Australian
Screen

Clip description

Skippy, now on the run, pauses at the edge of town. Dr Stark’s henchmen, McMurtrie (Red Moore) and Snapes (Don Crosby), comment that she’ll end up on the main street and so she does. Pursued, she finds herself on the train tracks with trains approaching in both directions. At this moment back at home, Sonny (Garry Pankhurst) wakes up screaming. He is comforted by his father (Ed Devereaux) who understands and explains how time can heal the loss of ‘someone very dear’. Meanwhile Skippy continues her journey home and her troubles are far from over as, injured and hiding, she is found and pursued by sheepdogs onto a sheep grate where she is very nearly run over by a truck.

Curator’s notes

The pilot for the Skippy series, produced in 1966, was aimed squarely at an overseas market. Although Australian television at this time was still broadcast in black-and-white, Skippy was filmed in colour on 16mm film to increase its international appeal. Barry Crocker, who played a guest role in the series, describes how the program tried to 'give the world [an image of] what Australia might be like’ (Skippy: Australia’s First Superstar, 2009).

Here, it is indeed shown as a place where kangaroos jump down the main street with a koala at every corner – the Australia of Skippy is a giant bush town with the city barely mentioned. The success of this creation of an ‘Australian’ identity is reflected in the 1970s and ’80s custom of referring to Australians with an Anglo-Saxon background as ‘Skips’ after the ultimate Australian, Skippy.