The Goodies - they did anything anywhere any time

The Goodies was a comedy series that was first broadcast on 8 November 1970 (40 years ago) on BBC2. It was also screened in Australia on the ABC, including on repeat even this year. From BBC

The Goodies was the creation of Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Having won a big audience for their children's show, Broaden Your Mind, they were let loose on a series with the simple premise that the trio were an agency offering to do "anything, anywhere, any time" - a premise they abandoned as soon as they could, leaving behind a tale of three very different men, all living in a giant office-cum-laboratory, usually either completely broke or amazingly rich, and always coming up with whacky schemes.

At its best the programme had the wit and inventiveness of a golden-era Tom and Jerry or Warner Brothers cartoon, lightly sprinkled with satire and the odd song.

Visual invention was a particular hallmark, with the team making great use of chroma-key and models for effects like Kitten Kong and the famous sequence in The Movies where attempts by each of the three to make a film (a silent, a western and a Roman epic) at the same time results in a picture that sees them flow rapidly from movie to movie, breaking through frames, busting down genres and bringing in everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Julie Andrews.

Even today, it still makes me laugh.

Here is a trip down memory lane, or in the case of those who had missed out, a taste...

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Everybody Wants to Rule the World was a worldwide hit for British group Tears for Fears in 1985. Curt Smith on vocals.



There is something comforting about this song. To me, it represents the zeitgeist of the 1980s.

Australiana

Australiana by Austen Tayshus (real name Alexander Jacob Gutman or Sandy Gutman) was a spoken-word single (in vinyl) that was a hit in the Australian music charts in 1983. The words were written by Billy Birmingham.



A hit at the time, parts of it were actually censored. Today, the puns would probably attract cringe rather than laughter. Still, it reflected the zeitgeist of Australia in the 80s.

The Phantom

Mr Walker. The Ghost Who Walks. The Man Who Cannot Die.

The Phantom commenced as a newspaper comic strip in 1936. A comic book version has been published in Australia since 1948.



The Phantom was the first comic I read as a young child as my grandfather was quite a fan. He died when I was very young, aged seven or eight, and I continued my interest in The Phantom comics as a way of remembering him.

There was a film adaptation in 1996 with Billy Zane, set in the 1930s. It was entertaining but dated. Rumours of a reboot of the film have not yet been realised.

Syfy commissioned a 'backdoor' pilot for a mini-series, which was broadcast in Canada on 20 December 2009 and United States on 20 June 2010. Though not yet broadcast in Australia (likely on Scifi channel), the DVD has been released. I enjoyed it.

The reimagined pilot advances the Phantom to the 22nd generation (in the comic book, he has been stuck as the 21st Phantom), in the 21st century with modern technology to boot.





Trailer


Additional clips


I hope the series continues. The Phantom is the most noble of all the superheroes, though technically, he isn't super as he has no special powers, but then neither has Batman.

Australian Prime Minister back at school

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been reissued his student card from university. Reported by AAP via Sydney Morning Herald

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hasn't been a student for about three decades, but he's just acquired a memento of those heady days at Canberra's Australian National University (ANU).

ANU vice-chancellor Professor Ian Chubb has presented the PM with his very own ANU student card, complete with his original student number: 1466022.

The idea was actually generated by Mr Rudd during a recent visit when he commented that he'd been back to his old campus on so many occasions - four times in the past four weeks - that he should renew his student membership.

"Prime Minister, it gives me great pleasure to give you your student card. It is your original student number but not your original student photograph," Professor Chubb told the bemused PM.

On the card, Mr Rudd is described as a part-time student. It doesn't actually entitle him to cut-price movie tickets and cheap student travel, a university official said.

Mr Rudd's honours thesis, submitted in 1980 was titled Human Rights in China: the Case of Wei Jingsheng (described in SMH in May 2008).

Actually, Mr Rudd is still entitled to borrow from the ANU Library, not that he needs to, as being prime minister, he has access to material from the Parliamentary Library.

Student cards are worthy memento. I still have mine somewhere. In those days, they were cardboard with a passport photo then laminated. There may have even been a barcode on it.

The administration of policy and the policy of administration

I still think think after many years, this scene from Yes Minister is still funny. Whether there is still an element of truth in this in today's civil service is up to you to perceive.



Betty Oldham: "Look, Sir Humphrey, whatever we ask the Minister, he says is an administrative question for you, and whatever we ask you, you say is a policy question for the Minister. How do you suggest we find out what is going on?"

Sir Humphrey: "Yes, yes, yes, I do see that there is a real dilemma here. In that, while it has been government policy to regard policy as a responsibility of Ministers and administration as a responsibility of Officials, the questions of administrative policy can cause confusion between the policy of administration and the administration of policy, especially when responsibility for the administration of the policy of administration conflicts, or overlaps with, responsibility for the policy of the administration of policy."

Betty Oldham: "Well, that is a load of meaningless drivel. Isn't it?"

Skippy

John McCallum, creator of that iconic television show Skippy has died (ABC News). Skippy was fun to watch but it brainwashed generations of children into over-estimating the intelligence of kangaroos and wallabies.





Skippy probably delayed acceptance of kangaroo as food, despite being hunted by indigenous Australians for many millenia. There were around 25 million kangaroos a few years ago, which are possibly increasing to 60 million depending on rainfall in different habitats.

Kangaroo meat is very very lean and rich in iron but best not overcooked. Unfortunately, it smells very strong and gamey when being cooked, so best to barbecue outdoors.

Sesame Street classics

Sesame Street was first broadcast on 10 November 1969. In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Google has been featuring characters.



My favourite monster was always Grover. Grover first appeared in 1970. He was always a hopeless waiter, frustrating Mr Johnson.





Clumsy, naive, misunderstood - there's a little bit of Grover in all of us, some moreso than others.

$25 - 40 million dollar man

The Six Million Dollar Man was Steve Austin, an astronaut, barely alive, who was rebuilt with bionics to be faster and stronger. It was a TV show from 1974.

He was called the Six Million Dollar Man, a very lame title these days, as that was apparently how much was spent on his bionics.

$6 million dollars today would probably only pay for one arm these days in the fictional sense.

Based on relative purchasing power at that time, today he would need about $25 million dollars spent on him using the same technology.

Obviously technological advances since 1974 and cost savings in manufacturing probably mean that, yes he probably would cost something in the order of $25 to $40 million dollars today.



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After yesterday's action packed day, I did nothing today.