I watched this last night and thought it was pretty good. I remember watching Skippy a lot when I was kid. It must have been repeated throught the 70's during the school holidays.
They just wouldn't be able to make this sort of show any more. Anything using live animals in that fashion would probably be banned. Shame really. Even my 7 year old son enjoyed it and said that they don't make good shows like they used to.
We complain about the rubbish we get on TV now, when this was utter rubbish and I thought so at the time.
Even the crew thought it was rubbish.
But it was enjoyable rubbish.
Thanks for posting about this shanders, I caught it on iplayer and rather enjoyed it.
The animated "now" Skippy reminded me a bit too much of Jimmy Savile for comfort though!
you're welcome!! It was good wasn't it - great that they managed to get interviews with all the cast and the behind the scenes b/w footage of the filming was fantastic. I notice the guy who created it - was it John McCullum - only died at the beginning of February aged 91. What a legacy he left though - there must be millions of people of a certain age who remember Skippy with affection.
That was usually what the Goodness Gracious Me sketch took the piss out of By giving Skippy his own voice
ETA: I meant to quote the "exchange" there, sorry.
This doc was better than the actual programmes of the time - though I do have fond memories of it...
Had to laugh at the clip dubbed in Japanese - can't believe Liza G was mobbed when she came here - what has she been up to the last two decades? Still looks pretty decent!
That was usually what the Goodness Gracious Me sketch took the piss out of By giving Skippy his own voice
ETA: I meant to quote the "exchange" there, sorry.
I prefer the original :
Jerry: What’s wrong, Skip? What’s happened?
Skippy: Tchk tchk tchk.
Jerry: (picking up distributor) What is it?
Skippy: Tchk tchk tchk.
Jerry: Where did you get it?
Skippy: Tchk tchk tchk.
Jerry: It’s not Matt’s. Then why the urgency?
Skippy: Tchk tchk tchk.
Jerry: Jim?
Skippy: Tchk tchk tchk.
Jerry: It’s from Jim!
Skippy: Tchk tchk tchk.
Jerry: He’s in trouble, his car’s broken down, he can’t get to the show! Is that it, Skip?
Skippy: Tchk tchk tchk.
Jerry: Come on, Skip, we haven’t much time.
From ep. 61, ‘Axeman’, where Skippy brings a broken car distributor to Jerry (after operating the radio and summoning Jerry back by saying “Tchk tchk tchk”):
I watched this last night and thought it was pretty good. I remember watching Skippy a lot when I was kid. It must have been repeated throught the 70's during the school holidays.
They just wouldn't be able to make this sort of show any more. Anything using live animals in that fashion would probably be banned. Shame really. Even my 7 year old son enjoyed it and said that they don't make good shows like they used to.
Didn't one of the the US channels have a series in the late sixties about a talking horse, Mr. ED, I think it was called. I wonder which was out first.
Didn't one of the the US channels have a series in the late sixties about a talking horse, Mr. ED, I think it was called. I wonder which was out first.
Mister Ed (so written - I couldn't find it in my reference book when I looked up Mr Ed) ran on US TV between 1961 and 1966. In this country ITV screened 26 of the 144 episodes in 1964 & 1965 whilst C4 screened 78 episodes between 1987 & 1989.
Did you see the Harry Enfield version? Mister Ed the talking horse becomes Mister Dead, the talking corpse.:D
As for the Skippy documentary - very entertaining. The montage of clips illustrating Skippy's manual dexterity were hiliarious.
About the same time as Skippy, i remember a programme that featured a little jungle boy riding an elephant, shouting something like 'aaooooohhhh Changoooo'. Can't for the life of me remember the name of the programme, Think it may have been Daktari, but not too sure......
About the same time as Skippy, i remember a programme that featured a little jungle boy riding an elephant, shouting something like 'aaooooohhhh Changoooo'. Can't for the life of me remember the name of the programme, Think it may have been Daktari, but not too sure......
Could it be "Elephant Boy" which was a co-production between Scottish tv and Channels in Australia and Germany involving James Gatward who then went onto do a similar deal to make Star Maidens
I thought Skippy was more a rip-off of Flipper (well not rip off, but similar idea), I remember Flipper repeats on Channel 4
Flipper was mentioned in the documentary as perhaps being the main inspiration for making Skippy, but animals were a fairly common feature in drama series during this period anyway, plus another programme that was also an influence is mentioned on that Skippy-related website.
Overall it's an excellent documentary and well worth watching even if you weren't that keen on Skippy or never saw it in the first place.
Thanks! I'll Freesat it on Friday as you're right, I havent seen Skippy in the 1st place really.
Speaking of animals, maybe Lassie was an inspiration as well, I guess animals have always been popular
Flipper was mentioned in the documentary as perhaps being the main inspiration for making Skippy, but animals were a fairly common feature in drama series during this period anyway, plus another programme that was also an influence is mentioned on that Skippy-related website.
Overall it's an excellent documentary and well worth watching even if you weren't that keen on Skippy or never saw it in the first place.
I watched Skippy when it very first aired in the UK and loved it, I would have been 7 or 8. I laughed at the interviewees in the doc from European countries never having heard of Australia and thinking Skippy must live in America or Africa - it reminded me that I assumed Flipper and Skippy - shown on the same channel, ITV, at roughly the same time - lived in the same warm sunny place which for me was Australia. I don't know how I could have failed to see that Flipper was American, but I didn't.
I grew up in a house at the time - typical of a certain type of parenting - where we were only allowed to watch TV if it was quality programming and of some educational value - Blue Peter and not cartoons etc. - and downmarket, entertainment-driven ITV was almost always out of bounds, but Skippy was one of the ITV series we were allowed to watch.
I'm surprised they don't remake it - in a more sophisticated way obviously, it would have great appeal, I think, in today's eco/animal conscious times.
Comments
Blimey, that's sounds grim. That and the Mighty Boosh clips struck me as painfully weak and unneccessary.
"Skippy........ Skippy
Skippy got made into glue......!"
As was sung at school.
The first time I saw Skipinder I fell off my chair.
Literally ROTFLMAO.
Marvellous idea.
Daktari was not a worldwide success like Skippy.
The English version of White Horses is lost.
Singing Ringing Tree is out on dvd
The Double Deckers had its own mini look back a few years ago as part of the "After They Were Famous" series.
I'm assuming you are referring to Hanna Barbera's Shazzan show which was an excellent forerunner to The Arabian Knights.
Episodes of Shazzan are available on R1 dvd
Get it for about £16 delivered
They just wouldn't be able to make this sort of show any more. Anything using live animals in that fashion would probably be banned. Shame really. Even my 7 year old son enjoyed it and said that they don't make good shows like they used to.
Even the crew thought it was rubbish.
But it was enjoyable rubbish.
Good documentary.
The animated "now" Skippy reminded me a bit too much of Jimmy Savile for comfort though!
you're welcome!! It was good wasn't it - great that they managed to get interviews with all the cast and the behind the scenes b/w footage of the filming was fantastic. I notice the guy who created it - was it John McCullum - only died at the beginning of February aged 91. What a legacy he left though - there must be millions of people of a certain age who remember Skippy with affection.
That was usually what the Goodness Gracious Me sketch took the piss out of By giving Skippy his own voice
ETA: I meant to quote the "exchange" there, sorry.
"Skipinder, Skipinder
Skipinder the Punjabi Kangaroo
Skipinder, Skipinder
Dumdeedumdeedumdum...Kangaroo"
Had to laugh at the clip dubbed in Japanese - can't believe Liza G was mobbed when she came here - what has she been up to the last two decades? Still looks pretty decent!
I prefer the original :
From ep. 61, ‘Axeman’, where Skippy brings a broken car distributor to Jerry (after operating the radio and summoning Jerry back by saying “Tchk tchk tchk”):
http://www.classicaustraliantv.com/Skippy.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCHY6n907OE
Wonder if any of the cast made it into Neighbours:D
Didn't one of the the US channels have a series in the late sixties about a talking horse, Mr. ED, I think it was called. I wonder which was out first.
Mister Ed (so written - I couldn't find it in my reference book when I looked up Mr Ed) ran on US TV between 1961 and 1966. In this country ITV screened 26 of the 144 episodes in 1964 & 1965 whilst C4 screened 78 episodes between 1987 & 1989.
Did you see the Harry Enfield version? Mister Ed the talking horse becomes Mister Dead, the talking corpse.:D
As for the Skippy documentary - very entertaining. The montage of clips illustrating Skippy's manual dexterity were hiliarious.
Brought back memories it did......
As an aside to the thread, has anyone ever done a doc on the making of Flipper?.......
Not if posters stay on-topic .....
Could it be "Elephant Boy" which was a co-production between Scottish tv and Channels in Australia and Germany involving James Gatward who then went onto do a similar deal to make Star Maidens
Overall it's an excellent documentary and well worth watching even if you weren't that keen on Skippy or never saw it in the first place.
Speaking of animals, maybe Lassie was an inspiration as well, I guess animals have always been popular
I watched Skippy when it very first aired in the UK and loved it, I would have been 7 or 8. I laughed at the interviewees in the doc from European countries never having heard of Australia and thinking Skippy must live in America or Africa - it reminded me that I assumed Flipper and Skippy - shown on the same channel, ITV, at roughly the same time - lived in the same warm sunny place which for me was Australia. I don't know how I could have failed to see that Flipper was American, but I didn't.
I grew up in a house at the time - typical of a certain type of parenting - where we were only allowed to watch TV if it was quality programming and of some educational value - Blue Peter and not cartoons etc. - and downmarket, entertainment-driven ITV was almost always out of bounds, but Skippy was one of the ITV series we were allowed to watch.
I'm surprised they don't remake it - in a more sophisticated way obviously, it would have great appeal, I think, in today's eco/animal conscious times.