Thanks for Nothing, ABC

In my other blog I was having a belly-ache about how crap TV was when I was a kid. Living in the bush we had (count them) two stations; the local one and the ABC, and the programming afforded by both left a lot to be desired.

But thinking back, ah it wasn't so bad. Afternoons and evenings tended to have ok programming, as long as the friggin cricket and tennis were not on and hogging all the air time. It was all we knew, and we were happy.

Indeed some of my fondest memories are of watching those classic old shows -- Chips, Dallas, BJ Mackay, Kingswood Country, Battlestar Galactica (the original obviously, not the grimy remake), The Curiosity Show, Hawaii 5-0, Sesame Street (again the original, not the PC rubbish nowadays), Wombat, Simon Townsend's Wonderworld, Baa-Baa Black Sheep, Sale of the Century (with Tony Barber, not the succession of grinning poonces who came after him), Mr. Squiggle, anything with Graeme Kennedy in it, The Goodies, Countdown (which I actually hated at the time), Lennox Walker's weather forecasts.... man I could go on and on.

You know, I mean, it was a poor little regional TV station we had, and they did their best. And hey, at least their ad breaks were not three irritating minutes of crass, puerile repetitiveness which insulted your intelligence and assaulted your sensibilities at once, as is the case today.

But "Auntie" ABC had no bloody excuse. While the local channel was airing soaps and "The Mike Walsh Show" throughout the weekday, the ABC would counter with the following in quality entertainment:

7:30am Station opens with test card
8:00am Sesame Street
9:00am Playschool
9:30am Test card
1:00pm News
1:15pm Test card
3:30pm Sesame Street (repeat)
4:30pm Playschool (repeat)
5:00pm (Evening programming)

It's not that the 1970's was so primitive that we had to settle for a whole day of squat on one channel. It's the fact that in the major cities ABC aired cool educational shows, on the exact same channel, all day, every day. But not in the bush; oh no, for us it was a case of the government figured a bunch of dumb hick farmers' kids don't need no educational programming, and so cut costs by airing the test card.

Up your's, ABC.

Ok I know what you're thinking: "What are you whinging about daytime TV for, weren't you supposed to be at school?" Well those educational shows were geared specifically to be shown to classes at school. And besides, there was such a thing as being off sick (and wagging it ;)

Heh... I suppose it is a bit low busting on "Auntie" for what they did 30 years ago. I mean, things have improved ginormously since then, and thank god for that. Maybe there is something to deregulation after all...