''The New Adventures of Blinky Bill'' was an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n-live action series that featured actors, interacting with

puppets A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to mov ...

that ran on

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 ...

from 1984 to 1987. After production ended, it remained on air in repeats until 1991. Twenty-eight 26 minute episodes were made and the producers were Judith Simpson and Richard Smith.

Plot

The show was a follow on from the original

Blinky Bill Blinky Bill is an anthropomorphic koala and children's fictional character created by author and illustrator Dorothy Wall. The character of Blinky first appeared in Brooke Nicholls' 1933 book, ''Jacko – the Broadcasting Kookaburra'', which w ...

books by

Dorothy Wall Dorothy Wall (12 January 1894 – 21 January 1942) was a New Zealand-born writer and illustrator of children's fiction books. She is most famous for creating Blinky Bill, an anthropomorphic koala who was the central character in her books ''B ...

. Set in the fictional Bollygum National Park, characters include Blinky Bill, Mrs Magpie, Angelina Wallaby and Walter Wombat from the books, and new characters such as Charlie Goanna, Eric Echidna, Sybilla Snake and Kerry Bill Koala from the neighbouring fictional Acadia Ridge park.

Main cast

Guest artists

Most episodes also featured at least one Australian actor in a guest actor in a human character role

Benita Collings Benita Collings (born 1940) is an Australian theatre, television and film character actress and children's television presenter best known for her role on ABC TV's '' Play School''. Collings has also featured in documentaries and commercials. ...

Maggie Kirkpatrick Margaret Anne Kirkpatrick (née Downs; born 29 January 1941) is an Australian stage and screen actress who starred in the cult TV series ''Prisoner'' (otherwise known as ''Prisoner: Cell Block H'' in the UK and North America), where she was bes ...

Paul Chubb Paul Dunford (14 January 1949 – 9 June 2002), professionally billed as Paul Chubb, was an Australian film, television and stage actor and scriptwriter primarily in genres of comedy and drama. Early life He was born in Arncliffe, a suburb of Sy ...

David Waters

Jackie Woodburne Jacqueline Anne Woodburne (born 5 February 1956) is a Northern Irish-born Australian actress, who is notable for her roles in TV soap operas. Since 1994, Woodburne has played teacher Susan Kennedy in ''Neighbours''. She first became notable for ...

Mike Meade

Joanne Samuel Joanne Samuel (born 5 August 1957) is an Australian film and television actress, who is best known for her role as the screen wife of Mel Gibson's title character in the 1979 film ''Mad Max''. Biography and career Samuel was born in Camperdow ...

and many others.

Episode list

Season 1 (1984)

#Hello Stranger, Goodbye Ranger #Ho-Ha at Bollygum #Musical Wares #Spaceship Shuttlecock

Season 2 (1985)

#Stuck on Gumleaves #Frills and Feathers #High Water #Computer Capers #Mine Too! #Bikies from Outer Space

Season 3 (1986)

#Rock 'n' Roll Blues #Legend in his Own Lunchtime #Times Flies When You're Feeling Young #Blinky Hits The Jackpot #Not a Minute's Peace #Twice Bitten #The Visitor #Food For Thought

Season 4 (1987)

#Say Snake #Hot Wheels #A Time of Testing #Operation Gumdrops #Media Wars #April Fools #School's In #Brush With Danger #Horseplay #Diplomatic Relations

Puppets

The series was unique for its production style. The puppets were designed and made by the late Beverley Campbell-Jackson, who chose to use a thick and fluffy yarn to knit the outer skin of the marsupial characters, which gave them their furry look on camera. Charlie's skin was made from a patterned lurex which gave him a distinctive look in sunlight. She designed internal mechanisms which used triggers to control the movements of each character's head, mouth and eyelids; while rods to each hand controlled arm movements. Each puppeteer used one hand for the trigger mechanism, and one hand to control both arm rods (this skill is somewhat like advanced chopsticks technique). Similar techniques are seen in some forms of Japanese puppetry.

Production

At the time of shooting, the ABC network owned studios in the Sydney bush suburb of

Frenchs Forest Frenchs Forest (pron. frenches) is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Frenchs Forest is 13 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Northern Beaches Cou ...

and the show was recorded using multi-camera and live sound recording on the back lot, with the puppeteers voicing the characters at the same time as operating the puppets. The only time that they would use one camera was the scenes with Blinky Bill and Charlie Goanna talking in Blinky's Tree. Ross Browning and Alan Highfield Blinky and Charlie's Puppeteers would bet on who could complete the scene the fastest. The Outside Broadcast unit provided crew, equipment and the control room. Some sets, including the ranger's hut and Walter Wombat's general store, were built permanently on location, while others were constructed as required for each episode. Sets were raised by a metre or so, to allow space underneath for puppeteers to stand or kneel. Only one scene – featuring a rock and roll performance by Blinky, Kerry and Charlie – was shot in a studio. The puppet performers wrote roughly half the episodes. Other writers included Mike Meade (who wrote the pilot episode)Heather March, Mark Page and

Morris Gleitzman Morris Gleitzman (born 9 January 1953) is an English-born Australian author of children's and young adult fiction.Angus & Robertson Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature.Alison, Jennifer (2001). "Publishers and editors: A ...

to shoot the next series of episodes. In 1993, Blinky Bill returned to ABC television in the animated series, ''

The Adventures of Blinky Bill ''The Adventures of Blinky Bill'' is an Australian animated television series based on Dorothy Wall's books about Blinky Bill, and is a sequel series to the 1992 film '' Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala''. The series is produced by the Yoram ...

'',IMDb – The Adventures of Blinky Bill (TV Series 1993)
/ref> after which the ABC did not screen the puppet series again, a prospect that has become unlikely due to the conviction of Robert Hughes on sex offences.

References

External links

The New Adventures of Blinky Bill
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Adventures of Blinky Bill, The Blinky Bill Australian children's television series Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 1984 Australian television series debuts 1987 Australian television series endings Australian television shows featuring puppetry Television series about koalas Australian television shows based on children's books English-language television shows it:Blinky Bill