GTV-9
Melbourne
made its second foray into series production in 1964 with the situation comedy Barley
Charlie. GTV had achieved much expertise with local variety show production, and
having just expanded their studio facilities, decided to try a situation comedy series to
build upon the success of In Melbourne Tonight.
Barley Charlie featured Sheila Bradley and
Robina Beard as Joan and Shirley Muggleton, two sisters who inherit a run-down roadhouse/garage
from their Uncle Ted. It is situated in the fictitious locale of Frog's Hollow, located
somewhere on the Hume Highway mid-way between Sydney and Melbourne. They also inherit the
services of Charlie Appleby, a lazy, decidedly third-rate mechanic played by Eddie Hepple. Stewart
Weller played a support role as Stinger, Charlie's best mate and 'partner
in crime'.
Joan and Shirl were not happy about leaving their
city flat and glamorous lifestyle, only to come to a small country town and run a business they
have no interest in. Shirl in particular misses her city boyfriends, and Joan tries to
make the place work so they can make a profit, sell up and return to the city. The girls
are hindered by Charlie, a born loafer who wastes most of his time in the storeroom with
his beer, radio and racing form instead of using his questionable mechanical skills repairing
cars.
GTV went to great lengths to ensure Barley Charlie
would be successful. An enormous set covering 900 square feet was
constructed - it comprised a full-scale garage, mechanic’s storeroom, cafe
and kitchen, and was complete with electricity, gas and water. Care had to
be taken to ensure that the service station style did not closely identify
with any particular company's corporate image, yet it still had to look
realistic. The set was designed by Quentin Mitchell, and could be cut into
blocks for easy transportation. Hidden little doors and corners allowed
cameras to be positioned for close-ups from various angles. Mitchell often wandered around
during rehearsals adding wire, nails or other bits of rubbish to the garage and storeroom.
It was in their choice of scriptwriters that GTV
went to their greatest expense. Rather than take a chance on inexperienced Australian
writers, GTV imported English writers Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe. Chesney and Wolfe
were the creators and writers of the highly successful British series The Rag Trade,
and it was hoped they would be able to duplicate their U.K. success when they created Barley
Charlie.
In fact, Chesney and Wolfe drafted six episodes and,
having fulfilled the terms of their contract, returned to England. Australian playwright
Alan Hopgood adapted the Chesney and Wolfe scripts and wrote the remaining episodes. The
series had no title for the first month of production, even though two episodes had been
completed, and how they arrived at Barley Charlie is a complete
mystery.
Production and direction were handled by Rod
Kinnear, a GTV technician who was generally regarded as a 'whiz-kid', with a string of
successful drama plays to his credit. He was assisted by comedian Johnny Ladd, who was
GTV’s comedy producer at the time. The series began production in late December 1963,
the first two episodes being taped on January 3, 1964. 13 episodes were
commissioned, and by this time GTV had already sold
the series to New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and several regional stations.
The opening titles
consisted of an animated sequence,
accompanied by the theme tune which was an instrumental version of the traditional song 'Here Comes Santa Claus'.
The series was due to premiere in Melbourne in late
February 1964, but in order to stockpile more episodes, it was re-scheduled to debut on March
17, and eventually appeared on March 31. It was screened in a 7:30 PM Tuesday timeslot,
and in Sydney was seen at 7:00 PM on Mondays. Initial reaction was favourable - even the
critics liked it!
Rehearsals were carried out during
the week, and taping of the episode took place on Saturday. After the
Friday night edition of IMT had concluded, a crew would work during
the night moving the set from the rehearsal area to the studio, where it
would be assembled ready for Saturday's taping - complete with freshly
sprayed plastic cobwebs. On the Sunday the set would be moved back to the
rehearsal area.
The scripts often required a level
of ingenuity to find suitable props. One episode called for Joan to fall
into a 44-gallon drum of oil, and as it was thought undesirable to drop
Sheila Bradley into real oil, they used a drum of molten chocolate with a
bit of black paint mixed in to darken it down. For another episode an
American 'Thunderbird' car was needed. Arranging the loan of a car was
straightforward enough, but the script called for the car to crash into
the garage wall and damage the driver's door. A spare 'Thunderbird' door
had to be imported specially and fitted to the car for the scene.
Most contemporary reports (and all of the GTV-9
publicity) credited Barley Charlie as being the first Australian produced situation
comedy. This was not strictly correct, as Crawford Productions made a weekly
15-minute comedy series, Take That, for HSV-7 in 1957, although admittedly it was a
live-to-air programme and was only screened in Melbourne.
Barley Charlie was somewhat of a showcase for
GTV performers: - Joe McCormick, Bert Newton, Toni Lamond and Tommy Hanlon Jnr were among
the GTV-9 personalities who had guest roles in various episodes.
Barley
Charlie was an entertaining series, and although the action was
confined to the studio it nonetheless had high production values. Viewers
responded well to the show, and it achieved a rating of 31. In spite of
its success, a second series did not eventuate largely due to Eddie Hepple and Sheila Bradley not being available. The final
episode went to air on June 23, 1964, from which point most drama series
produced at GTV-9 would be packaged by outside producers, as was done with Hunter and Division 4 from Crawfords.
Eddie Hepple later had a lead role
in The Rovers as Captain Sam McGill, as well as appearing in episodes of most
Australian series of the 60's and early 70's. He also tried his hand at scriptwriting,
including some episodes of Homicide. Robina Beard became well-known for her
appearances in a long-running series of detergent commercials ("You're soaking
in it!").
BARLEY CHARLIE EPISODE DETAILS
