Cirrus@Austlit

Certain Women began as a short series in 1973 and continued on as a serial until 1977. At the centre of the narrative were six women from three generations of a Sydney family. Dolly has two daughters Freda and Jane. Jane has three daughters Marjorie, Helen, and Gillian.

In a short piece announcing the extension of the series after the broadcast of the first six episodes television critic Valda Marshall said the decision to make further episodes 'should also keep the women's libbers happy ... so far as I know, it's the first TV series made here specifically as a starring vehicle for women'.

Source: Marshall, Valda. 'ABC's 'Women' Given Longer Reign'. The Sun-Herald, 25/3/1973, p. 77.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) produced the critically acclaimed, award-winning series Dynasty between 1970 and 1971. Dynasty--which bears no relation to the 1980s' American series of the same name--was developed from Tony Morphett's novel and later television play.

The series explores the intrigues and conflicts of powerful media family the Masons who, through the Mason Corporation Board, publish The Standard newspaper and own the television station MSN Channel 6. Head of the family and chairman of the board Jack Mason is a newspaperman like his father. And, again like his father, he is an old-style autocratic owner-publisher, determined to retain control of all aspects of his empire.

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.

The script held in the Crawford Collection has neither character notes nor synopsis.

Australia's first spy show, made at a time when overseas television networks were investing heavily in counter-espionage programs.

The titular character was John Hunter, a secret agent with SCU3 (Special Clandestine Unit 3), a division of COSMIC (Commonwealth Offices for Security and Military Intelligence Co-ordination). Operating under the front of Independent Surveys, COSMIC was headed by Charles Blake. Hunter was assisted by female agent Eve Halliday.

The enemy organisation, CUCW (Council for Unification of the Communist World) was headed in Australia by Mr Smith, whose chief agent was the complicated idealist Kragg. Kragg ultimately defected to the West (and to COSMIC) after a period of disillusionment with CUCW.

Late in the show's run, John Hunter met an untimely death in front of a firing squad in an Iron Curtain country. He was replaced by a new agent, Gil Martin, but the show only continued for another eight episodes, as Ian Jones preferred to concentrate on his new vehicle for Gerard Kennedy, Division 4.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'Coming as it did towards the end of the Cold War and indeed the whole breakdown of the hegemony of Australian society, Hunter was an uneasy combination of boys'-own spy adventures, owing something to the popularity of James Bond novels, and the more cynical and seedy variation of the genre associated with writers such as Len Deighton and John Le Carre'. Don Storey, however, writes on Classic Australian Television that it was 'a bold, sophisticated and ambitious venture into slick, professional local drama', the sophistication no doubt aided by the per-episode budget of $20,000 (compared to Homicide's per-episode budget of $7000).