Late 60s Australian action-series for kids stars a stunned-looking and lumpy kangaroo burdened with a prosthetic pair of
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Classic TV: The 60s
HughBennie-777 — 13 years ago(August 22, 2012 07:06 AM)
Late 60s Australian action-series for kids stars a stunned-looking and lumpy kangaroo burdened with a prosthetic pair of clawsused for close-upswho outwits bad guys on a nature preserve. The show also features about 4-5 equally stunned, lumpy kangaroo stand-ins and a terrifying theme song. Skippys family includes a firm but kindly ranger Ed Deveraux and his two kids, plus a hunky blond helicopter pilot. The Australian bush itself (New South Wales) is the backdrop for the first 5 episodes drama, and this involves litterbug poachers who stun-gun Koalas to sell to the black market, illegal road-racers crashing a car and requiring rescue, and an evil, effeminate scientist who kidnaps Skippy for some devious reason. Skippy later escapes the zoo, bloodied, fighting off sheep-dogs and even survives being run over by a truck. The show is devoted to showing the courage and intelligence of a kangaroo, yet the cutaways to the marsupial as he reacts to plot information or dialogue too often induce laughter. Skippy is is obviously looking off-camera to whatever it is marsupials eat. Other times the poor beast appears drugged. An Australian friend told me the kangaroos ability to make the striking Skippy sound to warn others is completly fabricated, as kangaroos are pretty silent, dumb and run away from most conflicts. Some appearances from notable Aussie actors, and a few familiar faces from Mad Max, keep things from being a total waste of time in the acting department.
"It looks like you could fit his future into about 6 different garbage bags." -"LHTH" -
alanr4447a — 13 years ago(September 03, 2012 08:32 PM)
The
format
was also a complete rip-off of
Flipper
: A widowed park ranger with a blond teen-age son, plus a "tween" son who's the closest friend of the family's "wild pet"; some episodes also feature a foreign woman scientist. Which show is it? Either one! -
jxh13 — 13 years ago(September 18, 2012 04:10 AM)
And then the geniuses came up with
Gentle Ben
, in which Flipper/Skippy became a bear; at least that show had a mom. And little Clint Howard.
And then the geniuses came up with
Maya
, about Dennis the Menace and his elephant traveling around India with his buddy, looking for his father. See, you don't need imagination to work in television; a Xerox machine will do.
Of course, I watched them all. I can still hum most of the theme from
Skippy. -
christopherbkk — 13 years ago(November 01, 2012 02:13 AM)
I can't believe you are saying such terrible things about 'Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo'. 4.00pm after school every day in the early 70s. It might be all the OP says, but a little kid doesn't see the terrible storylines, etc. (Although I must admit, even I would laugh at the prosthetic pair of claws.). This was an entertaining and much loved show!!
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HughBennie-777 — 13 years ago(November 02, 2012 04:01 AM)
As the soon-to-be brother in law to an Australian from Toowoombah, I never meant to show any disrespect for Skippy. But maybe it's because I have another 20,000 episodes of this to slog throughto properly honor the giftthat I couldn't help but bias my reporting, and not in Skippy's favor. My wife and I will try our best to be more objective in future adventures. Wish us luck.
Now we can turn down the theme song in the beginning, and that helps a great deal.
"It looks like you could fit his future into about 6 different garbage bags." -"LHTH" -
countrygirl-625-869250 — 13 years ago(March 06, 2013 03:46 PM)
I've watched Skippy soooooooo many times with my grands & great grands that my 4& 5 yr.old great/grands have learned to do the "click" that Skippy is supposed to dodrives their moms crazybut I love it. I have to admit that I had a huge crush on Ed Devereaux "aka Matt Hammond" He is/was so{ what's the word girls use now? oh, I remember-H-O-T!!!!!}} THEY SHOULD HAVE LET HIM KEEP HIS WIFE.
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countrygirl-625-869250 — 13 years ago(March 06, 2013 04:02 PM)
Does ANYONE know where I can get the bios of the stars of the skippy show? I know it's sort of self-explanatory, but it is really bugging me-Edward Devereaux {aka Matt Hammond} and his wife Irene/Rene divorced in 1986 and he married a woman named Julie {no last name} the same yearI can put 2 & 2 together enough to know that something was going on somewhere, but It's really bothering me as to who left whom and for what?
I know you all think I'm crazy, & I probably am, it's just that our daughter was murdered july 3 2003, and he died 5 months later, I just feel some sort of connection with him{yes, I know you can't understand unless you've walked in my shoes} I like to think of our daughter and him sitting at the river with all my other family that is up there in Heaven, and yes, I did have therapy when she was murdered, but you never ever get over it, or have what people call "closure"Anyway, if any of you know how I can get his complete biography, would you please let me know? -
HughBennie-777 — 13 years ago(March 12, 2013 04:04 AM)
I am very sorry for your tragedy. These are the two most detailed obits I can find, the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Associated Press:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/18/1071337092950.html?from=storyrhs
http://priusbb.blogspot.it/2012/03/nsw-skippy-actor-ed-devereaux-dies-in.html
"It looks like you could fit his future into about 6 different garbage bags." -"LHTH" -
Glen_Chapman — 13 years ago(March 07, 2013 11:55 PM)
Skippy's career sort of went down hill after the show was axed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMRIqIh2J4&list=PLEDA28472BF70C5B8 -
hankysmom57 — 12 years ago(March 09, 2014 09:01 AM)
OMG I can't believe anyone else has seen Skippy! We get a weird religious station called KTV that shows SkippyI'd never heard of it but was fascinated by how stunningly hilariously BAD it isSkippy removing audiotapes from a tape recorder was my favorite Skippystunt. My husband and I love torturing visitors with tapes of Skippya great way to get rid of company that's stayed too long! There only appear to be about 20 episodes and I have them all memorized. Love how straightlaced and cleancut everyone is especially considering the copyright dates show 1967-68. KTV adds to the wondrousness of the experience by showing it uncut, then filling the remaining 3-4 minutes of the time slot with stupefyingly bad music videos. Gotta love 60's TV!
