“ laugher is the best medicine”( because the truth I guess is a bitter pill to swallow).
SABC3 is simply telling TV with Thinus that Riaad Moosa“ has taken over from Dr Michael Mol who has left the show to pursue his passion for broader health education”.
Michael Mol has, according to a statement“ set his sights on giving every South African individualised health education, care and advice through direct and affordable access to healthcare professionals through Hello Doctor, a mobile healthcare company.”
The Dr Mol Show, produced by Tswelopele Productions, was at episode 19 of 26 of the current 5th season when the behind-the-scenes shake-up occurred.
It’ s highly unusual for a presenter to leave and for a new presenter to suddenly step in halfway through a programme’ s run. It’ s also unusual for a TV show and a broadcaster to not explain at least the basic details of how something like this happened and why it transpired.
On Doctor’ s Orders Riaad Moosa is a qualified medical doctor, but he is definitely not Michael Mol who has honed his telegenic skills and warm and authentic on-air personality through decades of hard work on Top Billing. before branching out to Expresso and then started Hello Doctor which morphed into the wellproduced, informative and entertaining The Dr Mol Show.
Riaad Moosa now seems like a desperate, lastminute Cape Town-based replacement for a TV show suddenly in a massive identity and credibility crisis- we won’ t know that for sure because nobody even bothered to answered questions and media enquiries and simply instituted the change last month which looks schizophrenic from an outsider and viewers’ perspective.
I can certainly never look at The Dr Mol Show Doctor’ s Orders in the same way again. It feels like a lobotomised show. Everything about it now seems fake, contrived and disingenuous. Nobody was honest with me as a journalist and a TV critic, and I don’ t feel the show is authentic anymore.
The Dr Mol Show represented some of the best local television South Africa’ s TV industry produced. Now it feels hollow.
If doctor bedside manner is so important, why did the show and the broadcaster completely fail to be open and honest? Why was there zero percent bedside communication the moment when whatever started to happen behind the scenes, happened? Trust and credibility are earned; with Doctor’ s Orders, for me, that is all gone now, and it’ s sad.
“ I am going to be stepping into the shoes of a role model of mine,” says Riaad Moosa in a press statement from SABC3.“ I have the utmost respect and admiration for Michael and hope to be able to build on what Michael has achieved.”
“ I have enjoyed every single minute on The Dr Mol Show and know that Riaad is going to break new ground and build on the show’ s success,” says Michael Mol in a statement.
Proudly SA romcom to hit screens by VALENCIA GOVINDASAMY source TONIGHT
Making its way to our screens soon is the South African film Ithala – The Reunion, which features an extremely talented cast. It focuses on a group of close friends( Njabulo, Nkanyiso, Portia, Winston and Linda) getting together after seven years to celebrate a brief visit by one of their friends from Canada.
The cast is made up of local actors, Thapelo Mokoena, Siyabonga Radebe, Lihle Dhlomo, Mandisa Nduna, Dumisani Mbebe, Amanda du-Pont, Morne du Toit, Siyabonga Thwala, Siza Mthembu and Nompilo Maphumulo.
I caught up with one of the lead characters in the film, played by Thapelo Mokoena, to learn more about the forthcoming production.
Without giving away too much of the film, he says:“ Ithala – The Reunion is about a bunch of friends who come from different parts of the world and have not seen each other since school.
“ Their relationships have changed since then and they spend a weekend together at a five-star Tala Game Reserve. I would say, it’ s definitely a romcom.”
Mokoena plays a character by the name of
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