AustLit

Like the earlier Crawford's series The Box, Prime Time was concerned with television production. In this case, the programme focused on the fictional Lockhart Productions and its prime-time current-affairs program, Assignment: according to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, 'although there was no physical resemblance between actor Chris Orchard and real-life current affairs host and company owner, Mike Willesee, nevertheless the reference was clear.' The show was produced in such a way that, according to Moran, its 'format was flexible enough to allow both the presence of ongoing narratives about the principal characters as well as featuring guest characters, narratives and situations arising out of the stories that Assignment was focusing on.'

Unlike The Box, Prime Time was not successful, though Moran emphasises that Channel 9, the network airing the program, 'did much to snatch disaster from the jaws of victory by scheduling Prime Time on Thursday and Friday nights'.

A children's television series, Zoo Family followed the adventures of Dr David Mitchell, veterinary surgeon at Melbourne Zoo, and his children Susie and Nick (all of whom live within zoo grounds). Additional characters include the head groundsman, a young vet graduate, the zoo manager, and the zoo trustees. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series,

The latter are perpetually scheming over trust money under their control and it is left to the others to ensure that animals and enclosures are maintained. Beyond this human family, the larger family of the series is animals in the zoo. Each episode features a particular animal or group of animals in the zoo. Successive episodes concern such events as the discovery and treatment of sore eyes on a seal, taking delivery of male and female cheetahs, and building a new enclosure for a bull elephant.

The series, Moran concludes, 'had the solid, even dull, worthiness that is so much a feature of Crawford's.'

This Ten Network serial--which Moran describes in his Guide to Australian TV Series as 'an eccentric series that might have been more at home on the ABC'--followed the travails of two branches of the Carson family: patriarch and lawyer Geoffrey Carson (and his at-home son and daughter) and his widowed daughter-in-law and fellow lawyer Jennifer (and her three children).

Geoffrey and Jennifer often meet in court, usually in oppositional roles in the same case, which underlies the tension between Geoffrey's outdated patriarchal attitude and Jennifer's more liberated outlook. Moran also notes that the sets ('sumptuously heavy Victorian interiors') tended to emphasise the undercurrent of nineteenth-century patriarchy running beneath the series.

Carson's Law employed the soap-opera convention of self-contained episodes for guest stars and ongoing story arcs for regular characters, though, in Moran's terms, 'it tended to use its guest stories as a means of furthering the personal and continuing narratives'.

Though popular in Melbourne (and less popular in Sydney), the program was not renewed after the second series, and ended in 1983.

According to Moran's Guide to Australian TV Series, Holiday Island was something of an attempt to emulate the appeal of the American television series The Love Boat. Set on a tropical island holiday resort, the concept was, as Moran notes,

a good one with the potential for a continuous series of new characters in the guide of holiday guests, and the possibility of romance and other entanglements between them and the regular characters who worked at the resort. The opportunities for the intervention of nature in the shape of such happenings as cyclones and storms, and the appearance from time to time of more eccentric and enigmantic characters who had come to the island, offered promise.

But the program was broadcast without fanfare in the middle of the ratings season, to replace the poorly rating Bellamy, and only managed moderately good ratings. It was cancelled in 1982.

A serial drama set in an airport, which followed the familiar soap-opera structure of combining self-contained guest stories (usually involving stranded passengers, drug trafficking, and the like) with ongoing narratives affecting the regular cast.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series,

Industry wags suggested at the time that Skyways was Crawford's version of the Ross Hunter feature film smash hit of the early 1970s, Airport. A soapie with an airport setting, Skyways was a chance to say hello again to many television drama faces, including Tony Bonner, Bruce Barry, Carmen Duncan, Ken James, Tina Bursill, Brian James and Gerard Kennedy.

Set in the fictional Riverside Police Station, Cop Shop combined self-contained stories focusing on specific police investigations with the type of open-ended serial storylines familiar from soap operas. This allowed Crawford Productions to make use of the expertise gained from their highly successful police procedurals (all recently cancelled) and serials such as The Sullivans (then still airing).

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series,

Although the format may sound predictable and routine, in fact it was pioneering. In putting women police on the screen, Crawford's were moving Australian crime drama away from being an all-male domain. In addition, by choosing a suburban police station populated both by uniformed police and plainclothes detectives, Cop Shop introduced an upstairs and a downstairs world. The latter, in particular, began to exert its own attractions with handsome young men and women in the roles of the new constables.

The comedy series Bobby Dazzler was created as a vehicle for pop-star John Farnham. Crawford Productions had been seeking a suitable vehicle for Farnham for some time, including writing an episode of Ryan with him in mind (a part that was re-cast due to Farnham's unbreakable concert commitments) and casting him in the failed pilot Me and Mr Thorne.

Bobby Dazzler played to both Farnham's strengths and his popular image. As Don Storey notes in his Classic Australian Television,

The pilot episode sets the scene - a young singer, Bobby Farrell, releases a record and seeks a manager to steer him on a successful career. Meanwhile, his father Fred, a former vaudeville performer, re-enters his life after an absence of many years, and proceeds to move into Bobby's flat, much to his (and his new manager's) dismay.

The program so appealed to Maurie Fields (as an opportunity to combine his television experience and vaudeville background) that, according to Storey, he quit a nine-year-long run on Bellbird to take the role of Bobby's father. It also won Terry Stapleton a Sammy Award. But as Storey notes,

HSV-7 in Melbourne, unfortunately, did not give Bobby Dazzler much of a chance - after sitting on the programme for the best part of a year, the first episode finally went to air on November 20, 1977. The bulk of the series was shown during the 1977-78 summer non-ratings 'silly season', and went through a timeslot change which did nothing to encourage regular viewers.

The series was not renewed for a second season, and Farnham returned to a full-time singing career.

An hour-long sit-com set in a men's prison, The Bluestone Boys ran to twenty-six episodes, but was not one of Crawford Productions' more successful programs. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, 'The boys in question were male prisoners supervised by a mixture of idiot trustees headed by a Nazi-like Chuck Faulkner. The comedy of the male group outsmarting its supervisors should have been funnier, given the experience of Crawford writers such as Ian Jones and Terry Stapleton, but The Bluestone Boys fades into insignificance when compared with programs such as Bilko, McHale's Navy and Porridge.'

A pilot for a planned TV series that the Seven Network declined to pick up, Me & Mr Thorne was set in the shop of an eccentric bookseller, who fancied himself as an amateur detective, and planned to draw his reluctant assistant into his pursuit of criminals.

The Last of the Australians was Crawford Productions' first attempt at a sit-com since Take That in the 1950s, and one of the few Australian sit-coms filmed in front of a live studio audience.

The script was based on Alan Seymour's play The One Day of the Year, which explores the clashing attitudes of a father and son towards Anzac Day. As Don Storey notes in his Classic Australian Television:

Seymour has been approached several times for the TV rights to the play, and he refused all offers, including one from an American film company. However, when scriptwriter Terry Stapleton approached him on Crawford's behalf, Seymour agreed to sell the rights. This was because scripts that Stapleton had prepared were given to Seymour, and he was pleased with the way Terry had handled the character interpretations.

The sit-com is centred around the characters of Ted Cook, his wife Dot, and his son Gary. Ted is a World War II veteran of strong conservative principles, frustrated by the direction in which modern Australian society is moving. Gary is a teenaged university student of strong liberal principles, his father's antithesis. Despite the fact that the show drew its tension from the clash between father and son, it preserved a strong degree of affection between the family members.

Storey emphasises that Terry Stapleton wrote all episodes himself (barring one collaboration with his brother Jim), and concludes 'The Last of the Australians is cleverly written, very funny, and, being made during the tenure of the Whitlam Government, contains many interesting political references. The acting and direction is superb, and there is no irritating canned laughter'. Similarly, Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, describes the sit-com as 'a very likeable and funny comic inversion of the Seymour play'.

'Holly Beckett, a high class, sensuous call girl, and one of her clients, are bashed and robbed by two thugs at her flat.

'Her client, Novak, threatens Holly when she attempts to seek assistance. However, when he leaves, she goes to Ryan, an old friend, and he agrees to help her recover her jewellery which has great sentimental value to Holly.

'Ryan's investigations uncover a crime of far greater magnitude than robbery, but unfortunately, not before there has been a kidnapping and a murder.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'HOLLY GREEN: Late twenties. A high class, sensuous call girl. She has no hangups about what she is or why she does it. For Holly, it pays well and she's good at it. That's all there is to it. She appears to be light headed, almost frivolous, but when it comes right down to it - she's got guts. She's all woman. Her relationship with Ryan is not defined - there's something - some past emotional involvement - between them that holds each close to the other.

'NOVAK: In his mid-forties - German, but only a hint of accent. He's well educated. A crisp, good looking man, wears his hair very short. Used to money and easy living. Has a passion for call girls. Probably because he's deep down, an insecure person - weak - easily frightened. It's something he can't control. Drives.

'HENDERSON: Late forties to early fifties. Rough, Australian. A professional killer. Deadly. Drives, fights, shoots.

'GRANGER: Late fifties. International accent. The all powerful boss. Magnetic, dynamic, persuasive. A fanatic who wants to set the world right.

'LARRY LEWIS: About 28. Australian, working class. A two bit crim. Larry is shifty, nervous, unpredictable. Resorts to violence when the going gets tough. Larry makes his living working over and thieving from the clients of his sister Tina. Drives.

'BERT: About 28. Works for a wrecker. Like Larry he's a small time crim. They work together on jobs. Bert's a cool, more rational person than Larry.

'TINA LEWIS: About 26. A call girl. But not in the same class as Holly. Greedy. Tough. A tart.

'RITA: About 19. A hard looking chic [sic] - the sort bikies go for. She's mean and vicious. Plays snooker.

'CHLOE: About 18. A more sensitive person than Rita. Hangs around Billiard rooms looking for pickups. She's pretty dumb. Plays snooker.

'CLAUDE: About 26. High camp. A hairdresser. Few lines.

'DAVE: A crotchity [sic] old man of 65. Runs a wrecker's yard.

'HAL: 30's - Granger's Secretary. Bodyguard. Cool, efficient.

'WLADYSLAW: 50-ish. A Polish mate of Ryan's with resistance movement experience. Likeable, amusing. One key scene

'POLICE CONSTABLE (STUDIO): About 22. Young, inexperienced, easily put off.

'SENIOR DETECTIVE (STUDIO): About 40. Easy going - professional.

'TWO UNIFORMED POLICEMEN (EXTERIOR): No lines. Could be actuals.'

Ryan focused on the titular Michael Ryan, a private detective with a stringent code of ethics and a background as a soldier, police officer, and social worker. Ryan's work doesn't focus on divorce and domestic problems, but on serious crimes that, for some reason, the victims are unwilling to take to the police. He is supported by his secretary Julie King (who often becomes involved in fieldwork), cab driver and later assistant Tony Angelini, and police liaison Detective Sergeant Dan Cullen.

According to Don Storey in Classic Australian Television,

'The production standards of Ryan are very high -- good writing, solid acting performances, smooth direction and excellent camera and editing work combined to form a polished and professional product. And Ryan was very successful overseas -- proportional to the number of episodes made, Ryan has probably done better overseas than most other Crawford shows. Yet it was the first Crawford show not to do well locally'.

'Marshall is a man with secrets ... secrets that he's tried to keep for thirteen years. Ryan's efforts to get at the truth are complicated by a nervous doctor, an alcoholic wife, a crooked lawyer, a strange gunman and a sweet 18 year old named Susan - who is the key to the biggest secret of all.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'JACK MARSHALL. 50-ish. Just released from gaol after spending 13 years inside on a murder charge. Large man, full of rough edges. Basically warm, compassionate, but for much of the episode he will appear sinister and threatening. Drives a car.

'SUSAN MORRISON. About 18. Attractive, likeable, uncomplicated. A couple of emotional scenes but not an enormous amount of dialogue.

'LORNA MORRISON. Late 30's. Hard drinking, brittle, bitchy. Still attractive but it's taking longer.

'DR. HOWARD MORRISON. Late 40's. Life and Lorna have taken their toll. Beset with worries and anxieties.

'FRANK POWELL. 40's. A solicitor who works on the shady side of the street. Devious, full of deals, forever manipulating. Drives a car.

'DANNY CARTER. Early thirties. Sees himself as Melbourne's answer to Bogart - a killer who probably rehearses in front of the mirror. But a killer nonetheless. And a queer. Narcissistic. Drives a car, runs, fights.

'ALAN ARCHER. Mid-twenties. Susan Morrison's boyfriend. An estimable young man who manages the local Drive-In Cinema. Drives a car.

'SERVICE STATION ATTENDANT. Early 20's. Likeable and a bit cheeky.

'BARMAN. One liner.'

'Sue Ogilvie is a high-class call girl with more charm than brains. She stumbles onto an industrial espionage incident without even knowing it.

'Ryan becomes involved with one of the lesser criminals, who fearing for the girls' safety - hires him to trace Sue Ogilvie. Soon Ryan is acting for the girl herself. She has become the victim of a terror campaign and is bashed while in Ryan's care.

'Ryan uncovers the industrial espionage and finds himself in violent conflict with a large and supposedly reputable company.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'SUE OGILVIE Early 20's. A charming dumb-blonde. Nature too friendly and trusting for her own safety. Has worked as a call girl but now regrets it.

'STEVE ROBERTS Thirtyish, heavy hornrimmed glasses, scholarly. A rather nervous man, who possesses a genuine concern for Sue's welfare.

'SHEILA A year or two older than Sue with similar physical attractions. An intelligent woman, but without Sue's attractively screwball personality.

'TONY MOSS 30. Julie's actor friend. A likeable but unreliable extrovert who doesn't hide his interest in Sue.

'FITCH 40. The brains behind the industrial espionage. An extremely ruthless and impatient man. Physically impressive with a sense of polished ruthlessness.

'TOPLEY 50. Slightly balding, too youthfully dressed. A servile man who understands well the requirements of his business (an escort service).

'IAN HAGERTY 30. Stockbroker. Good looking, conservative gentleman. Values his money and position.

'DETECTIVE CULLEN Late thirties. A tough policeman (Senior Sergeant) who doesn't hide his dislike for Private Detectives.

'DOCTOR THOMAS 40ish. Tends to over-dramatise his position and the patient's condition. But a good doctor.

'PHOTOGRAPHER Late 20's. Works in Fitch's office. A few lines.

'ALBERT 25. Almost completely bald with fringes of longish hair. An intelligent thug. Drives well, loses fights.

'GUARD Any age. A few lines.

'TERRY 20's. Thug. Must drive well. (Could be a stunt man)

'NURSE Young. No lines.

'BARTENDER 30's. A few lines.

'TWO MEN IN BAR Extras.

'KIOSK ATTENDANT Any age, few lines.'

'A beautiful young girl believes she has murdered her lover. Ryan is hired - and fired; but in between he has followed a mystifying and violent trail which ends in his discovery of Liz's chilling secret.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'LIZ MASON: 20. Attractive, sensitive, impulsive. A highly strung, appealing girl, who has something of the Mia Farrow image about her. Her delicate, nervous personality is often punctuated with moments of anger, fire and insight.

'ERIC STAHL: 50's. Liz's father. Of European origin, has built a large and profitable empire in Australia, only half of which is legitimate. A large and powerful man, used to possessing power and using it. A veneer of manners, and a genuine concern for Liz.

'JOAN MASON: 40's. Liz's mother, Stahl's ex-wife. An attractive, brittle, unstable woman. A carefully acquired sophistication and fiercely protective attitude towards Liz which is born out of guilt.

'BETTY SIMPSON: 25. An attractive nurse. One scene.

'LORNA RUSSELL: 60's. An ex-matron. Assured, human. One scene.

'GEOFFREY BAXTER: About 50. Very Australian. An aggressive, chip-on-the-shoulder, talkative person, who would always been full complaints, at great length.

'SENIOR SERGEANT KEN WADE: 45. A tough, experienced detective who used to be Ryan's boss. One scene, could recur.

'CHRIS: 20's. A ravishing American girl with few morals or scruples, but managing nevertheless to be quite an appealing character. She is on Stahl's payroll.

'JOE: 40-ish. Tough crim on Stahl's payroll.

'BILLY: 30-ish. Tough crim on Stahl's payroll.

'DR. PAUL MITCHELL: About forty. Smooth, attractive. No lines. We see him as a dead body and in a couple of subliminal flashbacks having an argument.

'POLICEWOMAN CARTER: 25. Attractive, couple of lines.

'SENIOR DETECTIVE CULLEN: 45. Tough detective. One scene.

'DETECTIVE GREEN: 30. Detective. One scene.

'BILL: 40-50. An inebriated party guest.

'WOMAN: 40-ish. Bill's wife. Few lines.

'HENCHMAN NO. 1: About 30. Tough-looking. Few lines. Must be able to run and fight.

'TWO OTHER HENCHMEN: Also in the employ of Stahl.

'PARTY GUESTS'.

'Ryan has shrugged off a recent series of threatening crack calls. One night, emerging from a building, he is met by a hail of bullets from a passing car. Two passers-by are hit - a woman who is killed instantly, and her small son, who is rushed to hospital.

'Julie King, Ryan's secretary, witnesses the event, and is sickened and shattered by the raw danger associated with Ryan's life-style.

'Ryan, driven by a clawing conscience and an obsessive commitment to revenge, works around the clock to track down the killer. His "Nut File" provides him with a list of suspects - a detailed catalogue of psychopaths and criminals who have "sworn to get him." Relentlessly, he checks them out. Each confrontation has its own flash-point, and the trail eventually leads to Mr. Ward - the monolithic crime Czar who must surely know the answer.

'Meanwhile, Julie King has her own crisis to resolve. Her outraged parents have demanded that she leave Ryan's employ - remove herself from what they consider an atmosphere of sordid violence. Julie feels a strong emotional commitment to Ryan, but has, herself, been alarmed by recent events.'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'DR. GORDON KING: Early fifties. Julie's father. Conservative, paternal; seemingly hard exterior which softens to genuine and real concern that his daughter had experienced such a horrible tragedy.

'ELAINE KING: Late 40's. Good-looking in a rather genteel way. She has shared her husband's fears and has become over-protective. She infringes on Julie's privacy believing Julie's motive for staying with Ryan is primarily romantic. She is deeply hurt by the gap growing between herself and Julie.

'THEODORE WARD: Early fifties. Controlling figure of the underworld. Huge, neat man with a disturbing aura of ruthlessness surrounding him. He is "The Boss", ruling the underworld with an iron fist. A man with his own rather strange code of ethics regarding who can be murdered and who can't. Sticklet [sic] for professionalism.

'COLIN BROWN: Mid-late thirties, attractive to women. When we first meet him, Brown appears kind, sincere, shattered by the horrible deaths of his wife and son. We later learn this is not the full story. Should drive.

'HELEN: 20's. Beautiful young girl. Devoted to Brown. The unconscious cause of the Brown tragedy.

'MRS. BROWN: Homely, maternal type who could not compete with Brown's younger women. Finally left to live alone with her son. Mid thirties. Few lines but her image and impact is important to story.

'BARRY BROWN: Ordinary boy, 8 - 10 years. Few lines.

'DR. LEO HUGHES: 40's. A rather unbalanced bogus hypnotherapist who has an obsessive hatred for Ryan, unpleasant, unwholesome individual.

'JOE "THE FINGER": Small time crim, with small time ideas. His hate for Ryan is like a drug he feeds upon. The typical crim turned fizz with a record "as long as your arm". Early thirties.

'THE KILLER: Impassive ruthless face, rather foreign looking. Balding - which he disguises with a beret. A professional killer. Must drive. No lines.

'CLUB MANAGER: 35-45. Manages a seedy Nightclub. Tall, no-nonsense. One scene.

'MAX / JERRY (WARD'S HENCHMEN): Both early 30's. Max must drive. Both hard, tough, powerful. Frightened of Ward but nobody else. Both would kill without hesitation at Ward's direction. Act as Ward's bodyguard servants.

'TURNER: Late 30's. Dangerous crim. No lines. Gets killed.

'MAN 1: Chinese. Thirtyish. No lines. One Montage scene.

'MAN 2: Heavy set, probably wharf labourer, bad tempered. No lines. One Montage scene.

'WOMAN: No lines. Late 40's. Typical housewife in lower class part of town. One Montage scene.

'DOCTOR: Professional, doesn't give too much away, but is obviously deeply worried about the boy. It shows on his face. Late 40's.

'UNIFORMED POLICEMAN: That type. No lines.'