   the games was an australian mockumentary television series about the 2000 summer olympics in sydney. the series was originally broadcast on the abc and had two seasons of 13 episodes each, the first in 1998 and the second in 2000. 'the games' starred satirists john clarke and bryan dawe along with australian comedian gina riley and actor nicholas bell. it was written by john clarke and ross stevenson. the series centred on the sydney organising committee for the olympic games (socog) and satirised corruption and cronyism in the olympic movement, bureaucratic ineptness in the new south wales public service, and unethical behaviour within politics and the media. an unusual feature of the show was that the characters shared the same name as the actors who played them, to enhance the illusion of a documentary on the sydney games. ==cast== john clarke played the "head of administration & logistics", an undefined but important subsection of socog. clarke was apparently a former olympic champion, but ducked the question whenever asked about which event. gina riley played the "manager marketing & liaison" role, and bryan dawe played the "manager accounts, budgeting & finance" position. the series also featured actor nicholas bell as the conniving secretary to the minister for the olympics, a foil for clarke's character. he was a guest in the first series but was made a main cast member for series 2. guest stars included john farnham, dave graney, frank woodley, barrie cassidy, maxine mckew, and actor sam neill. ==episodes==  the final episode was broadcast days before the opening ceremony of the real games. in this episode, the three stars and bell were forced to stand in for 
1990s_Australian_television_series 1998_Australian_television_series_debuts 2000_Australian_television_series_endings 2000_Summer_Olympics 2000s_Australian_television_series Australian_Broadcasting_Corporation_shows Australian_comedy_television_series Logie_Award_for_Most_Outstanding_Comedy_Program_winners Mockumentary_television_series Television_series_about_television Television_shows_set_in_New_South_Wales