''Take That'' was one of the earliest Australian television series. It debuted in late 1957 and ran till March 1959. As was often the case with early Australian television, it aired only on a single station, in this case

HSV-7 HSV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia. It is part of the Seven Network, one of the three main commercial television networks in Australia, its first and oldest station. It launched in time for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melb ...

, in Melbourne.

Program synopsis and significance

''Take That'' was a

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

comedy series set in an unruly schoolroom; one of the earliest such series produced for Australian television, and is sometimes considered to be Australia’s first, regularly scheduled

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

. The series was produced by

Crawford Productions Crawford Productions is an Australian media production company, focused on radio and television production. Founded in Melbourne by Hector Crawford and his sister, actress and voice artist Dorothy Crawford, the company, also known as Crawfords ...

, who made several other pioneering 1950s series, like the game show '' Wedding Day'' and the children's show ''

Peters Club ''Peters Club'' was an Australian children's television series which reportedly debuted in 1958, and aired on GTV-9, running into 1959. At the time, many Australian TV series were only broadcast on a single station instead of being networked, wh ...

'' (also featuring Joff Ellen), at the Channel 7 studios in Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, before live audiences. The program, inspired by a popular radio show and the BBC’s ''

Whack-O! ''Whack-O!'' is a British sitcom TV series starring Jimmy Edwards, written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and broadcast from 1956 to 1960 and 1971 to 1972. The series (in black and white) ran on the BBC from 1956 to 1960 and (in colour) from 19 ...

'', was notable for its unpredictable stunts and pranks featuring noisy

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

s, onstage smokebombs and fireworks.

Cast

Cast included the portly British comic actor

Philip Stainton Philip Stainton (9 April 1908 – 1 August 1961) was an English actor. Stainton appeared in several Ealing comedies and major international movies. He specialized in playing friendly or exasperated uniformed policemen, but also appeared in ...

as the schoolmaster, and naughty local students Irene Hewitt, Frank Rich, Keith Eden, and

Joff Ellen Joff Ellen (born Raymond Charles Ellen; 20 May 191524 December 1999), was an Australian entertainer, actor and comedian. Career During World War II he performed vaudeville acts to the troops and after the war did comedy shows on Melbourne radi ...

. The archival status of the show (which was broadcast live) is not clear; although Kinescope recording existed, many early Australian broadcasts of the period were not recorded. Former Crawfords’ staffer Ian Crawford has said that the program was kinescoped, but that no footage survives.

Scheduling

For some time the series aired in a 15-minute time-slot 7:00PM on Wednesday, was preceded by a brief newscast and followed by another 15-minute series titled ''

Teenage Mailbag ''Teenage Mailbag'' was an Australian television series which aired in 1957 to 1958 on Melbourne station HSV-7. Information on this series is scarce. According to a 2008 article in ''The Age'', the format consisted of Ernie Sigley, Gaynor Bunning ...

'' at 7:15PM, itself followed at 8:00PM by an American program (''

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin ''The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin'' is an American children's television series in the Western genre that aired from October 1954 to May 1959 on the ABC television network. In all, 164 episodes aired. The show starred Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orph ...

''). At some point in 1959, the series aired on Saturday at 5:30PM, preceded by ''These Were Hits'' (consisting of clips from the series ''

Hit Parade A hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined either by sales or airplay. The term originated in the 1930s; ''Billboard'' magazine published its first music hit parade on January 4, 1936 ...

'') and followed at 5:45PM by ''Cavalcade of Sport''.

References

External links

* Seven Network original programming 1957 Australian television series debuts 1959 Australian television series endings Black-and-white Australian television shows English-language television shows Australian television sitcoms Australian live television series Television series by Crawford Productions {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub

Program synopsis and significance

Cast

Scheduling

See also

References

External links