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Post by Archive on Sept 7, 2017 12:12:44 GMT
Hello James, Have you ever found any evidence that any of ABC's six-part 1972 adaption of Nevil Shute's 'The Far Country' has survived at all? I know that the ABC seem to have junked it long ago. ABC Australia? No, i am only familiar with the later 1980's? movie (or perhaps it was a telemovie). There were some negatives that turned up on a random roll of stock shots that appeared to be related to that one along with the...the original seperation negatives for the opening titles sequence and credits...not terribly exciting but one of those obscure things that turns up.
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Post by Archive on Sept 7, 2017 12:31:16 GMT
Welcome to the forum James. About two years ago I looked you up to transfer my wedding video from SVHS tape. On the topic of missing programmes, have you ever recovered any missing episodes of ABC TV's Countdown? Hi Arthur!, - ahh yes, how nice to "meet" you again but "virtually" on the net this time - what a small world! Countdown!!, now how did that slip my mind as one of the "holy grails" of Australian "missing" material!! (NOTE: not to be confused with the quiz show of the same name in the UK - rather Australias "Countdown" could be described as our version of "top of the pops".) Well surprisingly a fair bit of countdown has passed through here as 1" copies, through to 3/4" U-matic sources - however all have (to my knowledge) seem to be well represented elsewhere, so not "missing" ones. However saying that..it can sometimes be difficult to access information as to what format other archives hold material on, or indeed if its the same version. Not all archives are forthcoming with this information or care to cross reference. This can be a dilemma when trying to assess if something is worth investing in preserving, I was discussing the other day that even well known and distributed series (for example british sitcoms) can have 4 or even more different cut versions to take into account censor requirements, political correctness etc. With many Australian exports it was noticed that often in a preview, re-cap, or promotional teasers used in certain markets they would for some reason use an entirely seperate take or version of the scene to what was actually used in the final product, so its always a good idea to compare two things as sometimes they aren't always the same!
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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 7, 2017 17:38:54 GMT
Ace of Wands -- been looking into this one as a friend says she remembers it on Australian television. No. Freewheelers -- also remembers this, but as we had what appears to be the first three series only in 1969-71, dubious. Strangely, doesn't remember The Electric Company which was almost as ubiquitous as Sesame Street. Doomwatch -- no one asked. Series two and three from 1971 on. This starts with the inquest into Toby Wren's death, sucked in Australian viewers. Delta -- one single repeat, 1973. Unusual for ABC which likes to get value for money. Mr Piper -- no, but it is on PAL VHS! In what appears to be a public domain type release. Sanctuary -- no sign, more details? Space Command -- no, but we DID get Jason of Star Command and in the Seventies and early Eighties The Beachcombers, and Wayne and Shuster on high rotation on ABC. The Adventures of Francie and Josie -- no. Art Attack, yes. Intrigue -- more detail? The Avengers -- second series on from 1963. No Hiding Place -- 1961-67, Mystery Bag (Murder Bag) in 1959.
Anything else?
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Post by Nicholas Fitzpatrick on Sept 8, 2017 8:48:16 GMT
Does 'Mr Piper' still get shown in Canada? This was a glossy co-production with ITC. Last seen in the UK in the 1970s. I'd never even heard of it until your post. Which means that it probably hasn't aired on CBC since the 1960s, as I remember watching Sesame Street on CBC in 1970 ... back when the episode number at the beginning of the episode was only 2 digits not 4. I'd assume it's Black and White. I don't think anything Black and White would have aired after the early 1970s. Not with 4,000 episodes of Mr. Dressup and 3,000 episodes of The Friendly Giant available. No sign of it in the Archives either. Which probably means CBC hasn't held a copy since at least the 1970s. ITC was pretty good at retaining stuff wasn't it?
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Sept 8, 2017 9:37:28 GMT
Does 'Mr Piper' still get shown in Canada? This was a glossy co-production with ITC. Last seen in the UK in the 1970s. I'd never even heard of it until your post. Which means that it probably hasn't aired on CBC since the 1960s, as I remember watching Sesame Street on CBC in 1970 ... back when the episode number at the beginning of the episode was only 2 digits not 4. I'd assume it's Black and White. I don't think anything Black and White would have aired after the early 1970s. Not with 4,000 episodes of Mr. Dressup and 3,000 episodes of The Friendly Giant available. No sign of it in the Archives either. Which probably means CBC hasn't held a copy since at least the 1970s. ITC was pretty good at retaining stuff wasn't it? It was colour. ATV screened it in the early to mid seventies. When I did tape transfers for Telly Addicts in the early 1990's, I transferred some of Mr. Piper from U-Matic viewing copies supplied by ITC and they were colour. I recently acquired a couple of black and white sales prints of Mr. Piper. Paul
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Post by rmackenziefehr on Sept 9, 2017 10:31:23 GMT
It was colour. ATV screened it in the early to mid seventies. When I did tape transfers for Telly Addicts in the early 1990's, I transferred some of Mr. Piper from U-Matic viewing copies supplied by ITC and they were colour. I recently acquired a couple of black and white sales prints of Mr. Piper. Paul Hoorah! somebody else makes a stand for Mr Piper LOL.... and the colour was quite stunning as well on transmissions.. It was a full half hour magazine programme for young children, on YT you can only find the cartoon (with a moral) section which I think is all the Americans bought?. Cue wrecked presumably American print www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKYuOf7v3doMy hunch: The cartoon segments of Mr. Piper seem to have been repackaged for sale to local children's programs in the United States- those sorts of programs were often willing to take any cartoon filler that was on offer. This shows in the prints online in several ways- the intro seems to not be original, the end card is for a company other than the one that originally produced it, and the color quality and battered elements seem to suggest that these were insert reels salvaged from some local station.
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Post by richardfitzgerald on Sept 9, 2017 12:43:14 GMT
Any idea of the status of Riptide - the late sixties series produced by Ralph Smart after he returned to Australia? Very much in the ITC adventure vein with a US lead in Ty Hardin (who was no Richard Bradford unfortunately), shot on film and with several ex-Danger Man script-writers like Philip Broadley and Robert Banks Smith on board. Don't know if it was ever shown in primetime in the UK but it certainly occupied the same Sunday 1pm repeat slot on ATV Midlands that The Champions occupied in the Seventies (possibly as a result of Smart calling in a favour from Lew Grade?) Curious to know what impact it had in Oz, given it was probably the first show of its type filmed there in colour.
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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 9, 2017 13:18:12 GMT
Any idea of the status of Riptide - the late sixties series produced by Ralph Smart after he returned to Australia? Very much in the ITC adventure vein with a US lead in Ty Hardin (who was no Richard Bradford unfortunately), shot on film and with several ex-Danger Man script-writers like Philip Broadley and Robert Banks Smith on board. Don't know if it was ever shown in primetime in the UK but it certainly occupied the same Sunday 1pm repeat slot on ATV Midlands that The Champions occupied in the Seventies (possibly as a result of Smart calling in a favour from Lew Grade?) Curious to know what impact it had in Oz, given it was probably the first show of its type filmed there in colour. Some good news there; all 26 episodes appear to be preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive. Riptide was repeated at least three times in the 1970s and then in the 1980s. As to publicity; it had a fair whack when it debuted in February 1969, and again in 1971 when Sue Costin died (the coroner returned a verdict of suicide).
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Post by Alan Turrell on Sept 9, 2017 17:35:29 GMT
Hi James,
Do you know if all of the Australian pop series Hitscene exists i know of roughly 10 or so shows that were on the net but was wondering if any more existed hosted by Dick Williams, i think it ran from 69-72 with a mixture of Australian pop music acts and a few British acts as well. Also Mr. Piper was shown on southern itv in the 60s i remember it well as a young boy.
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Post by richardfitzgerald on Sept 9, 2017 23:46:16 GMT
Any idea of the status of Riptide - the late sixties series produced by Ralph Smart after he returned to Australia? Very much in the ITC adventure vein with a US lead in Ty Hardin (who was no Richard Bradford unfortunately), shot on film and with several ex-Danger Man script-writers like Philip Broadley and Robert Banks Smith on board. Don't know if it was ever shown in primetime in the UK but it certainly occupied the same Sunday 1pm repeat slot on ATV Midlands that The Champions occupied in the Seventies (possibly as a result of Smart calling in a favour from Lew Grade?) Curious to know what impact it had in Oz, given it was probably the first show of its type filmed there in colour. Some good news there; all 26 episodes appear to be preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive. Riptide was repeated at least three times in the 1970s and then in the 1980s. As to publicity; it had a fair whack when it debuted in February 1969, and again in 1971 when Sue Costin died (the coroner returned a verdict of suicide). Thanks for the details on the episodes which I assume are the original colour films (35mm?) Sue Costin is a name that doesn't register with me at all I'm afraid - what's the back story (IMDB refers to her death from a drugs overdose)?
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Post by richardfitzgerald on Sept 9, 2017 23:49:06 GMT
Any idea of the status of Riptide - the late sixties series produced by Ralph Smart after he returned to Australia? Very much in the ITC adventure vein with a US lead in Ty Hardin (who was no Richard Bradford unfortunately), shot on film and with several ex-Danger Man script-writers like Philip Broadley and Robert Banks Smith on board. Don't know if it was ever shown in primetime in the UK but it certainly occupied the same Sunday 1pm repeat slot on ATV Midlands that The Champions occupied in the Seventies (possibly as a result of Smart calling in a favour from Lew Grade?) Curious to know what impact it had in Oz, given it was probably the first show of its type filmed there in colour. I think Ty Hardin came to London to promote the series and British Pathe agreed to distribute it (so prints maybe in the UK as well?) ..not sure if Lew Grade could have helped as he was having trouble enough trying to get ITC shows on ITV (The Champions had been in the can for about 2 years before they got shown in many regions).. the other companies were getting a bit tired of ATV and thought that they had fulfilled it's quota of air time and if it was saying that ITC was a separate company then it must compete to the regional programme buyers with all the other imports and independent productions coming in... Oh dear in those days ..so many programmes..so little time i assume Grade would have had a bit more sway in his own region -I have no idea if Riptide ever got a network broadcast......
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Post by Arthur Chim on Sept 10, 2017 0:28:55 GMT
Countdown!!, now how did that slip my mind as one of the "holy grails" of Australian "missing" material!! (NOTE: not to be confused with the quiz show of the same name in the UK - rather Australias "Countdown" could be described as our version of "top of the pops".) Well surprisingly a fair bit of countdown has passed through here as 1" copies, through to 3/4" U-matic sources - however all have (to my knowledge) seem to be well represented elsewhere, so not "missing" ones. However saying that..it can sometimes be difficult to access information as to what format other archives hold material on, or indeed if its the same version. Not all archives are forthcoming with this information or care to cross reference. This can be a dilemma when trying to assess if something is worth investing in preserving, I was discussing the other day that even well known and distributed series (for example british sitcoms) can have 4 or even more different cut versions to take into account censor requirements, political correctness etc. With many Australian exports it was noticed that often in a preview, re-cap, or promotional teasers used in certain markets they would for some reason use an entirely seperate take or version of the scene to what was actually used in the final product, so its always a good idea to compare two things as sometimes they aren't always the same! I was checking the ABC's TV guide for the next 7 days and come across a new special 'Classic Countdown'. From the programme details on the ABC's website it looks to be a 13 part series. www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/classic-countdown/First part airs next Sunday and features 1975, it will be interesting what clips will be shown as 1975 is poorly represented in the ABC archives, I think only 4 complete episodes survive. Looking forward to this!
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Post by Martin Dunne on Sept 10, 2017 3:28:39 GMT
Hi James, Do you know if all of the Australian pop series Hitscene exists i know of roughly 10 or so shows that were on the net but was wondering if any more existed hosted by Dick Williams, i think it ran from 69-72 with a mixture of Australian pop music acts and a few British acts as well. Also Mr. Piper was shown on southern itv in the 60s i remember it well as a young boy. Music shows are the one area where we've got it sorted. The 1990s site Milesago was the first collective attempt to document Australian culture online, concentrating on music. The (defunct) sub-pages Aunty Jack-Ography were very influential to me, Richard Miles wrote a comprehensive guide to regional screenings through listings research. Between this and Garry Zimmer's guide to Dr Who screenings in Sonic Screwdriver (DWCV newsletter) I realised magazines and newspaper listings were fair game for research (I am concentrating on a horror host named Deadly Earnest). Milesago is most active through its Facebook group, its files section holds documents relating to music shows. I'll say it again; we need an Australian TV Brain, unfortunately private collectors are still outlaws, the television station are not interested and so the NFSA (and to a lesser extent the National Archives of Australia) are the defacto indexes. Also, a shout out to Andrew Bayley whose TelevisionAU is an excellent starting point. Thanks for the details on the episodes which I assume are the original colour films (35mm?) Sue Costin is a name that doesn't register with me at all I'm afraid - what's the back story (IMDB refers to her death from a drugs overdose)? Unusually, Riptide's holdings are quite plush, most episodes are held on 35mm, have duplicate 35mm prints, AND there have been access copies struck on 16mm, 17.5mm, tape AND they hold publicity photographs, call sheets, other documentation ... I'd say these are in colour, and they put other holdings to shame! Sue Costin played Judy in the first eight episodes, and yes, it was drugs related although the paper refers to it as "poison". Don Storey's page on Riptide.
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Post by richardfitzgerald on Sept 10, 2017 10:52:19 GMT
Hi James, Do you know if all of the Australian pop series Hitscene exists i know of roughly 10 or so shows that were on the net but was wondering if any more existed hosted by Dick Williams, i think it ran from 69-72 with a mixture of Australian pop music acts and a few British acts as well. Also Mr. Piper was shown on southern itv in the 60s i remember it well as a young boy. Music shows are the one area where we've got it sorted. The 1990s site Milesago was the first collective attempt to document Australian culture online, concentrating on music. The (defunct) sub-pages Aunty Jack-Ography were very influential to me, Richard Miles wrote a comprehensive guide to regional screenings through listings research. Between this and Garry Zimmer's guide to Dr Who screenings in Sonic Screwdriver (DWCV newsletter) I realised magazines and newspaper listings were fair game for research (I am concentrating on a horror host named Deadly Earnest). Milesago is most active through its Facebook group, its files section holds documents relating to music shows. I'll say it again; we need an Australian TV Brain, unfortunately private collectors are still outlaws, the television station are not interested and so the NFSA (and to a lesser extent the National Archives of Australia) are the defacto indexes. Also, a shout out to Andrew Bayley whose TelevisionAU is an excellent starting point. Thanks for the details on the episodes which I assume are the original colour films (35mm?) Sue Costin is a name that doesn't register with me at all I'm afraid - what's the back story (IMDB refers to her death from a drugs overdose)? Unusually, Riptide's holdings are quite plush, most episodes are held on 35mm, have duplicate 35mm prints, AND there have been access copies struck on 16mm, 17.5mm, tape AND they hold publicity photographs, call sheets, other documentation ... I'd say these are in colour, and they put other holdings to shame! Sue Costin played Judy in the first eight episodes, and yes, it was drugs related although the paper refers to it as "poison". Don Storey's page on Riptide. Thanks for the link - really interesting background to the Riptide series I hadn't seen before.
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Post by ifryer on Sept 11, 2017 11:30:35 GMT
This thread has reactivated my interest in classic Australian television. Some fascinating material on You Tube. I was watching an episode of Hunter yesterday, Australia's own 1960s spy series - I wonder what the archive holdings are for this series.
Also Catwalk, which was brilliant, starring John Foregham, who I had no idea had worked in Australia. A bit of a shock when the theme music started and it was Laurie Johnson's Gala Performance, used in the UK as the theme for This is Your Life.
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