Fast Forward was Australia's highest-rating and most critically awarded commercial television sketch comedy show, broadcast for 90 one-hour episodes from 12 April 1989 to 26 November 1992.

[1] The show was produced by Steve Vizard, who was also the executive producer, writer, and performer, and starred Jane Turner, Gina Riley, Magda Szubanski (the three of whom went on to star in Kath & Kim), Marg Downey, Michael Veitch, Peter Moon, Alan Pentland, Steve Blackburn, Geoff Brooks, Ernie Dingo, the Rubbery Figures satirical puppets, and numerous guests and supporting stars, such as Gerry Connolly and Bryan Dawe.

From its second series onward, Andrew Knight joined Steve Vizard and Ted Emery as executive producers of the show.

[4] Many of the stars came from a 1985 Seven Network sketch-comedy pilot called The Eleventh Hour, which also spawned The Comedy Company, via The D-Generation.

Fast Forward was noted for its fast-paced, satirical comedy, which particularly lampooned the media, in particular film and TV, with its parodies of well-known television shows (such as Kung Fu, Lost In Space, The Munsters, and A Current Affair), personalities (such as Clive James, Jana Wendt, Derryn Hinch, and Geoffrey Robertson), and commercials (such as for American Express and Nescafé).

The white noise and on-screen static that represented the channel change became the modern television equivalent of a curtain being drawn at an old-fashioned vaudeville show.

Each episode of Fast Forward featured regular characters, a news-based segment, a major parody of a well-known television show or film, lampoons of television commercials, and political satire, particularly in a segment using the Rubbery Figures political puppets.

In one memorable sketch that went to air, Moon and Vizard were both visibly trying to contain their laughter through a series of insults in one of their parodies of Kung Fu.

This led to the Star Trek parody where Paul Keating was Mr. Spock and Bob Hawke was Captain Kirk.

The production team and cast decided in late 1992, despite offers to renew from Channel 7, to end the program 'on a high', feeling that they did not want it to go downhill and tarnish its legacy as one of Australia's best-ever sketch comedy shows.