Adelaide’s most iconic TV shows — and the stories behind them
They rank among some of the most iconic shows on Aussie television and have something else in common. They were all lovingly made in Adelaide.
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The eastern states may be home to some of the biggest, most popular TV shows in the country, but you can’t talk about the history of Australia’s most iconic small screen productions without talking about Adelaide.
Adelaide was once a TV-making powerhouse, particularly for children’s programming, with South Australian writers, producers and directors turning out some of the most popular and beloved characters on Australian screens from the 1960s to the mid-2000s.
We’re taking a look back at some of Adelaide’s biggest hits of the small screen.
CHANNEL NINERS – Early 1960s-1986
One of the pioneering shows in children’s television in Australia, Channel Niners featured an ensemble cast including Wilbur Worm, Winky Dink, a plucky white puppet duck and Bobo the Clown.
As the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia notes, Bobo, played by writer and comedian Hal Turner, was one of the first recognisable characters on children’s television and “quickly became a household name, first in Adelaide and then nationally”.
Turner also wrote a newspaper column and hosted two radio shows as Bobo.
Premiering in the early 1960s, the show aired on weekday afternoons and hosts over the years included former kindergarten teacher Denny Snowden, Patsy Biscoe, Ian Fairweather, Helen Woods, Erney Sigley, Glynis O’Brien and Dean Davis.
After his star turn on the show, Hal Turner left Channel 9 to join the new station SAS10, which began broadcasting in 1965.
Needing a replacement for the show, program director Rex Heading began working on a new character for the Channel Niners cast, a loveable brown bear called Humphrey.
Humphrey made his debut on the show in 1965 and became so popular he was given his own show and a chance to make children’s television history.
Meanwhile, in 1986, as Rex Heading and Trevor Jones write in their book “Miracle on Tynte St: The Channel 9 story”, the Channel Niners was adapted for a national audience under the new name C’mon Kids, starring Robin Roenfeldt, Joey Moore, Moke Brosnan and an old favourite, Winky Dink.
HERE’S HUMPHREY – 1965-2009
Starring a loveable, mute brown bear in a boater hat, tartan vest and big yellow tie, Here’s
Humphrey enjoyed an epic stint on Australian TV that spanned about 3000 episodes between 1965 and 2008, making it the second longest-running children’s program in the world.
Created by Adelaide radio announcer and Channel 9 staffer Rex Heading, Humphrey B. Bear made his first appearance on the popular local kids’ show The Channel Niners after the show’s star, Bobo the Clown (played by Charles ‘Hal’ Turner) left to join Network 10.
Meanwhile, Humphey was given his own show and became a household name with Here’s Humphrey being screened in dozens of regions around the world, including the US, UK, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East.
The show won Logies in 1970 and 1982 and, as The Age reported, by the early 1980s Humphrey was being watched by more than one million Australian children every week.
Produced by Banksia Productions, the company behind The Curiosity Show, Here’s Humphrey was set in Humphrey’s treehouse, in Magic Forest, where his human friends included Ian Fairweather, Patsy Biscoe, Malcolm Harslett and Joni Combe, who went on to join the cast of another Adelaide hit, The Fairies.
The show went into hiatus from 2003 to 2007, when Nine commissioned a new series, which ran until 2009.
In 2012, Adelaide entrepreneur Shane Yeend, of Imagination Entertainment, acquired the rights to the iconic character, but plans for a new TV series never eventuated.
Queensland based OzPix has managed the Humphrey brand since acquiring the assets from Imagination in 2016.
Since then, Humphrey has appeared at the Adelaide Fringe and in 2022 was part of a Monash University initiative to help children with disabilities and developmental challenges settle back into school life after the stresses of the pandemic.
BEHIND THE NEWS – 1968 – ongoing
A weekly news and current affairs show aimed specifically at schoolchildren, Behind the News has been an important learning tool in classrooms across the country for over five decades.
Filmed at ABC Adelaide’s Collinswood studios, the show, also known as BTN, first aired on June 5, 1968 and, according to a documentary marking the show’s 50th anniversary, was the “first of its kind anywhere in the world”. It is the third longest-running TV show in Australia.
The show was first hosted by Peter Sumner and aired on June 5, 1968 when it was briefly known as “Current Affairs”.
The name change meant that for decades, the ABC wrongly believed the first episode of BTN had aired in 1969, when in fact it had premiered the year before.
“It had the same theme music and was obviously directed at students … so our history books were rewritten” the program explained in the notes for the first episode on YouTube.
The ABC axed the show in 2003 amid a funding dispute with the Federal Government but it returned in 2005 after a backlash from parents and teachers and has remained on air ever since, airing on ABC Me since 2014.
Previous hosts include Richard Morecroft Paul Higgins, Tania Nugent, Nathan Bazley and Amelia Moseley. In February, 2023, the ABC announced it would begin creating content specifically for secondary school students through a new initiative called BTN High.
THE CURIOSITY SHOW – 1972-1990
Produced in Adelaide for the Nine Network, The Curiosity Show ran for 19 seasons from 1972 to 1990 and was syndicated to 14 countries around the world.
The show had humble beginnings as a segment on Here’s Humphry, starring Humphrey B. Bear, also filmed in Adelaide and produced by the same company, Banksia Productions.
The show was hosted by Dr Rob Morrison and Deane Hutton – pioneers in children’s television – and became a staple for schoolkids around the world.
The show was renowned for conducting experiments and demonstrating concepts that could be easily replicated, because they made use of materials and objects that could be commonly found around the home, such as sticky tape, rulers, rubber bands and pencils.
Children of the ‘70s and ‘80s will no doubt remember Dr Hutton’s now-iconic refrain before explaining the science behind the topic he was about to demonstrate: “Well, I’m glad you asked!”
As Brad Crouch writes, Dr Morrison and Dr Hutton owned half the rights and Banksia Productions the other half – but the company went into liquidation and years dragged on as the liquidators sought buyers for its assets including the show’s rights.
Dr Hutton and Dr Morrison eventually bought the remaining rights and launched their own YouTube channel in 2013, where the pair upload one-minute to four-minute clips from their extensive library of episodes.
The channel now boasts 362,000 followers, and a dozen of the clips have racked up more than one million views.
Their most popular clip, a segment on isochronous curves, has been viewed 10m times.
The presenters did 11 books together based on the show and Dr Morrison recently published a memoir, Curious Recollections.
FAT CAT & FRIENDS – 1977-1991
Starring a costumed orange cat in red pants, red and white striped socks and green hat, Fat Cat & Friends was produced in Adelaide between 1977 to 1991, airing first on Network 10, before moving to the Seven Network in 1988 after the networks switched channels.
Fat Cat (full name Francis Aloysius Tom Cat) first appeared on TV in WA in the early 1970s.
Fat Cat & Friends also starred actor Wayne Anthoney as Humbolt the Clown and children’s recording artist Patsy Biscoe, who also appeared regularly on another Adelaide-produced children’s TV with a huge national following, Here’s Humphrey.
But despite winning over a generation of young Aussie fans over 15 years, Fat Cat & Friends came to a sad end in 1991 after the show was ruled unsuitable for preschool-aged children by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal.
As The Advertiser reported in 1992, the ABT found the show had poor production values, poor direction and was lacking in new scripts.
“It was not that they simply decided Fat Cat was too silly for kids but the quality of the program was poor,’’ ABT media officer Fiona Chisholm said.
“The child development specialists said it was not clear if Fat Cat’s role was active or as a bystander.
“They said children identify with the character and it was important they not be confused on what they see the character’s role to be.’’
The show wasn’t banned, but was denied the ABT’s new “P” classification, which would have allowed it to count towards Channel 7’s children’s programming quota.
Seven instead cancelled the show and replaced it with a new show, The Book Place.
The ABT’s decision prompted a public backlash that included a protest by Adelaide mechanic Peter Harris, who put up a sign outside his Kent Town automotive shop that read “Fat Cat was Framed”.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Humphrey B. Bear had the casting vote,’’ Mr Harris said told The Advertiser’s Emma Moody in 1992.
“I mean what does one do when Fat Cat gets taken away?
“I’ve been thinking about getting a petition going to get him back.’’
A Current Affair also registered his disgust, staging a mock funeral for Fat Cat, with one of a sobbing Humphey B. Bear one of the pallbearers.
Despite losing his place on prime time TV, Fat Cat remained an icon in WA, appearing at the annual Channel 7 Telethon and, at least until 2021, saying goodnight to children every night at 7.30pm.
MULLIGRUBS – 1988-1996
One of the weirder shows in the Aussie children’s TV canon, Mulligrubs ran for nine seasons on Channel 10 from 1988 to 1996.
Aimed at preschoolers, the show featured story time, music, dancing and Mulligrubs puppets Emma the Monkey, Titch and Bluey.
Redgum frontman John Schumann sang on the show for three years and told the ABC in 2020 that taking up the gig “was very much stepping out of my comfort zone” but that, as a father of young children “I really had no grounds to refuse” the job.
He told the ABC he enjoyed being reacquainted with the songs of his childhood and “rather perversely, I also enjoyed the reaction of my mates in the music industry, some of whom were way too cool to be singing songs for kids”.
Other cast members included singer and storyteller Jo England, singer and storyteller Gina Zoia, storyteller Ray Wheeler and sign language storyteller Megan Harris.
But most people will remember Mulligrubs because of Di Kid, even though they very likely don’t know her name or even what she looks like.
Kidd played the famous disembodied face – just eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth against a blue background – who made regular appearances on the show and spoke to her young viewers in a digitally-altered voice.
Speaking to news.com.au in 2014, Kidd told how she landed her iconic if anonymous role on the show.
“It turns out that the show’s associate producer knew of me because we had both been at Flinders University doing drama at the same time,” Kidd said.
“They needed someone who could be expressive through their eyes and their nose and their mouth which were the only parts of the body that were visible.
“She thought of me and it went from there.”
She also spoke about the challenges of creating the face effect within the constraints of 1980s TV technology, which required her to spend an hour in makeup every morning so that her head could be covered in a sticky blue makeup.
“I’d have little bits of black and blue coming out from every little place around my face for days,” she said. “It was quite strenuous really.”
WHEEL OF FORTUNE 1981-2008
Based on the hugely successful US format created by Merv Griffin, the Australian version of Wheel of Fortune ran from 1981 to 2006 and ended after a brief run in 2008.
The show was produced by Grundy Television from 1981 to 2006 and by CBS Studios International in 2008.
Although the show ended its nearly three-decade run in Sydney, for the first 15 years, the show was actually recorded in Adelaide.
Ernie Sigley hosted for the first three seasons before legendary game show host ‘Baby’ John Burgess helmed the show for 12 years until 1996, when production was moved to Sydney.
In Sydney the show was hosted briefly by Tony Barber, Rob Elliot, Steve Oemcke and Larry Emdur.
The show made a star of a young Argentinian-born Adelaide-raised model and actor named Adriana Xenides, who co-hosted the show for 18 years, earning her a Guinness World Record as the world’s longest-running game show host.
Among her many claims to fame, Xenides never missed an episode from 1981 to 1996.
She left the show in 1999 and died in Sydney in 2010.
Tim Campbell was last to host the show before it finally ended in 2008.
THE BOOK PLACE 1991- 2002
First airing in 1991, The Book Place replaced Fat Cat & Friends after Channel 7 opted to cancel the iconic show in the wake of the classification controversy.
Starring a talking puppet worm called Bookworm, presenters Lynn Weston, Brenton Whittle and musician Andy Armstrong, the show aimed to encourage children to fall in love with books and reading.
Armstrong wrote original songs for the show and one-time Adelaide resident Ben Folds appeared in an episode as a musical guest.
Authors including Mem Fox also appeared on the show reading their books to children.
As Whittle told 7News Adelaide’s Flashback segment in 2020, the show made a point of not talking down to kids, and the cast often took their message directly to the classroom with frequent school visits.
“We went to nearly every primary school in South Australia and nearly every child in South Australia appeared in it at some stage,” Whittle said.
Armstrong told Flashback the secret to their chemistry was simple.
“We just loved each other, it was a great team,” he said.
McLEOD’S DAUGHTERS 2001-2009
Set on a cattle station in South Australia, McLeod’s Daughters follows the fortunes of two sisters who inherit the family business after the sudden death of their father, Jack.
As creator and executive producer Posie Graeme-Evans told The Advertiser in 2016, the show was inspired by a photograph and story she had seen in a magazine in the early 1990s about a bunch of young women being trained to work with cattle in the Northern Territory.
“The photograph was of this bunch of girls with big hats on … and their faces were cut in half because it was such bright sun and all you saw was these big white grins,” Graeme-Evans said.
“It was such a simple story — bunch of girls run a cattle station,” she said of the show she pitched to Channel 9 executives at the time.
In 1996, Channel 9 agreed to a telemovie starring Jack Thomspon as Jack McLeod.
“It was the highest-rating Australian telemovie of all time,” Graeme-Evans recalls.
“This was a different era … there was nothing on television in those days that just had women at the heart of the story.”
Despite the phenomenal success of the telemovie, McLeod’s Daughters didn’t make it to TV until after the Sydney Olympics.
“We finally got to re-pitch it again after the Olympics opening ceremony in the year 2000 when all those young Australian men and women on horseback poured into the arena holding the flag,” Graeme-Evans told Anna Vlach.
“I pitched to David Leckie and I pitched my heart out and I said ‘You are mad if you don’t make this’”.
McLeod’s Daughters debuted on August 8, 2001 and was an instant hit, drawing an average 1.51m viewers per episode in its first season.
The show won a legion of fans around the country and the world, was sold to over 220 territories and in 2004 and 2005 was the most watched drama on Australian television.
The series was filmed at Kingsford Homestead, set on a 135-acre, heritage-listed property north of Gawler, with the Adelaide Hills, Kapunda, Mt Pleasant and Freeling among the many other SA locations featured in the show.
After eight seasons, 224 episodes, several high-profile departures from the cast and declining ratings, the show finally ended in 2009, but has remained popular in the age of streaming.
THE FAIRIES 2005-2009
Created by Adelaide mum Jen Watts, the Fairies was a show for preschoolers based on two fairies called Harmony and Rhapsody.
As Penelope Debelle wrote for SA Weekend, the show was built around basic songs and simple plots that allowed for repetitive singalongs and energetic dancing.
The show was made as a live action series because it was cheaper than animation.
Watts developed the concept in the 1990s and the brand began as a direct-to-video series with two films being released in 1998 and another in 2000.
The show made it to TV in 2005, airing on Channel 7 in Australia and quickly became a hit, with the series being sold to the UK, US, Asia and the Middle East.
Shot in SA, the Fairies sets were designed by New Zealand’s Weta Workshop, the special effects studio, famous for its work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The show’s popularity helped fuel the sale of merchandise, books and DVDs and draw young fans to live Fairies performances across the country.
THE COOK & THE CHEF 2006-2009
Maggie Beer’s talents in the kitchen and in business made her a legend in the food industry but TV made her a star.
Her big TV moment came with the ABC TV series The Cook and the Chef co-starring Adelaide chef Simon Bryant.
Filmed in Beer’s kitchen at Pheasant Farm, the hit series ran for 154 episodes over four seasons from 2006 to 2009.
The ABC described Maggie’s kitchen as “a kind of time machine and laboratory” for Simon and Maggie to share their skills, love of cooking and “our rich culinary and food history”.
“In each episode, The Cook and the Chef produce dishes that are easy to replicate in our own kitchens, introducing us to ways to work with our food traditions”.
The show featured special guests including Rick Stein, Margaret Fulton and Stephanie
Alexander, and dedicated episodes to a range of different themes and featured ingredients.
As Beer told SA Weekend in 2022, success wasn’t instant and it took her and Bryant a minute to find their groove.
“On the first day they tried us together, we were in the kitchen and it just wasn’t working,” she said.
“But afterwards we sat on the steps and we just talked.
“We couldn’t have been more different; in our cooking styles, in our statures … everything was different except we came together in our philosophy on food and life.”
Their shared passion for food connected with viewers and the show became hugely popular until during its relatively brief run.
Announcing the end of the series in 2009, Beer said: “The demands of filming on my family and business have led me to the difficult decision to leave the show.
“It’s been a privilege for me to have been able to share my passion for food with Simon and our audience.
“It always gives me joy when I feel I have inspired people to explore the wonderful produce that Australia has to offer.”
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