Pizza (TV series)

Fat Pizza
Genre	Black comedy
Created by	Paul Fenech[1]
Developed by	Paul Fenech Dave Webster Glenn Mitchell[1]
Starring	Cast of Pizza
Opening theme	"That's Amore" by Dean Martin (seasons 1–4)
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	42
Production
Executive producer(s)	Paul Fenech[1]
Producer(s)	Tanith Carroll[1]
Location(s)	Sydney (predominantly)
Running time	25 mins. approx.
Release
Original network	SBS
Picture format	PAL 4:3 (2000–2005) 576i 16:9 (22 Oct 2007 – 2007)
Original release	24 April 2000 – 2007
Chronology
Related shows	Fat Pizza Swift and Shift Couriers

Pizza was an Australian television series on the Australian television network SBS. The series has a spin-off feature length movie, Fat Pizza, released in 2003, and a best-of highlights video/DVD that featured previously unreleased footage and a schoolies exposé, released in 2004. In addition to this, a theatre show entitled "Fat Pizza", starring several characters from the show, toured the Australian east coast. In 2014, the storyline of the series was combined with that of Housos to create the motion picture Fat Pizza vs. Housos. The film was shown in Australian cinemas from November 27, 2014 onwards.^[2]

Through ironic and self-conscious references, Pizza involves themes of ethnicity and stereotypes, cars, sex, illicit drugs, and violence to produce its sometimes mean-spirited dark humour.

The television program is noted for its frequent cameo appearances of numerous Australian celebrities of all varieties, including actors, comedians, professional athletes, and other public figures.

History and development

The program is written and directed by Paul Fenech, who portrays the protagonist of the series, pizza deliveryman Pauly. In a few episodes, Pauly will break the fourth wall and, as himself, the self-described "fil-um maker",^[sic] present featurettes that reveal the history of the series, often in a tongue-in-cheek or parodic manner.

Pizza began in the early 1990s as Fenech's project, a black-and-white short film, entitled Pizza Man, in which he starred as the eponymous pizza man. In 1995, the short film won third place in the Tropfest film festival.^[3]

Pizza itself was first broadcast on the SBS network in 2000 and aired its fifth and final season in 2007. The half-hour program was shown during the SBS Monday comedy slot, noted for its offbeat comedy shows including South Park, John Safran, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Drawn Together, and Quads!.

Premise

As introduced by Pauly in the first episode of the show, pizza delivery is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. This fact is reiterated by a news report, and the show focusses on the activities of Pauly and his fellow co-workers as they deliver pizzas for "Fat Pizza", the Sydney-based pizzeria of Bobo Gigliotti, whose slogan is "they're big and they're cheesy".

Throughout the series, the dangers of pizza delivery are exemplified by encounters with aliens, killer kangaroos, bikies, bogans, petty criminals, muggers, drug dealers and/or addicts, dominatrices, celebrities, the CIA, ASIO, the Australian Tax Office, the New South Wales Police Force, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Army, Arab and Asian terrorists, organised crime gangs, and even evil Satanic forces that conspire to bring about the end of the world. In spite of this, the characters remain unfazed and unsurprised, and they persist in their dead-end, below-minimum-wage job, which pays A$3.00 per hour.

Cast

Fat Pizza employees

• Paul Fenech as Pauly Falzoni – main protagonist, pizza delivery man, boxer, and aspiring "fil-um maker". His favourite derogatory comment for people is "stooge", originating from a comment a teacher once made to him. Pauly has been one of Bobo's longest-serving employees at Fat Pizza and has provided Bobo with some good ideas over the years. During the 2005 series of Pizza, Pauly's parents, relatives, and Pauly were shown with a cousin named Luigi, who lives in Italy. In one episode, it is shown that Pauly's dad was a Maltese spy for British Intelligence and his mother was a Mexican woman whom Pauly's father had met on a boat from Hong Kong to Australia. Pauly's ethnic background consists of Maltese, Italian, and Spanish roots. He makes an appearance in Housos telling his cousin Franky that their uncle Fred has died.
• Paul Nakad as Sleek the Elite – so named because he is "slicker than slick", an aspiring rapper, ladies' man and a pizza delivery man who self-titled himself the "Lebanese Lover" or "Lebanese Legend". He was the main co-star in the first two series and the movie. He is a lady killer, hence the name "Lebanese lover". In the third series (2003, after the movie) it was revealed Sleek had been kidnapped by Islamic terrorists while holidaying in his homeland of Lebanon for "rooting all their women". In several episodes, Sleek was portrayed as the closeted bisexual male. He was replaced by Rocky's other cousin, Slick, who is killed off by Bobo in season three, episode one.
• Tahir Bilgiç as Habib Halal Habib – meaning "Friend" in Arabic. Habib featured as a supporting character in the earlier series of Pizza; a friend of Sleek's, he is a stereotypical young Lebanese (Bilgiç is actually Turkish) drug-dealer and fence of stolen goods (typically mobile phones). He played a larger role in the theatrical version of Pizza. In 2003 after the loss of Sleek, he was employed at the shop as a deliveryman, a position he regularly uses as a front for his illegal activities. He is socially inept, and used to be moderately successful with attractive women (which played a part in developing his fetish for "fat chicks" due to him being unable to get the kind of girls Sleek and Rocky picked up on a regular basis as well as Sleek and Rocky regularly cockblocking Habib from getting the attractive girls (as seen in the Fat Pizza movie)), but has hitched up with Toula.
• Jabba as David "Davo" Dinkum – a stereotypical bong-smoking Aussie bogan. Being the only non-"choco" at Fat Pizza sometimes leaves him at the end of discrimination, but he gets on well with the drug-dealing Habib. Introduced in the movie, he has appeared since. Since 2005, Davo was sacked from Fat Pizza and now he is unemployed, spending most of his time smoking his bong, getting drunk and looking for chicks (the vast majority of them pot-smoking bogan chicks that reside in Hashfield). He is the one who wears thongs as training footwear.
• John Boxer as Bobo Gigliotti – the psychotic pizza chef and the owner/manager of Fat Pizza. He has little patience and those that cross him usually end up on the wrong end of his chainsaw. He is a horrible boss, imposing dreadful working conditions and abuse. Additionally, he is consistently docking the delivery-boys' $3/hour pay for any deviation from schedule. The few things that he likes are his mother, referred to him as Mama; his mail-order bride, Lin Chow; and making pizzas. Since Lin Chow was deported back to Vietnam, Bobo has been single and, during the 2007 series of Pizza, he has recently met a former erotic film actress named Ruby a.k.a. "Mama Jugs" (Angela White) and the two have since gotten engaged, much to the disgust of Bobo's mother. Bobo makes a cameo in the Housos episode "Uncle Fred" with his trademark chainsaw.

Supporting cast

• Annalise Braakensiek as supermodel Claudia MacPherson – though pronounced "Clow-dia", the name is an obvious play on models Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson. She is dimwitted, rich, blonde, bulimic, and attractive. She is a regular customer at Fat Pizza and often has run-ins with both Pauly and Sleek.
• Rob Shehadie as Robert "Rocky" Shekazbah – self-stylised "Lebanese Rambo". A tall, muscular, homophobic egotistical Lebanese friend/second cousin of Habib (often role of enforcer), seems to be able to score with any number of young (and likely underage) women.
• Maria Venuti as Bobo's Mama – Bobo's overbearing Italian mother who actually owns Fat Pizza. Despite her being quite physically abusive, Bobo still loves his Mama and still lives with her.
• Tuyen Le as Lin Chow Bang – Bobo's diminutive mail-order bride from Vietnam. The Fat Pizza movie partly dealt with the arrival of Lin Chow (and her family), and as such she only appears since 2003. She has not been seen since 2003 after the Department of Immigration deported her back to Vietnam due to Habib and Rocky informing both the police and Immigration so they could avoid drug dealing charges and time in jail.
• Rebel Wilson as Toula – an obese Greek-Australian girl who was Habib's girlfriend and now wife, whom she refers to as her "Habibi". She is a voracious eater, and she accompanied Pauly and Rocky in the "Pizza World" mockumentary. In Los Angeles she asks a tourist centre if they have star map, but one that marks all the fast food places rather than celebrity residences. In the recent series of Pizza, it is revealed that Toula has a gang of obese girls called the "Fat Chick 12" (because although there are only 6 girls in the gang, they are as large as two people). It is also revealed in the recent series of Pizza that Toula is an obsessive control freak, domineering and controlling over every aspect of Habib's life, especially in the later stages of their engagement and after Habib married her. Before the wedding, Toula used the members of the Fat Chick 12 to spy and stop Habib from enjoying his last days of bachelorhood by preventing erotic dancers from going to Habib's buck's night, as well as spying on Habib and preventing him from having his own private buck's night with a bunch of strippers. After the wedding, Toula's control over Habib has become more extreme with Toula preventing Habib from returning to work and forcing Habib to wear pink tracksuit pants. In the 2007 series of Pizza, Habib has returned to work and has successfully been avoiding Toula by saying that he is "really busy" with work.
• Anthony Salame as Omar, Habib's cousin and best friend of his cousin Mohammed. He was introduced in Pizza in 2007, when he helped Habib do an insurance job on the old Fat Pizza premises. He is often shown to be with Habib and Rocky in most episodes. He was shown to be friends with Pauly when they went to the fireworks factory in Canberra to pick up fireworks for Habib.
• Katrina Spadone^[4] as Katrina, or Kat for short – a best friend of the obese Toula, and girlfriend to Rocky. In the recent series of Pizza, Katrina started to develop a crush on Pauly since Rocky was not treating her right. She has broken up and re-united with Rocky several times (much to the torture and torment of Pauly who is keen on having Katrina as his girlfriend). In World Record Pizza, she joined Pauly, Habib and Kev in their trip around the globe, much to Rocky's disgust, so that Pauly can try to get Katrina. However, before they left Brazil to return to Australia, Katrina decided to stay in Brazil with her new boyfriend. She has since re-appeared, featuring in the Season 5 episode 'Doctor Pizza'.
• Murray Harman as Murray the Cop – A Cop who didn't like too much paper work.
• Angela White as Ruby aka Mama Juggs, Bobo's ex porn star girlfriend. She only made an appearance in Season 5.
• John Mangos as the Newsreader

New employees at Fat Pizza

In the 2005 series of Pizza, new characters were introduced to accompany Pauly and Habib in delivering pizzas, after Bobo decided to turn Fat Pizza into a franchise.

The new employees at Fat Pizza are:

• Kevin Taumata as Kev the Kiwi – A stereotypical Māori-Australian, who is obsessed with alcohol. Whenever on/off duty, he will sneak to a local pub to "git on thuh puhss." Kev often uses New Zealand slang including "choice!" and "bro'". He also has a small rivalry with Junior. He is always seen with his sunglasses on.
• Andrew Ausage as Junior – Bobo's apprentice chef, who, like Bobo, abuses the other employees. He and Kev have a small rivalry, and sometimes fight each other for reasons unknown. Sometimes Junior would add Samoan-inspired ingredients on pizzas, such as pig snouts and turtle meat and cooked meat in a Hāngi.
• Alex Romano as DJ BJ ("BJ" standing for Big Jams) – A young employee, who is more abused and yelled at from Bobo and Junior more than the others. He enjoys playing his turn-table but is also clumsy and a weakling, resulting in occasional accidents and injuries (e.g., a snake chasing him at Uluru, being electrocuted by fiddling with plugs on Melbourne Cup Day).
• Anh Do as Chen Chong Fat (a.k.a. Keith) – A stereotypical Asian, who tries to get into Australian culture, eating pies and sausage rolls and talking in outdated slang. In Season 5, he was framed for eating a police dog (Davo Dinkum, Habib and Rocky were the ones responsible for stealing the police dog) and was sent to jail, and was not seen after that episode.
• Hollie Meyer as "Baby" and "Toula's gang". A stereotypical "fat chick" who is one of Toula's girls. She forces herself on DJ BJ who becomes her boyfriend and she is not shy to push her weight around. She is the butt of the fat jokes and happy to retaliate violently when ridiculed. Hollie also played a variety of other roles including Toula's double in series 5, the Ghost, and "Voula" in the 'Italy' episode, season 4.
• Khalid Malik as Indian doctor

Guest appearances

Pizza has an extremely long list of guest appearances of many Australian media personalities (hence this list is incomplete). Many have recurring roles, or reappear in later episodes as entirely new characters. They also show a high degree of retroactive continuity.

• Angry Anderson – as a bikie, as well as an ANZAC commander in a flashback to the Battle of Gallipoli
• Chris Franklin – as Dazza, a stereotypical bogan alcoholic, often seen putting up with his equally-stereotypical wife Shazza.
• Anthony Mundine – as himself
• Tony Mokbel – as himself
• Carl Barron – as a machete-wielding armed robber who attempts and fails to rob Bobo
• Nick Barker
• Tony Bonner – as a murderous Special Air Service commander.
• Bessie Bardot – as Pussy Galore, a female British assassin who worked with Pauly's father in one episode of Pizza
• Richard Carter – as a police detective
• Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen – as Selina, one of Sleek's numerous girlfriends.
• Bob Ellis – as Premier of NSW
• Michael Diamond – as himself on one episode of Pizza Live.
• Dr Karl
• Jon English – as a (washed-up) actor
• Peter Everitt – trying to steal money from Pauly for cigarettes, already has a cigarette on his ear.
• Jeff Fenech – as himself
• Mario Fenech – as Pauly's Uncle Shiba
• Tim Ferguson – as magician David Cockerfield
• Cornelia Frances
• Frenzal Rhomb – as bong-smoking rock band Marilyn's Regurgitator
• Nick Giannopoulos – as a Greek taxi driver who verbally scuffled with Pauly in Melbourne over the issue of "hook turning".
• Kym Gyngell
• Tottie Goldsmith – as a married woman who has kinky sexual fetishes whom Pauly meets in a Melbourne nightclub.
• Nathan Harvey – as Dougie, one-time Pizza Hut mascot
• Ross Higgins – as a number of minor characters, one of them a Vietnam War veteran that suffers from halucinations in the episode "ANZAC Pizza".
• Merv Hughes – as Ivan Milat
• Bill Hunter – as a police detective
• Kamahl – as manager of rival Pizza shop Phat Pizza. Other roles as well.
• George Kapiniaris – as Ronnie McDoggle, also as an Albanian war criminal.
• Maggie Kirkpatrick
• Bernard King
• Jack Levi (Elliot Goblet) – as a Health Inspector and Driving Instructor
• Lex Marinos – as Sleek's lawyer
• Ada Nicodemou – plays a female police officer who arrests Sleek after he thought that she and her female partner were strippers hired by Habib for Sleek's birthday in the Season 1 episode "Crime Pizza" .
• Margaret Pomeranz – as herself
• David Stratton- as himself
• Shane Porteous – as a doctor who has shady connections with the illegal human organ market.
• John Seru – playing numerous characters, sometimes playing as a bodyguard for celebrities.
• Gary Sweet
• Red Symons
• Michael Veitch
• Tania Zaetta – as herself
• Kirsty Lee Allan – as Sharona, an attractive waitress who Bobo hires. She appears in only one episode, where she is eventually killed by Chong Fat in a carnival dodgem car accident.
• Garry Who - as Golfing Instructor, The "Stooge" Teacher & Lifesaver Les.
• Jim Webb - plays various characters including the bikie and Jim Smith from season 5.
• Craig Ward - as Stomach Rumbling Guy & Aussie Pub Guy
• Ross Higgins - as the old disabled man from 'Politically Incorrect Pizza'
• Bruno Xavier – as Mahatma Gandhi during many flashbacks throughout the series
• Andrew Doyle - as Ronnie McDoggle from 'Freaky Pizza'.
• Bill Bentley - various characters including Dr. Freeman (one of the golfing doctors).
• Tim Shaw - as a financial consultant who helps Bobo revamp Fat Pizza.

In the "Sexpo" episode, Pauly interviews porn stars Ron Jeremy and Serenity.

In the "Voice Actor" episode, Pauly interviews actors who have done voice acting work, including Tom Kenny, Cree Summer, Neil Patrick Harris, Nancy Cartwright, Russi Taylor, Frank Welker, Haley Joel Osment and Mark Hamill.

Episodes

Season One – 2000

• Episode One – Dangerous Pizza
  • The pilot, introduces Bobo, Bobo's mother, Claudia MacPherson, Pauly and Sleek, who is beginning his first shift. The episode underlines that delivering pizzas is one of the most dangerous jobs in the Western World. At the end of the episode, Pauly is abducted by aliens.
• Episode Two – Space Pizza
  • The episode introduces Rocky and Habib. Pauly has been dumped in the desert by the aliens and tries to find his way back to civilization. Meanwhile Bobo has employed a new pizza deliverer in place of Pauly. However the new deliverer ends up being killed by an axe murderer. Guest starring: Barry Crocker of Barry McKenzie fame.
• Episode Three – Film Pizza
  • An Actor attempts to sue Fat Pizza for damages following an altercation with Bobo, Sleek also attempts to file a law suit, against a Wrestler, meanwhile, the filming of a "James Bond" movie takes place at a nearby Movie studio, and frequent usage of Mobile Phones results in a Petrol station in Campsie blowing up.
  • Guest Starring: Kamahl, Jon English and Dr. Karl
• Episode Four – Crime Pizza
  • The premier of NSW passes a new homeboy law allowing police to detain and search anyone in a baseball hat or tracksuit. Unfortunately for the workers at the fat pizza pizzeria their uniforms consist of tracksuits and baseball caps. Pauly is arrested in a case of mistaken identity by two hopeless detectives. A disgruntled customer hires a hitman to kill Pauly because of a mix up on a pizza delivery. Even though its Sleeks birthday he is beaten Rodney King style by the whole police force. Claudia MacPherson has been videoed having sex with her boyfriend and the video is being broadcast on the internet and mama Gigliotti is under attack by some middleclass homeboys. The episode is narrated by Ian Turpie doing his version of Australia most wanted.
• Episode Five – Crazy Pizza
  • Bobo closes the shop early and gets ready to date a sexy somebody he met on the Internet. Sleek and Pauly have a night on the town. As usual not all is well in the land of fat pizza. The mother of all road rages ensues, bouncers, midgets plane crashes and dead bodies turn the night upside down. The shows finale is very Priscilla queen of the desert!
• Episode Six – Love Pizza
  • Supermodel Claudia MacPherson is getting married to actor Roger Connery the new Bond film star. Pauly joins the army reserves (thinking he'll meet girls). Bobo falls in love with Angelina, Pauly's replacement and the two set off to get married in Sicily. Sleek tries out a new deodorant that leaves such an attractive scent he ends up in tight squeezes with drag queens, crazy chefs, a porn star, and a rock band called Marilyn's Regurgitators. In the end after his mother has a health scare, Bobo decides to take care of his mother and postpone his wedding. Unfortunately Angelina has found love in Sicily with Marilyn's Regurgitators announcing they will all marry her.
• Episode Seven – Road Trip Pizza
  • A former employee of Fat Pizza shoots Bobo in the Groin, resulting in him being taken to Hospital and requiring surgery. While this is happening, Sleek and Pauly take a road trip to the Gold Coast, along the way they have their share of stories and mishaps, including Pauly telling Sleek his bad experience involving the Pope at a prawn factory, Sleek hanging out with some campers with drugs and Pauly getting zapped from urinating on a barbed-wire fence.
  • Guest Starring: Michael Veitch and Elliot Goblet
• Episode Eight – Snowy Pizza
  • Its Australia Day at the Fat Pizza pizzeria, Sleek is exhausted after winning a rap marathon and dreams himself into colonial times. Although in his dreams colonial Australia keeps turning into a rap video clip with sexy female dancers at every corner. He becomes the man from snowy pizza. Bobo is furious at TV chef Bernard for giving a bad review on his pizzas and he wants revenge. Claudia MacPherson hires a personal trainer because she is told she is fat and Pauly ends up giving a heart attack victim mouth to mouth with a vacuum cleaner.
• Episode Nine – Gambling Pizza
  • After their shifts, Sleek and Bobo head out to the casino to place some bets. While Sleek wins, Bobo is on a losing streak, and finds himself desperate enough to bet his shop. Unfortunately Bobo loses, and Pauly and Sleek find themselves working at the pizza shop for their new boss, the Mafia. Guest Starring: Tania Zaetta

Season Two – 2001

• Episode One – New Pizza
  • The shop is moved to Hashfield, a dangerous neighbourhood, where Pauly and Sleek encounter many problems with the locals. The media films Bobo unhygienically making pizzas.
• Episode Two – Politically Incorrect Pizza
  • Assault charges are pressed against Pauly, who defends himself after being abused by an old and disabled man, against Bobo, who prejudicially declined the applications of a lesbian, a blind man, an obese man and an old and disabled man, and against Habib, Rocky and the boys who faked that they were disabled but were caught out comfortably playing rugby in the park. In the end with the help of Sleek all charges are dropped.
• Episode Three – Sexy Pizza
• Episode Four – Millionaire Pizza
• Episode Five – Melbourne Pizza
  • Pauly and Sleek have the day off work and decide to drive to Melbourne. They stay in a hotel and set out to some night clubs to meet some girls. Sleek successfully hooks up with women, while Pauly, who has unknowingly taken ecstasy, returns to the home of a girl he meets and engages in many problems that evolve into fights. Guest Starring: Nick Giannopoulos, Tottie Goldsmith, and Costas Kilias.
• Episode Six – Flashback Pizza
  • Pauly and Sleek get the day off work as Bobo has an appointment with a psychiatrist amid concerns claim that he is crazy.
• Episode Seven – Freaky Pizza
  • Pauly is forced to babysit his uncle's grossly overweight child and runs into severe problems when his car is stolen. Meanwhile Claudia McPherson needs a new kidney and a organ harvester has found an unbeknownst donor in Sleek.
• Episode Eight – Girlfriend Pizza
  • The men all have girlfriend/ dating experiences. Pauly is dating two girls at once and doesn't know which one is worse, Bobo has a date with a handicapped bad-tempered woman who won't accept any help at all, and Sleek has a new girlfriend Dina (Briar Hawkins) who, much to his horror, is a stripper.
• Episode Nine – ANZAC Pizza
  • Pauly wants to march in the ANZAC parade but keeps getting sidetracked.
• Episode Ten – Desert Pizza
  • Sleek, Pauly and his uncle are fishing on a boat, they have some bait which contains marijuana, goat's cheese and petrol, Sleek accidentally rolls up a joint and lights it only to realise that the boat had exploded. The explosion sends Pauly and Sleek out to sea where they end up as castaways on an island. Guest Starring: Tony Nikolakopoulos

Season Three – 2003

• Episode One – Brand New Pizza
  • A host of new employees start at Pizza such as Sleek's cousin Slick, and a brain damaged apprentice chef alongside Habib and Rocky. Meanwhile Bobo is on edge because his new wife Lin Chow won't sleep with him.
• Episode Two – Terrorism Pizza
  • New laws against terrorism spell big trouble for the boys at Fat Pizza as Habib, Rocky and Pauly are all mistaken for terrorists.
• Episode Three – Cult Pizza
  • Bobo instructs his crew to work dressed with Christmas attire in July, which was encouraged by Bobo's mail-order bride Lin Chow, while Davo is engrossed in a new religion. Pauly is also suspected as a stalker and a "paedophile".
• Episode Four – School Pizza
  • Pauly reconnects with an old classmate who had a crush on him through several pizza deliveries. Meanwhile Habib and Rocky try out a new scam inside an ATM which is stolen by bogans with Habib still inside and Bobo is busted perving on Claudia MacPherson by his wife and his mother.
• Episode Five – Road Trip Pizza
  • Habib and Pauly chuck sickies and take a road trip to Melbourne with Rocky and Toula. Once there Pauly has another run-in with the kinky sex chick (Tottie Goldsmith)and her husband and Habib and Rocky attack an AFL umpire. Back at Fat Pizza Davo has been forced to do all the deliveries and has sexual experiences with lesbians, twins and even implies one with Claudia MacPherson. Guest starring Warwick Capper.
• Episode Six – Sexpo Pizza
  • The episode is told through flashback and interviews. The boys take a trip to Sexpo because Habib is interested in making a porno and wants to find actresses to perform in it. This episode is rated MA as opposed to the others which are rated M.
• Episode Seven – Birthday Pizza
  • It's Bobo's birthday and the boys have hired a stripper for him whom his mother and wife catch him out with. Meanwhile Rocky has a new girlfriend, Habib is pulling off an insurance scam with Toula, Pauly has to change his attitude to impress his new girlfriend Daniella and Davo's new addiction may prove to be more troublesome than his last.
• Episode Eight – Quarantine Pizza
  • Bobo orders Habib and Pauly to steal some chickens to have more ingredients. However, when they realise that the chickens are infected with bird flu and are causing fatalities to the customers, Fat Pizza is put into quarantine.
• Episode Nine – Refugee Pizza
  • Habib and Rocky have been arrested for a range of offences forcing Toula and Katrina to take on their deliveries. Meanwhile Bobo's mother takes Lin Chow and her family to beach for the day and a series of misfortunes kill them all except Lin, Davo can't remember what he did last night and Pauly hooks up with a new girl who just happens to have 8 kids. In the end Lin is busted by immigration authorities and deported thanks to Rocky and Habib.
• Episode Ten – Voice actor Pizza

Season Four – 2005

• Episode One – New Shop Pizza
  • With help from a financial consultant, Bobo completely overhauls Fat Pizza. With a new location, new staff and new delivery vehicles, business soon begins booming but not everyone is happy by all the changes.
• Episode Two – Small and Large Pizza
  • After a string of driving offences, Pauly is forced to get a new car to fit new regulations implemented by the court. Meanwhile Fat Pizza's oven has broken, Rocky and Kev get into a fight over Katrina, and a new police officer is causing a little trouble.
• Episode Three – Father's Day Pizza
  • Pauly reminisces about his father, who was forced to leave his wife and 4-year-old son to work with the British Government, and his adventures that are portrayed as that of James Bond's before he arrived in Australia. Guest Starring: Bessie Bardot
• Episode Four – Holiday Pizza – Part I
  • Due to daylight savings, Pauly mistakenly arrives at work one hour early only to see Bobo with a transvestite. Pauly uses his mobile phone to take photos and blackmails Bobo, requesting 2 weeks paid holiday to Italy or he would show the photos to Bobo's mother. Pauly arrives in Italy and stays with his cousin Luigi.
• Episode Five – Holiday Pizza – Part II
  • Luigi and Pauly are supposed to go to Sicily but Luigi's ego makes both of them follow two women to Venice.
• Episode Six – Waitress Pizza
  • A new waitress at Fat Pizza sees the boys compete for her affection.
• Episode Seven – Burnout Pizza
  • Habib, Toula, Rocky and Katrina accompany Pauly so that he can race in a drag racing competition being held on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
• Episode Eight – Habib's Wedding pizza
  • Habib marries Toula, after proposing to her when he was drunk, at a shifty venue. Bobo is the caterer, DJ BJ is the DJ, and Chong Fat and Kev are the waiters. Arguments and punch-ups arise from who had booked the venue, the religion of Toula and Habib, the wedding singer, and Habib's dad, who returns from Cuba as he had been in Guantánamo Bay, shows his dislike for Toula.

Season Five – 2007

• Episode One – Carwash Pizza
  • Bobo does an insurance job on his old Fat Pizza pizzeria and buys a new shop in Hashfield Valley, but because business is so bad he is forced to turn the shop into a pizzeria café carwash.
• Episode Two – Law & Order Pizza
  • Davo steals a police drug-sniffer dog and then tells the cops when the dog was suddenly cut up into pieces, then Chong Fat is suspected of the crime. Chong Fat admits that Davo had stolen the dog, Habib and Rocky had stolen the dog off Davo and offered him a ransom to pay if he wanted it back or else they would chop off its head. Davo is taken to the police station and tells the officers that Habib and Rocky then stole the dog off him. The cops arrested Rocky and Habib and took them to trial. Habib confesses that he took the dog but then gave him to Bobo who was believed to have cut it up to use for pizza meat. Bobo is then sentenced to trial and admits that Chong Fat had cut up the dog. Chong Fat is then taken into custody and sentenced to prison, Where he is raped by a gay cellmate (the same inmate who also raped Habib in the earlier series of Pizza).
• Episode Three – Melbourne Cup Pizza
  • Bobo holds a Melbourne cup lunch at Fat Pizza. Everything goes wrong, from bad food to power failures; the obese customers are unhappy at the lack of food and alcohol.
• Episode Four – The Beach Part One
  • Bobo has a day off and goes to Cronulla beach with his ex porn star girlfriend Ruby. The day explodes into mayhem as pizza deliveries go wrong and Habib and Rocky accidentally start a riot with lifesavers. The media then interview Pauly and he is taken out of context and blamed as the instigator of the Cronulla Beach riot.
• Episode Five – The Beach Part Two
  • After causing the Cronulla riots and bashing radio shock jock Allen Ford Jones, Pauly and Junior are deported to Coconut Island, only there is a twist the department of immigration makes a mistake and they are sent to Crocodile Island.
• Episode Six – Doctor Pizza
  • During an argument over cockroaches on Bobo's pizzas, Bobo accidentally bites off Rocky's finger. Both are sent to Hashfield Hospital, meanwhile Pauly is road raging all the hospital doctors and after bashing them there are no doctors to help Bobo and Rocky. In the end Junior decides to help with Bobo's surgery (after he lied to a Coconut Island nurse saying that he is a doctor). Episode six features the soccer striker Edinson Cavani as an extra in the scene depicting Bobo and Marley's fight. Meanwhile DJBJ had trouble with the golfing doctors. This soccer striker is known to be associated with pizza as it was his childhood love. This episode reveals DJBJ hating doctors.
• Episode Seven – Cracker Pizza
  • In response to a new Government ban on crackers and new "working for tips" laws the pizza shop workers suffer more grief than usual. Habib sets off all his old crackers before the ban is enforced, Davo is arrested for robbing a service station to pay for pizzas and Pauly drives to Canberra with Habib's cousin Omar to buy crackers.
• Episode Eight – Barbeque Pizza
  • Habib fakes the death of his wife, Toula, while she is in Greece whereby Habib receives $100,000. Bobo's gay Italian cousin Santino comes to visit from Italy. He shows Bobo how to make good pizzas. He gets a crush on DJ BJ. Bobo's mama goes interstate and Bobo has a barbeque to celebrate his engagement to his ex porn star girlfriend Ruby. Habib buries Toula's coffin (which he later tells Rocky there were only bricks in the coffin) and gets the insurance money.

Special deliveries

In certain special episodes (called "special deliveries") Paul Fenech will sometimes break the fourth wall and act as "himself" (or a stylised version of himself, still much like the character he plays) and introduce the segments. These special deliveries are usually clip shows or mockumentaries on the show. In 2004 the series was a live-studio broadcast of auditions for the next series of Pizza (interspersed with stunts, music and nudity), series finales had previously adopted a similar format with the crew "hijacking" the SBS television studio. In the latter half of 2004, a mockumentary entitled "World Pizza" was broadcast which featured Pauly, Rocky and Toula travelling from Sydney to Napoli, Italy – "the birthplace of pizza". According to the show, they could only afford stopover flights, and had to stop in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas before reaching Rome. Bobo and Habib (who along with Davo had been arrested by Customs for drug possession in the airport prior to departure) appeared as talking heads through this series.

"Special Deliveries" include:

• Fat Pizza (2000): A single disc comedy album featuring sketches about Pauly, Sleek and Bobo. The album also features numerous rap songs performed by Paul Nakad (Sleek).
• A Real Slice of Pizza (2001): Behind-the-scenes of Pizza, including bloopers, deleted scenes and interviews.
• Pizza: The Stage Show: A live stage show that toured Australia during the series early run, featuring many of the shows performers.
• What's Doing? (2003): Stage SHow
• Pizza World (2004:) Pauly, Rocky and Toula travel around the world trying out different pizzas, meanwhile searching for the world's first pizzeria, found in Naples, Italy.
• Pizza Live (2004): Shows Recorded Live with an audience
• The Da Vinci Cup (2006): With the World Cup starting soon, Pauly and the gang travel around the world to prove the sporting event is a sham, and that the results are already known by a select few.
• World Record Pizza (2007): Pauly, Habib, Katrina and Kev travel around the world again, this time attempting to deliver a pizza to the top of Ayers Rock by circling the globe.
• Mardi Grass Special (aka Nimbin Special)

Awards and nominations

Logie Award

• 2001: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)
• 2002: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)
• 2004: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)
• 2005: Most Outstanding Comedy Program (nominated)

Australian Comedy Awards

• 2003: Outstanding Australian TV Comedy – character based (nominated)

Australian Screen Sound Guild

• 2004: Best Achievement in Sound for a Television Program (won, for episode "School Pizza")

Filming Location

In Season 1, the internal and external shots of the Fat Pizza restaurant were filmed at 320–322 Pacific Highway, Lane Cove, New South Wales 2066. The restaurant used for filming in Seasons 2 and 3, as well as the Fat Pizza movie and live shows, were filmed at 67 Hume Highway, Chullora, New South Wales 2190. The Chullora store is known to have operated as a pizzeria between 2000 and 2009, but as of 2013 the shop has been sold and the interior has been stripped completely.^[5]

See also

• Fat Pizza vs. Housos
• Swift and Shift Couriers
• Housos
• Bogan Hunters
• List of Australian television series

References

1. 1 2 3 4 http://www.australiantelevision.net/pizza/pizza.html
2. ↑ "Fat Pizza Vs Housos". Hoyts. Retrieved 19 November 2014. 
3. ↑ http://www.screendaily.com/movie-network-tropfest-launch-oz-low-budget-film-push/4024227.article
4. ↑ Katrina Spadone
5. ↑ . WhereIs http://www.whereis.com/nsw/chullora/67-hume-hwy/yellowId-13536945. Retrieved 2014-05-31.  Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Pizza at the Internet Movie Database
• Pizza at TV.com