The Genie from Down Under | |
---|---|
Created by | |
Directed by | |
Starring | Alexandra Milman Rhys Muldoon (series 1) Sandy Winton (series 2) Glenn Meldrum Anna Galvin Ian McFadyen Monica Maughan Mark Mitchell |
Country of origin |
|
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 26 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producers |
|
Running time | 25 minutes |
Production company | Australian Children's Television Foundation |
Original release | |
Network | |
Release | 3 June 1996 – 19 August 1998 |
The Genie from Down Under is a British-Australian children's comedy television series. It was a co-production between the ACTF, the BBC and the ABC from 1996 to 1998. The Genie from Down Under is based on an idea from Steve J Spears which was developed into a series concept with a 'Round The Twist' flavour. [1] Esben Storm, Steve Spears and a team of writers work-shopped the storylines. Patricia Edgar was looking for a new idea for a comedy series which would capture the debate about Australia becoming a Republic - a significant issue in Australia at the time. She invited a few writers to submit original ideas then chose the concept submitted by Steve Spears to workshop its potential. She asked Esben Storm, who had been the co-author and Director of the successful Round the Twist series to lead the development workshop. [2]
Following the success of Round the Twist on the BBC, the head of children's television Anna Home agreed to put up half the $4.1 million budget for a co-production. This was half the budget which was the highest level of finance the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) had ever seen from an overseas co-production partner. The program met the BBC requirements for a UK production and was also able to meet the objectives for programming produced by the Foundation in Australia. Even though the entire series was shot in Australia, the story was set in both Australia and the UK and one of the lead cast and one of the directors was British. [2] Produced by Patricia Edgar and Phil Jones and directed by Esben Storm, Jeremy Swan (of the BBC) and Brendan Maher, the series is a comedy with distinctive Australian humour. [3] With this project, the ACTF broke new ground with a production financing structure.
The first series went to air in the UK in 1996 on BBCI in the critical 4.30 to 5pm timeslot. It won two and a half million viewers – 40 per cent of its audience. The success story was repeated in over 20 countries. In Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand and The Netherlands, children – and adults – loved the Australian humour. [4]
The Genie from Down Under is one of Australia's favourite comedy series for children and adults alike. Broadcast Magazine recorded The Genie from Down Under (series 2) as the 10th highest rating children's series in the United Kingdom during its broadcast by the BBC. [5]
The honourable Penelope Townes is a 13-year old aristocrat from England who lives with her widowed mother, Lady Diana, with their housekeeper Miss Mossop at Townes Hall. [1] Townes is a stately but crumbling mansion in Wilshire, England. [1]
Penelope comes into possession of an opal pendant when she explores the dusty attic of her family's decaying mansion. The opal contains two Australian genies, Bruce and his son Baz, who have been living inside the opal for 130 years since Penelope's great, great-grandfather, Sir Claude, brought them to England. This is the setting for a battle of wits and a clash of class and culture. Penelope is a selfish snob who sees the Genie as her property and has the power. Bruce, the Genie is an ocker and has the magic.
So when Penelope – in an ungarded moment – wishes she were somewhere else, Bruce whisks her overseas, to her inheritance, Townes Downs, a rundown property in the middle of 800 square kilometres of Australian outback. [3] Penelope hates Australia and is constantly trying to get back to Townes Hall in Wiltshire. [3] Bruce thinks Townes Downs is heaven on earth and Townes Hall is hell. [3]
Typically, an episode revolved around the consequences of one of Penelope's flippant wishes, or the efforts of an outside party to steal the opal (and thus, the genies).
When Penelope inherits a property in Australia (Townes Downs), Bruce and Baz are very happy because it means that they can spend more time in their own country. When they go to inspect the property, they meet Otto von Meister, who runs tours of outback Australia. His forefather stole the opal from the Aboriginal peoples and then lost it in a card game to Penelope's ancestor, Sir Claude. [6] Otto is determined to return the opal to its rightful owner – him! [6] When he finds out that Penelope has the opal, he tries to steal it from her. He often enlists his nephew, Conrad, to help him. Penelope falls in love with Conrad, which gives Otto far more opportunity to steal the opal. The battle for possession of the opal sees Otto become King of England and Bubbles lead his band of Merry Chaps in green to plot the end to King Otto's reign. [6]
Things are further complicated when Bruce (the genie) falls in love with Penelope's mother, Lady Diana Townes. She is already supposedly in love with Lord 'Bubbles' Uppington-Smythe, however, it is revealed that this is only because of his money, and she in turn falls in love with Bruce.
In the end, Penelope accepts that Bruce and her mother are in love, and gives the opal to her mother, allowing Bruce to reveal his true identity. Bruce and Diana end up marrying.
In 1994, the Foundation set about developing a 13-part comedy series that was going to be titled The Genie from Down Under, featuring Bruce, an Australian Genie, with his dog Blue. Jeremy Swan, a producer from the BBC spent a month during 1994 with the Foundation developing the scripts for the series. In the same year, the ACTF concluded a deal with the ABC and the BBC to produce the 13-part comedy-drama series, but Bruce's dog was replaced with the concept of Baz, his 8-year-old son. [1] The BBC and the ABC's Children's Departments pre-bought the series. BBC Children's International and the Australian Film Finance Corporation invested in the series with the BBC acting as international distributor. [1] The 13 episodes in the first series were written by Steve J Spears, Christine Madafferi and Mandy Hampson with Esben Storm as Script Consultant. [1] Jeremy Swan, the BBC's Script Consultant, was involved throughout the production. [1] Jeremy is an experienced comedy writer-director of children's programs. [1] Production of the first series commenced on 27 March 1995 and shooting was completed on 27 June 1995. [3]
Filming took place at the Melbourne Film Studios, various locations in Melbourne, Werribee Park, and the Nulla Homestead. Werribee Park is the site of Townes Hall and the Nulla Homestead, in the heart of the Australian outback, is the site of Townes Downs. [3] Post-production of the Foundation's 13-part comedy series was completed in November, with the series premiering on the BBC in January 1996 and on the ABC in June 1996. [8]
Series 1 Launch
The Foundation and the ABC hosted a press launch for The Genie from Down Under on 8 May 1996. [8] The series premiered on BBCI in the United Kingdom on Mondays from 8 January 1996. [8] The series began screening on the ABC every Monday at 5.00pm from 3 June 1996. [8]
In 1996, the Foundation was in the early stages of development of a second 13-part series of The Genie from Down Under. Esben Storm worked with writers and performers from the first series to develop the initial concept. [8] The series scripts were written by Philip Dalkin, Louise Fox and Esben Storm. The Foundation distributed the series internationally. Pre-production commenced in July 1997. The producers of the series are Patricia Edgar and Elizabeth Symes and they worked with the directors Aleksi Vellis, Stephen Johnson and Ray Boseley. Most of the major cast from the first series returned for the second series including Alexandra Milman as Penelope. Rhys Muldoon was not able to return for season 2 to play the Genie, so Sandy Winton took over the role. The second series was pre-sold to the ABC and the BBC. [4]
Production started in September and filming once again took place at Werribee Park Mansion and locations in and around Melbourne. The second series was promoted at the MIP market in April 1997 and orders were placed from broadcasters who screened the first series to enthusiastic audiences. The completed series was delivered to the ABC in May 1998. The series commenced screening on the ABC on Monday 3 August 1998 at 5.00pm. [7]
Series | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 13 | 3 June 1996 | 26 August 1996 | |
2 | 13 | 3 August 1998 | 19 August 1998 |
Episode information retrieved from Australian Television archive & IMDB. [9] [10] [11] [12]
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Wishing and Hoping" | Esben Storm | Steve J. Spears | 3 June 1996 |
2 | 2 | "It's My Opal...and I’ll Cry If I Want To" | Jeremy Swan | Christine Madafferi | 10 June 1996 |
3 | 3 | "Where It's At" | Esben Storm | Christine Madafferi | 17 June 1996 |
4 | 4 | "Good Cop, Bad Genie" | Brendan Maher | Christine Madafferi | 24 June 1996 |
5 | 5 | "Customs" | Jeremy Swan | Jeremy Swan & Esben Storm | 1 July 1996 |
6 | 6 | "Larceny" | Brendan Maher | Steve J. Spears | 8 July 1996 |
7 | 7 | "The Eternal Quadrangle" | Esben Storm | Mandy Hampson | 15 July 1996 |
8 | 8 | "Nobody’s Perfect" | Brendan Maher | Christine Madafferi | 22 July 1996 |
9 | 9 | "The Triple Agent" | Esben Storm | Christine Madafferi | 29 July 1996 |
10 | 10 | "A Tale of Two Cities" | Jeremy Swan | Philip Dalkin | 5 August 1996 |
11 | 11 | "School Daze" | Esben Storm | Steve J. Spears | 12 August 1996 |
12 | 12 | "Triple Threat" | Jeremy Swan | Philip Dalkin | 19 August 1996 |
13 | 13 | "It's Still Magic" | Esben Storm | Steve J. Spears & Esben Storm | 26 August 1996 |
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 | 1 | "I Do. You Do! Who Do?" | Aleksi Vellis | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 3 August 1998 |
15 | 2 | "The Photo Opportunity" | Ray Boseley | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 4 August 1998 |
16 | 3 | "The Cold Shoulder" | Aleksi Vellis | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 5 August 1998 |
17 | 4 | "Chase the Sun" | Stephen Johnson | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 6 August 1998 |
18 | 5 | "Peace in Our Time" | Ray Boseley | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 7 August 1998 |
19 | 6 | "Lord of the Nail Files" | Ray Boseley | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 10 August 1998 |
20 | 7 | "Baby Talk" | Aleksi Vellis | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 11 August 1998 |
21 | 8 | "My Better Half" | Aleksi Vellis | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 12 August 1998 |
22 | 9 | "Stock and Bonding" | Ray Boseley | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 13 August 1998 |
23 | 10 | "The Opal is a Boomerang" | Stephen Johnson | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 14 August 1998 |
24 | 11 | "The Heart of Country and Western" | Aleksi Vellis | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 17 August 1998 |
25 | 12 | "Otto Rules OK" | Ray Boseley | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 18 August 1998 |
26 | 13 | "The Last Wish" | Aleksi Vellis | Esben Storm, Philip Dalkin & Louise Fox | 19 August 1998 |
The Genie from Down Under screened from 3 June 1996 to 26 August 1996 every Monday at 5.00pm on the ABC. [4]
The Disney Channel Australia screened The Genie from Down Under Series One at 6.00pm on Saturdays from 16 November 1997 until 15 February 1998. [7]
Prior to the premiere screening of the second series, the ABC repeated the first series in July 1998, screening the program on weekdays at 10.55am. [6] Only five months after its premiere, the ABC repeated the second series from February 1999 on Sunday mornings at 9.00am. [6]
In 1999, the ABC screened the first series (for the third time) at 11.00am on weekday mornings during the school holidays from 28 June 1999 until 14 July 1999. [13] The ABC also screened the second series (for the third time) at 5.00pm on weekdays from 30 August 1999 until 15 September 1999. [13]
In 2000, the ABC screened the second series (for the fourth time) at 5.00pm on weekdays from 24 April 2000 until 10 May 2000. [13]
In 2001, the ABC screened the first series on weekdays at 5.00pm from 4–20 October 2000. [14] The ABC also screened the second series at 9.00am on Sunday mornings from 12 November 2000 – 28 January 2001. [14] The Disney Channel screened the first series at 12.30pm on weekdays from 26 December 2000 – 11 January 2001 and screened the second series at 12.30pm on weekdays from 12 – 30 January 2001. [14]
In 1997, BBC Worldwide sold The Genie from Down Under to broadcasters in Thailand, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, South Africa, Canada, Poland, Germany and Italy. [4]
In 1998, BBC Worldwide sold the first series to Zone Vision of Poland, Tanweer Enlightenment of Kuwait and Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting company in 1998. [7] The second series was also sold by the Foundation at MIP-TV in April 1998 where it concluded sales to the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, Telewijza Polska, RTE Ireland, TV 2 Denmark and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation. [7]
In 1999, sales into Asia included Series 1 & 2 to Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, for screening at 6.25pm on Tuesday evenings over 26 weeks. [6] The second series was sold to Television Broadcasts Limited Hong Kong and Caro Television in Sri Lanka acquired more episodes of Series 2. [6] Sales into Europe included BBC Worldwide sales of the first series to BBC prime (pay television), RTV Slovenia, Bulgarian National Television, Latvian television, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and ZDF Germany. [6] The Foundation sold the second series to Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canal J France, RTV Slovenia, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, radio Television Malta, and Lithuanian Television. [6] The second series was sold to the Israel Broadcasting Authority. [6]
In 2000, the first series was re-licensed to The Disney Channel Australia, which also acquired the second series for the first time. [13] Both series were sold to the Educational Broadcasting System of Korea. [13] The first series was also acquired by the BOP Broadcasting/SABC Satellite service of South Africa. [13] The second series was sold to Vietnam Television and the Global Advanced Company of Kuwait. [13]
In 2001, the BBC sold the first series to the South African Broadcasting Corporation's satellite service. Meanwhile, the Foundation sold the second series to K-TV in South Africa. [14]
In 2002, both series were licensed by BBC Kids (Canada) and Pt Naina Film for Indonesia and Sri Lanka. [15]
In 2003, both series were sold to Eagle Broadcasting Corporation (Philippines), Ambang Media (Malaysia), and US Advertisement (for Japanese English-language channel GLC). [5] The first series was sold to BBC Canada, and Pt Spectrum Films (Indonesia). [5]
In 2004, both series were sold to HBO (Czech Republic). [16] The second series was also sold to Sveriges Television AB (Sweden). [16]
Years later, both series were sold to Retro TV in the U.S.
Both series were released on VHS in the 1990s, two episodes per cassette, and DVDs were later made available to schools. Each series is now available for digital download via ACTF online. [17]
As of 2023, both series were currently streaming on YouTube's "Twisted Lunchbox" channel.
In April 1996, Penguin Books Australia published a novel to accompany the screening of The Genie from Down Under series on the ABC. [8] The novel, written by Amanda Midlam, was also published in the United Kingdom to tie in with the screening of the series on BBCI at the beginning of 1996. [8] In the first six months of 1996 15,000 copies of the novel were sold in Australia. [8]
The book based on the second series was published by HarperCollins and was available from booksellers from August 1998. [7]
Year | Nominated Work | Award Event | Category | Result | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1996 | First series | Australian Teachers of media (ATOM) Awards, Melbourne | Children's Series | Finalist | [2] |
1996 | First series | Australian Teachers of media (ATOM) Awards, Melbourne | Primary Student Judging Panel | Finalist | [2] |
1996 | First series | Cairo international Film festival for Children, Egypt | _ | Finalist | [2] |
1996 | Wishing and Hoping | Banff Television Festival, Canada | _ | Finalist | [2] |
1996 | Wishing and Hoping | AFI Awards, Melbourne | Children's Drama Series | Nominated | [2] |
1998 | First series | Prix Jeunesse, Munich | _ | Finalist | [2] |
"The ACTF has made an artform out of producing high-spirited and imaginative family entertainment. And it has also forged a model for the independent Australian production company operating successfully, and with integrity, in the international marketplace, creating work that has universal appeal without fatally compromising its local identity." Debi Enker, The Sunday Age, View magazine, 22 June 1996
"the latest in a fine list of children's dramas made by the Australian Children's Television Foundation" Tom Gilling, The Bulletin
"take my word for it, it's good" Alison Stewart, Sydney Morning Herald
"parents won't have to tie themselves to the chair to share this one with the kids" Herald Sun
"great fun, with plenty of laughs and an engrossing story line" Neil Molloy, Sunday Mail
"The Genie From Down Under strikes just the right balance of humour and low-camp adventure. In fact, it's delightful." Simon Hughes, The Age
"The show is funny, well-acted and mercifully free of messages . . . children will love it. Adults are strongly advised to stay around, too." Jenny Tabakoff, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 1998 [7]
"All round approval for this story of a snobbish English girl who discovers by accident a laid-back Australian genie. A show that a young family can sit down and enjoy, it left us wanting to watch the next episode." – Radio Times, UK [7]
". . . A knockabout comedy stuffed with entertaining and often ingenious effects." – Tom Gilling, The Bulletin [7]
". . . real magic for children . . . The name of Esben Storm's work in Australian children's television should make him a national hero." – Dennis Pryor, The Age [7]
Patricia Edgar was extremely pleased with the response to the series and excited about the fact that academics were beginning to analyse the Foundation's programs as "serious cultural product".
Leonie Rutherford argued for cultural research studies of Australian children's television using The Genie from Down Under to demonstrate the complexity and the layers that had been written into the classic battle of master against servant, adult against child, and the humour in the cultural differences generated by national stereotypes. [18]
Round the Twist is an Australian children's comedy drama television series which follows the supernatural adventures of the Twist family, who leave their conventional residence to live in a lighthouse, in the fictional coastal town of Port Niranda.
Rhys Muldoon is an Australian actor, writer and director who has worked extensively in film, television, music, theatre and radio. He has had leading and recurring roles in series such as Chances, The Genie from Down Under, Big Sky, The Secret Life of Us, Lockie Leonard and House Husbands. He was also a presenter on the popular children's series Play School.
Sky Trackers is a 26-part science-based Australian children's television adventure series, and a stand-alone children's television movie of the same name, which feature the adventures of children who live at space-tracking stations in Australia. Both series and telemovie were created by Jeff Peck and Tony Morphett, and executive-produced by Patricia Edgar on behalf of the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF).
Noah and Saskia is a 13-episode TV program initiated, developed and produced by Patricia Edgar for the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) and the BBC as she stepped down after 20 years as Founding Director of the ACTF. The 13 x 24-minute drama series involves an Australian teenage girl, Saskia, and her internet-based relationship with Noah, a teenage boy living in the United Kingdom. The two characters project their ideal selves to each other in a virtual world, and in the process get a little closer to reaching their ideals in the real one. The show is about the power of someone's essence and how someone can touch you from 10,000 miles away, and change your whole life. Noah & Saskia speaks directly to today's young people about the technologies which are changing the way we communicate.
"I wanted one more crack at producing the type of television I had always believed in; not a formulaic soap-style series; not a co-produced mid-Pacific blancmange, but something that really spoke to adolescents about the issues that were on their minds," Patricia Edgar, Bloodbath: a memoir of Australian Television, pg.399. "The Internet was the place to set much of the action as this allowed for a modern, contemporary story, which would be new territory for drama. The other appeal of online chat spaces was that they give the characters opportunities to express themselves in multiple ways. The Net is a space where young people are much more at home than their parents and increasingly it will be their world", Patricia Edgar.
The Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) is a national non-profit children's media production and policy hub. The ACTF helps develop children's television policy; distributes and pays for Australian children's television series; supports new children's media; and develops screen resources for the education sector. The ACTF provides funding and support to independent Australian producers and writers of children's programs.
Esben Storm was a Danish Australian actor, screenwriter, television producer, television director, voice artist and songwriter.
Lift Off was an Australian children's television series that was developed and produced by Patricia Edgar and broadcast on ABC Television from 1992 until the series ended in 1995.
Patricia May Edgar AM is an Australian author, television producer, educator and media scholar, best known as the founding director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation.
The Adventures of Blinky Bill is an Australian animated television series based on Dorothy Wall's books about Blinky Bill, and is a sequel series to the 1992 film Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala. The series is produced by the Yoram Gross companies: Yoram Gross Film Studios and Yoram Gross-EM.TV, with the main co-production of EM.TV and WDR. All three seasons of the series and the TV film were animated overseas by Colorland Animation Productions Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong. Set in Greenpatch, a fictional Australian bushland town, the series presents stories through the activities and misadventures of Blinky Bill, as well as his family and friends.
Li'l Elvis and the Truckstoppers is an animated musical children's television series and the Australian Children's Television Foundation's (ACTF's) first joint venture under the Distinctly Australian Program introduced by the Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating. The Director of the ACTF, Dr. Patricia Edgar, selected Peter Viska's character Li'l Elvis to design and co-produce the ACTF's first long-form 26-episode-series animation. As an original concept, not commissioned from overseas or based on an adaption of a classic story, production of the series on this scale was a massive undertaking for the Australian animation industry. With Li'l Elvis, an $11.5 million project, the ACTF opened up a new overseas market in partnership with France 2 and France Animation, a French production company, and Ravensburger, a German distributor, with the financial participation of Centre national de la cinématographie. A team of 90 animators and artists worked for 18 months including 39 trainees were employed on the production in support roles.
Yolngu Boy is a 2001 Australian coming-of-age film directed by Stephen Maxwell Johnson, produced by Patricia Edgar, Gordon Glenn, Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Mandawuy Yunupingu, and starring Sean Mununggurr, John Sebastian Pilakui, and Nathan Daniels. Yolngu Boy is based around three Aboriginal teenage boys linked by ceremony, kinship and a common dream-to become great Yolngu hunters, in a remote community at Yirrkala in North-East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The feature film traces the metaphorical journey of the three young Aboriginal teenagers caught in a collision between the modern world and traditional Aboriginal culture where they hunt wild animals in the morning using spears and play football while listening to hip hop rap music in the afternoon. The project involved a significant number of community members in the cast and crew of the film.
Crash Zone is an Australian children's science fiction television series which aired on the Seven Network from 13 February 1999 to 25 August 2001. It was produced by Australian Children's Television Foundation, in association with the Disney Channel, and ran for 26 episodes. The series stars five high school students, "high-tech whiz kids" of varied backgrounds, who are hired by the president of the Catalyst software company to save her failing business. The premise of the series was unique in that it was one of the first series to examine the early use of the internet as well as the video game industry and artificial intelligence.
Touch the Sun is a series of television films commissioned by Patricia Edgar for the Australian Children's Television Foundation. It was to be the ACTF's project for the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988. The Australian Bicentennial Authority named Touch the Sun as the Bicentenary official children's series for 1988. Edgar's plan was to locate stories in every state in Australia showing the diversity of the Australian landscape. It was directed, written and produced by some of the top film and tv personnel in Australia. Patricia Edgar was Executive Producer of the show and it was backed by the ABC, Australian Film Commission, the New South Wales Film Corporation, the South Australian Film and Television Financing Fund, the South Australian Film Corporation, Film Victoria and the French distribution company Revcom International. National Trustees agreed to act as investor representatives for Touch the Sun in 1986 and the series was offered to the Australian Television networks for telecast in 1988. The $7.5 million necessary for production of this unique children’s series for the Bicentennial year was fully subscribed by 30 June 1987. The ABC paid $2 million for the Australian rights to Touch the Sun, the most the ABC had ever spent to acquire the rights to a program.
Ready for This is an Australian teen-oriented television drama series that premiered on ABC3 on 5 October 2015. It follows five Indigenous teenagers who venture across the country to Sydney to pursue their dreams.
Kaboodle is a 13-part anthology television series which includes animation, puppetry, and live action and was produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) that ran on ABC Television from 1987 to 1990. Kaboodle 2 was a follow-on series which provided another six half-hour episodes of innovative television drama for the under-tens. Kaboodle 2, however, was fully animated and instead of being an ‘anthology’ series of many short dramas, all of which are different, this season had regular characters in every episode. The show commenced screening on the Seven Network across Australia in April 1990.
Winners is an Australian children's television anthology series conceived and produced for the ACTF by its founding director, Patricia Edgar. It first screened on Network 10 in 1985 as part of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal's newly implemented C classified drama quota. It featured eight self-contained telemovies and stories. Patricia Edgar was confident that Winners would be a landmark in the development of quality children's television and that it would go on to set the standard nationally and internationally for future children's productions. More Winners is the second season of the series, first screened on ABC in 1990. It featured six self-contained telemovies and stories.
Regulations on television programming in Australia are enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority to promote programming which reflects Australian identity and cultural diversity. Commercial networks must adhere to content quotas of Australian programming, in the categories of Australian content quotas, children's content quotas, commercial broadcasting quotas, community broadcasting quotas, public broadcasting quotas and subscription television quotas. Regulations are based on the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
First Day is an Australian drama television series which premiered on ABC Me on 30 March 2020. The series originated as a short film of the same title which aired in 2017. The series retells elements of the short film. The series was filmed in Adelaide, South Australia including on location at Marryatville High School and Mercedes College.
Hoopla Doopla! is a joint Australian-Chinese live-action non-verbal children's TV series, which was first broadcast from February 2014. It was created by Melinda Wearne and Ron Saunders using cast and production teams from both countries. It was co-directed by Mark Barnard and Liang Tong. The series was filmed during six months up to late 2013, using a 2250 square metre studio, "about the size of a football field" containing the fictional town of Hoopla. Producers were Wearne and Saunders for Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Zhao Qian for China Central Television (CCTV).