Fast Forward was a long-running Australian commercial television sketch comedy show. It starred several former members of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation series The D-Generation , as well as other Melbourne-based comedians including Steve Vizard and Jane Tuner , who is now famous for Kath & Kim. It is one of many successful Australian TV and film productions that feature performers who began their screen career in the 1980s on the ABC-TV sketch comedy series The D-Generation .

Fast Forward was formatted to simulate continuous channel surfing, and after the punchline, each sketch would abruptly switch to a momentary segment of static, foollowed by another sketch, simulating the effect of the viewer repeatedly switching channels. It featured many send-ups of television programs of the day, politicians, and television advertisements.

The series' composite style, which blended direct TV parody with traditional sketch comedy, was still relatively new in Australia, and it was greatly influenced by the famous American live series Saturday Night Live, which at that time had never been screened on Australian TV -- in fact SNL was not seen Australia until the 1990s, when it was picked up by the Australian Foxtel cable television network. However, Fast Forward was aimed at a broad general audience and it contained little of the caustic political satire that has long been a hallmark of SNL

Popular recurring sketches on the series included:

• "Dumb Street", which sent up Aussie soaps Home and Away, E Street , Neighbours and A Country Practice

• "A Current Affair", which sent up the long-running Nine network current affairs show

• "Hunch" , which parodied current affairs host and talkback radio star Derryn Hinch

• Skippy, which sent up the well-known 1960s children's adventure series that starred an intelligent kangaroo

• numerous crude parodies of the programming on the then-new Australian multicultural TV network SBS

• 'Roger Ramshett', a politically-incorrect sketch involving an Indian carpet salesman

• "Brent Smythe + Barry", parodic 80s advertising executives

• a popular sketch featuring two gay male airline stewards, played by Veitch and Vizard, which featured Benny Hill-style sexual innuendo

• inept sports reporter Pixie-Anne Wheatley (Szubanski)

• Mary Mcgregor, a tipsy Scotswoman (Szubanski)

• "Bobbie Battista" (Jane Turner ) a caricature of the American CNN newsreader (CNN was at that time relayed in a late-night timeslot on the same network that broadcast Fast Forward).

• political and personality send-ups including Joan Kirner (Victorian Premier 1990-92) and TV variety host Kerrie-Anne Kennerly .

• vintage overseas TV parodies including Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie , Get Smart, The Addams Family + The Munsters, all of which were repeated ad nauseam on Australian commercial TV in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Fast Forward ran for 75 episodes from April '89 to November '92, and it also marked the first time that Kath & Kim stars Jane Turner, Gina Reilly and Magda Szubanski worked together on screen.

Fast Forward was succeeded by the series Full Frontal, which starred some of the same cast and marked the TV debut of comedian and actor Eric Bana.

Cast

• Peter Moon
• Steve Vizard
• Glenn Robbins
• Jane Turner
• Magda Szubanski
• Michael Veitch
• Gina Riley
• Brian Dawe
• Marg Downey