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Picture it. Miami.1985. 4 'women of a certain age' living the single life and sharing house.The Golden Girls was one of favourite comedy shows in the 1980's -and it lasted for 8 years - it rivaled 'Cheers' & 'The Cosby Show' as one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1980's and early 1990's.OK so the fashions are still offensive...God knows how much fabric Dorothy ( Bea Arthur) covered herself in...or the Mumsie suit dresses Rose ( Betty White) wore...while Sophia (Estelle Getty) wore clothes older than her ( and funnily enough she was playing Dorothy''s mother - was was younger than her!)..Blanche (Rue McClanahan) is the one who still looks good..if not a little like mutton-dressed as mutton.OK so I'm a bit cruel and the fashion hasn't aged well...but the jokes have...unlike Season 1,2 & 3 there was a change of scriptwriters so the jokes & gags aren't as funny, but still very much watchable. Sophia's story's are still funny (especially the old days in Sicily & Brooklyn) and some of her one liners are still magic, for example:-Sophia (now a coach) enters into the house with the team after winning a game and announces'Make way for the Victors!' Rose asks if the team won. Sophia replies' No we just all changed our names to Victor'Yes the jokes are still there about deranged animals and lunatics of St Olaf, Blanche's Men and Dorothy's lack of Men...some of the storey lines do push it though - like Rose becoming 'Woman of the Year', Sophia's getting married & how they all buy and manage a Boxer(ideas were obviously thin this season and they were entering into jumping the shark waters)...Don't even ask about the fake flashback episode about Valentine Day! ( which is a shame as they do flashback episodes quite well throughout the seasons)Overall for the fans this is one they will treasure - for others - stick to Volumes 1,2,3 & the final season ( all the same writers).3 bad 80's frocks out of five.(NB - Originally written for an Review for Amazon)
Comedy was BIG BIG BIG in the 1980's... like most other decades for every gem there was a golden turd as well...'
'Hey Dad' comes to mind, an Australian sitcom (that's an expression you don't hear that often) about the everyday life of a single dad, his kids, the annoying mate 'Nudge' and the Dad's mental sech-a-terie...the catch phrase was the original 'Hey Dad!' Or my worst 'Mr kellllie!' - why the scriptwriters never won the Logie is beyond me?...oh another piece of trite was...
'Kingswood Country' another Oz sitcom (Bless Channel 7) set in suburban Australia centred around a racist sexist bigot who loved Holdens - a bit like an Oz Alf Garnet but worse (can you imagine?)
Channel 10 did create 'The Comedy Company'...a skit/satire show on Oz life - and it managed to win the national Sunday night slot for a while, but came back in 1990 after a 6 month break not half as good and died in the ass...
However the real comedian of the hour was dear ol' Auntie(ABC)which actually paved the way for New wave of OZ comedy shows like
'Australia you're standing in it'- a satirical show on oz society
'The Giles report' - Max Giles satire on Oz & world issues of the day, usually involved him in lots of make up and outfit changes...
'The big gig' - hosted by Wendy(Hairlip)Harmer - this was the first live comedian gig show - a mixture of stand up/skit/live music
'D Generation' - my fav - taking the satire step to another level...a new take on the skit show...and these comedy legends would continue onto bigger and better project (refer to 90's)...
The other BIG BIG BIG (did I say HUGE) news was the bicentennial....Oz turned 200 and in a year (1988) that seemed like a decade, given all the bloody going's on and celebrating that was going on...Oz networks got together and created 'AUSTRALIA LIVE' a four hour look of Oz, it's people, even Oz expats scattered all over the world...celebrating a nation's coming of age...the most amazing aspect was the show was simultaneously broadcasted on all networks - they finally got together on camera... it was enough to feel national pride...this was oz's year in the greed decade...and we made it all about us...everything the 80's stood for, the greed, the passion, the money, the excess - oz mimicked this in every way...even, unfortunately the bust as well...
In one of the most amazing deals of the century Mr Kerry Packer sells Bondy the complete Network 9 for over $1 billion dollars (now this is the 80's and that's a long lunch)...and then buys it back for only $200 million (after Bondy sells everything as he was broke)only a few years later...who was the lucky man there?...
(probably Bondy as he is still alive)...
Christopher Skase (Skasie) has no luck with Channel 7 either - After Quintex bought 7 Sydney...then later 7 Melbourne from Fairfax (as well as the other states) big plans were to be made as a new media empire...But Skasie's Quintex went broke so into receivership it went...same with Channel 10...
The 1990's started to look grim..no more parties and fluffy ducks or Bondy, Skasie, Pixie or the rest of the gang - they were off to court or Spain or jaol...no more fun at the fair it seemed...
So pack away the power suit and the cocktail cabinets...downsize to microfibre beige jacket & pant and buy good Oz cask wine...the understated 90's arrived...
to be continued...
Well the 80's hit OZ like a tsunami...and there was so much to do, and Oz had so much on... Bob Hawke is PM, Brisbane host the Commonwealth Games, Bondy wins the America's Cup, the Bicentenial, the billionaires bankroll, the Boom, the Bust(anything with B really)... Again TV reflected the times and the tastes...but where do we begin?
Ok so Variety was still a staple in Oz TV - 'Hey Hey It's Saturday' began as a kids morning TV show in the 70's - but grew into a talk/variety/game/comedy hour show - very much a jazzed up 80's version of IMT(see the 50/60's) - Hosts Darryl & Ozzie with darling co-hosts (through the years) Jacki/Ding dong/Lavina, as well as Plucker(the duck - yes again I'm not making it up)Molly, Red, Wilbur & the band, Mr Blackman and the rest of the gang, all became the one stop shop for a Saturday night - it was the show to watch for pure entertainment - for the kids or mum's & dads, or before the pub, or just a quiet night in...Touring bands, overseas acts and guests stars a plenty on what was a truly unique Oz Show...Not many can say that a show can last for almost 30 years...
Well except possibly news and current affairs shows - and boy if we saw one, we saw a ga-zillion in the 80's - '60 minutes','A current affair','Eyewitness News' and not forgetting for the early birds 'Today' and 'GMA'('Good morning Australia')...You could now watch the news around the clock, not just at 6'oclock anymore...
...But the hilarious thing was the 10.30 timeslot where the rating competition was the most mental - Channel 9 had Gra Gra back with 'Coast to Coast' vs Channel 7's Clive Robertson on 'Newsworld' vs Channel Ten's Ol' Mate of Gra Gra Don Lane with 'Late Night Australia' - Gra Gra was again King...Don Lane finally went back to the states for gridiron commentating ( on the ABC!)and Clive Robinson was just dry, sanguine and bored...as per usual...
...From the high drama of the news desk back to the high drama Oz soaps - this time involving medical staff...after 'The Young Doctors' ended, Channel 9 created another...'The Flying Doctors' - the lives of the royal flying doctors services set in a fictional 'outback' town...Channel 7 puts up a tough soap battle with their darlings...
-'CopShop' - the new generation of police drama
-'A country practice' exactly that - lives of hospital staff in the country... and yes before Channel 9...
-'Sons & daughters' - the premise being twin brother & sister separated by birth are reunited...so are their families years later...(sounds a bit dull now)...
-'Home and Away' - a family moves from the city to Summer bay for a change of life...still as popular today...
But not all the luck was 7's court...'Neighbours' created by Channel 7, then axed due to poor performance was then picked up by 10 and made it into the rating success of today...Poor 7 - Koshie & Mel were almost 20 years away!
Channel 10 finally dropped the 0 (imagine the meeting - 'Guys do we want to be known as a zero or a 10?')...SBS started to broadcast nationally bringing soccer, sex and subtitles into Oz homes as long as you had UHF reception... now there was 5 networks, some starting to broadcast 24/7...
But the best was yet to come...in comedy, 'the bicentennial' and network deals that would even make selling nukes to Al-qaeda amateurish...
Continued in Part 2...
Picture it. 
