Australiana week : Friday - My Friend Skippy

I’m not sure which one of us kids the parents originally bought this EP for.  My guess is my brother.  But it now lives with me, hooray!  As you can see, it’s well loved, and features four Skippy-tastic tunes (one of which I hope to add in here later through the magic of mp3, but I have to play the rekkid and convert it first).  The song ‘My Pal Skippy’ sung by “Sonny Hammond” is particularly cringeworthy, but ‘Surf King’ by Eric Jupp is a fab mix of didgeridoos and twangy 60’s Shadow-esque geetars.  And we all know the theme song.

Of course you want to read the blurb on the back don’t you?

“The “Skippy” series is Australia’s outstanding contribution to world TV enteretainment.  It is showing in every continet and in a dozen languages.  In its homeland, Australia, the series appears on the nationwide Channel 9 Network.  “Skippy” is filmed in colour against the magnificant bushlands, waterways and mountains of Waratha National Park on the east coast of Austarlia.  Each episode is a complete story featuring the exciting adventures that occur from day to day in the Park, where Head Ranger Matt Hammond, Flight Ranger Jerry King, Matt’s boys Mark and Sonny (not to mention their pal Skippy), live and work among the splendours of the Australian bush with its colourful and exotic wild life.  “Skippy” was he first Australian colour TV series to be sold to the world market before full-scale production began.  The action-packed “pilot” episode along was enough to convince TV programme directors across the globe that here was a refreshingly new and different entertainment, with appeal to the whole family.”

Gotta love Skippy.

I notice there’s no mention of Clancy there, just thinking, I reckon “Clancy” is a fab name for a little girl.  I know lots of people out there collect the Skippy melamine dinner plates, mugs, etc.  Anyone out there still got theirs?