The Australian Broadcasting Corporation

As Australia’s main public service broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has always played a leading role in local program production, and it is arguably the single most significant force in Australia in one-off television drama, documentary, nature programming, and perhaps children’s programming.

The ABC was virtually unrivaled in any category of drama until the mid-1970s. The period from 1968 until 1975 is often referred to as the “Golden Era” of the ABC, the time of long-running and popular series or acclaimed miniseries such as Bellbird, Contrabandits, Certain Women, Rush, Marion, Ben Hall, and Power Without Glory. Until the late 1980s, the ABC, like other public broadcasters around the world, was a vertically integrated producer-broadcaster. With the exception of a few coproductions (mainly with the BBC), all of the ABC’s production was initiated, financed, and produced in-house. In the 1980s Patrol Boat, 1915, Spring and Fall, Scales of Justice, Palace of Dreams, and Sweet and Sour broke new ground in Australian television drama and provided an arena for trying out new writers and attempts at formal or conceptual innovation. Innovative comedy, such as Mother and Son, strong investigative journalism, such as the weekly current affairs program Four Corners (in production since 1961), and quality drama continue to attract critical and audience approval.

In the early 1980s a period of confusion and demoralization followed in the wake of a major review, the Dix Report. Then, in 1986, the ABC head of drama, Sandra Levy, initiated a “revival” in network drama content, the aim of which was to increase output to at least 100 hours a year. A decision was made to move ABC productions more toward the “popular” end of the drama spectrum and away from programming regarded as more esoteric, eccentric, or specialized. At the same time, it was decided that the way to get quantity, quality, and spread was by concentrating on a mixture of long-running series and miniseries and by eschewing one-offs, which are usually deemed too expensive relative to the rather limited audience they are likely to attract. Finally, it was also decided that the only way to increase drama hours was by entering into coproduction arrangements with local producers who could raise cash from the “10BA” tax-relief scheme and other government assistance schemes and from overseas presales, with the ABC contributing facilities and technical staff and as little cash as possible.

This strategy was immediately successful, at least in quantity and audience terms. Close to 100 hours of programming was achieved by 1988, and there was an immediate improvement in the ratings for miniseries and series, notably, in the latter category, the prime-time medical soap GP.

In the period 1988–91, the ABC coproduced and broadcast a large number of prestigious miniseries, all with local and overseas partners. Titles from this period include Act of Betrayal (with TVS), A Dangerous Life (with HBO in the United States and Zenith in the United Kingdom), Eden’s Lost (with Central TV), The Leaving of Liverpool (with the BBC), The Paper Man (with Granada). Also during this period, GP began to be sold to a number of overseas buyers, although the series has never achieved a large success in foreign markets. The ABC’s most successful situation comedy, both domestically and overseas, Mother and Son, was also sold during this period.

From 1992, the possibilities for financing programs in the British market diminished, and the ABC began to swing back toward the production of programs fully financed in-house. Examples are Phoenix I and II, Seven Deadly Sins, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, Heartland, and Janus. In-house miniseries included Come in Spinner, True Believers, Secret Men’s Business (with Southern Star), Time and Tide, Marriage Acts (with Beyond Reilly Pty. Ltd.); other parties hold the major rights to around 20 titles, including Bodysurfer, Brides of Christ, Children of the Dragon, Frankie’s House, and The Leaving of Liverpool, most of which were coproduced with United Kingdom partners.

The success of ABC drama in the 1990s was in part due to the role of commissioning editor Sue Masters. Most notable productions were the 13-episode RAW FM in 1997 (with Generation Films Pty. Ltd.), Fallen Angels (1997), A Difficult Woman (1998, with Southern Star), Grassroots (1999), and the 2000 in-house production Love Is a Four Letter Word, about the lives of “twenty-somethings” in an inner-city pub environment. Masters’s attempts to make ABC drama more innovative and relevant to a younger demographic were derailed when she departed for Ten Network in 2001, following the appointment of Jonathan Shier as managing director of the national broadcaster. The ABC has continued to produce in-house drama, the most expensive recent outlay being Changi (2001), a story of prisoners-of-war internment at the hands of the Japanese in World War II, handled with a comedic touch. The move to outsourcing production saw the ABC link up in 2002 with Southern Star (Bad Cop, Bad Cop). Recent comedy series successes for the ABC were The Games (2000; produced with Beyond Productions), which benefited from the art-imitates-life antics of Sydney’s Olympic Games management, and The Micallef Pogram, a coproduction with Red Heart Productions Pty. Ltd. (1998–2000).

The Grundy Organization

Although it was bought in 1995 by the United Kingdom publishing and media conglomerate Pearsons, the history of the Grundy Organization is predominantly Australian, and its Australian operations remain the single biggest national contribution to its overall activities. The history of Grundy is of a radio game show producer in the 1950s that transformed into a television game show producer for the local market during the 1960s. In the 1970s the Grundy Organization expanded considerably as a local drama producer and consolidated its reputation as a leader in light entertainment.

Without maintaining any particular link to any one network, Grundy has built up a substantial catalog of game shows such as Celebrity Squares, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, The Price Is Right, Blankety Blanks, and Sale of the Century as well as such highly successful drama programs as Young Doctors, Number 96, The Restless Years, Prisoner, Sons and Daughters, and its flagship soap, Neighbours, which began production in 1984.

Grundy experienced a breakthrough success with Neighbours both in Australia and in Britain. While that platform was the base on which a number of serials and series produced by Grundy and other Australian companies were sold into the British market, it also was the impetus to develop the key globalizing strategy that Reg Grundy, founder and chairman, dubbed “parochial internationalism.” Under this strategy, Grundy set up wholly owned local production companies to make programs that feature local people and are made by local Grundy staff who are nationals of the country in which the program is made.

By the mid-1990s, Grundy was producing about 50 hours of television a week worldwide. It sold in more than 70 countries worldwide, employed around 1,200 people in production and administration functions, and claimed to be the second-largest producer of light entertainment for television in the world until its takeover in 1995 by Pearsons, which was itself incorporated into the RTL Group and renamed FreemantleMedia in 2001. With Grundy now operating as Grundy Worldwide Ltd., Europe generates more production throughput for the organization than does Australia. In collaboration with the Producers Group, Grundy Australia was responsible for the children’s miniseries Escape of the Artful Dodger in 2000.

Criticisms leveled at Grundy include the charge that the producers remained committed to innocuous formats (game and quiz shows) and safe drama renditions. However, programs such as Prisoner and the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street were risky and innovative for their time and places of production, while a program like Man O Man represents an equally risky strategy in light entertainment.

Village Roadshow and Roadshow, Coote, and Carroll

The Village Roadshow group of companies has been unique in Australia. First established in the 1950s as a drive-in theater operator, it is now the only completely integrated audiovisual entertainment company, involved in studio management, production of both film and television, film distribution and exhibition, television distribution, video distribution, and movie theme park management. The conglomerate is also moving into multimedia development and exhibition holdings in southeast Asia. Its approach to internationalization is also unique in that the main thrust of its strategy is to attract offshore productions to its Warner Roadshow Movieworld Studios, near the Gold Coast in southeast Queensland.

The studios were founded in 1988–89 by housing two offshore television productions for the Hollywood studio Paramount. These were Dolphin Bay and Mission Impossible. It is estimated that an hour of series drama can be made offshore at a cost about 30 percent lower than a comparable hour made in Hollywood.

Since 1989 the studio has attracted partial or whole production of several feature films, a mixture of Australian and overseas productions including The Delinquents, Blood Oath, Until the End of the World, and Fortress. It has also hosted a number of U.S. series, most of which have not been shown in Australia, including Animal Park, Savage Sea, and a new production of Skippy. In 1992–93 it housed the major U.S. series Time Trax, which, unlike Mission Impossible, used a considerable number of Australian creative personnel, including directors and postproduction people. However, Time Trax was conceived in, scripted in, and entirely controlled from Hollywood.

Until 1995 Village Roadshow had a satellite production company, Roadshow, Coote, and Carroll (RCC), an outstanding boutique producer of midrange budget television such as GP and Brides of Christ. RCC was critically and culturally successful both locally and internationally, but it was not economically significant in the context of the whole conglomerate. This is because the huge investment in the studios depends totally on the success of Village Roadshow Pictures in attracting production to them. RCC is a very small organization with very little fixed infrastructure, and it finally broke away from the parent company in 1995 so that its principal, Matt Carroll, could pursue wholly independent projects.

The strategy, scale, and philosophy of RCC were at the opposite end of the spectrum from its parent company. Founded in 1984, RCC has chalked up an impressive list of television drama: True Believers, Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way from Home, The Paper Man, Brides of Christ, and Frankie’s House as well as the long-running ABC series GP. Many of its projects have been coproduced with the ABC. It is a marriage made in heaven: the expertise of RCC combined with the reputation of the facilities-rich ABC.

RCC’s bigger-budget productions, which cost about $1.2 million (Australian) an hour, were typically financed one-quarter through Australian presale (usually to the ABC), one-quarter Film Finance Corp. (FFC) investment, one-third United Kingdom presale, and about one-sixth other investors (including the ABC).

Brides of Christ exemplified big-budget RCC productions. It rated 30 in Australia, making it, in ratings terms, the most successful drama ever broadcast by the ABC. The repeats did almost as well (it had a third run on the Ten Network), and it sold well on video. It also received uniform critical approval. In the United Kingdom, it also rated extremely well on Channel 4, gaining an audience of 6 million. Apart from Brenda Fricker (and an Irish orchestra playing the soundtrack music), all other aspects of the program were Australian. While its theme and mode of telling remained unambiguously Australian and the idiom and cultural feel of it were very local, its story of moral upheavals in the Catholic Church in the 1960s, set against the wider changes that were occurring during that era, was recognizable enough in other places for the program to gain wide acceptance internationally.

Brides of Christ, however, was an expensive miniseries, set up when the European television market was still buoyant. Changes in the European television environment since then have meant that RCC now orients itself toward cheaper 13-, 26-, and 39-part series. While continuing with GP, they also developed Law of the Land for the Nine Network.

Crawfords

Having been in existence more than 50 years, Crawfords is one of the oldest and most respected production companies in Australia. Before starting to produce television in 1954, it was Australia’s most important producer of radio serials.

In the first 30 years of its existence as a television production company, Crawfords occupied a central place in Australian television. It pioneered popular police shows such as Homicide, Division 4, and Matlock Police in the 1960s and early 1970s; it made an early entry into soap opera with the long-running serial The Box (1974); in 1976 it innovated again with the World War II serial The Sullivans, which ran for 520 episodes and raised long-form drama to new heights of production values and cultural authenticity; and Crawfords was one of the earliest production companies to see the potential of 10BA as a vehicle for high-quality mini-series, with All The Rivers Run (1982). The company sailed through the early to mid-1980s on the back of productions like the glamorous Carson’s Law and Cop Shop, another successful police serial, and further 10BA miniseries. Much of the Crawfords catalog has had great staying power; for example, both The Sullivans and All the Rivers Run continue to perform well around the world.

The company has always had its own extensive production facilities, unlike many newer production companies. In the late 1980s, keeping the facilities occupied became more difficult for Crawfords, and recent further investment in new studios may have been ill-advised given the constant pressure of keeping the existing facilities occupied. This was the height of the company’s prosperity of recent times; The Flying Doctors was making excellent overseas sales (it was voted most popular drama in the Netherlands in 1992), and the Crawfords catalog had been sold to the Kirch Group and to other territories with a view to the company diversifying into coproductions with overseas partners, game shows, sitcoms, and made-for-television movies.

The results of this strategy include the popular and ground-breaking multicultural sitcom, Acropolis Now; the game show Cluedo, produced in association with Zenith Productions of the United Kingdom; a coproduced package of six television movies, called The Feds, with presales to the Nine Network, TVNZ, and a United Kingdom distribution guarantee; and the children’s series Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left, a 1991 coproduction with one of the Kirch subsidiaries, Beta-Taurus. The series became one of the most popular children’s television programs on British television.

Despite the success of some of these programs, the cancellation of The Flying Doctors by the Nine Network in 1992, when it was still doing well in overseas markets, was a severe blow. It had a temporary stay of execution in 1993, when Crawfords were given a chance to revamp it as RFDS (for Royal Flying Doctor Service). The changes, although thorough, were not enough to save the program, and without the fallback of “volume television” such as that produced by Grundy, the viability of Crawfords has been questioned of late. Crawfords only real drama success in the late 1990s was State Coroner (1997). Other output of note from that era included the George Miller– directed miniseries Tribe and the children’s series The Saddle Club, an Australian-Canadian coproduction with Protocol Entertainment, produced for the ABC.

The Beyond International Group

A young company among leading Australian television producers, the Beyond International Group (BIG) began in 1984 when the public service broadcaster, the ABC, axed Towards 2000, a four-year-old popular science and technology program, because it was be coming too expensive. An independent production company was set up, and the new program, Beyond 2000, was sold to the Seven Network in 1984 and then the Ten Network in 1993.

BIG has progressed to become a highly focused boutique production and distribution house, whose corporate portfolio also includes merchandising, music publishing, corporate video, and separate media production groups in the United States and New Zealand. Since its inception BIG has produced and/or coproduced more than 1,800 hours of programming, including information and documentary programs, magazine and lifestyle series, dramas, children’s shows, light entertainment, variety programs, comedies, and miniseries. The group’s operating divisions include Beyond Productions Pty. Ltd. (television production), Beyond Distribution/ Beyond Films Limited (feature film sales and international distribution), Beyond Online Pty. Ltd. (CD-ROM and Internet), and Beyond Entertainment Ltd. (feature film development and support). From the mid-1980s, what became Beyond International produced in differing formats, participated in international coproductions, and became involved in distribution domestically and internationally, but its resounding success was the Beyond 2000 format, which has been sold in more than 90 countries, been dubbed in ten languages, and attracted an international audience of 50 million.

BIG has also involved itself in predominantly European coproduction partnerships. In 1989 BIG and the BBC embarked upon the coproduced Climate in Crisis and then the four-part series Great Wall of Iron, a documentary about the Chinese military. BIG has also ventured into the production of drama series, miniseries, and children’s programming, with somewhat less success. The children’s series Bright Sparks typifies the Beyond International strategy—animated robots take journeys around the world exploring science and technology. Chances, an adult drama series featuring nudity and outlandish storylines, was a failure. BIG’s forays into local feature filmmaking virtually began and ceased with The Crossing in 1989. The failure of this film led the company to emphasize the more stable activity of distribution, and the distribution arm that began operation in 1990 became, along with Southern Star Distribution, one of two significant Australian-owned independent international distributors.

Beyond International has also moved into joint-venture relationships with leading Australian-content creators. In 1995 Beyond Simpson le Mesurier Pty. Ltd was formed, drawing on the creative expertise of Roger Simpson and Roger le Mesurier. The venture’s primary output was police investigation, prime-time commercial television dramas including Halifax f.p., Good Guys Bad Guys, and Stingers as well as the early evening serial Something in the Air for the ABC.

Liberty and Beyond, which began in 1995, saw Liberty Films come under the Beyond International banner. This company was created to make high-quality commercial film and television drama. Likewise Mullion Creek and Beyond was formed in 1998 to develop a wide variety of productions including television series, feature documentaries, and large-format films. Another company in the joint-venture production suite is Beyond Reilly Pty. Ltd, which has as its target commercial television ventures, building on the success of Gary Reilly Productions experience with sitcoms such as The Naked Vicar Show and Kingswood Country.

Southern Star

Southern Star is a lean, diversified operation with an integrated approach to production and distribution through film, television and video, and merchandising. Like most front-running independents, this diversity enables Southern Star to balance higher-risk and lower-risk ventures. After a management buyout of the Taft-Hardie Group (whose major shareholders included the Great American Broadcasting Company and James Hardie Industries) in 1988 by Neil Balnaves, Southern Star reorganized into six operating units, including a distribution arm; a Los Angeles–based animation unit responsible for programs such as Berenstein Bears and Peter Pan and the Pirates, made for the FOX Network; a video and audiotape duplication division; a merchandising arm handling the BBC, Columbia TriStar, and Paramount material; and a home-video division.

Southern Star Entertainment is a broad corporate umbrella for established independent producers: Errol Sullivan/Southern Star Sullivan, Hal McElroy/Southern Star McElroy, and Sandra Levy and John Edwards/ Southern Star Xanadu. The production arms run as partnerships with Southern Star meeting all running costs, producer and staff salaries, and finance and administration as well as publicity. McElroy and McElroy’s Last Frontier (1986) was a model for programs that traveled internationally and promoted growth across the company through video release and a 22- hour series spin-off.

Many of Southern Star’s major coproductions have been with the ABC and the BBC, including Four Minute Mile (1988), Children of the Dragon (1991), and Police Rescue (1990–96). The Police Rescue pilot was originally made for the BBC. The program was a coproduction between Southern Star Xanadu and the ABC, with presale to the BBC, which made a substantial contribution to the $7 million budget. For their initial financial contribution to the series in 1990, the BBC maintained script, director, and cast control. The program was driven by its ongoing success in Australia, and its success was built on a recognized format, a variation of the cop show, but with a 1990s balance between action and personal storylines that showcased the natural and built environment of Sydney and the star profile of Gary Sweet. Southern Star has also been involved in a successful coproduction with China Central Television (CCTV), a 52-episode children’s television series called Magic Mountain. This was sold to 60 countries. In all, 50 percent of Southern Star’s TV sales revenues derive from cable and satellite channels outside Australia.

In 1993 the Southern Star Group was responsible for a new successful long-running series, Blue Heelers, set around a country police station in Victoria. The general feel of the program is very much A Country Practice revisited, and this seems to appeal to audiences. In 1994 it was the highest-rating Australian drama across all channels.

The most successful international product to emerge from the Southern Star stable to date has been the McElroy/Southern Star police/action drama Water Rats (1996– ), set on Sydney Harbor, with the landmark Harbor Bridge heavily featured. The program achieved the honor of being the most internationally distributed Australian television drama, sold to 168 countries. In 2001 Southern Star, in collaboration with John Edwards, Ten Network, and Channel 4 (United Kingdom), produced The Secret Life of Us, a “twenty-something” series set in a Melbourne apartment block. In 2000 Hal McElroy and Di McElroy, operating as McElroy TV, produced the innovative series Going Home for the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). Scripted and produced on a day-by-day schedule, and featuring an ensemble cast, this highly acclaimed short series allowed viewers to contribute to narrative development through a linked website.

Film Australia

Currently a government-owned enterprise that is expected to generate up to two-thirds of its own revenue, Film Australia started life in 1911 as a production unit within the federal government, before becoming a government-owned film production company in 1945. In the period after 1945, it nurtured the documentary tradition, and a significant number of filmmakers who went on to play important roles in the film and television industries were trained there. In 1976 the Commonwealth Film Unit became a branch of the Australian Film Commission and took on its present name, Film Australia. In 1987 it was made a government-owned business enterprise working under the stricture to become partly self-sufficient from government.

The mission to produce films and programs “in the national interest” continues, and this is represented by the government’s continuing to fund Film Australia under the so-called National Interest Program (NIP). This program is the core of Film Australia’s business and the reason for it being a government-owned company. Both Mini-Dragons and The Race to Save the Planet used NIP money.

Outside of NIP projects, The Girl from Tomorrow, a fantasy/science fiction children’s series, is one of Film Australia’s most successful exports, and many countries that bought it also bought the sequel, Tomorrow’s End. The preschool children’s series Johnson and Friends has sold exceptionally well and in addition has become an international marketing phenomenon. Film Australia also does well with nature programs such as Koalas: The Bare Facts and the series Great National Parks. Other good sales have come from documentaries with an environmental or scientific angle, such as After the Warming, The Loneliest Mountain, Mini-Dragons, and Roads to Xanadu.

Teachers of the World was a 1992 seven-part documentary series that dealt with the life of a teacher in each of the contributing countries (Australia, Canada, the United States, Korea, and Poland). As a result of the Teachers of the World coproduction, some of the partners came together again to produce a special documentary series called Family to celebrate the Year of the Family in 1994.

Film Australia’s success lies in part in its specialization in those program categories with greatest international currency (nature, environmental, and science documentaries, and children’s programming) and it has had the foresight to focus on the burgeoning markets of Asia with product that does not confront too many cultural hurdles. In addition, it is blessed with good facilities and the safety net of government funding.

Granada Australia/Red Heart

In 1998 Granada Media assumed a prominent place on the Australian production landscape when it acquired a 9.1-percent stake in Channel 7, making it the second-largest individual shareholder behind Kerry Stokes. Following this, Granada bought a 50-percent stake in Artist Services Pty. Ltd, which was later rebranded as Red Heart Productions. Artist Services had initially specialized in sketch comedy in the early 1990s (Fast Forward, Full Frontal). Founded by Steve Vizard and Andrew Knight, it achieved wider brand recognition with its productions for the ABC: the miniseries Simone de Beauvoir’s Babies (1997) and the popular television serial Sea Change (1998). It also produced feature films such as Siam Sunset, Dead Letter Office, and The Sound of One Hand Clapping.

By bringing together the resources of Granada, the rebranded Red Heart was intended to act as a conduit for the distribution of both British and Australian concepts and formats. However, the partnership with the Seven Network failed to deliver the benefits to both Granada and Red Heart, despite the successful Seven Network drama series Always Greener, a spin-off of the Sea Change concept.

The Seven Network

The Seven and Nine Networks were the two original commercial broadcasters in Australia and until the late 1980s enjoyed stable ownership and management, which allowed them to build up a high degree of programming expertise and audience loyalty. One of Seven’s greatest strengths has been its commitment to drama, whereas the Nine Network has been stronger in news and current affairs and sport, which are far less internationally tradable.

With its traditional emphasis on drama, the Seven Network was well positioned to take advantage of 10BA, and during the 1980s it produced a number of high-quality miniseries with local and overseas partners. Series and serials sold by Seven on behalf of itself and the independent producers involved include Rafferty’s Rules, Skirts, and A Country Practice. Some of the programs from the 1980s that were sold that way (and which still sell today) were Land of Hope and The Fremantle Conspiracy, Jackaroo, Sword of Honour, and Melba.

Two of the most successful programs of the early 1990s were Home and Away (which began in 1988 and still airs as of 2003) and Hey Dad (which ran for seven years, until 1994). The first is produced in-house by the Seven Network; the second was produced by Gary Reilly and Associates and sold jointly by them and the network through RPTA.

Home and Away, produced by Seven Network subsidiary Amalgamated Television Services Pty. Ltd., was developed in-house as an immediate response to the success of Neighbours on the Ten Network. Ironically, the latter had originally begun on Seven in 1985, but after indifferent ratings that network let it go. When Neighbours achieved such success on Ten, Seven realized the potential for youth-oriented soaps. Home and Away has gone on to achieve great popularity in both Australia, where it outrates its rival Neighbours, and in the United Kingdom, where in the late 1990s it was achieving audiences of 8 million for ITV (it was sold to Channel 5 in 2000).

By the mid-1990s, the Seven Network seemed well positioned to continue its strong record in commissioning and producing programs with strong export potential. The free-to-air service is flourishing, and Seven is exploring new markets in Asia and Eastern Europe, which, while not lucrative in the short term, have great potential in the future. Through its association with Granada Media, the Seven Network acquired international distribution for its local content and a stream of United Kingdom content. Seven has also invested in docu-soap coproductions (Popstars, Temptation Island). Seven is exploring pay television and other broadband services and it is safe to predict that it will remain a force in the Australian entertainment industry in the years to come.

Children’s Television Producers

Australia is a significant player in world children’s television. Most major children’s programs made in Australia recently have enjoyed international sales success, and critical acclaim for Australian programs is a regular occurrence.

The structure of regulation and production in Australia for children has strengths that, in some respects, are unmatched elsewhere in the world. Within the general liberalization of broadcasting regulation seen in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, the only mandated regulations that continued from the old Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (ABT) were those for Australian content and for children, so that in the new regime the most-detailed imposed regulations pertain to children.

The Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) dominates the field of Australian children’s television. A body established as a result of both federal and Victorian government support and incorporated in 1982, the ACTF produces, commissions, and distributes children’s television programming as well as acting as a kind of think tank and clearinghouse for children’s television advocacy. ACTF has produced more than 150 hours of programming, which has been screened in more than 90 countries, and it has received many international awards. Lift Off, Round the Twist, and Round the Twist 2 were all high-profile ACTF series that were very popular in the United Kingdom, and Sky Traders has sold into a diverse range of territories. In 1998 a third series of Round the Twist was made as well as a cyberspace, live-action drama called The Crash Zone, commissioned by Buena International and produced in association with the Seven Network.

Western Australia-based Barron Films concentrates on quality children’s/family television series as well as social realist films and adult television drama, having made Falcon Island, Clowning Around, and Ship to Shore. Yoram Gross Film Studios, an established specialist producer of animated children’s films, crossed successfully to television with the production and distribution of a 26-part television series based on its Blinky Bill films. Yoram Gross merged with the German-based EM-TV in 1999. The new company has consolidated its international distribution and coproductions in Europe, Canada, and the United States. International successes include Flipper and Lopaka (1999). Jonathan Shiff/Westbridge has specialized in children’s television since 1988, its biggest production being the $3 million series Ocean Girl, which sold to Disney in the United States and to the BBC for a record sum for a children’s series in the United Kingdom. Roger Mirams/Pacific Productions, a Sydney-based producer of children’s programming since the 1950s, shot the $8 million Mission Top Secret in seven countries. Pacific Productions made South Pacific Adventures in 1990, and Media World Features, another company involved in animated features, made a miniseries based on its animated film The Silver Brumby.

Beyond International produced Deepwater Haven, a children’s drama series with a curious mix of French and New Zealand actors, in Auckland. Millennium Productions made Miraculous Mellops, a fantasy/science fiction family series, and Warner Roadshow has produced The Adventures of Skippy and Animal Park.

Other Production Companies

JNP Productions established its reputation almost solely on its long-running and well-regarded series A Country Practice. The program ran as one of the major Seven Network dramas from 1981 to 1993, before being bought by the Ten Network in 1994. Despite a reworked format and setting, the new series on Ten failed; JNP has yet to produce anything as remotely successful.

Like JNP, Gannon Television/View Films has built its name on one major television product, Heartbreak High, a youth-oriented series noted for its high production values and its treatment of youth issues. The series suffered from scheduling changes imposed by the Ten Network but picked up important sales in the lucrative markets of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to the extent that the series was produced on the basis of these sales, without any Australian network deal. In addition to several feature films, View Films has also produced two television miniseries: Shout! The Story of Johnny O’Keefe (1985), for the Seven Network; and Shadow of the Cobra (1988), for Zenith in the United Kingdom, the BBC, and the Seven Network. Gannon Television has collaborated with Foxtel, France 2, and Carlton International on a drama for the ABC called Head Start. Ben Gannon also teamed with Michael Jenkins to produce the acclaimed ABC police drama Wildside in 1997–98.

Working Dog Pty. Ltd., a company that evolved out of the 1988 D-Generation and 1992 Late Show skit comedies, went on to produce successful feature films The Castle and The Dish. Working Dog’s most successful television programs include the television news satire Frontline; a late-night talk format featuring selected guests (The Panel); and a fishing docu-format, A River Somewhere.

The Special Broadcasting Service produces occasional innovative short series, such as Going Home (with McElroy TV) and risky cult comedy (Pizza). Through SBS Independent (SBSI), the service commissions documentaries from local filmmakers. One of the most successful productions has been the Mary G Show, an indigenous-affairs magazine produced in the town of Broome in Western Australia.