''Autumn Affair'' is an Australian television series made by and aired by

Network Seven The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australi ...

station ATN-7, and also shown in Melbourne on

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

station

GTV-9 GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia, owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands. History GTV-9 was amongst the first television stations to begin regular t ...

. Television in Australia had only been broadcasting since 1956 and Seven was the first commercial station to make drama a priority. It premiered 24 October 1958 and continued until 1959. The series was the first ever Australian television

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio drama ...

. It was also the second regular Australian-produced dramatic television series of any kind, with previous locally produced drama consisting of religious series ''

The House on the Corner ''The House on the Corner'' is an early Australian television program which aired from 1957 to 1958. A 10-minute segment on Sydney station ATN-7, it was a drama about a family, and was produced by the Christian Television Association. Cast inclu ...

'', and one-off plays largely aired on ABC.

Synopsis

The love lives of a middle aged widow, Julia, and her daughter, Meg.

Cast

Muriel Steinbeck Muriel Myee Steinbeck (21 July 1913 – 20 July 1982) was an Australian actress who worked extensively in radio, theatre, television and film. She is best known for her performance as the wife of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in '' Smithy'' (1946) ...

as Julia Parrish *

Queenie Ashton Ethel Muriel Ashton (11 November 190321 October 1999), known professionally as Queenie Ashton, was a character actress, born in England, who had a long career in Australia as a theatre performer and radio personality, best known for her radio ...

as Granny Bishop * Leonard Bullen as Steve Meadows *

Janette Craig Janette Craig is an Australian actress best known for her performance as Bubba in ''Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'' (1959). Biography She worked as an assistant manager at the Comedy Theatre. In 1957 she was voted Miss New South Wales. The follow ...

as Meg Parrish *John Juson as Mark *

Diana Perryman Diana Perryman (9 November 1924 - 10 January 1979) credited also as Diane Perryman, was an Australian actress, who appeared in stage, film and television. Perryman was notable for her roles in early TV soap operas and appeared in miniseries a ...

as Julie *

Owen Weingott Owen Ash Weingott (21 June 1921 – 12 October 2002) was an Australian actor, director and drama teacher. Although primarily working in theatre, he appeared on radio and television in serials and made for television films and voice overs. Weingo ...

as Larry Muir

Production

The program was conceived from a conversation between radio writer Richard Lane and Len Mauger, station manager of Seven. There was a quarter hour gap in the schedule and Mauger was keen to develop use of video tape for drama. It was decided to make a 15-minute show using skills developed by those involved in ''

''. Originally conceived as Julia: An Early Autumn Affair, the title was later shortened to just ''Autumn Affair''. Many of the actors and writers involved in the production had previously worked on radio soap opera, and were inexperienced with television acting. Episodes were fifteen minutes in duration, recorded as

kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 194 ...

s in black and white, and were screened Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8:45 AM. a part of the station's ''Today'' breakfast program. There were three main conditions for the production: *it had to be written, produced and acted by Australians *it had to stand on its own as entertainment and compare with American imports *it had to be sold to other stations at comparable rates to the American imports. The series went into production without a sponsor, as the station

ATN7 ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, tw ...

wanted to gain experience in television drama production. The cast comprised just six regulars; the story focused on Julia (Muriel Steinbeck), a widow in a love triangle situation with two men. ''Filmink'' later wrote that "Steinbeck was... a natural choice to play the lead... She laughed, loved and suffered with jolly good decency – the quintessential Muriel Steinbeck part." Ailsa McPherson, who worked on the show as script assistant, wrote "for performance quality ''Autumn Affair'' relied heavily on Muriel Steinbeck's professionalism and her photographic memory. She had a prodigious capacity to remember lines and to be almost word perfect after reading them aloud only three or so times. It saved the episode on a good many occasions." The series was well-received when originally broadcast. Richard Lane wrote every episode. There were only two main sets and a could of small side pieces. Actors also would leave the series - Janette Craig accepted the role of Bubba in ''Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'' and had to be written out. David Cahill left the show after directing 72 episodes. He was replaced by

Ken Hannam Ken Hannam (12 July 1929 – 16 November 2004) was an Australian film and television director who also worked in British television drama. Career Born in St Kilda, Melbourne, the eldest of three boys, Hannam lived in his youth in Sydney and w ...

. The series ended in 1959 after 156 episodes. In a 1960 article in

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

, it was noted that although mistakes were made during the production of the series due to inexperience, it nevertheless paved the way for improved locally produced drama productions. Actors who appeared in the show included Muriel Steinbeck, Queenie Ashton, Diana Perryman ( MBE (died 1979)(the sister of actress and singer

Jill Perryman Jill Perryman AM, MBE (born 30 May 1933) is an Australian former stage and screen actress and singer. Combining both her stage acting and her singing, she featured in numerous musical theatre roles, over eight decades and spanning 70 years of p ...

), Janet Craig, Leonard Bullen and Owen Weingott. Cast members Queenie Ashton and Janette Craig had previously appeared in a 1957 ABC TV play together called '' Tomorrow's Child'', though it is not known if a copy of the production still exists. Every episode except for two of this series are held by the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

Later screenings

In 1964

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 ...

Melbourne repeated the series, along with early 1960s Australian soap opera ''

The Story of Peter Grey ''The Story of Peter Grey'' was an Australian television daytime soap opera produced by the Seven Network and first broadcast in July 1962 . James Condon starred in the title role as a church minister, with other cast members including Thel ...

''. In 1964 CTC-7 in Canberra screened the series along with ''Peter Grey'', the station having not been in operation during the original run of the series. CTC kept the repeats on their schedule into 1966.

References

External links

*
Autumn Affair
at the