ABC‘s chaotic ’90s music television programme Recovery is set to make something of a comeback, with a stage version of the show reportedly in the works as its former hosts call for the show (or something similar) to return to television sets around the country.
As News Corp Australia reports, former Recovery hosts Dylan Lewis and Jane Gazzo, as well as the show’s former movie critic Leigh Whannell, are set to celebrate the programme’s 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere (31st July 1996) with a series of events.
Gazzo says promoters have pitched a one-off stage show as part of the celebrations. “It’s in development,” she says. “It’s at the talks stage.”
Gazzo, Lewis and Whannell are also set to co-host a Recovery special for ABC‘s music programme Rage at some point, and they say there’s still space for a show like Recovery in today’s television landscape.
“It’s well and truly time for a show like Recovery to be present on our televisions — with us would be best, but even without us, it needs a spot,” Lewis says. “There are no shows on TV for bands to play or promote their music.”
“It was a such a milestone, cult show. It had incredible reach, power and influence,” Gazzo says.
Lewis, who had a teaching degree and no television experience when he scored the Recovery presenter spot, says he still doesn’t fully understand how he got the role.
“My resume was the last to arrive and it was shit because I didn’t send it in, my wife did,” he says. “It was a resume for a job at a toy shop, so it was irrelevant, and it had pencil markings all over it from when I was going to update it.
“I wasn’t trying to be on telly by any means. It was never an aspiration. I had a passion for music, which remains to this day.”
Recovery saw the likes of Metallica, Green Day, Powderfinger and Silverchair rock out as musical guests when the show ran every Saturday morning from 1996 to 1998. Catch some raucous highlights from the show, below.
Watch: Green Day Take The House Band’s Instruments, Swear A Bunch On ‘Recovery’
Watch: Silverchair Interview On ‘Recovery’ (1997)
Watch: Metallica On ‘Recovery’ (1998)
