The New Inventors (2004 - 2011)
Magazine program
Weekly x 30 minutes
Series synopsis:
A fast-paced half-hour television series in which new inventions are chosen each week from all over Australia and demonstrated in the studio by their designers. A panel of three judges – drawn from the fields of science, design and marketing – must choose a winner each week. An overall winner is chosen for the series to receive the inventor of the year award.
Curator’s Notes:
Amanda Duthie, an executive producer with ABC Arts and Entertainment, assembled a team to come up with a series about new ideas in design and technology. They kept returning to the idea of the original series, The Inventors (1970-1982), with its quirky designs and inventive gadgets. They decided to revive the original format with its presenter, three judges and three or four contestants, and give it a 21st century look. Gone is the very British presentation style of Stuart Wagstaff, and gone too is the sexism he encouraged towards the only female panellist, Diana 'Bubbles’ Fisher. Instead, The New Inventors has found the witty and playful James O’Loghlin from ABC's Sydney metropolitan radio station 702 to be the new face of the program, along with a pool of around 10 judges from which three are chosen each week, including world famous engineers, inventors, designers, architects and leading marketers and advertising gurus.
The series encourages audience participation through the people’s choice segment, with appeals going out each week for new contestants to come forward. Contestants come from both rural and urban Australia, while a promotional video highlights the character and the world of each inventor. This takes the series out of the confines of the television studio. Each program is played before a studio audience, and O’Loghlin teases out the detail of each invention while mindful that he has to entertain the audience at the same time. It’s a tall order, especially as all of this must happen within the 27 minutes that make up the contemporary ABC television half hour.
Titles in this series
The New Inventors – Series 1 Episode 8 2004
The three featured inventions on this week’s program are: a pool cleaner with a difference, invented by two brothers; a masterly way of turning landfill into compost; and an inflatable resuscitation mask that prevents the spread of communicable diseases.
The New Inventors – Series 2 Episode 8 2005
This episode of The New Inventors includes: a demonstration of a lock clip that replaces the standard safety clips used in rope climbing; a ‘Power-Mate’ that lets you know how much power any particular appliance is using and its cost; ...
