensible manager. Memo is the traditional Greek waiter, Liz is the liberated Australian waitress. Skip is the new cook from the bush, naïve to wog culture but more accomplished in Greek cuisine than Jim, and Manolis is the stubborn, incompetent, drunk cook from the old cafe. The show's humour arises from the clash of cultures and beliefs.Jim's hairdresser cousin Effie, played by Mary Coustas, became a hugely popular and enduring character during the run of the show. Coustas later reprised the role for several TV specials and series including Effie, Just Quietly, an SBS comedy/interview show, and Greeks on the Roof, a short-lived Greek-Australian version of the British television show The Kumars at No. 42.
Popular culture
Acropolis Now helped popularise the term "skippy" or "skip" to refer to Anglo-Celtic Australians and others of European but non-Mediterranean descent. This term became popular with Mediterranean-Australians, and to a lesser extent non-Mediterranean people, especially in Melbourne.Production
The program was produced by Crawford Productions which is now owned by WIN Television.Characters
Other characters
- Russell Crowe as Danny O'Brien
- Anthony Brandon Wong as Guido Mazzio
- Warren Mitchell as Kostas 'Con' Stefanidis
- Zlatko Kasumovic as Vlad
- Lawrence Mah as Colin
- Tony Poli & Joe Perrone as Vinnie Vincenzo
- Gerry Connolly as Larry
- Vince D'Amico as Don Santo
- Di Adams as Michael 'Mike'
- Fotis Pelekis as Dimi Stefanidis
- Jeremy Stanford as Andy Farrell
- Gina Riley as Demi Cashimedes
- Diane Craig as Joan Wilson
- Mike Bishop as Kevin
- Nikki Coghill as Rebecca
- Rebecca Gibney as Bank manager / Mrs. Spiro Strangulator