AustLit

An anthology series of children's stories, mixing live-action episodes with animation, clay animation, and puppetry. The stories, aimed specifically at the under 10s, are drawn from a variety of sources, including children's books, fairy tales, myths, and original ideas. Some of the episodes have involved, for example, Snow White as a punk bikie and the seven dwarves as a motorcycle gang; a pet stegosaurus; a boy with wheels instead of toes; and Trevor the glider-plane-catching cat.

According to Patricia Edgar,

Thirty separate self-contained dramas of differing lengths were to be packaged into half-hour episodes. The project was designed to showcase new, creative talent in the television industry. Competitions were run at the Australian Film and Television School and Swinburne Institute of Technology for the best concepts suitable for inclusion in the Kaboodle package, with prizes of $1000 awarded. The Foundation sought promising but inexperienced writers, would-be producers, directors and even accountants who wanted to earn their first credit to enable them to find a future in the industry.

Source: Patricia Edgar, Bloodbath: A Memoir of Australian Television, Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2006, pp.175-76.

Kaboodle was produced in two series, the first of which included some live-action segements, but the second of which was entirely animated.

For a full list of episodes, see Film Details.

Episode listing for Kaboodle series two courtesy of the Australian Children's Television Foundation.

'Little J is five and has just started kindergarten year at school. He lives with his grandmother (Nanna), his girl cousin (Big Cuz) who is nine, and their dog (Old Dog) who is also the story narrator. LITTLE J & BIG CUZ follows the family's adventures and is told primarily from the point of view of Little J.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'On this website you will find rich educational material to support primary and lower-secondary teachers using the My Place TV series in the classroom. Explore background information, aligned with the My Place stories, on events and people significant to Australia's history. Download clips and stills from the TV series, as well as teaching activities and student activity sheets that relate to current themes. Go behind the scenes with production information and interviews, or chat with other teachers and share stories in the teacher's forum.' (Source: My Place website)

'Twenty-six young people from around Australia tell their story about the day that changed their lives forever and how the events of 24 hours can fundamentally change attitudes and aspirations.

In an upbeat, visual feast of social media inspired storytelling, MY:24 is a factual entertainment series chronicling the life-changing events that have shaped a diverse and fascinating collection of young Australians.

The 26 highly aspirational stories are told by 11-21 year olds. In each episode, the young person is the driver of their own story - it's told from their perspective and in their own words.

Each individual story takes us on a personal journey to relive their ‘MY:24’ event and the transformational impact it’s had on their life.'

Source: ACTF

Mortified follows the trevails of eleven-year-old Taylor Fry, as she copes with the general embarrassment of having parents, as well as being annoyed by her sister, jealous of her neighbour, and completely oblivious to her best friend's crush on her. The program inserts some fantasy elements into the otherwise straight comedy-drama by having Taylor speak directly to the camera, using elaborate fantasy sequences to explore her daydreams, and showing her over-active imagination as bringing seemingly inanimate objects to life.

Mortified was the last major work of television producer and screenwriter Angela Webber before her early death in 2007.

Saskia (living in Australia) has on online friendship with Noah (living in the UK). Each 'deceives' the other with their online personas, Indy (for Saskia) and Max Hammer (for Noah): Indy and Max allow Saskia and Noah to be the people they hope to be, without any of their own anxieties and uncertainties. Despite this element of deceit, the friendship between the two is presented as genuine and strong. The program received much praise when it first aired for offering a counter-argument to the anxiety that often marks debates about online friendships.

According to Patricia Edgar's account of the creation of this program,

To take such an abstract philosophical concept and create involving stories with appealing characters was a difficult task for any writer. Elaine and I needed smart observers of people and situations who understood the world Noah and Saskia inhabit, who had a flair for sharp, witty dialogue for a modern, pacy story. With the different components in the United Kingdom, Australia and cyberspace, it could be structurally confusing. Chris Anastassiades, who had written the Yolngu Boy script and worked for several other ACTF projects, was the answer, along with Sam Carroll, a young woman who had not yet been spoiled by the demands of writing formulaic drama. She brought her youth and vitality to Saskia; Chris would write Noah.

(Source: Patricia Edgar, Bloodbath: A Memoir of Australian Television, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2006, p.401.)

Further Reference:

'Interview with Paul Nichola'. The Making of Noah and Saskia. ABC.(http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/noahandsaskia/behind_the_scenes/making_of/paul_interview.htm). (Sighted: 12/9/2012).

'Interview with Pino Amenta'. The Making of Noah and Saskia. ABC. (http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/noahandsaskia/behind_the_scenes/making_of/pino_interview.htm). (Sighted: 12/9/2012).

'Saskia finds her spunky co-worker Ernesto playing guitar, and seizes the opportunity to put a band together. She bribes her ten-year old guitar teacher with chocolate, organises a jam for the next day and logs on to update Max. But her imagination takes over when she catches Ernesto with his arms around Renee. She calls the band off, instantly regretting it. But later, nobody is more surprised than Saskia when her first kiss comes out of nowhere…'

Source: Australian Television Information Archive. (Sighted: 12/6/2013)

Four children stumble into the secret underground lair of a long-dead super-hero, the Silver Shadow. Defeated (and killed) by his arch-nemesis, The Crab, in the 1950s, the Silver Shadow lives on as a digital recording in his base's computer. Just as he convinces the four to take up his role as the city's defender, The Crab, now an old man in a retirement village, trains his grand-daughter to be his own successor.

As with other programs produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF), Legacy of the Silver Shadow concentrated strongly on questions of self-identity, peer pressure and conformity, and individualism.

Australian Screen includes some clips from Legacy of the Silver Shadow: http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/legacy-silver-shadow-feral/clip1/ (Sighted: 23/2/2012). The program is also available on DVD via the ACTF.

'Caught in a collision between the modern world of rap, football, street cred and the oldest living culture on earth, Lorrpu, Botj and Milika are three teenagers who once shared a childhood dream of becoming great hunters together. But things have changed and their paths are diverging. The film is about the search for identity, making the journey from adolescence to adulthood and the implications of belonging to a larger social group, whether it be culture, a family or a group of friends'.

Source : http://librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au/ (Sighted 8 July 2009).

The president of Catalyst software company hires five high-school whiz-kids to help save her failing business.

The program's interest in artifical intelligence, the Internet, and the video-game industry was comparatively unusual for the time. As with other Australian Children's Television Foundation programs, the focus was on the child protagonists, all Melbourne high-school students with a keen interest in video gaming, who are recruited as games testers by Alexandra Davis, president of Catalyst, in the hopes that they will be able to revitalise her failing business.

Produced in association with the Disney Channel, Crash Zone was successful in Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as Australia.

Thrown out of a gold Cadillac in a guitar case one night (strongly suggesting that he is the illegitimate child of Elvis Presley, as well as casting Presley in a rather unfortunate light), Li'l Elvis is raised by Grace and Len, fervent Elvis fans who run an outback diner in the small town of Wannapoo. The problems arise when the world's 'nicest billionaire' W.C. Moore decides to turn Wannapoo into a 1950s' theme town called Li'l Memphis. Every day, L'il Elvis and his Truckstoppers play sets that knock the audience dead, but L'il Elvis secretly wishes he could be a normal kid. But if they stop playing, the tourists stop coming, and Moore calls in everyone's outstanding loans ...

Spellbinder II: Land of the Dragon Lord is something of a sequel to the earlier Spellbinder, also written by Mark Shirrefs and John Thomson. However, the only recurring characters are Spellbinder's antagonist Ashka and her offsider.

In this series, teenager Kathy Morgan is, like Paul in the original series, pulled into a different world: however, where Paul is pulled into an alternative Europe in which the Industrial Revolution never happened, Kathy is pulled into an alternative China (the land of the Dragon Lord), in which the empire is controlled by advanced technology. She finds enemies not only in the land of the Dragon Lord, but also in Ashka's world (the original world of the Spellbinders).

Spellbinder II was the last major collaboration (thus far) between Mark Shirrefs and John Thomson, who had previously collaborated on such important Australian science-fiction and fantasy children's television programs as The Girl from Tomorrow, The Girl from Tomorrow Part II, and Spellbinder.

'Robert, Belinda and Trev, three strong-willed young flatmates with intellectual disabilities, have their lives turned upside down when their bankrupt landlord and his spoilt daughter find themselves homeless and move in. A comedy drama series about learning to live together that is appealing to students in a range of education settings including secondary social education, disability studies courses and special schools as well as community service groups.'

Source: Australian Children's Television Foundation website, http://www.actf.com.au/
Sighted: 15/03/2012

A young English girl, Penelope Townes, finds an opal pendant in her attic and, in playing with it, releases two Australian genies (father Bruce and son Baz). When Penelope inherits a property in Australia, the genies are delighted to be able to return home. But they are still under Penelope's control and subject to her whims–a situation complicated by Penelope's neighbour, Otto von Meister, insisting that the opal is really his by rights and by Bruce falling in love with Penelope's mother, Lady Diana.

After a prank at a school camp goes horribly wrong, Sydney schoolboy Paul finds himself transported into a parallel world where the Industrial Revolution never took place and where power is wielded by the Spellbinders, whose power suits allow them to manipulate and create static electricity. Though the Spellbinders are largely benevolent, Paul and Riana (the inhabitant of the Spellbinder world who aids Paul) manage to cross Ashka, an ambitious Spellbinder who craves absolute power.

The series is evenly split between Paul's experiences in Riana's world and Riana's confusion when she crosses over to Paul's world.

Spellbinder was another program to arise from the collaboration of Mark Shirrefs and John Thomson, who had previously worked together on The Girl from Tomorrow, The Girl from Tomorrow Part II, and Mission Top Secret.