Thursday, November 13, 2008

Top 10 TV shows from my eighties childhood

A while ago I did a post on my personal top ten books from my eighties childhood, and it's my most visited post. At the time it did cross my mind that a similar post on television would be interesting. Keep in mind that in Tasmania we had two channels for most of my childhood, ABCTV and TVT6. SBS existed when I was in primary school because I remember Five Times Dizzy by Nadia Wheatley (who I utterly shamed myself in front of when I said in a completely fannish moment whilst working on reception: 'You don't look ANYTHING like I imagined you!' because I sort of expected her to be yiayia from the books, though I didn't admit that much) was made into an SBS miniseries in about 1983. I couldn't watch it because our two televisions - a small black and white and a big coloured clunker - couldn't pick up SBS. Seriously, if you holidayed on the mainland you were obliged to come back and tell everyone what was going to happen in Country Practice in three years time. I remember how excited my sister was when Bethany finally appeared on Tasmanian TV and she could get the resolution to the storyline. When I was 19 and living in Adelaide they introduced a second commercial channel, so I hurried back home to watch it. Well, I had been planning on leaving Adelaide anyway.

Anyway, so my 80s tv watching was probably heavily 70s reruns. The links are mostly youtube videos, so there's a warning for you. Argh. (That's pirate). (I don't know why I'm being a pirate but it seemed appropriate with the whole warning thing, and I guess also goes nicely with the whole illegally uploaded video thing as well.)

1. The Butterfly Ball - this was an obscure little time filler on ABC Kids. I was simultaneously in love with it and terrified of it. One of the reasons I am in love with the Interwebz is being able to reclaim this curious little object and insert it back into my life. I was quite fond of the filler as a genre. I also remember a local filler of footage of old people walking aorund Hobart mall with either the popcorn theme or music box dancer as the music. I adored both these pieces of music as a child so they've kind of blurred together. Anyway, that funny little two minutes always filled me with an aura of intense peace. Hooray for fillers.

2. The Famous Five This music fills me with such a rush of nostalgia, I can feel Mrs Dillon's warm honey crumpets in my belly (I often went to the Dillon's house after school and they were the closest thing to the Famous Five I ever met in real life - English and quite proper to me, with a dog. My friend Joanna could have almost passed for Anne and her older brother Michael definitely had Julian qualities). I wanted to be George, mostly because I wanted to have her special affinity with Timmy, but I loved Anne's swishy hair and I remember trying to emulate her poodly girlish running style. And Julian in those muscle tees. He was so manly.

3. Chocky I blogged about the book before and my mate Zose sent me this opening. It was deliciously spooky and all the better because I loved the book so much. I have dim memories of other books being turned into ABC dramas, like perhaps Carrie's war by Nina Bawden, but they never overwrote the book - this one the book and the show are kind of enmeshed in my mind.

4. Metal Mickey An amazing insight into the role computers would play in our daily lives. Not. Actually (and I'm fairly sure my brother doesn't read my blog on a regular basis) there's something about Metal Mickey that reminds me of my brother. Can't quite put my finger on it. But there you go.

5. HR Puffinstuff This show was so lame. But I loved it. I have fond memories of The Banana Splits too - same puppeteers? I recall watching The Splits with an expression of bemusement on my face.

6. I'm going to cheat and roll Sesame Street, The Muppets and Fraggle Rock into one. If I had to pick a favourite now it would be Fraggle Rock, but that's a bit cheaty since I was in high school by the time that started. As a kid, it was Sesame Street, pre-elmo, way back when no one saw Snuffy and I almost wet my pants with frustration and disappointment every time he walked off set and Maria and co walked on. But then he was revealed (which I've just realised coincides with the appearance of elmo! which seems psychoanalytically portenteous), and Sesame Street kind of jumped the shark for me.

7. Young Talent Time Before there was Aussie Idol there was this. Remember back when Kylie was just Dannii's sister? I dreamed of being discovered on YTT, or even of a boy like Vince looking into my eyes and singing earnestly at me (gawd, socially awkward much?)

8. Grange Hill or Degrassi? I can't pick. Maybe Degrassi because I followed it all the way through, even when they were the oddly melancholic Kids on Degrassi Street and Wheels was called Gryph and was being beat up by his brother which was weird because by Degrassi Junior High he was adopted with nary a brother in sight and his name was Derrick Wheeler. But my first vagely erotic dream was about Stu-pot from Grange Hill and I remember running home from swimming lessons (around the corner) every day one summer to watch it.

9. Well, of course The Goodies. And a quick nod to Bananaman, voiced by the threesome.

10. Dr Snuggles Ah, more crumpets. I had a music casette of the music from this show, and I remember one particular song that started 'we are the travelers and we're going somewhere, to the end of the rainbow...' and there my memory fails me. It is the best song ever by the way. This was another cartoon that vaguely unsettled me, despite the love it inspired. I am a many splendid thing.

Oh geez, that's ten already? But I haven't even mentioned The Magic Roundabout, Rentaghost, Worzel Gummidge, Catweazle (okay I admit I was a bit scared of Worzel Gummidge and utterly petrified of Catweazle), Little Blue (no link!), Morph, Danger Mouse (whole episodes await your viewing pleasure on the tube of you), Qua Qua (? a paper animation thing about a duck, kind of pointless but oddly soothing, ungooglable apparently), a cartoon called Ulysses, based on the Greek myth but set in the future with robots, Jem (truly outrageous), Astroboy, Happy Days (speaking of jumping the shark), The Wonderful World of Disney (best description ever of the sensation aroused in one whilst watching TWWoD at the beginning of The Secret History by Donna Tartt), not to mention all the American sitcomes, like the Brady Bunch and Different Strokes and some other one where the big sister was actually called Sissy. I bet I think of a million more (I didn't watch that much tv, promise!), but it's over to you now - what shows did you love as a kid?

36 comments:

  1. Sadly for Tasmania, some of your eighties shows weren't reruns from the seventies, but from the sixties. The show you couldn't remember the name of that featured a big sister called 'Sissy' was probably one of my sixties faves - 'Family Affair'.

    The big sister was called 'Cissy' and there was a classic butler plus an uncle/father figure who lived in a New York penthouse. Mother, the inhibitor of all adventure, was conveniently disposed of/deceased.
    Great post, Penni. As a sixties/early seventies TV addict, it inspired much nostalgia. Don't know if I'm game to revisit the addictions!

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  2. Oi! You sure watched a lot of tv!

    My favourite shows were from my seventies Malaysian childhood where we didn't get a lot of shows in English, but when we did they were quite good ones. Blue Peter, The Electric Company, Sesame Street, Dougal and the Magic Roundabout, the Muppets, of course.

    Then in NZ in the 80s tv started being heavily censored in my house due to the Corrupting Influence of The Box. But I did enjoy *cringe*: The Donny and Marie Show, Love Boat, The Dukes of Hazzard, Night Rider... think I'd better stop now, it's just too embarrassing.

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  3. Ah, Metal Mickey! Reminds me of my brother too..those after school days..and we would sing the song together whilst eating mum's organic rock cakes...eek. : ) And H.R Puff n Stuff...with witchy poo!And of course that became my nickname from darling siblings ; )

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  4. I have the Butterfly's Ball book, you should pop in sometime and have a look ;) It's of my faves. The boys love it when I read it to them too http://www.amazon.co.uk/Butterfly-Ball-Grasshoppers-Feast/dp/0224008080

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  5. Kirsty Oh A Family Affair! That's right. I think I must have been very young when it was on because my memories are so vague, but I know I missed it later when they finally put it back into the vault.

    *blush* Maria, most of these shows circled through the same timeslot on ABC over a period of many years and a lot of them were only 5 minutes long! I didn't watch that much television, honestly. Saturday morning, a bit in the evenings and on rainy days after school. I was a latchkey kid after all, had to keep myself out of trouble somehow.

    Rach (I just typed in Holly then), well you would have been watching the same channels. remember Rupert Bunny coming to say goodnight? And TV Pow? With Jim Shoes?

    Jazz - would love to have a look at it! wow!

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  6. Anonymous9:18 AM

    1) Dr Who (goes without saying; Tom Baker and then Peter Davison (sigh)

    2) Blake's 7 (Avon the bastard - grr! I'm sure this had a detrimental effect on my love life in later years)

    3) All Creatures Great and Small (for Tristan and Siegfried - James was just wet; the first in a long line of period drama obessions; Peter Davison again)

    4) Remington Steele (I almost didn't admit that one)

    5) Minder (almost didn't admit this one either; please tell me I didn't have a thing for Dennis Waterman. Oh DEAR)

    6) A Very Peculiar Practice (initially watched this for (ahem) Peter Davison (hey at least I'm faithful) but it was a fantastic, surreal little show with brilliant characters)(just discovered this was the first success for Andrew Davies! well there you go)

    7) Degrassi/Days of Our Lives (both watched obsessively, in large groups, at college)

    8)The Goodies (ooh they were naughty boys)

    9) The Young Ones (again, this was a college experience; not much in it for the ladies, now I think back)

    10) Love in a Cold Climate (the start of my unhealthy love for the Mitford family)

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  7. 1. Countdown. Huge huge part of my young/teenage life. Loved it, although wouldn't always get to watch it.
    2. Wonderful World of Disney. Loved that it had cartoons as well as real-life movies (the Herbie series!!).
    3. Playschool, Romper Room and Humphrey B. Bear. I'll put them together because they're all Australian and loved at the same time (4 - 6years). I wanted Miss Helena to say MY name in the magic mirror and she never did. Tragic)
    4. Mum and Dad's British shows like On The Buses and Are You Being Served. They're on Foxtel now and so crass. Can't believe I laughed my way through years of it!
    5. Brady Bunch. I always wanted to be Cindy or Bobby :-D
    6. Mr Squiggle!!
    7. Little House on the Prairie
    8. Hanna Barbara cartoons, in particular The Flinstones
    9. The Partridge Family - loved the clothes!!
    10. Mr. Ed - totally fascinated by horses particularly a talking one and wondered how they managed to make it's lips move like that.

    I watched too much television probably as a child. My parents didn't mind. Funnily though, whilst I remember watching all of these shows religiously my biggest memories are of being outside and playing or reading.

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  8. Anonymous3:07 PM

    Penni! I had an audio tape of Doctor Snuggles too! I loved it. So the voices are much clearer in my head than the actual cartoon.

    There was a story about space pirates and a pillow fight. And another one about butterflies - which I can't remember the plot of but I can vividly hear someone saying 'All turned into butterflys'

    *goes immediately to dig up a clip of the theme song, humming 'Dr Snuggles, friends of the animal world. something something something. Dr Snuggles, build us a clever machine.'*

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  9. Ah, what a wonderful post. I loved Butterfly Ball, and also have the book and the album.

    I was Grange Hill fan, Degrassi was just a bit after my time.

    I watched an episode of HR PuffinStuff a while ago - how did I ever watch that? But I loved it, and had the jigsaw puzzle to prove it! :)

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  10. Anonymous6:33 PM

    I'm probably going to blur the 70's and 80's cos I'm older than you and I've never been hugely into TV.
    1/ Dr Who
    2/ The Goodies
    3/ Thunderbirds
    4/ Countdown
    5/ The Young Ones
    6/ Little House on the Prarie
    7/ The Muppets

    That's probably about it for me.

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  11. I adored Degrassi - and yes, the earliest series was oddly melancholic now you mention it.

    But I loved Grange Hill as well. I actually wrote to James Valentine (Afternoon Show host at the very end of the 1980s) when it was taken off the air. He sent back a postcard of himself, and ruined my love for him and Grange Hill simultaneously. Oh well.

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  12. Anonymous8:09 PM

    Punky Brewster!

    21 Jump St!

    What's more, you can find most of these shows on surfthechannel.com

    my that made me happy!

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  13. Witchypoo used to scare the pants off me as a nine year year old, much to the amusement of my sister who was six. And we had to run home (quite a long way) to be in time to watch it (we were latch key kids too - could we really have been that young?). Anyway, we also loved the goodies, the brady bunch, adventure island and little house on the prairie. And Mr Squiggle, which we are currently watching with Grace on video. It's hilarious as an adult. Seasame street was before my time, but we've noticed how gritty early sesame street is compared to the modern one. Grace seems to like it too.

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  14. hmmm, i had an eighties childhood as well (albiet five years behind yours) and i know hardly any of those!

    i did love that ulysses cartoon.

    i was also midly hooked on inspector gadget. (the main character has your name!)

    but my favourite favourite show ever, and my brother and all my cousins will agree, was the mysterious cities of gold. this was fabulous. a journey through the andes, two children who each carried half of an amulet, a golden condor you could fly like a plane. ah...

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  15. Re the little origami duck (who was awesome) - it was Quaq Quao:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDet-uf7fFk

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  16. Late the party, but I have to add my 2cents. HR Puffinstuff too! (Jimmy! Jimmy!) Witchypoo scared the crap out of me too, but I was obsessed with the opening music and song. My best friend's husband can still sing all.the.words. I am so impressed.

    Also Magic Roundabout, and I once wrote a letter to Sue McIntosh (who is Jason Donovan's mum) who used to host Adventure Island and received a lovely b&w photograph postcard back with all the cast on it and a note from Sue. Also I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Mr Ed (I still regularly sing that song much to my boys' amusement) and Lost in Space. Danger Will Robinson. I never watched Dr Who - when it started to come on I had to race to to the tv to turn it off because the music gave me nightmares.

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  17. Anonymous6:46 PM

    The Ulysses one set in the future was a French-Japanese co-productionn called Ulysses 31. It remains a classic to this day. :)

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  18. Anonymous9:24 AM

    Jim Shoes reinvented himself as a country music performer. He now goes by the name Twyce Daily!

    Here are his sites:

    https://www.reverbnation.com/twycedaily

    http://www.twycedaily.com/


    He's actually not too bad at it.

    I used to love all of those shows mentioned above and a few more are Transformers, He-Man and MASK. Also, don't forget all those wildlife shows they'd sometimes intersperse with the cartoons, like Lorne Greene's New Wilderness and the Jacques Cousteau underwater shows.

    Also, another fondly remembered one was the 1960s Batman, much repeated on Tassie Saturday morning kids' TV in the 1980s.

    KTV was another popular show. The brother of the co-host, Danny Milos, was my music teacher at Glenorchy Primary School.

    Blake's 7 was the best sci fi show of all time (Star Wars, eat your heart out) and, as the poster above note, who can ever forget Avon?

    Ulysses 31 and Mysterious Cities of Gold were made by the same French/Japanese team.

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  19. Anonymous6:34 PM

    I had forgotten about Dr Snuggles. Wow, the memories kust caame flooding back!

    Jim Shoes/Twyce Daily was awesome. Didn't realise he was Welsh until I looked him up.

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  20. Anonymous6:41 PM

    Forgot to add that I ADORED the wooden rocketship in Dr Snuggles. Might well be my favourite fictional rocket.

    On a related note, Peter Davison was definitely the greatest old series Dr Who. Such a dish.

    Thanks for your post and everyone's comments. It brings back so many memories of Hobart Saturday mornings in the early 1980s.

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  21. Anonymous6:53 PM

    One more thing I should say
    is that, even as a 5 year old, I always thought the combination of Jim Shoes and Spot his puppet dog had far more talent than Daryl Somers and Ozzie Ostrich. Having just watched some clips of Jim Shoes on YouTube, I can safely say my opinion hasn't changed!

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  22. Anonymous8:06 PM

    Speaking of things Welsh, don't forget Super Ted! He was the greatest superhero of them all.

    By the way, who replaced Jim Shoes as the Saturday morning cartoons host? I remember his name was Cameron something or another. Jim Shoes was always the best though.

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  23. Taswegian8:29 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  24. Anonymous6:31 PM

    Jim Shoes' resume:


    http://www.starnow.com/johnwilliams76/#


    My word, he is a clever bloke: multilingual, can sing everything from country to opera, good at photography and video and so on... Why does he waste his time with cheesey bogan junk like Funniest Home Videos? :( Looks like he did Red Faces, too. He should have been hosting Hey Hey, not competing in that trash on it!

    I suppose,with showbiz, like everything, it is who you know that counts. I suppose Jim Shoes wouldn't have been able to buildup the good contacts working on regional tele down in Tassie that Daryl Somers would have made in Melbourne.

    Jim Shoes could go back to Wales and be a star now that country is starting to regain its confidence and is producing strong shows like modern Doctor Who.

    I have never heard the slightest bit of scandal about Jim Shoes either unlike certain other clean cut young Tasmanian television presenters like *cough*Andy Muirhead*cough*...

    Anyway it is good to see we have solved the mystery of "Whatever happened to Jim Shoes?" here. :)

    By the way, some of those kids' shows we loved at 5 to 7 years really don't stand up with age. I tried watching Transformers a few years ago when the original series came out on DVD and couldn't even it make it through one episode. A lot of the othershows are just as bad. Ulysses 31 is by far the most bearable cartoon and, of live action stuff, 1960s Batman remains great campy fun for when you want something light. Blake's 7 has aged better than Star Wars (Han and Leia are just so wooden and have zero chemistry) if you can get past the terrible costumes and special effects.

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  25. Taswegian1:25 PM

    After reading through Jim Shoes' online CV you posted, I can see we were wrong to compare him to Daryl Somers. He is way above that league. He is more like a child-friendly version of Paul McDermott!

    Yes, it beats me why someone so talented would bother with commercialised junk television like Funniest Home Videos and Red Faces/Hey Hey. He could be doing something classier. For that matter, if he wanted to stay on commercial television, it just occurred to me that, given his obvious talent for languages and personable nature, he'd be an ideal host for Getaway. If I were a Channel 9 talent scout, I'd be flagging him as a possibility for that.

    By the way, I just remembered one more favourite Saturday morning cartoon from that era that I loved: it was an animated series based on the Pac-Man video game! I used to love that. I'd be way too cynical for it now (half-hour long game commercial, indeed!) but as a 7 year old, it was one of my favourites. :)

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  26. Anonymous7:09 PM

    I think there is definitely a need for a classy live variety show on television these days. Not something lowbrow like Hey Hey but something more along the lines of what Don Lane was doing in the 70s but updated for our generation.

    As you guys all note, Hey Hey was really tired years before it ended. Daryl was awful - even as a kid, I used to cringe when he stopped to explain his jokes when they fell flat. Just forget it and move on to the next joke, man! Don't try to explain them! John Blackman became stale after a while, too.

    The only really funny ones were Red Symons with his misanthropic persona and I also used to think Russell Gilbert was quite witty but I have gone off him - call me a prude but his involvement in those sleazy Sexpo events has put me right off him.

    I always thought the other problem with Hey Hey is that they didn't ever attract the REALLY big international acts o to the show. I remeber they did live crosses to the Rolling Stones on the Voodoo Lounge tour and also to U2 during Zoo TV but could anyone really imagine Mick Jagger or Bono coming into Channel 9 to be on the same set with Daryl?

    Good local acts like Barnesy (albeit when he was having his tax troubles), Baby Animals and Skyhooks (when they launched their revival) would go on the show but not the big international names, ever. The only one I can think of is Meat Loaf when he launched Bat Out of Hell 2.


    What I would love to see is a live variety show kept to an hour in length each week with a witty, classy host and a mix of good acts each week such as one magician, one top tier comedian and one big international band. Then, also have a spot for emerging local talent to help launch a local unknown's career and foster young talent. They could also have a sit down interview with an actor or other person of note touring. Not just have all Yanks on the show either but showcase local people and classy acts from other parts of the world to expose our culture fo somethinga bit different. I guess Bert Newton did that a little tiny bit by having people like Demos Roussous and Nana Moustakouris on his show back in the day but I think they were already fairly big bit do more stufflike that.


    The nearest thing I have seen to this format in recent times is, indeed, that show Paul McDermott tried to do on the ABC a few years ago but they didn't quite get the mix right and it fell flat. There weretoo many returning guests and not enough new acts every week. A television station would really have to be prepared to spend a lot to get the likesof Bono or Jagger to appear in the studio live and, given the propensity for cheap tarsh television these days like Reality shows this probably isn't going to happen. :(


    End rant.

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  27. Anonymous7:45 PM

    LOl - had to have a chuckle at this: Jim Shoes refuses to ever do Elvis covers. The funny bitis that he lives in Parkes, which is the town that is infamous for that annual Elvis impersonator festival! :) I am just imagining the town in Elvis season with 1000 Elvises in town but there is only one redhaired Twyce Daily standing out. Good on ya, Jim!


    http://www.parkeschampionpost.com.au/story/1842574/twyce-daily-always-true-to-himself/

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  28. HI guy's Jim Shoes her,e so let me straighten you all out, I moved to Parkes from Melbourne about three years ago so as my new baby could grow up in the Country, despite the Elvis thing it was all good, we have recently moved to the Central Coast to pursue music after winning numerous music awards and am now playing alongside some of the industry heavyweights, photos and clips are on my face book, https://www.facebook.com/twyce.daily, if you wouldn't mind I am trying to get likes on the music pro site to win a chance of getting my stuff recorded, if you can help that would be great.
    I don't really do country music but to keep working I will do what ever comes along, I now work in radio all information is on my face book site.
    So I left Hobart with our band to go and work the club circuit in Queensland, we broke up and for six years was the DJ seven nights a week at Jupiters Casino, before moving to Melbourne to pursue a music career.
    It is really weird to find this site as a week ago I applied for a radio job at 7HO in Hobart, I would really like to bring my family down there as I have the fondest memories of the place and the people, and again what is a bit strange we were looking at coming over to do some gigs.
    So thanks guys for the very kind words it was really cool to see that I was appreciated by some one, people my own age gave me a really hard time because my hair was dyed and I wore an ear ring and wore musician clothes, I was forever getting in fights, but I did love my time down there, so thanks, feel free to contact me on face book, that would be so cool.Jim Shoes, now Jim Williams, or Twyce Daily.

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  29. HI guy's Jim Shoes her,e so let me straighten you all out, I moved to Parkes from Melbourne about three years ago so as my new baby could grow up in the Country, despite the Elvis thing it was all good, we have recently moved to the Central Coast to pursue music after winning numerous music awards and am now playing alongside some of the industry heavyweights, photos and clips are on my face book, https://www.facebook.com/twyce.daily, if you wouldn't mind I am trying to get likes on the music pro site to win a chance of getting my stuff recorded, if you can help that would be great.
    I don't really do country music but to keep working I will do what ever comes along, I now work in radio all information is on my face book site.
    So I left Hobart with our band to go and work the club circuit in Queensland, we broke up and for six years was the DJ seven nights a week at Jupiters Casino, before moving to Melbourne to pursue a music career.
    It is really weird to find this site as a week ago I applied for a radio job at 7HO in Hobart, I would really like to bring my family down there as I have the fondest memories of the place and the people, and again what is a bit strange we were looking at coming over to do some gigs.
    So thanks guys for the very kind words it was really cool to see that I was appreciated by some one, people my own age gave me a really hard time because my hair was dyed and I wore an ear ring and wore musician clothes, I was forever getting in fights, but I did love my time down there, so thanks, feel free to contact me on face book, that would be so cool.Jim Shoes, now Jim Williams, or Twyce Daily.

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  30. Jim Shoes Fan!9:16 AM

    Helô Jim! Sut ydych chi? Dw i'n caru Cymru! :)


    Wow - I never thought I'd be saying hello to one of my childhood heroes, Jim Shoes. :)

    Great to see that you are still in good health and that your music career is going well.

    I am feeling really nostalgic at the moment - it seems that all my 1980s childhood is coming flooding back to me at once with the imminent release of that new Star Wars film and the sudden reappearance of Jim Shoes! :D This is like 1983 all over again.

    I have a whole bunch of questions, if you don't mind.

    1. Do you ever go back to Wales? I love it there. :) It is great to see the cultural revival and sense of optimism and confidence there now. Whereabouts in Wales were your family from? My ancestors were from the north but I have only ever visited the south (on a very quick visit).


    2. Does Spot the Dog still exist? Do you or his operator still have him tucked away in mothballs somewhere?

    3. "I moved to Parkes from Melbourne about three years ago so as my new baby could grow up in the Country" - Do you get up early on Saturday mornings and watch the cartoons with your kid? That'd actually be kind of awesome if you do!

    4. "My hair was dyed" - What??!! So you weren't a natural redhead? My childhood illusion is shattered! :P Seriously, though, sorry to hear you were given a hard time. Tassie can be like that, being a small place with a bit of a tall poppy syndrome. It is actually worse now in some ways since there is a big brain drain to the mainland as people have to go there for job opportunities.

    5. Do you remember the name of the chap who succeeded you as the host of the cartoon show? It was Cameron something-or-another. As per the posts above in this thread, no one can remember and it is bugging the life out of us! :P

    I really hope you get the job at 7HO-FM. I'll be honest and say that I don't listen to that station, partly because I - like a few other people on this discussion board - had some not-so-good encounters with Richard Moore's wife Sylvia as a kid so I refused to listen to his station on principal I won't go into details of that though! Suffice to say I think just about everyone around Hobart has a "Sylvia Moore" story. :( Richard Moore is retired now and the station is owned by a larger group so I am not sure what his involvement is. Also, their music tends to be a bit too commercial for my taste.

    That said, I would definitely listen to them if you come on board. You definitely have the right personality to be a television/radio host. (I could never do what you do.) You'd definitely help freshen up the airwaves down in Tassie.

    Finally, do you listen to much Welsh music yourself? Not sure if any of these would be to your taste but there are some exciting bands over there. (You could never get away with playing this stuff on a commercial station like 7HO-FM unfortunately):

    Welsh supergroup Fernhill (I love this but I am not so sure about the "rap" section at the 6 minute mark - that might have been a bit of a miscalculation in an otherwise great song!):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ofcHst56k


    These young kids are called Calan. Here they re-tell the old Welsh tale of Vortigern and Merlin's prophecy of the two dragons:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD4HTluRV7k


    Wish groups like that were known to the public at large in Australia.


    That's about all I wished to say. Once again, very best wishes with your job application. You are remembered with great fondness down here so hopefully you will land the role.


    Take care.

    A Tassie Fan

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  31. Sarah9:43 AM

    Aaargh! I wrote a wonderful reply comment but it didn't save on this stupid site for some reason. :(


    From memory, what I wrote was:


    Hello Jim

    Thanks for your reply to my email and on this thread!

    I wish you all the very best for your job application at 7HO. As the person above notes, they are a VERY commercial station, so expect to be playing lots of Elton John and singers of his ilk. :(

    Are you applying for the breakfast slot? You'd definitely be good at that. Which of your stage names will you use? I hope it is Jim Shoes. :)


    Sorry to hear about your previous bad experiences in Tassie. It sounds like people were jealous or thought it would be fun to pick on a kids' TV host. :(


    Hopefully now that you are older the crowds will be more mature.

    Very best wishes for your job application.

    Unfortunately, I am not on Facebook so I can't follow you there. I will definitely keep an eye on your career now that I know you are still around though.

    Good luck! Hope to hear you on the air here soon.





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  32. Taswegian2:28 PM

    Wow. I just saw this. Great to hear from you, Jim! I adored your cartoon show when I was 5-7 years old. Hope you can come back down to Tassie. Like the other people have said, 7HO is a *VERY* commercialised station, so maybe you can spruce them up a bit.

    Glad to hear you are still in good health.

    Yes, Tassie's a funny old place. Like the person above said, there is a "brain drain" to the mainland, so a lot of the people left here are the bogans/thugs but there are still a lot of good people around. I think Tassie is a lot like Wales: it has been a basketcase economy for so long that the people have no confidence in themselves.

    If your fellow Welshman can have a big cultural revival after centuries of poverty and being treated like absolute dirt by the English, than Tasmanians can do it too one day.

    Anyway, it is great you are still around and have fond enough memories of the place that you want to come back and raise your kid down here. I really hope you are successful in your job application.

    Take care, man. Best wishes. :)

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  36. Just weeding through comments and removing anything that might be considered defamatory.

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