Hamish and Andy's Gap Year

Hamish and Andy's Gap Year
Presented by	Hamish Blake Andy Lee
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	24
Production
Production locations	New York, New York City, United States
Running time	Approximately 60 minutes (inc. commercials)
Original release
Network	Nine Network
Release	28 July (2011-07-28) – 29 September 2011 (2011-09-29)

Hamish & Andy's Gap Year is a Logie Award winning comedy series following Hamish Blake and Andy Lee, a pair of Australian comedians, on their trips to various international locations. The first season saw the boys visiting America for ten episodes and broadcast their show weekly from New York City. In its second season in 2012, the show was titled "Hamish & Andy's Euro Gap Year" and seven episodes were broadcast from The Lord Stanley, a disused pub in East London, England. The third season known as "Hamish and Andy's Gap Year Asia" in 2013 will be broadcast from a bar in Bangkok, Thailand, called 'The Raintree'.

History

The concept for the show was created when the Nine Network hired comedians Hamish Blake and Andy Lee for two series in two years. They came across the idea of "Gap Year" when they realised they never took a gap year after high school, so they would film their many adventures overseas as it was 'ironic' that they had just received a contract for TV.

Season 1 "Gap Year" regular segments

Safari

Every week, Hamish and Andy visit various interesting locations around the country. For these adventures, the boys dress in purpose-built safari costumes.

Interviews

Throughout the series, Hamish and Andy interviewed various celebrities, either in the studio or in hotel rooms. Celebrities featured on the show include Taylor Swift, Neil Patrick Harris, James Franco, Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Samantha Stosur, and Chris Martin and Guy Berryman from the British band, Coldplay.

R2-To-Do

This robot featured on the show provides a list of goals for Hamish and Andy to achieve on their journey. These include:

• Tattoo timeslot on arm (Hamish):completed in episode 1
• Get three-wheeled NYPD 'Tough Mobile': completed in episode 3, where Hamish jumped the vehicle over his bobble-head figurine
• Remind Hillary Clinton of BBQ offer: completed in episode nine, when Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd is enlisted to remind Hillary, after Hamish and Andy attempted on numerous occasions
• Enrol Hamish in Mr. New York State body building contest: completed in episode 5, with Hamish (unexpectedly) taking first place in his weight class
• Hamish to gain magician membership in 'Magician's Castle' in LA: completed in episode 10.

100-second New York lesson

Taken by Ryan Shelton where he would take the viewers on various tours of different culture and places in New York, and as the name suggests is exactly 100 seconds each, with a timer in the corner of each segment. Hamish and Andy would make cameo appearances in each of the segments. These segments began from episode 1 all the way to episode 10, making a total of 10 segments. Hamish jokingly asked Ryan if he would make a complimation of the 10 segments into a 1000-second tape, which Ryan answered that it was a good idea but he wouldn't do it.

Hamish versus Andy

Introduced in episode 5, this segment includes various competitions between Hamish and Andy. The final score was 3-2 to Hamish.

• The first invention is a game called Bin Racing, where the boys hide in separate wheelie bins in Central Park and must wheel 60m to the finish line without being seen as moving by the public. Unfortunately, one thing the boys did not anticipate was that people would actually throw their discards and waste onto them, leaving Andy especially disgusted. In the end, Hamish beats Andy by around 30m, giving him a 1-0 lead after one event.
• In the boys' second round of Hamish vs Andy, they try the new sport of Mates Racing. Basically, each of them are given five invitations to a lunch date at a grill at 1pm. Starting at 11.30 and ending an hour later, the boys must give as many of their invitations as possible to random strangers after a quick conservation, and whoever has the most guests who arrive wins. Both Hamish and Andy manage to give away four invitations in the hour, but in the moment of truth, all four of Hamish's guests arrive, whereas only two arrive for Andy. Hamish now holds a commanding lead of 2-0 in the series.
• For Hamish vs Andy Round 3, called stranger racing, this new sport involves the boys clipping a helium balloon to a pedestrian, and once the walk signal is given, it is a race between the two balloon nominees as to who can get to the other side of the crossing first. Hamish claims the first round, Andy snares the second, and the third is declared a dead heat. In the tiebreaker round, the boys substitute pedestrians for taxis, and small balloons for larger balloons in a race for two blocks. Unfortunately, Hamish's taxi is hailed, leaving Andy to take out the match, leaving the overall scores at 2-1.
• In the fourth round, the boys faced off in a sport they invented, called "Subway Rodeo", where the boys went down to the subways at night, dressed in rugby gear, to ride the trains. Hamish and Andy would board the trains, getted taped wrapped around so that their arms and legs were imobilised, and once the train started driving they had to remain standing for as long as possible. Hamish won the first round by a few seconds and in the second round both managed much more impressive times, with Andy winning the round. In the third round tiebreaker the same rules applied with the addition of the "dreaded headsack", which as the name suggests was both boys having a sack covering their heads. In this round both resorted to the "hopping technique" and both managed impressive times, with Hamish appearing to gain the upperhand, until he fell and made contact with a spectator (one of the train passengers) which was a violation of the rules and resulted in Hamish being disqualified, handing the win to Andy, which left the scores tied at 2-2.
• In the fifth and final round the boys compete in a race to sleep. Hamish wins.

Ultimate Wingman

In this segment, Hamish struggles to find Andy (single) a girlfriend, by acting as his wingman (much to the annoyance of Andy).

Episodes

Episode No.	Title	Original Australian air date
1	"Episode One"	28 July 2011 (2011-07-28)
To kick off the boys' gap year, they fly to Oklahoma to take part in a statewide catfish noodling competition. After several unsuccessful attempts (using Andy's ass as the bait), the boys manage to score what they think is a giant catfish, which they name Fish'ell. Unfortunately, it turns out that Fish'ell is in fact the smallest in the competition. A policeman learns that Hamish & Andy do not in fact have fishing licences to take part in the competition, so he fines Hamish heavily. The boys also try sleeping in public, in which they converse with a local New Yorker, complain about the jetlag and then fall asleep. They attempt this joke in taxis, during a game of chess and while asking for directions among other scenarios. Back in the studio, Taylor Swift drops by for a quick chat and makes up a song for the tag-a-long dads who chaperone their daughters to her concerts, and Neil Patrick Harris talks about his latest film and later becomes Neil Patrick Harrison Ford, who steals the "sacred Bobblehead" (of Andy), recreating a scene from the Indiana Jones franchise. The boys also introduce us to the Busk-eteers, their own private band of buskers who play all the music for the show, and R2-To-Do, a to-do list robot which retains all the to-do's Hamish & Andy promise to do over the course of the show.
2	"Episode 2"	4 August 2011 (2011-08-04)
Continuing on their gap year, the boys decide to head to Phoenix, Arizona, to take part in a roller derby, an aggressive, female-dominated sport that involves roller skating around a rink repeatedly. Placed on different teams, Hamish and Andy make a bet that whoever's team loses will do a "BatLap", a lap of the rink wearing nothing but a pair of speedos with Batman designs on them. Unfortunately for Hamish, despite the fact that he ended up brutally smashing half of Andy's team, his team loses, and Hamish (somewhat proudly) completes the BatLap. Meanwhile, Hamish decides to take control of Andy's love life, becoming the "Ultimate Wingman" for his best buddy. In this role, he repeatedly attempts to line Andy up with a lady target, a strategy that is never quite pulled off. Notable amongst Hamish's feeble attempts is Hamish frantically asking Andy to retrieve his kitten from a tree, and Andy returning topless to a cafe filled with eligible women. And back with R2-To-Do, the boys continue on their quest to track down an NYPD three-wheel "tough mobile", however are flatly told by police that they will never get one, and add another item - reminding Hillary Clinton of her offer to attend a BBQ together, which they were extended last time they were in the US. Back in the plastics factory, the boys set up a teleportation portal in the studio, and use it to mystically travel to the hotel room of James Franco with whom they discuss his latest film.
3	"Episode 3"	11 August 2011 (2011-08-11)
Next in the boys' travels is a forest in Washington State, where they take part in LARPing, or Live Action Role Playing. After failing several times to win battles, a frustrated Hamish conspires to kill "the sacred bird", the LARPing mascot and cherished character. The locals do not take kindly to this, resulting in Hamish wrestling with another LARPer. Hamish and Andy also meet Tiger Hood, a street golfer who uses rubbish bins as holes and milk cartons as balls. In order to get a game with him, Hamish bets Andy's custom-made $3,000 golf clubs, a fact which makes Andy very angry when he learns about it. After 4 hours, Andy finally wins his clubs back. The boys continue on their NYPD-tough mobile quest, and actually manage to track one down, which they excitedly purchase (for a large amount of money), and Hamish decides the best way to christen the tough-mobile is to jump the sacred bobblehead, in the tough-mobile, inside a nearby warehouse, which he successfully does. Hamish and Andy head to a secrecy and truth expert, who tells the boys that Hillary Clinton did not legitimately invite them for BBQ, a fact which they do not take to heart and vow to keep trying, by sending their butler, Cackling Jack, out on the streets with a crudely made sign. Hamish continues as Andy's Ultimate Wingman, this time donning a baby's outfit and a large pram to become the Ultimate Baby Wingman, who is strangely inappropriate as he attempts to hook his "dad" up with a new mother. However, Andy gets sick of Hamish, and abandons him at a baseball field, where some angry baseball players decide to attempt to flip Hamish's pram off the field.
4	"Episode 4"	18 August 2011 (2011-08-18)
Next in the boys' travels is the city of New York itself, where they decide to play a game called New York Dreams, in which people email in their NY Dream for the boys to complete. This sees the boys appear on Broadway, recreate the opening of Friends in a water fountain, shopping at Tiffany's,convince someone not to go to the Statue of Liberty, run a lap of Central Park, scoff down 4 Whoppers, play stickball and throw a paper aeroplane off the Empire State Building among others. This game, which seemed like a good idea at first, later turns nasty when Andy recreates the infamous When Harry Met Sally scene in the deli and Hamish recreates the scene in the Crocodile Dundee franchise where he gropes a transvestite's crotch. Hamish books Andy into a five-star dog hotel in Florida, where he is treated to all sorts of pampering - and an attempt at an anal cleanse. One of the women at the hotel takes a shine to Andy the dog, and opts to scratch his belly and becomes flushed after doing so. In the end, Hamish gives away Andy the dog to the woman, who is very pleased. The boys also head to Hillary Clinton's hometown in their quest to remind her of her BBQ offer, and hire an aeroplane with a large banner attached reading "Hamish and Andy say YES to BBQ" to fly around the town. While there, the boys also receive confirmation from locals that Hillary would not say anything she would not mean, leaving the boys elated, despite the fact they still have not heard anything from her. Back in the studio, Hamish reveals that there is one fault with their tough-mobile - the key is stuck in the ignition, and thus cannot be locked. To prevent any theft of their prized vehicle, the boys send their butler, Cackling Jack, out on the street to mind the car. Unbeknownst to him, Hamish hires two "thugs" to try to steal the tough-mobile just to see what Jack would do. He actively defends the car, however the thugs begin to drive it away before Hamish lets Jack in on the ruse. And Andy has been getting worried about the physical health of his mate (Hamish is seen eating four Whopper burgers in the NY Dreams Game), and so the return of R2-To-Do sees Andy place another item on the board - Hamish completing the New York State Bodybuilding Championships, which Andy has signed him up for, and takes place in just three days.
5	"Episode 5"	25 August 2011 (2011-08-25)
The boys head to the New York State Bodybuilding Championships as Andy's way of getting Hamish back into shape, after his pants button popped off during the week. Once there, Hamish discovers he is nowhere near where he needs to be to win, physically, so attempts to get a good training session in before the competition. After dropping the barbells and only completing one rep on the bench-press, Hamish decides he is ready, and oils himself up with the assistance of his coach Andy. Hamish's performance is an utter joke (though he does slip in a worm or two). However, after a post-competition weigh-in, it is discovered that only Hamish, out of all of the contestants, is over 200 lbs and is therefore the only participant who can be classified as a heavyweight. Thus, Hamish takes out the crown and wins a large trophy which he cherishes and awards the trophy a place of highest honour - on the desk, next to his sacred Bobblehead. Claiming that after five episodes, the sightseeing phase of their trip is over, Hamish and Andy decide to begin a Hamish vs Andy tournament, in which they will go head to head in sports that they invent themselves. The first invention is a game called Bin Racing, where the boys hide in separate wheelie bins in Central Park and must wheel 60m to the finish line without being seen as moving by the public. Unfortunately, one thing the boys did not anticipate was that people would actually throw their discards and waste onto them, leaving Andy especially disgusted. In the end, Hamish beats Andy by around 30m, giving him a 1-0 lead after one event. Hamish and Andy fly to El Paso, Texas, to join a lowriders' club, a club made up of men who have beefed up their cars with the ultimate suspension systems, so they can bounce and jump and ride like no other car can. An enthusiastic Hamish gets a test ride of a clubman's $100,000 ride, despite Andy's frantic warnings of Hamish's poor driving skills, though he manages to drive quite successfully. The boys also get a go in a "bouncer", a car which literally bounces tens of metres up into the air. With no seatbelts, they get quite severely injured from this. Eager to join the club, Hamish and Andy decide to pimp their own ride (a Toyota Camry) with $32 worth of arts and crafts stickers. They are then inducted, and drive away as lowriders. And in Hamish's greatest attempt yet at scoring Andy a wife, Hamish adopts the title "Ultimate Gameshow Wingman", and constructs a fake Australian dating show, attracting three beautiful ladies to fight for Andy's affections in Mister Needs A Sister. The gameshow is quite ridiculous - the games include Andy pashing a pane of glass so the girls can get an idea of his technique, and the girls physically trying to pull Andy to their zone while he is strapped to a wheelie chair. A girl named Blessed wins the gameshow, and even after Hamish tells her that it was a fake show, she still agrees to go on a date with Andy.
6	"Episode 6"	1 September 2011 (2011-09-01)
On safari once more, the boys head to California to take part in a wild-west re-enactment performance for French tourists. However, the owner of the company who operates the re-enactments is not enthusiastic about having two amateurs acting in his perfectly scaled and timed performance, so pretty much ignores them all day. Determined to take part, Hamish's desperation to act culminates in him taking any role available - which turns out to be the role of a busty, scantily-clad young woman. The re-enactment begins, and the boys stand off to the side, slowly realising they are not part of the performance, until the owner surprisingly allows them one scene at the end, where the boys improvise a wild-west altercation between the busty Hamish and the cowboy Andy. Using the gun with one bullet that he was allowed, Andy shoots Hamish, leaving him sprawled inappropriately on the ground. The tourists leave soon after, as do the boys, satisfied with their performance. R2-To-Do returns, and with only one item left uncompleted, the boys ramp up their attempts to remind Hillary Clinton of her BBQ offer. Discovering that they have so far targeted Hillary's eyes and ears, they try a different tack - activating her sense of smell. Mere metres away from her residence, the boys set up six barbecues and begin frying up sausages. They then order two high-powered wind machines to waft the smell of BBQ in Hillary's direction, a plan which they name "Operation Sausage Waft 2011". One of the deliverymen who bring the sausages gets the boys' hopes up when he concedes (perhaps jokingly) that if he had offered a BBQ, and suddenly smelt BBQ, he may remember his offer. However, although the wafting plan goes well, the boys do not receive a phone call from Hillary, but demonstrate, on a scale from "alert to alarmed" about their efforts, that they are now concerned that they may not get their BBQ. Hamish and Andy have queued up an interview with Sarah Jessica Parker, however they discover that their time-travelling portal (last used to visit James Franco in his hotel suite) is broken, so Hamish resorts to using a battered, golden chicken trophy, given to him by a wizard, to teleport to Parker's hotel room, which they do successfully, and interview her about her family life, her upcoming visit to Australia and what she thinks about the boys' three-wheel tough-mobile. And in the boys' second round of Hamish vs Andy, they try the new sport of Mates Racing. Basically, each of them are given five invitations to a lunch date at a grill at 1pm. Starting at 11.30 and ending an hour later, the boys must give as many of their invitations as possible to random strangers after a quick conservation, and whoever has the most guests who arrive wins. Both Hamish and Andy manage to give away four invitations in the hour, but in the moment of truth, all four of Hamish's guests arrive, whereas only two arrive for Andy. Hamish now holds a commanding lead of 2-0 in the series.
7	"Episode 7"	8 September 2011 (2011-09-08)
With just four more weeks remaining on their gap year, the boys decide to amp up their weekly safaris by heading to Washington State for a demolition derby - but not just any demolition derby. This one involves combine harvesters ramming into each other at high speeds. When Hamish and Andy arrive, they realise that the harvester that they have been given has no brakes and no fire extinguishers, but that does not stop them from making it their own, giving it a nice new paint job and naming it "Peter Harvey-ster, Canberra". With no brakes, neither of the boys are too eager to be the driver, however Andy is forced into doing it by Hamish. Sensing new blood, Andy's competitors target him, and after a short period of time, the harvester's wheel axes have been completely severed, and Peter is gone forever. The boys also get excited for Hamish vs Andy Round 3, which is stranger racing. This new sport involves the boys clipping a helium balloon to a pedestrian, and once the walk signal is given, it is a race between the two balloon nominees as to who can get to the other side of the crossing first. Hamish claims the first round, Andy snares the second, and the third is declared a dead heat. In the tiebreaker round, the boys substitute pedestrians for taxis, and small balloons for larger balloons in a race for two blocks. Unfortunately, Hamish's taxi is hailed, leaving Andy to take out the match, leaving the overall scores at 2-1. They also visit the Asylum Film Studio, a studio that rips off blockbuster films by creating terribly made movies with very similar plots, concepts and titles to other, more famous films. Sensing an opportunity to showcase their creativity, Hamish and Andy pitch an idea called "Avatari", which combines the plot of Avatar with the graphics of Atari for the ultimate summer blockbuster. The head of development says he is interested, but the segment leaves it ambiguous as to what happens after that, although a thirty-second snippet is shown. Hamish reveals that he enjoys magic tricks, and even won prizes at school. Rekindling his passion, he visits the Magic Castle, an institution where famous magicians show their tricks and reveal secrets, hoping to show off his abilities. However, he is flatly refused entry because he is not a member. Determined, Hamish contacts a magician who is a member, who advises him to apply for an audition to become a member. The audition is organised and slated for two weeks later, and will determine if Hamish becomes a member or not. And this commitment goes straight on R2-To-Do so that Hamish cannot wriggle out of it if he fails. And Susan Sarandon drops by to the Couch for a chat. It is revealed that during a night at her table-tennis nightclub Spin, Hamish broke six glasses with an aggressive forehand, so Andy decides that it is only fair for Susan to break something of Hamish's. Originally deciding to smash Hamish's bobblehead, Andy goes back on this deal and opts to put Hamish's prized bodybuilding trophy on the line, however he gives Hamish a chance to win it back by playing a Sarandon-based quiz game. Hamish must answer at least 2 of the 3 questions correctly to save the trophy. He answers the first correctly and the second incorrectly. He takes a blind stab at the third, which is unfortunately wrong, and Cackling Jack, under Susan and Andy's orders, drops the trophy from the roof of the factory, smashing it to pieces and leaving Hamish heartbroken.
8	"Episode 8"	15 September 2011 (2011-09-15)
9	"Episode 9"	22 September 2011 (2011-09-22)
10	"Episode 10"	29 September 2011 (2011-09-29)

Season 2 "Hamish and Andy's Euro Gap Year"

Hamish and Andy's Gap Year
Hamish and Andy's Euro Gap Year intertitle
Genre	Comedy
Presented by	Hamish Blake Andy Lee
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7
Production
Production locations	London, England, United Kingdom
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	Nine Network
Release	14 June – 26 July 2012

The shows were broadcast from the fictional Lord Stanley pub in East London (Sandringham Road, Dalston E8).

Episodes

Episode No.	Title	Original Australian air date
1	Episode One	14 June 2012 (2012-06-14)
2	Episode Two	21 June 2012 (2012-06-21)
3	Episode Three	28 June 2011 (2011-06-28)
4	Episode Four	5 July 2012 (2012-07-05)
5	Episode Five	12 July 2012 (2012-07-12)
6	Episode Six	19 July 2012 (2012-07-19)
7	Episode Seven	26 July 2012 (2012-07-26)

Season 3 "Hamish and Andy's Gap Year Asia"

The shows will be broadcast from a bar in Bangkok, Thailand, called 'The Raintree'.

External links

• Official website
• ((http://www.hamishandandy.com/ Hamish and Andy))