It aired on Network Ten with the premiere (76-minute) episode shown on 20 January 1980. The series then ran five nights a week, Mondays to Fridays, as a 25-minute serial.
It was produced solely by Network Ten (as an in-house production) with a start-up budget of almost $1 million.
The series was set in a fictitious shopping mall (hence the "Arcade" of the title) in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Arcade dealt with the lives and loves of the characters who worked at the various stores within the shopping complex.
Production
The plan was to have the show on the air before the ratings season started to build an audience, however the serial quickly proved itself a ratings disaster, which actually caused the shows on rival networks it was programmed against to improve in the ratings.
A total of 50 episodes were actually filmed and produced, but the series was cancelled after six weeks, so only 30 episodes ever went to air.
Theme music
The disco-style, metaphoric theme song "(Walking Through an) Arcade" was composed by New Zealand-born Mike Perjanik and performed by Australian singer Doug Parkinson. The opening title sequence feature aerial shots of a real building and shopping arcade, which was actually the exterior of the Strata Motor Hotel located on Military Road, in Cremorne.
Rupert Murdoch in collaboration with the network spent almost $1 million to pour a new concrete floor in Studio A at the Sydney Channel 10 studios; install a complete new lighting grid and lighting system; new editing software; upgraded control rooms and cameras and, of course, the construction of the massive Arcade set itself.
The shows set was one of the most elaborate and realistic ever built for an Australian Studio at the time
Not long before the show was axed, there was talk the series might be moved to a later time slot allowing it to become a bit "raunchier" (similar to the hit series Number 96) and a large new set had been built featuring a "western-style" saloon bar, so that more of the action could take place in a venue that supplied alcohol.
There were also moves (before the show was axed) to have some of the regular characters "perform" in the bar/nightclub setting, as many of the actors appearing in the show had a background as cabaret artists, singers, comedians and so on, and it was felt that these skills should be utilised and might help save the series. However, the series was cancelled before these plans could be brought to fruition.
The shops
The shops featured in the initial episodes were:
Kitty's Record Bar (a record and tape store)
Aristocrat (a dry cleaning store)
FlashBack Leisure Centre (a pinball parlour)
Toby's (a sit down restaurant)
Pendleton's Health Studio (a health and workout studio)
The Bookworm (a book store and news agency)
Magda's Gifts (a gift shop)
Surf 'n' Ski (a sports shop specializing in water sports)
In later episodes, a small (illegal) casino was introduced in an apartment above the Arcade - many of the characters lived in apartments above the Arcade - and at the time the series was taken off air, a large new set had been built featuring a nightclub and bar called "The Sawmill".
The pilot episode
The 76-minute pilot episode was produced by Bill Harmon and Peter Benardos who had earlier produced the highly successful soap opera Number 96.
Arcade also employed Number 96's creator David Sale and its veteran scriptwriter Johnny Whyte as scriptwriters. Like Number 96, there was some room for light comedy as well as drama.
Murdoch had acquired what was then the 0-10 Network in 1979 and had [citation needed] ATV Melbourne change its call sign from 0 to 10 in January 1980 to make the network complete. So the launch of the pilot (or "movie-length opening episode") of Arcade was therefore seen as the "flagship" program of the brand-new Network Ten.
On the night it aired (Sunday 20 January 1980), the 0–10 Network officially became known as Network Ten to reflect ATV-0's transition to ATV-10 – although the Brisbane station continued to broadcast as TVQ-0 until 10 September 1988. On 27 December 1987, Adelaide's SAS-10 gave ADS-7 the affiliation rights of Network Ten, and became known as ADS-10. (Perth's NEW-10 did not go to air until May 1988.)
Cast
Lorrae Desmond (later of A Country Practice fame) played Molly Sparks, the exuberant thrice-divorced owner of the Bookworm News Agency, that she ran with her gossipy sister Miriam Buxton (played by Peggy Toppano the mother of Prisoner star Peta Toppano) Molly's energetic but bumbling son Joey Fellows was played by comic relief Greg Bepper. The prissy Miriam lived with Molly and Joey for a while.
Mike Dorsey from Number 96 was cast in a regular role as Vic Marshall, the owner of the pinball parlour. Vic's paraplegic daughter Tina (who worked in the pinball parlour with her overprotective father) was played by South Australian newcomer Christine Harris, whilst Coral Drouyn went on to become a successful scriptwriter
Other recognisable actors in the cast included another Number 96 veteran, Aileen Britton who played Joyce Blair, the haughty woman who ran the Aristocrat Dry Cleaning store with her comical husband Walter, played by one time vaudeville comedian Syd Heylen. Tracy Mann played Susie Blair, Joyce and Walter's dry and slightly sardonic daughter, who helped out at her folks dry cleaners, after returning home from a religious cult she fled from.
Joy Miller, played Kitty Adams, a former cabaret singer who was the owner of Kitty's Record Bar and Danny Adcock as Duncan Adams, Kitty's estranged husband and former showbiz manager, who are constantly arguing.
Maggie Stuart appeared as grasping vixen Iris Pendleton, (the villain of the piece) who co-owned the Pendletons Health Studio with her nerdy brother-in-law Norman (Garth Meade), whom she is conniving to get rid of, with the aid of the dim-witted gym instructor Len Crosby (Bill Charlton), with whom she became pregnant. Iris had been married to Norman's late brother, Michael. Coral Drouyn, billed as Coral Kelly, played Consuela McPhee, the newly hired 'full figured' receptionist at the Health Studio, who was despised by the vengeful Iris. Despite this, Consuela and Norman became a mismatched set of friends.
Annie Semler (wife of Oscar-winning cinematographer Dean Semler) got a lot of media attention at the time for playing the outrageous, somewhat provocative but very well-meaning Hungarian gift shop owner Magda Yokochek. Magda was quite the hilarious character, with her continually calling everyone "darling"; her mangling of the English language (she called what she sold "Knicker knockeries") and her interactions with her tax advisor, Mr. Sponge. However, more seriously, Magda was an illegal immigrant who was looking for a wealthy man to marry to secure her residency in Australia.
Lucy Taylor and Raymond Nock as Si Wan and Philip Soo, the mother and son operators of Toby's (the sit-down restaurant), and Sinan Leong played the spoiled and pampered Mee Ling, Si Wan's daughter, and Philip's sister who balked at working at the family restaurant. In the 'shocking' storyline in the early episodes, Philip, a potential Olympic swimmer, realised he was falling in love with his sister. Fortunately, that attraction fizzled, and Mee Ling was arranged to marry a much older man named Chang Li.
Patrick Ward played conceited – and rather dimwitted – Craig Carmichael, who owned the Surf-n-Ski Sports shop, but spent most of his time trying to get work as a male model. His girlfriend Di Smith, played by former ballerina Olga Tamara, managed the shop on his behalf.
Jeremy Kewley played Robbie Stewart, a mysterious young man who turns out to be the younger brother of Craig Carmichael (whose real name was Stan Stewart, but he had changed it to Craig Carmichael which he thought was a sexier name for a male model). It would be later revealed that Di was the daughter of a wealthy man, and it was she who had gotten Craig his successful modeling jobs. She was tempted to blab this secret when he got quite obnoxious. She would also get mad at him later on when he had an affair with troublemaking Iris.
Cast members after Arcade
Many actors in the series went on to have successful careers after the ill-fated Arcade ended, both Lorrae Desmond and Syd Heylen went on to become long time cast members of A Country Practice, whilst Jeremy Kewley, Tracy Mann and Christine Harris went on to have high-profile television and film careers, whilst Coral Drouyn went on to become a successful television scriptwriter.
Jeremy Kewley went on to star in successful series like Janus and Stingers, and playing lead roles in movies like Frank & Jerry and Disappearance and became popular as the audience warm-up comedian on the AFL version of The Footy Show for almost two decades. However, Kewley's career effectively ended following his conviction and custodial sentence for multiple child sex offences in 2015.
Coral Drouyn retired from acting after Arcade and changed her career to script-writing, becoming story editor on Prisoner, Blue Heelers and Home and Away.
Sinan Leong continued her career as a multi-disciplinary artist, including the fields of acting, dancing and the visual arts – however, she became most notable as frontwoman/singer of the pioneering Australian industrial music group SPK.
Related Research Articles
A soap opera, daytime drama, or soap for short, is typically a long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns.
Bellbird is an Australian soap opera serial broadcast by the ABC set in the small fictional Victorian rural township of the show's title. The series was produced at the networks Ripponlea TV studios in Elsternwick, Melbourne. The opening title sequence was filmed at Daylesford, Victoria.
Number 96 is an Australian primetime soap opera that aired on 0-10 Network from 13 March 1972 to 11 August 1977, broadcast in the primetime slot of 8:30 pm every weeknight.
Texas is an American daytime soap opera, which aired on NBC from August 4, 1980, until December 31, 1982, sponsored and produced by Procter and Gamble Productions at NBC Studios in Brooklyn, New York City. It is a spin-off of Another World, co-created by head writers John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington, and executive producer of Another World at the time, Paul Rauch. Rauch held the title of executive producer for the parent series and its spin-off until 1981.
Full Frontal was an Australian sketch comedy series which ran on the Seven Network from 1993 to 1997. It launched the television careers of Eric Bana, Shaun Micallef, Kitty Flanagan, Julia Morris and Denise Scott.
Gwendoline Jean Plumb AM BEM, was an Australian performer of international appeal, actress and comedian active in literally every form of the art genre, including revue, pantomime, vaudeville, interviewing, game shows, live appearances, compering, radio production, scriptwriting and acting, television soap opera and mini-series and made-for-TV film.
Marg Downey is an Australian comedian and actress best known for her roles in The D Generation, Fast Forward and Full Frontal
The Sullivans is an Australian period drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran on the Nine Network from 15 November 1976 until 10 March 1983. The series tells the story of a fictional average middle-class Melbourne family and the effect that the Second World War and the immediate post-war events had on their lives. It covers the period between 1 September 1939 to 22 August 1948. It was a consistent ratings success in Australia, and also became popular in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Gibraltar, Greece and New Zealand.
Jane Turner is an Australian actress, comedian and Logie Award-winning comedy series creator and screenwriter.
Alfred James "Alf" Stewart is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by Ray Meagher. Alf was created as one of the show's eighteen original characters. Meagher auditioned for the role of Tom Fletcher, before being cast as Alf. He made his first appearance during the pilot episode broadcast on 17 January 1988. As of 2017, Meagher is the sole remaining original cast member and he holds a Guinness World Record for being the longest-serving actor in an Australian serial. For his portrayal of Alf, Meagher won the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television in 2010.
Peita Margaret Toppano stage name Peta Toppano is an English-born Australian of stage and screen actress, singer and dancer, who is known for her series roles in The Young Doctors as Dr. Gail Henderson, Prisoner, as Karen Travers, Return to Eden as Jilly Stewart and her recurring role in Home and Away as Helen Poulos.
Tracy Mann is an Australian actress and voice artist. After appearing in a number of television series, she won an Australian Film Institute award in 1980 for movie Hard Knocks. She has also won awards in her home country for her work in mini-series Sword of Honour and 2005 movie comedy Hating Alison Ashley.
Lorrae Desmond was an Australian Gold Logie-award-winning singer, recording artist, radio and television presenter, character actor, and playwright, with a career that spanned over 55 years both locally and in the United Kingdom.
Chantal Contouri is a Greek Australian television and film actress and former dancer, best known for her role in the 1970s soap opera Number 96, as nurse Tracy Wilson, later revealed to be the serial killer known as the infamous "pantyhose strangler".
Garth Meade was a South African and later Australian actor and comedian, best known for his roles on television series and mini-series. He also worked numerously in cabaret and the club circuit.
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV is a British comedy sketch series written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood, with appearances from Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge. The show was televised on BBC2 between 1985 and 1987 and included sketches that became famous in the United Kingdom.
Jeremy Leo Kewley is an Australian actor, writer, producer and convicted child sex offender. He made his professional acting debut as an adolescent in the feature film The Devil's Playground (1976).
The Pinball Arcade is a pinball video game developed by FarSight Studios. The game is a simulated collection of 100 real pinball tables licensed by Gottlieb, Alvin G. and Company, and Stern Pinball, a company which also owns the rights of machines from Data East and Sega Pinball. Williams and Bally games are no longer available since June 30, 2018, as FarSight had lost the license to WMS properties, which has since passed to Zen Studios.
Coral Drouyn née O'Neill,, also billed as Coral Kelly, is an English Australian actress, singer and screenwriter/story editor best known for her work in television, including Prisoner, Neighbours, Blue Heelers, Pacific Drive and Home and Away
Sara Dane is a 1982 Australian television miniseries about a woman transported from England to Australia for a crime she did not commit.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
