image of person or book cover 5021361077365553119.jpg
New, 1 November 1952, p.3
Ralph Peterson Ralph Peterson i(A18894 works by) (a.k.a. Ralph W. Peterson; Ralph Wilton Peterson)
Born: Established: 21 Feb 1921 Adelaide, South Australia, ; Died: Ceased: 2 Nov 1996 Sydney, New South Wales,
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

'Ralph Peterson was educated at the Glen Osmond and Unley Central schools [Adelaide]. At fourteen he became a child actor working in professional theatre and was writing for radio and revue by the time he was sixteen. Between 1937 and 1942 he played the schoolboy Bottomley in the long running radio comedy serial Yes What?, as well as writing some of the episodes. In 1942 he enlisted in the Australian Army and served with an artillary unit in the Pacific area. He was later transferred to the 1st Australian Broadcast Control unit. After discharge he wrote film commentaries for Cinesound, radio scripts for Roy 'Mo' Rene, Jack Davey and Dick Bentley and a series of features and verse plays for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.'

During a stint in London with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Peterson wrote comedy scripts for comedians Tony Hancock and Benny Hill. He contributed scripts to radio series such as The Impostors (as series of discrete plays on famous fakes and frauds). He also wrote episodes for such British television series and anthology programs as Armchair Theatre, ITV Play of the Week, and No Hiding Place.

In Australia, he wrote episodes of such programs as Spyforce, Whiplash, The Rovers, Castaway, and Home Sweet Home.

Peterson is perhaps most renowned for writing three award-winning television series: My Name's McGooley, What's Yours (1966-1969), Rita and Wally (1968) and Snake Gully with Dad and Dave (1972).

Source of quotation: The Third Secretary (1972), p.8.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Husbandry Is Not Just a Golden Ring Sydney : Australian Television Network , 1972 25699467 1972 single work film/TV
1972 winner AWGIE Awards Television Award Television Comedy
form y separately published work icon My Name's McGooley - What's Yours? ( dir. Ron Way et. al. )agent Sydney : Channel 7 , 1966-1968 Z1832889 1966-1968 series - publisher film/TV

Australia's first successful sit-com, My Name's McGooley's - What's Yours? blended domestic and social realism in an exploration of working-class Australian life.

According to Don Storey's summation of the program in his Classic Australian Television, My Name's McGooley - What's Yours? focused on

working class battler Wally Stiller and his wife Rita, who live with Rita's father Dominic McGooley, a crusty old pensioner. Their house is in Balmain, an inner suburb of Sydney that was then still largely working class. In classic sit-com tradition, early episodes centred on the farcical situations that McGooley blundered into, which were exploited for their comedy potential. As the series progressed, Wally Stiller became the protagonist, and the emphasis shifted to social issues within the family structure, with McGooley reacting to Wally's middle-aged ocker outlook on life.

Created by Ralph Peterson, who originally intended the program for British commerical network ITV, My Name's McGooley made use of actors who were already under contract to ATN-7 (both Gordon Chater and Noeline Brown, for example, had been working on The Mavis Bramston Show), as well as attracting John Meillon back from England to take the role of Wally.

Highly successful with audiences from the outset, My Name's McGooley ran for nearly ninety episodes before Gordon Chater left the program (and moved to a new vehicle, The Gordon Chater Show, still on ATN-7). With McGooley absent, the program was heavily re-tooled and re-invented as Rita and Wally.

1968 winner Logie Awards Best Australian Comedy
1967 winner Logie Awards Best Comedy
y separately published work icon The Big Boat 1965 1969 (Manuscript version)x401653 Z1331045 1965 single work drama
1965 winner The Canberra Day Playwriting Competition
Last amended 4 Dec 2014 10:00:04
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