''New MacDonald's Farm'' is an Australian

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

children's television program Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

broadcast on the

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 ne ...

from 12 April 2004 to 1 June 2007. This show and Australian hit '' Hi-5'' used to swap the timeslot in order to film new seasons. The series also aired on Playhouse Disney in Australia.

Premise

The show revolves around a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

in the country owned by Milly and Max and occupied by six farm animals: Henry the

Horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million ...

, Daisy the Cow, Dash the

Duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a fo ...

, Percy the Pig, Shirley the

Sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sh ...

, and Charlotte the Hen. The show is aimed at pre-schoolers, and is of a light-hearted nature. It includes short sequences related to the show's plot, and sequences of singing and dancing with Max, Milly and some other children (who are older than pre-school age). Max is a forgetful, funny and energetic farm worker, who often gets his foot stuck in a bucket. Milly, on the other hand, is an intelligent, helpful and caring farmhand, who often helps Max out of his sticky situations. Each episode is half an hour long. The name of the show suggests that it was inspired by the classic children's song Old McDonald Had a Farm.

Production

The series was developed by Simon Hopkinson, Ron Saunders was well known as the creator of '' Spellbinder'' and ''

Johnson and Friends ''Johnson and Friends'' is an Australian live action/puppet children’s television program that originally aired on ABC from 3 September 1990 to 10 July 1997. It was produced by Film Australia and was created by Ron Saunders, John Patters ...

'' and Ian Munro who also directed '' Hi-5'', ''

Bananas in Pyjamas ''Bananas in Pyjamas'' is an Australian children's television series that first aired on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since been syndicated in many countries and dubbed into other languages. In the United States, the " Pyjamas" in the title wa ...

'', ''Johnson and Friends'', '' Magic Mountain'', '' Cushion Kids'' and ''

Toybox Toybox is a free and open-source software implementation of over 200 Unix command line utilities such as '' ls'', '' cp'', and '' mv''. The Toybox project was started in 2006, and became a 0BSD licensed BusyBox alternative. Toybox is used for ...

''.

Animatronic Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy ...

designer and

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

Ian James Colmer, who also plays the voice of Charlotte the Hen, now runs a film production company Destiny Pictures (www.destinypictures.net). Charlotte the Hen got her name from a competition winner named Charlotte with initial S. The farm is tying into the title's name "New McDonald's Farm". The

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordm ...

(on the entrance to the farm) is a yellow sun with the title name on it (in

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

and

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower * Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...

. A

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are n ...

is that whenever the sign falls down, Max is desperate to fix it. The "Song of the Day" segment is after the intro of the show. Max and Milly are played by 3

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), l ...

s and one actor from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, Tim Mager, Nikki Payten, Heidi Luchterhand and John Tobias who wear large

foam Foams are materials formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid. A bath sponge and the head on a glass of beer are examples of foams. In most foams, the volume of gas is large, with thin films of liquid or solid separating the ...

and

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

s with animatronic

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...

s. The controls are very simple and involve servo

motor An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

s to actuate the

eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

blink, eye turn and

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on t ...

open and close. This is a very basic system, which relies on the character performers off screen to watch and listen to the pre-recorded

audio track An audio signal is a representation of sound, typically using either a changing level of electrical voltage for analog signals, or a series of binary numbers for digital signals. Audio signals have frequencies in the audio frequency range of rou ...

, and try to sync the mouth movement. The animals are cable controlled and have limited movement, sometimes requiring the performers to pick them up and physically move them around to create the illusion of life. Inside their suits, Tim, Nikki, Heidi and John must wear cold

vest A waistcoat ( UK and Commonwealth, or ; colloquially called a weskit), or vest ( US and Canada), is a sleeveless upper-body garment. It is usually worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wea ...

s, which are made of a gel. These are frozen, and then slowly thaw out as the actors wear them. The suits are extremely hot to wear. After the first season, James Colmer was commissioned to re-design and re-build all the head animatronics, making them lighter, stronger, and easier to maintain. A full kilogram of weight was shaved off, by the use of lightweight aluminium. For the third season they were re-designed and re-built again, this time by Dan Carlisle. These heads proved to be the most reliable and actor friendly. They required next to no maintenance and were much lighter compared to the heads of the first and second series. The new mechanisms also provided a much greater range of movement.

Series overview

Awards and nominations

VHS and DVD releases

The show was released on VHS and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

Roadshow Entertainment Roadshow Entertainment (formerly known as Roadshow Home Video from 1982–1993) is an Australian home video, production and distribution company that is a division of Village Roadshow (formerly Roadshow Home Video and Roadshow Entertainment) ...

. *Farmyard Party Time (2004) *Fantastic Farmers (2005) *Fun in the Country (2005) *Play with the Animals (2005) *A Farmer's Work is Never Done (2005) *Barnyard Boogie (2006) *Max's Tractor (2006) *Max and Milly's Country Show (2007) *Animals to the Rescue (2007) *I Can Fix Anything (2007) *Farmyard Friends (2008)

Other media

The series released two

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s in 2004 & 2006, numerous

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this phys ...

s, live shows and other

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more ...

. All songs for the show are provided by a team of writers from

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is the largest music publisher in the world, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021. US-based, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is itself owned ...

. Recording & production of all music is done by Jay Somerville-Collie, who is also known for his

performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

and production work in the popular

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whil ...

/ rock/

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

band, Jonah's Road.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Macdonald's Farm Australian children's television series Australian television shows featuring puppetry Nine Network original programming 2004 Australian television series debuts 2007 Australian television series endings Television shows set in Brisbane 2000s preschool education television series Australian preschool education television series Television series about mammals Television series by Beyond Television Productions