From Oz to Dreamland

The main purpose of college is for a student to discover and pursue the role they would like play in this world.

Along the way, they probably find out what a Dirty Smurf is, go to a couple toga parties, and enjoy life before they have to pay back their loans. For Dreamland writer and producer, Tom Gleisner, college was where his future drastically shifted from a focus on law, to a career in film and television.

Gleisner and his fellow Melbourne University schoolmates, Rob Sitch and Santo Cilauro were each originally committed to a field of education that would comfort any parent, before detouring together into the unpredictable and perhaps even more challenging world of writing and producing comedy.

An actor, director, producer, but always a writer at heart, Gleisner and his buddies became cofounders of Working Dog Productions, the legendary Australian production company responsible for creating dozens of critically acclaimed and award winning television series and feature films.

Many of the team’s projects revolve around current events, politics, and sectors of the Australian government, which might lead one to presume that somewhere in the past, someone on the team suffered greatly in a cube farm of one form or another.

However, Gleisner reflects, “Funny enough, Rob, Santo, and I have never working in a conventional office.” He continues, “We’ve known so many people who have, and they speak of the frustrations of office life; the silliest little things that can just drive a person mad.” 

It’s those silly little things that fuel Gleisner’s writing and help shape the thoughtful character development as well as the contextual precision portrayed in all of his work.

You could say Gleisner and his team have done for Australia what Lorne Michaels, Jon Stewart, and Ricky Gervais have done for the States and the UK. They’ve collaborated on numerous comedy sketch shows, satirical current affair programs, and interview-style series, keeping the good folks down under entertained since the 1980’s.

Dreamland, one of the team’s most recent creations, appeals to the brand of humor of which Gleisner is a master, the brand that everyone claims to have: the smart brand of humor. Dreamland is dry and sardonic, but not without an unapologetic sweet side.

So, what is Dreamland?

The premise of the half-hour episodic touches down in the realm of government workplace comedies. It’s a character driven show that pokes fun at how a certain Australian government-run public service operates. 

One might call the show a mix between Parks & Rec and The Office, but with Australian accents (and who doesn’t love a good accent?).

The main setting of the show takes place in the offices of the fictional Nation Building Authority. Their function and responsibility are the infrastructure of Australia: roads, railways, bridges (to Madagascar), ambitious land developments, etc. 

“We are fascinated by governments of all persuasions that love building big projects,” Gleisner explains, “They always start with the grandest of intentions and somehow, humans seem to stuff them up.  I think that was our starting point for Dreamland.”

If this is an Australian-made show that’s about an Australian-based government agency’s “grand dreams that inevitably go off the rails,” as Gleisner describes, will non-Australian viewers have the basic understanding of another country’s inner workings to be able to understand what’s going on?

Gleisner thinks so. “The comedy and satire of Dreamland are universal,” he says, “I think all countries share the same frustrations and all of us have governments that are very keen to announce big, exciting, grand, extensive ventures and we all have watched on as the new and wonderful tunnel or bridge or railway line or building doesn’t live up to its early promises.”

He continues, “I don’t think that’s in any way an Australian phenomenon.”

Of course, having such a solid reputation in the business helps immensely when it comes to getting a show like this on the air.

Gleisner says, “If we were just starting out and didn’t have much of a reputation in the industry, it might have been difficult to convince a broadcast to commission a program based on urban infrastructure.”

He muses, “I don’t think you’d really have a bidding war over something as dry-sounding as that, but luckily, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), knew our work well enough to trust that we knew what we were doing, so we managed to jump what would have been the most obvious of hurdles, that the subject does sound…a little, uh, unsexy.”

Bottom-line, sexy or not, the show is about people - mostly, incompetent and shortsighted people. At its heart, Dreamland is achingly human.

Sixteen episodes parade the ineptitude of lower and upper staff alike. They precisely demonstrate just how often the rare few managers and employees with a sense of responsibility, work ethic, and (*gasp*) logic, are all too often bridled by those consumed by bright colors and pretty pictures.

These foibles are very real, and very much comedy-inducing truths that transcend oceans, cultures, and time.

Gleisner chuckles, “It is often the case that these people with multi-billion dollar projects who are in charge of planning their nation’s future can’t get into the meeting room because they didn’t book it, and Sally, who normally handles the booking is not in on Tuesdays, and they’re about to sign a billion dollar contract and no one can find a pen!“

Gleisner and The Working Dog team are spot-on with the small nuances that accentuate the painfully annoying things that happen in all offices. “It’s that sort of stuff that amuses us and we’ve been really pleased to hear from audiences who have worked in those sorts of organizations, that it resonates with them,” Gleisner explains, “Dreamland has been a great opportunity to hold a mirror up to that side of people’s lives.”

Perhaps it is a bit alarming that a show about government workers spending large sums of money and never getting anything done has such a familiar echo and is so globally understood. Perhaps it’s a little too accurate, if there’s even such a thing.  We can certainly thank Gleisner and his superb writing for that accuracy, but he passes much of the credit to the cast.

“Everybody in the show is either a stand-up or a comic actor,” Gleisner points out.  “They’ve all got a lot of experience in comedy and they have no problem understanding the characters and the humor.” 

He says, “It was one of the few shoots where we didn’t have actors asking us, 'What does this line mean?' or 'Why am I saying this?'  Comics don’t really need that sort of handholding; they’re naturals.”

Still, it is the writing that guides this ship. Very little, if any, of the show is improvised unlike many similar shows. “It’s probably going a little against the tide of comedies these days, but we pride ourselves on our writing and never go into anything without multiple drafts.” He confirms, “The improvisation side is minimal.”

In addition to Dreamland, Gleisner and Working Dog currently have on air a quiz show called, Have You Been Paying Attention?, which Gleisner hosts.

They also have a new animated series, Pacific Heat that is looking to launch in 2016. This will be another Working Dog milestone for Australia, as the country has yet to create any animated programming of this kind. And, of course, there is enthusiasm for a third season of Dreamland.

“We love genuine political satire and the absurdly frustrating. At the heart of it we are friends and somehow, we’ve remained friends over all of these decades,” He laughs, “Santo and I were heading toward very comfortable careers as suburban lawyers and Rob would be treating people with strange rashes; it’s nice that we’ve been spared that.”

A win-win for everyone.

The first and second seasons of Dreamland, are currently streaming on Netflix.