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Chase
Registered: 03/25/08
Posts: 505
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 Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 04:16 PM EDT |
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There are tv series that only sometimes pass our way in USA but sometimes they don't and often their entire run is not shown.
I suspect Disney, from their answers and the answers I got from the makers of OCEAN GIRL, out OceanGirl out of commission in the USA. This bright series featured a strange girl who can breath underwater and can communicate with whales, two boys who befriend her, and various governments and scientists and one or two alien spies that oppose her. Four seasons and an animated series (the animated series stunk)later, it only had season one shown in the US (and maybe two?) on Disney Channel. The same people made THUNDERSTONE, PIRATE ISLANDS, and H20 as well as other Aussie Sci fic. OCEAN GIRL sometimes called OCEAN ODYSSEY has seasons one and two on dvd with rumors of three coming out soon.
Ditto SPELLBINDERS. While season two featured only the villainess of season one and basically stunk and was really campy, season one was totally played straight and serious. A teen goes through a magnetic warp and lands in a place ruled by Spellbinders who use the energy of the planet to rule over others in a cruel way. He starts to help a rebellion until he's returned home, followed by the villainess. A great series with a good theme tune (at least the version that aired on Disney had a good theme tune). Both seasons are on dvd.
An even stranger beast is THUNDERSTONE. A boy in the near future has some accident happen to him and gets flung into the far far future where tribes of kids fight for survival. I have only seen one ep of this show but it was very good and again, played seriously.
All of these series have great outdoor location shooting, great sets, and fairly good acting with imaginative ideas and lots of action. |
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Justice
Registered: 02/14/07
Posts: 520
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| Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 07:05 PM EDT |
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i remember watching ocean girl & spellbinders.
there was also this show on nickelodeon called THE TOMORROW PEOPLE about these teenagers who could teleport. |
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"Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."
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Magpie
Registered: 06/29/06
Posts: 519
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| Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 07:42 PM EDT |
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| It wasn't strictly sci fi or fantasy but I looove the Australian show "Round the Twist" - where nutty things were always happening to this family that lives in a lighthouse. |
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If Worzel Gummidge and the Third Doctor had a fist fight - who would win?
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Justice
Registered: 02/14/07
Posts: 520
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| Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 07:47 PM EDT |
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| [Quote by: Magpie] It wasn't strictly sci fi or fantasy but I looove the Australian show "Round the Twist" - where nutty things were always happening to this family that lives in a lighthouse. |
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that show was on Saturday mornings on fox for a while. |
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"Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."
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lucas
Registered: 07/16/06
Posts: 198
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| Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 10:45 PM EDT |
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well, funny you mention it, I actually worked for several years running the distribution arm of the company that produced & distributed Round The Twist, and distributed Spellbinder as well in later years.
Australian children's TV drama has always been quite popular in the UK & Europe, but found it much harder to get deals in the US. This was for several reasons, most probably too esoteric to go into unless people are particularly interested, but the biggest obstacle we always found in meetings with US broadcasters was their belief that Americans couldn't understand the Australian accent.
Even after movies such as Priscilla had done well in the US, and Australian actors such as Nicole Kidman, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe etc were stars in the US, doing all their interviews and sometimes performing their roles in Australian accents, we still had sooooo many broadcasters baulking at screening our programs because of this frustrating claim that "no one can understand what you Australians are saying"!!
So there you go. There have been a few happy exceptions, such as Ocean Girl & Twist, but that's one of the main reasons you haven't seen more of these shows in the US... |
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Magpie
Registered: 06/29/06
Posts: 519
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| Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 11:01 PM EDT |
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I did my thesis at uni on children's television so I have a particular interest. I started watching it in Ireland originally. I love the Aussie kids shows, they're great. They show "The Saddle Club" on PBS here in the US which is obviously not fantastical or anything but it's quite a good quality show with slightly more realistic peer/family interactions than your standard Disney live action fare that you get in the US.
Actually I just like Australian tv in general I think Kath & Kim is pretty funny and I admit it. I'm a HOme & Away girl!
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If Worzel Gummidge and the Third Doctor had a fist fight - who would win?
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Chase
Registered: 03/25/08
Posts: 505
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| Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 11:41 PM EDT |
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I also think something else went on with OCEAN GIRL because the distributors wouldn't say more about Disney but alluded to something that went on behind the scenes as if Disney wanted to own it completely and if not, Disney told the rest of the series, seasons 2 through 4 to go take a hike.
Tomorrow People: there were two shows, one, the better IMO was in 1974 through 1980 or 1981; the other was in 1991 or so and was so different as to be a completely different (and really bad)show.
Round the Twist was on FOX daily for a summer but not all of it and it is totally on dvd now.
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lucas
Registered: 07/16/06
Posts: 198
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| Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 11:56 PM EDT |
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| [Quote by: Chase] I also think something else went on with OCEAN GIRL because the distributors wouldn't say more about Disney but alluded to something that went on behind the scenes as if Disney wanted to own it completely and if not, Disney told the rest of the series, seasons 2 through 4 to go take a hike. |
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from memory the Ocean Girl animated series was produced/owned totally separately from the original live action series, so there might be something to that theory... |
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lucas
Registered: 07/16/06
Posts: 198
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| Sunday, April 27 2008 @ 12:00 AM EDT |
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[Quote by: Magpie] Actually I just like Australian tv in general I think Kath & Kim is pretty funny and I admit it. I'm a HOme & Away girl!
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While we're talking about random Australian TV, then, have you ever seen "Frontline", Magpie?
It was a satirical comedy series set behind the scenes on a tabloid TV current affairs show, and it was brilliant. In fact it was unofficially credited with getting one of the main current affairs shows on Australia at the time axed, because it so thoroughly dismantled it...
It was made in the early '90s, but is available in Australia on DVD. Not sure whether it was ever shown overseas. |
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Magpie
Registered: 06/29/06
Posts: 519
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| Sunday, April 27 2008 @ 11:28 AM EDT |
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| Frontline, not sure if maybe I saw it when I was in New Zealand? Sounds a tiny bit like Brass Eye? |
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If Worzel Gummidge and the Third Doctor had a fist fight - who would win?
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