ABC Report 1967-68

Link to the report is here

D-TELEVISION DRAMAS

P 12-13
DRAMA AND  FEATURES
Drama-Television "Bellbird ", a daily serial produced in the A .B .C .'s Melbourne studios. has proved a popular success gaining a loyal following in all States. We produced 132  quarter-hour episode s during the year. We also launched successfully in all States the first 13 episodes of the 50  minute adventure series "Contrabandits". A new series to be transmitted from next August is now in production.

We telecast four plays in a series under the general title of "Love and War" " "O 'Flaherty, V .C." and " Man of Destiny" by George Bernard Shaw, "The Brass  Butterfly " by William Golding and " Romeo and Juliet". Our production of "Romeo and Juliet " has been sold to the National Educational Television Network in the United States.

Four single plays by Jonson , Chekhov and Wilde on the theme of "greed" were produced - one in Sydney and three in our Melbourne studios-and we also produced four half-hour dramas for the "Australian Playhouse" series.  

We have co-operated with Amalgamated Television Services Pty. Ltd. to produce seven half-hour episodes of a space adven " ture "Vega 4". A sequel to an earlier  series, "lnterpretaris", "Vega 4 " uses local actors and actresses. It is aimed at family audiences. with special emphasis on teen " agers.

Future plans involve the continuation of "Contrabandits", and of "Bellbird" and 10 Australian dramas of 60 minutes length or more amongst which will be Richard Beynon 's "The Shifting Heart", Robert Wales ' "The Cell" and the Mary Gilmore Award winner, "Tilley Landed on our Shore" specially written for television by Pat Flower.

The encouragement of promising writers is a continuing process. The Director of Drama (Television) and television drama story editors have participated in several general writing seminars during the year including those organised by The Australian Writers' Guild, the Australian Society of Authors, the Society of Women Writers and the Producers and Wr iters' Guild. The Director of Drama (Television) has acted as adjudicator at the Queensland Drama Festival, the Warana Festival and the Central Queensland Drama Festival. Students of the National Institute of Dramatic Art have been given the opportunity of working in television through the medium of an annual production exercise, conducted at the A.B.C . Training School in Sydney.

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132 quarter-hour episodes of Bellbird w ere produced in Melbourne. Writers-Barbara Vernon, Michael Wright, Janet Kehoe.  19 episodes (of which 13 were screened this  financial year) of Contrabandits were produced in Sydney...
Australian Playhouse series:
 *Caught Napping (Sydney)Pat Flower
*All Fall Down (Sydney) Michael Boddy
*The End Product (Sydney) Colin Free
*The Stay at Home (Melbourne)  Ray Taylor
Love and War series:
O'Fiaherty, V .C. (Sydney ) G . B . Shaw
 The Brass Butterfly (Sydney) William Golding
Romeo and Juliet (Melbourne)  William Shakespear e
Single plays:
 Volpone (Sydney)  Ben Jonson
The Bear and The Proposal (Melbourne) Anton Chekhov
Salome (Melbourne) Oscar Wilde

NB most of those Australian Playhouse eps did not air.