[pressgang] Another new American

[Mark Longmuir]

Murray Head [Lab] wrote:
> rps wrote:
> > Got to disagree.  Australia makes fantastic children's television.
> > Thinking Round the Twist, Henderson Kids, Our House (going back many
> years)

<snipped>
> motives) of a good teenage drama.  Reluctantly but without doubt I must
> say that my teenage years' afternoons (the traditional place of
> programming of PG and Degrassi's ilk) were spent watching British (PG,
> Doctor Who, whatever that annoying (in that it took over from PG, rather
> than in it's actual quality) bike-courier show was) and Canadian
> (Degrassi Jnr- and Degrassi- High (never got into "Kids of Degrassi)) in
> the company of, firstly, Mr James Valentine, and later Michael Tunn on
> the ABC... 

<EVEN LONGER RAMBLE ABOUT AUSTRALIAN TV A FEW YEARS AGO>
Damn (magazine), you got there before me... I would have brought up the
Afternoon show, but only just got around to catching up on last week's
mail...
Australia is not really short of good kids TV - of course Spellbinder 2,
Ocean Girl, etc. have been mentioned before, and the ABC has made some
good shows too, like those mentioned above (Round the Twist, Big Square
Eye, etc.).
One of the things the ABC was good at a few years ago was linking shows
- Couch Potato (with Grant Piro and Joey Kennedy), and the Afternoon
Show (particulary when James Valentine hosted, before it became more of
a music show with Michael Tunn). The Goodies has a similar situation to
PG, with a huge percentage of fans being Australian.
Without a doubt much of the reason for this must go to the excellent
programming which ABC used to have in the afternoon. Thinking about it,
the Afternoon Show (and also Couch Potato) had so many fondly remembered
programs - PG, Goodies, Dr Who, Degrassi, "You Can't Do That...... On
Television" (as the temporary female host used to say it), Monkey,
Grange Hill, Big Square Eye, Round the Twist, Duckula, Finders Keepers,
Inspector Gadget, and a few other more dimly remembered shows like
Secret Valley (I'm not even sure if that was on ABC), Beans Baxter,
Chocky's Challenge, etc. And between that you had great linking segments
like "Monday Mun... chies <burp>", Pete Castaldi's movie reviews on
Friday, the Dr Who Quiz, etc.
These days we only get cartoons in that timeslot, Couch Potato also
seemed to go downhill fairly quickly after Joey, and then Grant left.
Occasionally there's something good at 5:30 PM, e.g. The Biz, but other
than that it's only school holiday mornings that we get shows like
Dodgem, the Lodge, Grange Hill, etc. that come even close to those
classic days...

So, thankyou James Valentine for having such a great impact on all our
lives :)

Mark.

PS - I also remember Degrassi fondly... maybe that should be on Foxtel
too! (time to encourage them to get a channel for older kids so they can
show DGH and PG in full!). One of the main things I remember is after
the movie which ended it all, old fuddy-duddy John Hinde (who at that
stage was still the movie reviewer on ABC and not yet acting silly on
McFeast) saying in his own special style to Michael Tunn "And if you
liked the movie, you'll love to get the video... THE VIDEO!... now
available at ABC shops." Some friends and I used to just love laughing
at his bizarre voice/style, and this statement led to much imitation and
merriment...

-- 
Mark Longmuir - longmuir at labyrinth.net.au
Homepage: http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~longmuir
Whose Line is it Anyway? - http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/8451
"Now the sheep's hit the fan..."

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