AustLit

'Erica Yurken, certain of her glittering career on the stage and her place in the world, is upstaged and forced to come to grips with her own reality when Alison Ashley arrives at the school. A comedy about the trials and tribulations of schoolyard rivalries, embarrassing family situations and the awkwardness of teenage years.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 4/12/2013)

Four children stumble into the secret underground lair of a long-dead super-hero, the Silver Shadow. Defeated (and killed) by his arch-nemesis, The Crab, in the 1950s, the Silver Shadow lives on as a digital recording in his base's computer. Just as he convinces the four to take up his role as the city's defender, The Crab, now an old man in a retirement village, trains his grand-daughter to be his own successor.

As with other programs produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF), Legacy of the Silver Shadow concentrated strongly on questions of self-identity, peer pressure and conformity, and individualism.

Australian Screen includes some clips from Legacy of the Silver Shadow: http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/legacy-silver-shadow-feral/clip1/ (Sighted: 23/2/2012). The program is also available on DVD via the ACTF.

A young English girl, Penelope Townes, finds an opal pendant in her attic and, in playing with it, releases two Australian genies (father Bruce and son Baz). When Penelope inherits a property in Australia, the genies are delighted to be able to return home. But they are still under Penelope's control and subject to her whims–a situation complicated by Penelope's neighbour, Otto von Meister, insisting that the opal is really his by rights and by Bruce falling in love with Penelope's mother, Lady Diana.

Science fiction in a stricter (and less speculative) sense, Sky Trackers followed the adventures of a group of scientists' children living in a remote space-tracking station in the Australian outback. The program had the romantic component common to young-adult programming (with blossoming romance between thirteen-year-old Nikki and fourteen-year-old Mike), but also focused on such topics as ambition, future careers, and scholastic achievement.

A mixture of live-action, puppetry, animation, and documentary, Lift Off centred on a group of children who lived in the same neighbourhood and whose imaginations made their environment a world of fun and excitement. However, the program also explored issues such as pain, loneliness, jealousy, and anger. The program was aimed at three-year-old to eight-year-old viewers (as defined by Harvard University developmental psychologist Howard Gardner), and was linked to school curricula through the Curriculum Corporation of Australia.

Tony Twist and his three children (thirteen-year-old twins Pete and Linda and nine-year-old Bronson) move to an old lighthouse on the rugged Australian coast. They soon discover that the lighthouse and the outhouse are haunted.

'When Kostas Stephanidis came to this country 23 years ago with 20 pounds in his pocket, one suitcase and his father's pants, he opened a small Greek café, Acropolis, where old men played cards and drank coffee. Now he has decided to retreat to an idyllic lifestyle in the Greek islands, leaving his one and only son, Jim, to uphold the café and family tradition. After careful thought, however, rather than entrust his beloved Acropolis café to his only son, Jim, Kostas insists on putting someone more sensible in charge. Jim's pal, Ricky, he has brains - he's been a college student! Amid cultures clashing - and crockery smashing - Jim and Ricky generate riches all right. But strictly in the form of laughs. The key writers of "Acropolis Now" are also in the cast. Nick Giannopolis, George Kapiniaris and Simon Palomares. The unique trio who were responsible for having staged Australia's longest running stage comedy, "Wogs Out Of Work".'

Source: http://www.australiantelevision.net/acropolis_now/index.html Sighted 04/07/12

A daily television drama series set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough, Neighbours chronicles the lives of the residents of Ramsay Street. The series initially revolved around three families: the Ramsays (at number 24 Ramsay Street), the Robinsons (at number 26), and the Clarkes (at number 28). The scope of the series has since broadened to include new Ramsay Street familes.