Cirrus@Austlit

'Deborah Carter (Rachel Blakely) a married prison officer, is seduced by convicted criminal Mick Webb (Peter Phelps), and persuaded to help him, and his friend Bertie Freeman, to escape. Inspired by real events in the life of prison officer Heather Parker who assisted in the escape of Peter Gibb and Archie Butterly.'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 26/6/2013)

A drama series set in a sports academy. The various stories target issues of interest to teens. The young athletes' loves, disappointments, families, schools, and rivalries are seen in sharp contrast to the tremendous pressures and unique demands of the international sporting world.

A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.

Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.

On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:

'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes. It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'

'There are strange goings on at Brindabella Homestead. Every time someone visits the house, they seem to come to a sticky end. Who is committing these horrible murders?

'Could it be glamorous socialite Mrs Peacock, owner of Brindabella? Perhaps it is her step-daughter, the lovely Miss Scarlet? Scarlet's boyfriend, Professor Plum, has charm but is he to be trusted? The family cook, Mrs White, seems a kindly old soul. But looks can deceive! Colonel Mustard's fine war record would suggest an upright gentleman. But is he? And the good Reverend Green? Surely a man of the cloth couldn't be a killer ... or could he?

'The answer is that any of them could be the killer and the task of finding out who is the criminal rests with you, the audience. In your investigations you will be assisted by the local sleuth, Detective Sergeant Bogong. Help will also come from a studio audience who are able to quiz the characters about their movements and their alibis.'

Source: Crawford Productions publicity material (held in the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection).

A humorous anthology series comprising six self-contained live-action comedies, each dealing with one day in the lives of various children whose best-laid plans for the day go very wrong, putting them in situations they could never have imagined.

'From childhood Chaim has been attending funeral services, moving closer each time to the front of the chapel...'

Source: Screen Australia (via the main record for Six Pack). (Sighted: 20/5/2014)

An anthology series of children's stories, mixing live-action episodes with animation, clay animation, and puppetry. The stories, aimed specifically at the under 10s, are drawn from a variety of sources, including children's books, fairy tales, myths, and original ideas. Some of the episodes have involved, for example, Snow White as a punk bikie and the seven dwarves as a motorcycle gang; a pet stegosaurus; a boy with wheels instead of toes; and Trevor the glider-plane-catching cat.

According to Patricia Edgar,

Thirty separate self-contained dramas of differing lengths were to be packaged into half-hour episodes. The project was designed to showcase new, creative talent in the television industry. Competitions were run at the Australian Film and Television School and Swinburne Institute of Technology for the best concepts suitable for inclusion in the Kaboodle package, with prizes of $1000 awarded. The Foundation sought promising but inexperienced writers, would-be producers, directors and even accountants who wanted to earn their first credit to enable them to find a future in the industry.

Source: Patricia Edgar, Bloodbath: A Memoir of Australian Television, Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2006, pp.175-76.

Kaboodle was produced in two series, the first of which included some live-action segements, but the second of which was entirely animated.

For a full list of episodes, see Film Details.

Episode listing for Kaboodle series two courtesy of the Australian Children's Television Foundation.