External links
- My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? at IMDb
- My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? – Classic Australian Television
| My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Ralph Petersen |
| Written by | Ralph Peterson |
| Directed by | Ron Way |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Tommy Tycho – Flute and Accordion duet |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 88 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Ralph Peterson |
| Production locations | Sydney, Australia |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Seven Network (ATN7) |
| Release | 13 October 1966 – 29 February 1968 |
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? is a popular Australian situation comedy series produced by the Seven Network (station ATN7) from 1966 to 1968.
The situation involved a young couple, Wally and Rita Stiller (John Meillon and Judi Farr), living in Balmain with Rita's father Dominic McGooley (Gordon Chater). [1] Also in the regular cast were Stewart Ginn, Robert McDarra, and later Noeline Brown joined as Wally's sister. Chater and Brown were well-known to television viewers from The Mavis Bramston Show.
The comedy of the series came from the clash of two generations living under one roof, a situation possibly inspired by the success of the 1960s British comedies Steptoe and Son and Till Death Us Do Part . [2] Although only 44 when the show began, Chater played a curmudgeonly senior citizen who enjoyed irritating his son-in-law and fishing with his mates in prohibited areas of Sydney Harbour.
Most episodes were written by creator-producer Ralph Peterson and directed by Ron Way. Way was arguably better known for musical and variety specials but would go on to direct the series Good Morning Mr Doubleday and, later, the thriller Frenchman's Farm. The McGooley series was filmed in monochrome. Location and filmed insert sequences were supplied by Artransa Park Film Studios. The flute and accordion duet composed for the theme tune was by Tommy Tycho, who had also worked on The Mavis Bramston Show.
The series had a three-season run of 88 episodes under the McGooley title. [2] In 1968, the old McGooley house is demolished and the Stillers must move out. Chater left the show and the remaining cast was spun off into a new series titled Rita and Wally but it was found that the character of Dominic was integral to the comedy of the situation and the series ended a few months later. Rita and Wally ran for a single season of 23 episodes. [3]
In 1976 the series was briefly resurrected as a radio comedy. Chater, Farr and Meillon returned and once again the show was set at 17 Karang Road. Stewart Ginn having died, the part of Nancarrow was played by Max Osbiston. Fay Kelton took over the part of Possum from Noeline Brown. [4]
The program was made on videotape but, as was common at the time, the videotape masters were wiped and re-used. 16mm film copies of the complete series, created for affiliates that couldn't broadcast it alongside the rest of the network, as well as for sale to foreign countries such as Britain (where the program was shown on Yorkshire ITV, Grampian and Ulster television in 1968-9) [5] were donated to the National Film and Sound Archive. [6]
The program was rated number 24 in 2005 television special 50 Years 50 Shows which counted down Australia's greatest television programs.
