Cirrus@Austlit

A thirteen-episode sit-com from the production company that was shortly to launch soap-opera Number 96.

The premise involves three men and two women who, for purely economic reasons, share a basement flat: Jeremy (who works in television), Mark (a medical student), Bob (an accountant), Jennifer (a university student), and Laura (a model and receptionist).

The program's tension comes from their landlord Tinto, whose prurient distress at the mixed-gender tenancy leads him to attempt various methods of evicting them.

According to Don Storey, on his website Classic Australian Television:

'The Group relies, in classic sit-com tradition, on misunderstandings and misinterpretations of events to generate comedy, which are usually the result of the scatter-brained antics of Laura. There is no underlying social comment, other than the overall theme of not judging by appearances as Tinto does. The sole purpose of The Group is to entertain, and this it does.'

Though The Group was popular with audiences, it was not picked up for a second season for various reasons, including (according to Don Storey) the lack of overseas sales, Bruce Gyngell's departure from the Seven Network, and Cash Harmon Television's planned production of Number 96 for the Ten Network.

The Long Arm centres on an unidentified department of the Victoria Police headed by Inspector Dallas Buchanan. The cases involve all manner of crimes including those which would normally be handled by other specialist units.

Source: TV Eye Classic Australian Television

Like The Adventures of the Seaspray and Barrier Reef, The Rovers was an adventure series based around a ship (in this case, an island schooner called the Pacific Lady). The concept allowed for a great degree of mobility, so that, in Moran's words (in his Guide to Australian TV Series), they 'drop anchor, go ashore and "have adventures".'

The crew consisted of Captain Sam McGill (called 'Cap'), Cap's ten-year-old grandson Mike, freelance wildlife photographer Bob Wild, and journalist for Wildlife magazine Rusty Collins, 'whose editor agreed to her accompanying the party on the boat as long as it doesn't cost him anything' (according to Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television).

Moran says of The Rovers that it 'was a bargain basement variation of the Barrier Reef formula' (despite the fact that Barrier Reef didn't air until nearly two years later, in February 1971). But Don Storey similarly notes that

To be fair, The Rovers could not be considered a ground-breaking pinnacle of artistic achievement, following as it does the well-trodden path taken by Seaspray, Skippy and Woobinda. However, for all its predicability and happy ending, The Rovers is a slick, well-produced and entertaining product, with a balance between the dramatic and the light-hearted that appealed to adults and children alike.

A sit-com set in the fictional Kannabri High School, Good Morning, Mr Doubleday focuses on bumbling science teacher Robinson Doubleday, his girlfriend (and home economics teacher) Jenny Hamilton, and his best friend (and history teacher) Wes 'Tobe' Tobin.

According to Albert Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'This series was based directly on scripts written for the American comedy series Good Morning Mr Peepers [Mister Peepers, 1952-1955], which had starred comedian Wally Cox. Australian writer Ron McLean was employed merely to 'adapt' this school comedy about a mild-mannered schoolteacher to Australian conditions.' Don Storey also notes, in his Classic Australian Television, that the program was 'directly based on an American school comedy, Mr. Peepers, of which Fremantle International had purchased the concept' and that the scripts were 'little more than the original American Mr. Peepers scripts, with the relevant details crossed out and altered'.

Storey notes of the central character that 'Doubleday is devoted to his work, with an incessant pride in his school, and although he is a bumbler in his own life, this aspect is not exaggerated and he is actually quite an intelligent person and an excellent teacher. Gallagher showed quite a flair for the role, portraying Doubleday as an interesting and believable character.'

The program also took an unusual approach to the casting of students. Storey notes that 'Doubleday's class was made up of ten students from high schools around Melbourne, with an average age of 16, who were used as "extras." To portray a contemporary school with accuracy and credibility, the producers found the advice of the "extras" invaluable, realising that there had been many changes since their own school years.'

The program was not successful, and production was halted after 26 episodes. Among the reasons for its lack of success, Storey isolates such concerns as the low budget; the constraints in production caused by the production company remaining in Sydney while filming took place in Melbourne (including a lack of contact between the writers and the cast); the 'slow' directorial style; changes in scheduling during broadcast; and an over-reliance in early episodes on broad, stereotypical humour (a problem centred largely on the character of eccentric English teacher Beryl Garney).

A spin-off from the highly successful My Name's McGooley - What's Yours?, Rita and Wally represented a re-structuring of the original series after Gordon Chater (the titular McGooley) decided not to continue in the role. As Don Storey notes in his Classic Australian Television, McGooley had departed from the series three episodes before the actual final episode of My Name's McGooley (apparently visiting an old girlfriend in Queensland, from which location he sends word that they've decided to elope to the United States). Meanwhile:

Wally has received a promotion to an office job as a 'junior salesman' - in fact, he is the oldest 'junior' salesman in the firm - and he becomes desirous of moving to a more exclusive suburb befitting his new 'executive' status.

Selling the Balmain house, Rita and Wally move to the Sydney North Shore, where the plotlines are focused largely on 'keeping up with the Joneses' scenarios. It was never as popular a program as its predecessor. As Storey notes:

Although Wally had become the focus of the McGooley series, the character of McGooley was nonetheless an important ingredient. And Wally had changed - now he was in a white-collar job, and the emphasis had changed from 'battler' Wally in working-class Balmain to 'fish-out-of-water' Wally in his new 'executive' job and residence on the North Shore. Without McGooley, and with the other characters in a North Shore setting, Rita and Wally began to drift into middle-class dullness.

The program was wrapped up after twenty-three episodes, in a scenario that represented a return to the show's beginnings: to quote Storey, 'Wally had just given himself the sack from his job, and the outlook for the future was looking bleak for the Stiller household. Then McGooley and his mates turn up on their doorstep', facilitating a move back to Balmain (albeit outside the actual program).

An anthology series of spy stories, with an ensemble cast. Three episodes were written by British script-writer Bob Kesten, and three were co-written by Ralph Peterson and Rosamund Waring.

For an episode-by-episode synopsis, see Notes.