''Basically Black'' is a 1973 Australian television comedy program, notable as the first television program written and created by

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

. It was produced as one of a series of pilot programs called ''

The Comedy Game ''The Comedy Game'' is an Australian television comedy anthology series that aired in 1971 and 1973 on ABC. The new comedies screened in the series were seen as possible pilots for a full television series. The episodes led to the series '' Our M ...

''. A single half-hour of

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

, the program was based on a satirical political revue of the same name by the

National Black Theatre The National Black Theatre is a non-profit cultural and educational corporation, and community-based theatre company located on 5th Avenue in Harlem, New York. History The National Black Theatre (NBT) is a non-profit cultural and educational ...

that had been performed at the

Nimrod Theatre The Nimrod Theatre Company, commonly known as The Nimrod, was an Australian theatre company based in Sydney. It was founded by in 1970 by Australian actor John Bell, Richard Wherrett and Ken Horler, and gained a reputation for producing more "g ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

the previous year. It premiered on 7 July 1973 as part of a series of

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

comedy pilots, ''

''. Some elements of the original script had been censored by

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

, and it was described by

Gary Foley Gary Edward Foley (born 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbainggir people, academic, writer and actor. He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Abo ...

as a "politically watered-down" version of the stage show. The pilot was deemed a success, but the ABC did not proceed with creating a series from it.

References

External links

* (28 mins) * {{Films and television series about Indigenous Australia Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Australian comedy television series 1973 Australian television series debuts 1973 Australian television series endings Indigenous Australian television series

See also

References

External links