ABC TV – One Decade On

Friday 13 March 1970

Having examined what South Australia’s ABS2 TV landscape was looking like on a Friday night one year after the channel’s launch in 1960, it was clear that change was coming but only slowly and not in the ways that I had predicted. There was an increase in locally created television, particularly for children, but the predominance of American produced drama and comedy had significantly increased against my expectations. As for the domination of British TV that I so vividly remember, in March 1961 that was nowhere to be seen.  

So, let’s leap ahead again to see what new changes come to SA TV, and this time we’ll make it a much more significant time jump. How did a Friday night’s TV schedule look one decade on from ABS2’s first SA broadcast?

Friday morning schools’ programs for 13 March 1970 started with Maths at 9.30 before the broadcast was handed over to pre-schoolers with the ever-popular children’s program, Play School.[1] The original Play School concept was begun by the BBC in 1964 and the format was copied in Australia by the ABC and started airing in 1966. While the original British version ended its run in 1988, incredibly the Australian Play School is still running today, 60 years later, in 2026.

More schools programs followed with a mix of current affairs, documentaries and workshop programs including Preparing a Play and Making Puppets. Then mid-afternoon saw the first American program hit the air with a 1964 episode of The Donna Reed Show. This long running sitcom began in the US in 1958 and ran for 8 years racking up 275 episodes.[2] I suspect by 1970 it was looking pretty dated which is perhaps why it was on at 3.20 in the afternoon.

At 3.45 another show from the 1950s appears, Flower Pot Men.[3] The strange adventures of Bill and Ben, two puppets made from empty flower pots who spoke only in gibberish, and a sunflower called ‘Little Weed’ who only ever said “Weeeeed!” This slightly mad show was made by the BBC in 1952 and was shown along with other string puppet shows in their ‘Watch with Mother’ children’s series in the UK. Although only 26 15min episodes were made they were still being repeated on the ABC well into the mid 1970s.[4]

Playschool returned for its afternoon showing at 4pm before another classic Australian children’s show, Adventure Island. This ABC produced pantomime styled series is burned into the memories of many Australians of a certain age. Characters like Clown, Lisa, Flower Potts, Dodo and Percy Panda, Miser Meany and Fester Fumble became hugely popular for their young TV audience and are remembered by many to this day.

Airing 5 days a week from 1968 to 1972 the ABC produced an incredible 1140 half hour episodes of Adventure Island. Sadly, for those who worked on the show and for those who remember it fondly, only 6 episodes out of 1140 are known to exist.[5] And Doctor Who fans thought they had it rough!

More amazing children’s programming followed Adventure Island with the wonderful stop motion animated Magic Roundabout at 5pm.

Originally a French children’s show the BBC used the original footage without the French soundtrack to create their own stories as written and narrated by Eric Thompson.[6] This 5 minute show hit a sweet spot in my childhood and from the beginning was much more my cup of tea than Adventure Island.

After 10 minutes of cartoons it was time for family adventure with Lassie.[7] The world’s favourite Collie had made a name for herself in a number of movies before the TV series started in 1954. In 1970 the show was still being produced and would continue to be until 1973. Tonight’s episode was from 1967 and saw our heroine and a cat friend having adventures in a logging camp.

After Lassie waved a paw goodbye at the end of the show, ABC viewers were treated to 15 minutes of music with The Little Singers of Tokyo before The Val Doonican Show[8] at 5.55pm. Val Doonican was an Irish writer, actor and singer who presented this hugely popular variety show produced by the BBC. In 1970 he was poached by ITV to produce the same show for them and became a big hit in the United States. (Nostalgia Central)

Then we have 10 minutes of Lawn Bowls and a 5 minute pre-news fishing show called Hook, Line and Sinker that was made locally in South Australia. The title of this show was reused in 2001 for a popular and long running fishing show that was filmed in Tasmania and shown on the 7 Network[9], but the original SA ABC show ran for years in the 1960s and 70s.

After the news and weather, it was time for current affairs with the hugely influential program, This Day Tonight[10]. Listed in the Advertiser as ‘Today Tonight’ the Adelaide produced version of the show was hosted by journalist Clive Hale.

Hale and TDT’s influence on SA politics during its 11 year run cannot be overstated. Hale’s skill as an interviewer and host of TDT in SA was so well thought of that he later became the central host of the show’s national successor, Nationwide, in 1980.

More music followed with Sounds Like Us[12] hosted by Jeff Phillips. A music show aimed at a younger audience it had a suite of 18 singers and dancers and the 32 piece ABC Television Orchestra to accompany the guest artists who appeared on the show.

No miming to records here like on the UK’s Top of the Pops or the ABC’s later popular music show, Countdown. Sadly, like Adventure Island it appears very few episodes of this original Australian music program still exist.

After 5 minutes of News in Brief, we hit a real highlight of the night’s viewing. The superb, gritty, spy drama, Callan.[13] [14]

Starring Edward Woodward as a reluctant intelligence operative working in the very seamy back-stabbing world of international espionage, this series completely hooked me as a kid and frequent rewatches only reinforced the quality of the scripts and performances. Woodward’s Callan is a hard man with a conscience and decency at odds with his role as a fixer and hitman for the highly secretive Government agency, the Section.

The episode listed here, ‘Goodbye, Nobby Clarke’ is the second episode of the first series. The first episode, ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’ aired the week before on ABS2. This first series of Callan was filmed in black and white and made by the UK commercial television company ABC Weekend Television (not to be confused with our Australian Broadcasting Corporation) before it merged with Associated Rediffusion and became Thames Television in 1968. As with much TV of this era there is a sizable chunk of these early episodes of Callan that are missing from the archives. This particular episode is one of the missing.

Fifteen minutes of gardening lead into a local trotting race from Wayville. Then more British drama with Champion House[16] at 9.45. This BBC produced drama followed the fortunes of a family textile business and ran for 2 seasons. According to IMDB and other sources all 30 episodes of this series are lost.[17]

Another 10 minutes of Trotting filled the gap before a late movie, the last program of the night at 10.45pm. Starring Glen Ford, The Green Glove is a French /American Noir thriller from 1951. An exciting way to wrap up this Friday’s viewing until the channel closed for the night at 12.10am.

What a difference a decade makes! A much fuller day of programming and evidence of the lean away from US towards more UK produced shows. The reassuring level of Australian made content has continued, but sadly the quantity of lost programs, both Australian and British, has become even more pronounced.

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