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Johnny Whyte Johnny Whyte i(A142665 works by)
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2 form y separately published work icon This Is It, Kids Johnny Whyte , Sydney : Cash Harmon Television , 1976 6695404 1976 single work film/TV
— Appears in: Zoom In : Television Scripts of the Seventies 1977; (p. 88-125)

Episode 1000 of the long-running soap opera Number 96.

1 form y separately published work icon The Unisexers Robert Caswell , David Sale , Johnny Whyte , Anne Hall , Derek Strahan , ( dir. Peter Maxwell ) Sydney : Cash Harmon Television , 1975 Z1812878 1975 series - publisher film/TV

Devised by American screewriter Anne Hall, The Unisexers was a short-lived series that followed the travails of a group of young people collectively running a jeans-making business in a large inner-city house, from the same production company that produced Number 96.

Unlike Number 96, however, The Unisexers ran for only three weeks, five nights a week. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series,

'Ironically, given that the timeslot had been such an important factor in the success of Number 96, The Unisexers timeslot [prior to the main evening news] in Sydney and Melbourne proved to be a major part of its downfall. Producers and writers felt particularly circumscribed in terms of what they could show and talk about at that time because of the large number of children viewing then'.

The first episode of The Unisexers is available to watch on YouTube (in black and white).

  • Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3SYqFbfO4c
  • Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI6_tNGKa_A&feature=related
  • Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AGsCMlyb-c&feature=related
  • Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmIpzjK9504&feature=related

(Sighted: 7/10/2011)

1 6 form y separately published work icon Number 96 Lynn Foster , Robert Caswell , David Sale , Ken Shadie , Eleanor Witcombe , Johnny Whyte , ( dir. Peter Benardos et. al. )agent Sydney : Cash Harmon Television , 1972 Z1812749 1972 series - publisher film/TV

A highly successful soap opera, Number 96's permissive and adult tone emerged, in Moran's terms, from 'the atmosphere of censorship liberalisation that had occurred in Australia in the early 1970s, and the intention to screen the serial in a late evening timeslot'. As such, the programme interspersed the domestic and romantic storylines that usually drive soap operas with plots exploring rape, drug abuse, and homosexuality. For example, the long-running character Don Finlayson (played by Joe Hasham) was an openly gay character whose relationships attracted neither censure nor any unusual degree of attention from his neighbours, showing him as unusually (for the time) integrated into a mainstream community.

According to Moran, 'Number 96 moved the Australian television soap opera completely away from its radio predecessor by organising a series of simultaneous storylines with various characters moving in and out of these, the storylines lasting only two to six weeks on air.' Long-running storylines included the 'Knicker Snipper' (a msyterious figure stealing the residents' underwear) and the Pantyhose Murderer (a serial killer).

As the show's ratings began dropping in 1975, various attempts were made to revitalise interest in the series, including killing (or otherwise writing out) long-running characters, increasing the amount of location shooting, and publicising the increased amount of nudity in the show (including both female and--briefly--male full-frontal nudity). Despite this, ratings continued to drop to the point where the show was cancelled in July 1977.

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