It's the end of All Access with the last episode on M-Net tonight, exactly two years after its high-buzz debut on the pay broadcaster. After a retool, a truncated half hour new version will restart in a month's time on the new Mzansi Magic (DStv 107) channel but very little will be left of the weekly entertainment magazine show that in April 2009 promised a brand-new, and different take on covering the entertainment biz in South Africa on television.
Before the first All Access episode in 2009 there was no launch party - probably the show and the broadcaster's very first big mistake. The cast and crew huddled for pizza and wine by themselves and didn't want the press there, allowing some of the buzz and early eagerness to cover the show to disappate. On television All Access still started off strong though, a high-concept, vaunted try by M-Net that returned to the entertainment magazine genre for the first time since it canceled Front Row years earlier.
Before its first episode All Access - a show carefully crafted by Helen Smit, M-Net's former head of local productions - was put through a pilot phase during which Homebrew Films that produces All Access, were noticed at glam events. The TV industry got so excited about this new alternative to what the public broadcaster and e.tv have been cranking out weekly for years.
M-Net and All Access had what can unequivocally be called the best TV set South African television had ever seen - a sprawling, perfectly high defintion ready, multi-level expanse that was coloured in black, white and red. It was the perfect platform and backdrop for the crop of choice presenters to lord over with glamour wear bring viewers the week's entertainment must-see's. But a few months after its high gloss debut it became clear that trouble was brewing and the major tinkering on everything began.
After less than 40 episodes the monumental set by Michael Gill was dispatched (the space given to SuperSport's new HD studio). Mark Bayly and Pabi Moloi - originally the two main co-hosts for every episode were broken up and replaced by a merry-go-round of presenters doing the show from select locations - seemingly imitating a format already done by all the other shows. Presenters for theatre and movies were added.
By April last year the logo was changed and All Access was moved from Thursday to Friday nights at 19:30 after it left the air for several weeks to make way for sport. Then in 2011 it moved to another new timeslot of 19:00 after no new original episodes were broadcast over the Christmas period while all other magazine shows stayed new. By then presenter Ewan Strydom left to jump to SABC3's Expresso.
A few days before the first birthday party of All Access last year (which was a great event) numerous productions sources involved with the show were exasperated with what they called ''the massive amount of changes on screen and behind the scenes'' of All Access. ''It's a lot of tinkering and adjustment for something that's not even a year old,'' said one at the time.
Now All Access ends it run on M-Net after just two years and about 90 episodes. Tonight's episode will look very different from how it started in April two years ago. Which leaves us wondering: Will viewers see a local entertainment magazine show in the vein of Front Row and All Access on M-Net again - if ever - in the future?
ALSO READ: After All Access: ''It's sad.'' Mark Bayly on the end of All Access on M-Net, parting ways with his TV family and what he's doing next.
