The Comedy Game is an Australian television comedy anthology series that aired in 1971 and 1973 on ABC. The new comedies screened in the series were seen as possible pilots for a full television series. [1]
The episodes led to the series Our Man in Canberra in 1971, A Nice Day at the Office in 1972, The Aunty Jack Show in 1972, Flash Nick From Jindivick in 1974 and Scattergood: Friend of All in 1975.
Aired 2 November 1971 (Sydney), 25 November (Melbourne). By Marcus Cooney and John Brendan. Plot: Harvey and Crisp work in the filing section of a government office.
Aired 9 November 1971 (Sydney), 2 December (Melbourne). The story of newlyweds George and Peggy Trump and their friends Gordon Bates and Leonard Cartaris. Produced by Maurice Murphy.
Aired 16 November 1971 (Sudneuy), 16 December (Melbourne). By John O'Grady.
Aired 23 December 1971 (Melbourne). By Jenny Wager. A university department has had no professors or students for thirty years.
Aired 9 December 1971 (Melbourne).
Aired 7 December 1971 (Sydney), 30 December 1971 (Melbourne). Writers include Geoffrey Atherdon Graham Bond, Sherman Merlick, Peter Weir. Music and lyrics by Bond and Rory O'Donoghue.
Aired 14 December 1971 (Sydney), by Michael Aitkins. Arthur Potter is an out of work young man.
Aired 19 May 1973 (Sydney). By John O'Grady. About a 40 year old bachelor.
Aired 26 May 1973. By John Dingwall. Set in a drivers pool at a city newspaper's office.
Aired 9 June 1973 (Sydney), 7 November (Melbourne). Three separate stories. By Maurice Wiltshire, Ray Biehler, Arthur Sherman.
Aired 30 June 1973.
Aired 16 June and 23 June 1973 (Sydney), 14 and 21 Nov (Melbourne). By Grahame Bond.
Aired 2 June 1973 (Sydney).
Basically Black was the first television program written and created by Indigenous Australians, and starred: [2] [3]
The cinema of Australia began with the 1906 production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers with international reputations started their careers in Australian films, and many of these have established lucrative careers in larger film-producing centres such as the United States.
They're a Weird Mob is a 1966 Australian comedy film based on the 1957 novel of the same name by John O'Grady under the pen name "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character of the book. It was the penultimate collaboration of the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
The Aunty Jack Show is a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day.
The 20th Annual TV Week Logie Awards were presented on Friday 3 March 1978 at Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne and broadcast on the Nine Network. Bert Newton from the Nine Network was the Master of Ceremonies. American singer Sammy Davis, Jr., television actors Mike Farrell, Florence Henderson, Richard Anderson ,and Patty Weaver, and British television host David Frost appeared as guests. Bob Hope also made a brief introduction via cable from Sydney.
Grahame John Bond AM is an Australian actor, writer, director, musician and composer, known primarily for his role as Aunty Jack.
June Marie Salter AM was an Australian actress and author prominent in theatre and television. She is best known for her character roles, in particular as schoolteacher Elizabeth McKenzie in the soap opera The Restless Years and for her regular guest appearances in A Country Practice as Matron Hilda Arrowsmith.
The Old Tote Theatre Company (1963–1978) was a New South Wales theatre company that began as the standing acting and theatre company of Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney's South-Eastern Suburbs. It was the predecessor to the Sydney Theatre Company. The Old Tote was one of the leading Australian theatre companies.
Geoffrey John Atherden, credited also as Geoff Atherden, is an Australian television screenwriter and playwright, especially of comedy. He is best known for creating the sitcom Mother and Son.
Richard Bruce Wherrett AM was an Australian stage director, whose career spanned 40 years. He is known for being the founding director of the Sydney Theatre Company in 1979.
Jesus Christ Superstar or Jesus Christ Superstar – Original Australian Cast Recording is an album released in late 1972 on MCA Records. Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera created by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1970. The earliest Australian version was staged from May 1972 to February 1974. This album features Trevor White, Jon English and Michele Fawdon. Together with other cast members, they performed vocals for a studio recording. It was produced by Patrick Flynn, the show's musical director and a conductor for Opera Australia. The album peaked at No. 17 on the Go-Set Albums Chart in June 1973, while it reached No. 13 on the Kent Music Report and remained on its charts for 54 weeks. It appeared in the top 100 on the 1974 End of Year Albums Chart. In May 1973, the album was awarded a gold record for sales of 50,000 albums.
Russell James Dunlop was an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and record producer-engineer. From the late 1970s he collaborated with Bruce Brown in a production company for albums and singles by Australian performers including Mental As Anything, The Reels and Machinations. As a musician he was a member of various groups such as Aesop's Fables (1968–70), Levi Smith's Clefs (1971), Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (SCRA) (1971–72) and Ayers Rock (1976).
Stork is a 1971 Australian comedy film directed by Tim Burstall. Stork is based on the play The Coming of Stork by David Williamson. Bruce Spence and Jacki Weaver make their feature film debuts in Stork, being honoured at the 1972 Australian Film Institute Awards, where they shared the acting prize. Stork won the prize for best narrative feature and Tim Burstall won for best direction. Stork was one of the first ocker comedies. Stork was the first commercial success of the Australian cinema revival called the Australian New Wave.
They're a Weird Mob is a popular 1957 Australian comic novel written by John O'Grady under the pseudonym "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character of the book. The book was the first published novel by O'Grady, with an initial print run of 6,000 hardback copies. In less than six months, the book had been reprinted eight times and sold 74,000 copies. In the first year of publication, over 130,000 copies were sold. By the time of O'Grady's death in 1981, They're A Weird Mob was in its forty-seventh impression, with sales approaching the one million mark. Published by Ure Smith, the manuscript had been earlier rejected by publisher Angus & Robertson, and is reputedly the result of a ten pound bet between O'Grady and his brother, novelist Frank O'Grady.
Maurice Brendan Murphy is an Australian film and television director, producer, writer and actor. He is best known for his influential work as a director of TV comedy programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – most notably The Aunty Jack Show – and for his 1980 feature film adaptation of the Australian comic strip Fatty Finn.
Jacqueline Ruth Weaver is an Australian theatre, film, and television actress. Weaver emerged in the 1970s Australian New Wave through her work in Ozploitation films such as Stork (1971), Alvin Purple (1973), and Petersen (1974). She later starred in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976), Squizzy Taylor (1982), and a number of television films, miniseries, and Australian productions of plays such as Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Rory O'Donoghue was an Australian actor, composer and musician, best known for playing the character "Thin Arthur" in the 1970s ABC Television sketch comedy series The Aunty Jack Show, and for playing the guitar solo on Kevin Johnson's biggest hit "Rock 'N' Roll ". The Aunty Jack Show featured O'Donoghue's long-time creative partner Grahame Bond as the title character.
Aunty Jack Introduces Colour is a one-off television special edition of The Aunty Jack Show, broadcast on ABC television on the night of 28 February 1975. It was created two years after The Aunty Jack Show finished, and featured the main character, Aunty Jack, played by Grahame Bond, even though she had been killed off in the last season in 1973. The episode was five minutes long and was the first show on ABC television to be broadcast in colour.
News Free Zone was a 1985 Australian TV comedy show starring Grahame Bond. It was the idea of Maurice Murphy.
Our Man in the Company is an Australian comedy series which screened on the ABC in 1973 and 1974. This series was a spin-off from the controversial series Our Man in Canberra, debuted in New South Wales on 7 July 1973 and ended on 27 August 1974.
Scattergood: Friend of All is an Australian television sitcom which first screened on the ABC in 1975.