Television.AU wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas.
This year’s Christmas flashback takes us back to 1972 and ABC children’s series Adventure Island, produced at the studios of ABV2 in Ripponlea, Melbourne.
The popular fairytale-like series started in 1967, from the same producer (Godfrey Philipp) and featuring much the same cast and a similar theme to The Magic Circle Club, which was axed by ATV0 earlier that year.
Despite its apparent popularity with young viewers, who sent in around 2000 letters to ABC each week, Adventure Island was axed in September 1972. Not even a ‘Save Adventure Island’ committee led by three prominent members of the Australian Labor Party, who raised the show’s axing in Parliament and presented a petition signed by 12,200 children, could persuade ABC to reverse its decision, and the final episode aired on 22 December.
ABC gave no official reason for the show’s demise, other than to offer that new programs for young viewers would be commissioned by the newly-formed Young People’s Programs Unit, based at ABC in Sydney.
Phillipp, a champion for children’s television, told TV Week at the time: “We may have lost the battle to save Adventure Island, but the battle for local children’s entertainment on television has just begun. Adventure Island has finished for good, but it will not be forgotten. It has now moved into its place among the legends of Australian television.”
Writer John Michael Howson, who played Clown in the series, scripted the show’s last week of episodes, which carried a Christmas theme. Featuring in the show’s final episodes were presenter Sue Donovan and cast members including Howson, Liz Harris, Brian Crossley, Ernie Bourne, Peter Homewood and Jack Manuel.
The following year, Philipp was awarded a special TV Week Logie Award to recognise his contribution to children’s television.
Although ABC continued airing Adventure Island in re-runs after its 1972 finish, this did not continue long past the transition to colour television in 1975.
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Source: The Age, 5 October 1972. TV Week, 23 December 1972. The Canberra Times, 27 October 1972. The Age, 14 September 1972.
