Cirrus@Austlit

A comedy series set in a newspaper office, Daily at Dawn was, according to Moran in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the last co-production between Gary Reilly and Tony Sattler before their partnership in RS Productions was dissolved.

According to Moran, 'As against their hit series Kingswood Country, which had worked so well as comedy not least because it had a crystal clear situation and very stereotyped and easily contrasted characters, Daily at Dawn had too many characters who were not sufficiently distinguished as types from each other, and too many normal types'.

The cast included Noeline Brown (who had previously starred in RS Productions' The Naked Vicar Show and taken a guest role in their Kingswood Country), and Robert Hughes, who was later to move on to the highly successful comedy Hey Dad.

Developing out of a skit on The Naked Vicar Show, this was a highly popular sit-com that, as Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'rivalled the success of My Name's McGooley in the 1960s and was surpassed only by the success of Hey Dad on the same network a few years later.

The series centred on the Bulpitt family, particularly patriarch Ted: a bigoted, conservative, blue-collar Australian and WWII veteran devoted to television, his racing greyhounds, and his Holden Kingswood.

Despite its popularity, the program was criticised for the out-spoken bigotry of its protagonist, including (but not exclusively) towards his Italian son-in-law.

Moran says of the program that 'The series was well plotted and funny, most especially Ross Higgins in the role of Ted.'