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THE UNISEXERS
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- 1975 - 1 x 60 minute premiere and 15 x 30 minute
episodes - |
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Contents
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In early 1974 the Nine Network, seeing the success Ten was
having with Number 96
and The Box,
the ABC with Bellbird,
and Seven with Class of ’74,
decided they needed a soap opera of their own. The Network requirement was for a week day serial in the 6.00 p.m. slot, and they approached Number 96 producer Bill Harmon to devise a new serial for them.[1] The result was The Unisexers, but it turned out to be a resounding failure and emerged as possibly the shortest-lived Australian soap opera ever. Cash HarmonThe English-born Don Cash and American Bill Harmon who had
previously worked as television producers in the They initially created a comedy series titled The Group, about a group of mixed-sex youngsters sharing a flat, for Channel Seven in 1971. The scriptwriter was David Sale, who would later create and write for Number 96, and the cast included Ken James, Jenee Welsh and Gregory Ross. [4] Thirteen episodes of the thirty-minute sitcom were
produced, and the show was well-received. However when the question of
renewing the show for another season came up Cash Harmon were busy creating Number 96 for Ten and Channel Seven’s Bruce Gyngell, who had originally commissioned the series, had
left to work for Lew Grade in After its launch in 1972, Number 96
became a huge hit on Australian television ranking as Yet despite the success of Number 96 the company was in the precarious position of having just one successful show in production, the fortunes of which decided whether the production company lived or died. The Unisexers presented the Cash Harmon company with an opportunity to add another production to their stable. Background and DevelopmentThe Nine Network had requested a serial for the 6.00 p.m. time slot, which immediately presented Bill Harmon with a big problem. The Broadcasting Control Board had strictly decreed that care must be taken at that hour when children are watching, so The Unisexers would lean heavily to comedy and “drama situations”. [7] Harmon admitted there were phenomenal problems in fitting in with the restrictions that came with the 6.00 p.m. slot. “There must be no sex, no violence, nothing that could inspire fear. This meant we could end up with a plain and syrupy series or we could play it for comedy and as everyone knows, the most difficult thing to present on television is comedy. Australian television is littered with comedy series which haven’t worked.” [8] The show’s premise was devised by Anne Hall who had worked on comedy series The Group and was the synopsis writer on Number 96. Harmon saw possibilities in the idea so had Number 96 script editor and script writer Johnny Whyte produce a treatment based on the concept. This was submitted to Nine Network chairman Kerry Packer and Network General Manager Len Mauger, who gave the go ahead for production on the pilot to commence. [9] Production on the pilot episode was completed at the end of October 1974. [10] Premise and FormatThe Unisexers focused on a
group of young hippies living in a commune arrangement in the Paddington, Producer Bill Harmon elaborated on the program’s title for TV Week. “People immediately assume that because it’s called Unisexers it will be a bawdy sex and sin saga. Actually the title refers to the fad of boys and girls wearing the same clothes – namely jeans. The report that it’s a sort of sex and sin at the factory is ridiculous. In fact, we were asked by Channel Nine to make the pilot with the intention of taking over the 6.00 p.m. slot – which makes it children’s hour viewing.” [11] With Harmon so keen to refute the sex angle, it makes one wonder why they chose that title for the show. Each instalment of the show opened with a quick titles sequence of a Volkswagen Kombi van with the name Unisexers emblazoned on the side pulling up outside the mansion. The bunch of smiling youngsters then pile out of the back of the van and happily parade into the house as the sprightly theme music plays. The CastThe small amount of advance publicity for The Unisexers mostly highlighted the presence of recent Number 96 sex symbol Josephine Knur in the cast. In Number 96 Knur played the regular role of naïve but vivacious wine bar waitress Lorelei Wilkinson, a comedy dumb-blonde character who bounced through the show in a series of sexy, revealing costumes in between providing nude glimpses. Her character had a conspicuous exit from the series by becoming the first on-screen victim of the Pantyhose Murderer in November 1974. Few of the other actors cast as the commune members were well known to television viewers. Producer Bill Harmon expressed enthusiasm for the cast he assembled. “We will be presenting a lot of fresh faces and this will be good because there is a greater believability about a series when actors have not been seen in other shows before. I am pleased with everyone we used in the pilot. I went after the best cast and I got them. And I was lucky. There were so many pilots being made around the time of The Unisexers that we were fortunate to get the cast together.” [12] One of the regular cast members of The Unisexers was John Paramor who at the time the series commenced screening had just completed a brief stint in Number 96 as a wine bar cook who became obsessed with Lorelei Wilkinson. Paramor’s character had been the first of many red-herring suspects in the murder-mystery Pantyhose Murderer storyline. Other regular cast members in The Unisexers were Tina Bursill, Michele Fawdon, Steven Tandy, Patrick Ward (who had earlier appeared in the feature film version of Number 96), Anne Grigg, Sonia Hoffmann, Hugh Logan, Tony Sheldon and Scott Lambert. Experienced actors Walter Pym and Jessica Noad portrayed the couple who owned the home that accommodated the incoming hippies. Delore Whiteman played the part of their horrified housekeeper who initially disapproved of the hippies’ arrival. Production OrganisationWith The Unisexers Bill Harmon followed the same production organisation that was used on Number 96 to prevent a star system from developing and to avoid jealousies amongst the cast. All cast members received equal salary and billing, and no one actor could appear in more than three of any week’s batch of five episodes. [13] Despite these measures, TV Week potentially put the cat amongst the pigeons in reporting that the Nine Network had imagined cast members Tony Sheldon, Patrick Ward, Steven Tandy, Michele Fawdon, Anne Grigg and Sonia Hoffmann as the program’s future stars. [14] Harmon himself refused to be drawn into predictions of fame and success for the series. “I’ve been in this business too long to be shooting off my mouth about the success of a show before it’s on the air. Let’s just say that we’ve got a product which I believe will be a goer.” [15] The director assigned to The Unisexers was Peter Maxwell who had steered Class of ‘74 and directed many other Australian television productions of the day. Number 96 production supervisor Kevin Powell was credited as producer here. The prolific and experienced writing team included Robert Caswell, David Sale, Johnny Whyte, Derek Stachan and series creator Anne Hall who had all acted as scriptwriters on Number 96. Bill Harmon admitted that producing The Unisexers and Number 96 simultaneously presented “lots of worries” and he had doubled his production staff to a total of 12 personnel working on each series. “It’s a phenomenal strain turning out this much television each week, but we can do it because we have the right people doing the right jobs.” [16] The Unisexers was produced in colour. Though Australian television was not due to switch to full time colour broadcasting until March 1975, many programs (including Number 96) were being produced in colour and occasionally transmitted in colour in test broadcasts in the lead-up to that switch. Several episodes of The Unisexers would indeed be broadcast in colour. The LaunchTV Week magazine speculated that The Unisexers was “aimed at beating the Reg Grundy Produced soap opera on the Seven Network, Class of ‘74.” [17] Like that the show, The Unisexers was launched with hints of sex and titillation. Television critics and journalists received invitations to
the program’s launch in The Unisexers began on air
in After the premiere the serial screened in 30 minute installments each weekday evening at 6.00 pm, starting Monday, 10 February 1975. (In Sydney, the premiere had screened at 7.30 pm on Friday, 7 February 1975. [19]) The Critics RaveRalph Broom’s review in Broom likened the premiere of The Unisexers to that of fellow teen-oriented serial Class of ‘74 which opened with hints of sex and sensationalism that shocked the censor resulting in the cutting of scenes in that show’s debut episode, and the shift to a later timeslot for a subsequent installment. Broom reported that likewise cuts were ordered for the debut episode of The Unisexers, and suggested that the tone of the remaining content pushed the program into the “adult’s viewing spot at 7.30 pm”. Broom also noted that the Broadcasting Control Board received some complaints about the series, something he suggested “suits the production company just fine”. [21] In the Sunday evening premiere Broom observed “acres of bare flesh, five references to the Pill and sex, four bloodies, and one bastard.” In one scene a man walked in on a girl wearing only jeans and clutching a garment to her bare chest, and they then fell into a bath together. Broom concluded that the female cast members seemed to have been included in the series purely for their sexual attractions and made note that Knur - who previously “displayed her charms” in Number 96 - here enacted a modelling stint to the strains of The Stripper. The premiere even threw in a mincing effeminate photographer for good measure. [22] Monday’s “children’s time” episode at 6.00 pm, reported Broom, featured a busty female in a tee-shirt emblazoned with the words “Think Big”. The script quickly clarified that this was merely the name of the previous year’s winner of the Melbourne Cup. Aside from disapproving of these risqué elements Broom ridiculed the program’s overall premise. It seemed unbelievable that a university professor and his kindly wife would allow a bunch of youngsters to set-up a commune and a jean-making business in their rambling home. And never before has there been a more clean-cut and well-scrubbed bunch of hippies, with The Unisexers’ commune characterised by freshly pressed slacks and starched collars. [23] Overall Broom pronounced that “the script is drivel and most of the acting performances match it” but predicted that despite what he thinks of it, “the show will definitely get a huge following.” [24] The FailureIt wasn’t long before these predictions of success were proved wrong. In his report of the first week of television ratings for 1975 Broom designated the two big disasters of the survey to be Class of ‘75 and The Unisexers. The latter of these he described as “GTV [Nine]’s $1 Million children’s serial”. Broom observed that “with such low viewing figures for its first week on air, it will be a miracle if Unisexers survives”. [25] Low ratings for The Unisexers
indeed ensured its swift cancellation and removal from schedules. On Friday
28 February 1975 The report said that the series had employed about 25
actors and 25 production workers. Replacing the show in Academic and television writer Albert Moran later surmised that the program’s early evening timeslot had been its downfall. Though the makers of the show had been successful in crafting Number 96, a daring adult soap for Ten, the early timeslot of The Unisexers meant that many of the more racy elements that they had used so successfully in that show were off-limits. The writers were limited in what they could say or show this time around, and their new family-friendly product failed to excite viewers. [29] The AftermathWhen the cast were informed by producer Bill Harmon that The Unisexers had folded, over the wounded ensemble’s morose murmurings one actor, Scott Lambert, piped-up to ask: “Have you got any jobs on Number 96?” Two hours later Lambert had a part on the top-rated serial; he would play the sponging womaniser Miles Cooper. “I don’t know why Bill Harmon gave me the part, probably because I was cheeky enough to ask.” [30] Cast member Steven Tandy went into the leading role of Tom
Sullivan in long running serial The Sullivans
while Tina Bursill later starred in Skyways.
Patrick Ward went on to appear in the Number 96
series. Ward was later a regular in Cop Shop,
followed by Bill Harmon’s high-profile soap disaster Arcade. Delore Whiteman reached her largest audience when she
appeared in episode one of 1981 Doctor Who
serial Logopolis. She played Tegan
Jovanka’s ill-fated Aunt Vanessa. |
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Page originally uploaded May 2000 |
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