A comedy drama set on Sydney's north shore, The Godfathers centres on nine-year-old Mike Varga and his widowed Hungarian mother. Crippled by the car accident that killed her husband, Maria Varga is confined to a wheelchair. To help financially, she takes in three boarders: Chris (a forty-something taxi driver), Pete (a thirty-year-old commercial photographer) and Gary (a twenty-one-year-old garage attendant who has just moved to Sydney from the country). Mike is an only child and a bit introspective, but the three boarders become fond of him and Mike adopts them as his 'godfathers.' Under their influence, he becomes a happy, outgoing kid, although they are often tested by his youthful ways.
Tensions are frequently raised through the on-going presence of Elizabeth Dent, a Child Welfare Officer who is constantly checking on Mike to see that he is being well cared for. After Pete leaves the Vargases' house to get married, he is replaced by another 'godfather,' Dave.
Writing Disability in Australia
| Type of disability | Paraplegia (traumatic). |
| Type of character | Secondary. |
| Point of view | Third person. |
I Do ... I Don't
Sydney
:
Bruning, Bell and Partners
Gemini Productions
,
1971
Z1638597
1971
single work
film/TV
In the course of the previous couple of episodes of The Godfathers, Pete commits himself to marrying Helen by getting engaged. However, will he go through with it? 'I Do... I Don't' begins on the day of the wedding, and Pete subsequently sends the house into chaos. The attempts by the other godfathers, Maria, and Mike to get him to the altar prove to be difficult, as he makes every effort to get out of the wedding right up to the last minute.
Sydney : Bruning, Bell and Partners Gemini Productions , 1971
The People Next Door
( dir. Ian Coughlan
et. al. )agent
Gemini Productions
,
1973
Z1819200
1973
series - publisher
film/TV
humour
The People Next Door spins off from previous Gemini Productions' sit-com The Godfathers. The child welfare officer who prompted much of the tension in the original program, Elizabeth Dent, is now married with a child of her own. She and her husband Bill also board Dave Milson, one of the 'godfathers' from the original series. Elizabeth, Bill, and Dave take a house next to misanthropic writer Daniel Penrose and his three children. Following the pattern established by The Godfathers, the program was focalised through the viewpoint of the youngest Penrose child, B.J.
Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television, notes that the Nine Network commissioned 48 episodes, with an option to review after 16 episodes:
Perhaps it was the timeslot. Perhaps it was the changing tastes of a fickle public. Perhaps the formula was not quite right. Whatever the reason, The People Next Door was nowhere near as successful as The Godfathers. Low ratings caused Nine to exercise their option to reduce the number of episodes, and production ceased after 20 episodes were made.
