Animals were allover Sixties kids TV and I loved 'em!
Here are a few theme songs for you, while you slurp on a glass of Tizer! What do you think readers?
Belle and Sebastian!
White Horses
Undersea World of Jaques Cousteau
Tales from the Riverbank
Black Beauty
Animal Magic
Skippy
Flipper
and Champion the Wonder Horse
Most interesting, but what about Daktari ? Corgi did some die-casts
ReplyDeleteGentle Ben, about a boy and his pet bear in the Florida everglades. His father was a park ranger, and had a very impressive airboat - the sort with a large propeller at the rear.
Lassie, a Collie dog, June Lockhart from Lost in Space was the Mother (or one of them)
Not all of these made it to NZ, but I do remember Skippy, Flipper, and Jacques Cousteau.
Glad you liked it Paul. they were glory days of kids' TV and in many ways shaped who we became I think. I recall Lassie but not Gentle Ben. I do remember Grizzly Adams though and he even got his own action figure! As for Daktari, yes, a classic. I had the die-cast and the annual and loved the show.
DeleteWow! these bring back memories!
ReplyDeleteBefore my parents emigrated to Australia, all I knew about the place was from watching Skippy!
Interestingly, far from being "out in the bush" the park location was about an hour's drive from the CBD, so filming would have been a lot easier!
I actually debated Gary Pankhurst in a School Debating competition!
Do you remember another Aussie import show called "Barrier Reef"?
It featured the Barquentine "New Endeavour" a sailing ship with a high tech computer deck.
I sailed on it, on a cruise around Sydney harbour and it still had the painted map on the walls of the computer room, but no equipment!
We could probably do an entire blog (if you haven't already) about the Aussie shows we watched in England as kids. As well as Skippy and Barrier Reef, there was "Ten Town" and "The Stranger", "King Arthur & the Square Knights of the Round Table" cartoon, can you think of any others?
OMG! I adored King Athur and the Square Knights Looey! I'd no idea it was an Oz show. Hilarious and I bought some VHS episodes about 20 years ago! As for Barrier Reef, deffo remember that. Not the others though.
DeleteI haven't Googled King Arthur to fact check it, but when I was a teenager in Sydney I went to Rockdale Trash and Treasure Markets (which in it's heyday, was an AMAZING thing!)
DeleteI saw a tub full of King Arthur original animation cels, just lying in a pile.
There were a number of animation studios using Australian talent (my friend later worked here for Hanna Barbera and Disney) so I think the Arthur cels must have been from a studio clean-out...
Why didn't I look at this before?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur!_and_the_Square_Knights_of_the_Round_Table
Oh Wow! Original cels. I love them. Did you get any Looey?
DeleteNot sure about Barrier Reef. There was Adventures of the Sea Spray, also with sailing ship that traveled around. Just looked it up, 1965-67, about a journalist and his three children. About all I can remember is the boat itself, and the Fijian crewman with very bushy hair. According to this very brief Wikipedia entry, he actually owned the boat, and played Willyum in the series. The boat is stated to be still used in Fiji for tourist work - obviously not at the moment.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_the_Seaspray#:~:text=Adventures%20of%20the%20Seaspray%20is,children%20in%20a%20sailing%20boat.
Interesting Paul. I remember barrier Reef but not Sea Spray. I had thought that Fisher Price had released a Sea Spray boat but its the Sea Explorer https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVHDcqmUEAA3fcg.jpg I'm pretty sure there's a flipper version of this toy.
DeleteSorry, I did it again - the above comment on the Sea Spray is mine.
ReplyDelete