According to Don Storey in his Classic Australian Television, the sit-com Nice 'n Juicy was the first series (as opposed to a serial, a multi-episode program with a continuing narrative instead of self-contained episodes) produced in-house by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
According to Storey,
Nice 'n Juicy is set on a rundown citrus orchard in New South Wales, at a fictitious location called Wyvern Creek. Jack and Mort Hamlin are two brothers who live a lonely and tenuous existence on the decaying 25 acre property willed to them by their father. The elder brother, Jack, is conservative and wishes to develop the old family property. Mort wants to sell up and move to the bright lights of Sydney and live high on the profits. Jack, however, is a depressing realist and knows that any sale is going to be engulfed by a double mortgage.
Though the first series was expanded from six episodes to thirteen, and the show both rated respectably and was popular with critics, the ABC chose not to undertake a second series. Storey concludes that 'the show has not aged well, and today it comes across as rather dated, largely due to the tedious stage play atmosphere that the restrictive single set imposes'.
Contemporary news reports indicated that author Colin Free based the series on his own script, How Do You Spell Matrimony? (see, for example, 'ABC Drops Yearly Serial Idea' in Works About).
How Do You Spell Matrimony?
Australia
:
Australian Broadcasting Commission
,
1965
7120118
1965
single work
film/TV
'Rural comedy about two brothers, one of whom decides to find a wife by correspondence. The lady turns up, but isn't quite what the two inexperienced brothers expect.'
Source:
[Television guide], The canberra Times, 12 July 1965, p.16.
