AustLit

A young boy living on the streets at the turn of the twentieth century decides to make something of his life. The Australian Women's Weekly describes the program as 'detailing the rise of a hunchbacked 1900s larrikin gang leader from the gutter to the respectability of owning a shoe emporium' (Wed. 24 June 1981, p.118S).

For a detailed, episode-by-episode synopsis, see Film Details.

Five men meet again at a high-school reunion, allowing them to reflect on the past and plan for the future.

Mini-series following the coming-of-age of a young man, and his struggles between social convention and the draw of Bohemianism.

For a detailed, episode-by-episode synopsis, see Film Details.

'Tommy Trainer is an aspiring actor, and has been for most of his life. Struggling to support himself, he plays the club circuits and accepts the bit parts while he waits for the big breakthrough. When his chance finally comes to play opposite one of England's top actors, Tommy's life takes a turn that is more real and dramatic than any script.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 5/2/2014)

'Determined to keep her family together after the strain of living for three months at the Endeavour Migrant Hostel, May Parker has rented a rambling bungalow in the Sydney suburbs. The Parkers must now settle down to their new life as ' Pommies Down Under.''

Source: Radio Times, 18 November 1976, p.45.

'Bill Parker has convinced his family that they should leave their home in Yeovil and emigrate to a new life in Australia. They know they must spend their first months at a Migrant Hostel in Sydney but the family have no idea exactly what to expect.'

Source: Radio Times, 11 November 1976, p.45.

One of Australia's earliest television dramatisations of its gold-rush era, Rush is, as Don Storey points out in his Classic Australian Television, in many ways two entirely separate programs: between series one and series two, the setting shifts from the Victorian goldfields to a New South Wales mining town, and jumps forward from the 1850s to the early 1860s. However, both series take place in the same universe, use the same chronology, and have a clear internal coherence, centred on the continuing character of Sergeant Robert McKellar. Therefore, they are generally treated as two separate series of a single program.

(The differences in cast, crew, writers, and directors between the two series are given in detail in the film details section below.)

With its enormous, intricate, expensive, and accurate sets, costumes, and props, Rush proved extremely popular with viewers, despite series one airing in an awkward weeknight 8pm slot (which, as Storey notes, put it against the second half of the highly successful Homicide in Melbourne). Series one did, however, attract some criticism for being filmed in black-and-white when colour programming was only a matter of months away in Australia.

Series two (which drew on foreign financing to cover its cost, an extremely high--for a domestically produced program--$24,000 an episode) was made in colour. Following Sergeant McKellar (the only character to carry over from series one), series two pushed the character forward through two disillusioning events (the Eureka Stockade, which prompted McKellar's resignation from the Victoria Police, and the death of his wife Sarah) and dropped him into the conflicts of a small New South Wales mining town.

Series two was also extremely popular but, according to Storey, plans for series three were shelved when the new Fraser government instituted (among other things) a hefty budget cut to the ABC.

Series one gained renewed prominence in the 1990s when, like police procedural Bluey, it was re-dubbed and sent up on The Late Show (as The Olden Days).

'An obstinate single father struggles to grant his terminally ill son three wishes.'

Source: Australian Screen.

Certain Women began as a short series in 1973 and continued on as a serial until 1977. At the centre of the narrative were six women from three generations of a Sydney family. Dolly has two daughters Freda and Jane. Jane has three daughters Marjorie, Helen, and Gillian.

In a short piece announcing the extension of the series after the broadcast of the first six episodes television critic Valda Marshall said the decision to make further episodes 'should also keep the women's libbers happy ... so far as I know, it's the first TV series made here specifically as a starring vehicle for women'.

Source: Marshall, Valda. 'ABC's 'Women' Given Longer Reign'. The Sun-Herald, 25/3/1973, p. 77.

In the aftermath of World War Two, Czech doctor Carl Zlinter emigrates to Australia's Victorian high country, where he meets and falls in love with Jennifer Morton.

Franki Halliday, a staff reporter on the Masons' newspaper, returns to Australia after spending three months as a prisoner of the Viet Cong and begins to write about her harrowing experiences. As her story unfolds, the Masons realise that some parts might be unsuitable for publication. However, Franki is determined to tell all, including the fact that she is pregnant to one of her captors.

Contrabandits was a fifty-minute procedural series following the Customs Special Branch, an elite group of law-enforcers intercepting contraband in Sydney.

Colin Free was script editor for the series (as well as scripting several episodes).

Source:

Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series

Storey, Don. Classic Australian Television http://www.classicaustraliantv.com/contrab.htm (Sighted 13/9/11)

See also:

Musgrove, Nan. 'Contrabandits'. Australian Women's Weekly 4 October 1967, p.17.

'Smuggling Theme of New Series'. Canberra Times 18 September 1967, p.15.

'Convicting Martin "Tiger' Fly, a known Kings Cross drug pedlar, is a personal challenge to Chief Inspector Ted Hallam. While the Customs Special Branch are convinced that Fly is obtaining drugs from merchant seamen, their frequent raids have never actually found him in possession of any drugs. Mardi Shiel is used as part of the investigation that leads to an exotic Chinese dancer, a well-endowed prostitute, and a frightened Melbourne businessman.'

Source: Storey, Don. Classic Australian Television. http://www.classicaustraliantv.com/contrab1.htm (Sighted 13/9/11)

According to Don Storey in his Classic Australian Television, the sit-com Nice 'n Juicy was the first series (as opposed to a serial, a multi-episode program with a continuing narrative instead of self-contained episodes) produced in-house by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

According to Storey,

Nice 'n Juicy is set on a rundown citrus orchard in New South Wales, at a fictitious location called Wyvern Creek. Jack and Mort Hamlin are two brothers who live a lonely and tenuous existence on the decaying 25 acre property willed to them by their father. The elder brother, Jack, is conservative and wishes to develop the old family property. Mort wants to sell up and move to the bright lights of Sydney and live high on the profits. Jack, however, is a depressing realist and knows that any sale is going to be engulfed by a double mortgage.

Though the first series was expanded from six episodes to thirteen, and the show both rated respectably and was popular with critics, the ABC chose not to undertake a second series. Storey concludes that 'the show has not aged well, and today it comes across as rather dated, largely due to the tedious stage play atmosphere that the restrictive single set imposes'.

Contemporary news reports indicated that author Colin Free based the series on his own script, How Do You Spell Matrimony? (see, for example, 'ABC Drops Yearly Serial Idea' in Works About).