When I was a kid, one thing you could almost guarantee at some time in the year was that Skippy would make a triumphant return to afternoon television. It’s been quite some time I believe since Skippy has held that lofty position as prerequisite afternoon viewing, but now comes Skippy on DVD and I have to say, that as an adult, I saw this through very different eyes and was not overly impressed.
First filmed in 1966 and lasting until roughly 1968, 91 episodes of Skippy were based in the fictitious Waratah National Park in NSW, where Senior Ranger Matt Hammond (Ed Devereaux) lived with his sons Mark (Ken James) and Sonny (Garry Pankhurst). Rounding out the cast was Flight Ranger Jerry King (Tony Bonner), a student boarder, Clancy (Liza Goddard) and, in the early episodes, Dr Anna Steiner (Elke Neidhardt), who promptly disappears without explanation.
The premise was similar to that of Flipper or any other number of American shows where a widower lives with his sons and some cute animal, and they all have wonderful, yet safe, adventures. The worst thing that happens here is that Sonny and Skippy (of which there were nine different kangaroos to play the part) would stumble across a couple of illegal campers or something. Today, of course, in the name of credibility, they would need to have such adventures as Skippy and the Escaped Illegal Immigrants Who Are Probably Terrorists and Planning to Blow Up the Sydney Harbour Bridge, or Skippy and the Western Suburbs Street Gang Who Beat the Shit of Sonny For His Reeboks. In the ’60s, however, it was all pretty tame.
These seven episodes from 1967 see Skippy and Sonny, and the various family members, trying to outwit Dr Stark (Frank Thring) trying to get Skippy for his private zoo, Matt Hammond’s evil twin, a honeymooning couple with the new wife keen on a Skippy fur coat, Hollywood heavyweights, a boxing troupe, and various other no-gooders, itinerants and lovable rogues roaming around the park and ultimately being thwarted by the uber-roo!
Skippy can do it all and saves the day on almost every occasion. You’ll thrill to her playing several musical instruments, saving Sonny from a speeding runaway boat, becoming a movie star, taking happy snaps, escaping from hunters, and just about any damned thing she wants.
What is interesting, however, is the amount of cruelty inflicted on the poor creature in the name of children’s entertainment. The first episode, A Long Way Home, is a prime example, with the kangaroo being chased down city streets, hunted and cornered by dogs, almost run over by a four-wheel driver (a touch of reality there at least), side-swiped by a car on a busy highway, rugby-tackled by two men, grabbed by the tail, made to jump and get stuck in a cattle grid, and generally chased and tormented into a frenzy. There is no way this would be acceptable in 2004.
That aside, the basic storylines are typically linear and kids will have no trouble following the general story, but the acting from some cast members is unbelievably bad. The stunts and few special effects are quite laughable, and the chances of some of these things actually happening are zero at best.
Still, if you approach this for what it is, one of Australia’s first really successful television shows that is aimed squarely at kids who are not likely to be quite as picky, then you’ll love it. It’s just a shame that it led many international viewers to believe that we all kept kangaroos for pets and lived in the bush. The truth, of course, is far less exciting and marketable. Some of theme still believe it, and I say let them. If they want to think we are all some sort of Matt Hammond or Steve Irwin, well that’s their problem.
Timewarp to the late '60s in Australia and you'll get an all-digital, bright and shiny, anamorphically enhanced widescreen presentation, right? Wrong! Of course this is a full frame programme as was the original, and the overall sharpness pulls up a few kangaroos short in the top paddock, but it's not all bad. Close-up shots are generally quite good, but there is some image break up when the camera pans. It's quite watchable on the whole, given the age and the quality of the original source. Colouring is mostly bush green, with some slightly washed out blue skies and general colouring. There is some colour bleeding in evidence and some grain is always present, but overall this is not as bad as I feared.
Black levels are dodgy at best, and shadow detail is a little poor in some scenes. There is a noticeable lack of severe dirt and marks, and that is a welcome surprise. The layer change is placed between episodes.
