Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

*Skippy the Bush Kangaroo*
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Also known as	Skippy
Genre	Children, teens and family
Created by	John McCallum
Written by	Ross Napier (49 episodes)
Directed by	Eric Fullilove (38 episodes); Max Varnel (36 episodes);
Starring	Ed Devereaux; Garry Pankhurst; Ken James; Tony Bonner; Liza Goddard;
Theme music composer	Eric Jupp
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	91 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	John McCallum (1 episode)
Producers	Joy Cavill (47 episodes); Lee Robinson (38 episodes); Dennis Hill (33 episodes);
Production locations	Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; Waratah Park Earth Sanctuary;
Running time	25 minutes
Original release
Network	Nine Network
Release	1966 –; March 30, 1970
Related
	The Adventures of Skippy

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was an Australian television series for children. It was created by John McCallum. It was made from 1966–1968. The show tells the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo. It happens in the (fictional) Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales.

Ninety-one 30-minute episodes were made over the three seasons of production. At the time of first screening, Australian television was still in black and white. The show was filmed in colour to get more international sales, especially in the United States and Canada. It aired there between 1969 and 1972. The Nine Network repeated the series several times after Australian television became colour in 1975.

The programme was played in Mexico, Cuba, Spain, Czechoslovakia, and Iran.^[1]

Cast

The main characters were:

Ed Devereaux as Matt Hammond, the Head Ranger of Waratah National Park
Garry Pankhurst as Sonny Hammond, Matt's younger son
Ken James as Mark Hammond, Matt's elder son
Tony Bonner as Jerry King, flight ranger (helicopter pilot) (exit #78)
Liza Goddard as Clarissa 'Clancy' Merrick (entry #9 exit #75), the teenage daughter of a ranger stationed at another section of the park. When her father is moved to a park in northern New South Wales, Matt invites Clancy to stay with the Hammond family so that her music studies are not hurt by the move north.
John Warwick as Sir Adrian Gillespie, Head of the NSW National Parks Board
Elke Neidhardt as Dr. Anna Steiner, a German doctor and playing a support role.
Morgan Brain as Sgt. Bernard Gillies.
Skippy was played by at least nine different kangaroos^[2]

References

↑ "Skippy: Australia's first ambassador". The Independent Weekly. 10 September 2009. Archived from the original on 2010-09-25. Retrieved 2010-08-06. 'Skippy was the first series, internationally, to put Australian characters and settings on screen with confidence in a way that rang bells with people around the world,' says National Film and Sound Archive historian Graham Shirley in the new documentary, Skippy: Australia's First Superstar, from Electric Pictures.
↑ As quoted on DVD 1, Making of Special extra

[1] "Skippy: Australia's first ambassador". The Independent Weekly. 10 September 2009. Archived from the original on 2010-09-25. Retrieved 2010-08-06. 'Skippy was the first series, internationally, to put Australian characters and settings on screen with confidence in a way that rang bells with people around the world,' says National Film and Sound Archive historian Graham Shirley in the new documentary, Skippy: Australia's First Superstar, from Electric Pictures.

[2] As quoted on DVD 1, Making of Special extra

[1]

[2]