Number 96 (TV series)

Number 96 was notable for breaking new ground and introducing controversial and taboo subject matter to Australian television, at the time not seen anywhere in the world, including the United Kingdom or United States. The launch of the series was heavily promoted in media with full-page newspaper advertisements in a daily countdown to the launch lamponing "Tonight, Australian television loses its virginity". A launch party was also held with cast and crew with media personnel in attendance. The show was produced by Cash Harmon Television and was conceived by David Sale, a British novelist and former EP of The Mavis Bramston Show, who also was a screenwriter on the series. Number 96 became one of the most popular Australian drama television series of all time, but due to its racy subject matter, it was not picked up by many international markets. It was the first soap opera to screen in prime time five nights a week, and later became the first Australian TV series to inspire a brief US remake. Number 96 became infamous for its groundbreaking depictions of controversial and taboo subjects of the time, exploring issues such as homosexuality, abortion, rape, interracial romance, drug usage, pregnancy in later life, and transgenderism, but also included an array of comedy characters with their own catchphrases, in a nod to vaudeville. The highest rated episode was the one in which it was revealed that Lucy Sutcliffe's (portrayed by Elisabeth Kirkby) lump in her breast was benign. ==Multicultural milestones==

British cast and characters Number 96 was based during an era of mass (white) immigration to Australia, primarily from the UK and Europe, and as befitting its inner-city location, presented a much more multicultural view of suburbia. Popular British-born actors included future Neighbours star Tom Oliver as Jack Sellers and original cast member and the series' sex symbol Abigail as Bev Houghton. One of the most popular original characters was played by English comedy performer Johnny Lockwood, who played bumbling Hungarian Jewish deli owner Aldo Godulfus. Lockwood was most known as a variety entertainer, and although Aldo was conceived as a comedy character, it was Lockwood's first major dramatic role in a soap opera. British actors portraying British characters included originals Elisabeth Kirkby and James Elliot, who played Lucy and Alf Sutcliffe, who hailed from Lancashire. Series writer David Sale stated he based the characters on his own parents from England, and even named Lucy after his own mum, but whereas his own parents had emigrated to Australia and loved the country, he depicted Alf as the archetypal whinging pom who longed to go back to his native England. Actor Joe James was another English-born actor who joined as Dr. Gordon Vansard, who worked at the chemist with his sister, later revealed to be his wife Sonia (played by Lynn Rainbow Carol Raye played Don Finlayson's aunt Amanda von Papenburg who was a British Baroness who resided in Germany and arrived to visit Don on several occasions. In later years and having previously played Les Whittaker, Scottish-born Gordon McDougall returned to the series playing the role of Les's Scottish aristocrat brother Lord Andrew McCraddenow. Les's wife was played by English-born Sheila Kennelly, however she played the barmaid Norma as an Australian, evidensed by her famous "G'day Ducky" catchphrase. European and other cast Fashion designer Vera Collins hailed from South Africa; coincidentally enough, her portrayer Elaine Lee was also born in South Africa. Bettina Welch was born in New Zealand and Arinanthe Galani was also born in New Zealand of Greek descent, but played fiery Italian Maria Panucci. Her Italian nephew who worked in the deli was portrayed by Harry Michaels, also of Greek Descent. Australian actress Philippa Baker played Russian-born deli assistant Roma Lubinski, who was soon to be Aldo's wife. Shorter-term characters included German-born Josephine Knur as waitress Lorelei Wilkinson and Karen Petersen as Italian jewel thief Christine Vettare. African American characters included dancer Ronne Arnold as Chad Farrell and comedienne Chelsea Brown as Hope Jackson,. Aboriginal hairdresser Rhonda Jackson was played by Justine Saunders, and there was an Indian medic Dr. Bannerjee. ==LGBTQ milestones and TV world firsts==

Number 96 was the first television program anywhere in the world to feature a full diverse range of LGBTQ characters as regulars, and show a same-sex kiss between two men. Many historians and scholars are unaware of this, because the show's controversial content meant it was unable to be screened outside of Australia. Hasham's Finlayson gained a cult following and been acknowledged as doing much for gay-lib. Don was depicted as being dependable, sincere and kind, yet he was not effeminate and came across as straight acting, though he had no hang-ups about being gay. Don would have several gay relationships in the series (and a few one-night stands) and never had relationships with women. The first regular gay character in the US occurred several months after Number 96 in 1972. Actor Vincent Schiavelli played Peter Panama in sitcom The Corner Bar, but he was short-lived and however unlike Number 96′s Joe Hasham his portrayal did not prove popular with viewers and he only appeared for the first season, with then-president of the New York-based Gay Activists Alliance calling it "the worst stereotype of a gay person I've ever seen". Number 96 would also feature numerous firsts, however usually featuring shorter term cast in varying story-arcs, for example notable theatre star Toni Lamond, played Karen Winters, who was TV's first ever lesbian character. She was shown fondling and kissing the virginal Bev (played by series regular Abigail) whilst she was sleeping under the effect of sleeping pills. Karen was later revealed to be a devil worshipper who wanted to sacrifice Bev to the devil during a Black Mass, a story-arc that was heavily censored. ==Broadcasting and production==

Bill Harmon and Don Cash had previously worked in New York at NBC, and became a partnership after arriving in Australia and producing adventure series The Rovers and a couple of unsuccessful films. The move, however, attracted just three complaints, despite being screened on free to air TV at 8:30 pm. Other bedroom farce sequences featured male and female nudity. A scene where Jane Chester becomes a prostitute and is asked to whip her male client, new Number 96 resident Toby Buxton (Malcolm Thompson), featured a brief glimpse of his full frontal male nudity. Another world first in its dying months was the first use of a four letter word in a TV drama, when Grant Chandler asked if anyone found the word "shit" offensive. These changes were made to combat falling viewing figures, but it didn't work and in April 1977 the series was cancelled due to declining ratings. Joe Hasham, Pat McDonald and Ron Shand were the only original cast members to remain to the final episode. , Dina Mann, Sheila Kennelly, Frances Hargreaves, and Pat McDonald, who was immensely popular as malapropping gossip Dorrie Evans. ==Cast==

Main / regular Other Numerous stars wanted to appear in roles, even horse racing trainer Gai Waterhouse, who unsuccessfully auditioned after completing a drama course in England. Also suggested was a young Bryan Brown (although having been in England, he had acquired a British accent, and was considered unsuitable by producer Bill Harmon, even though he hailed from Parramatta). Visit by nobility The Duke and Duchess of Bedford visited the set and appeared in a cameo in the series, in a storyline in which they come to visit Baroness Amanda Ashton / von Pappenburg (played by Carol Raye). ==Series background==

as Maggie Cameron The series became famous for every episode ending in a cliffhanger and it was the first to do a summer cliffhanger, where the cliffhangers would be ramped up with every character in peril over the six-week break the show took for the summer hiatus. In 1972, it was the car crash of Gordon (Joe James) and in 1973, Bev (Victoria Raymond) was shot. In 1974, Patti (Pamela Garrick) was the shock second victim of the Pantyhose Strangler, but in 1975, instead of a death, it was the mysterious resurrection of Jaja (Anya Saleky) who was thought to be dead. For its last summer cliffhanger, a drunk Herb (Ron Shand) was seen leaving Sydney on a train with a mystery blonde out to rob him. During 1974, the series shifted its emphasis from sexual situations and drama to focus more on comedy. After the introduction of colour TV in 1975, ratings went into decline as its audience began switching over to bigger budget American shows (that year the show was only the third highest-rated show of the year, behind The Six Million Dollar Man and repeats of Bewitched). A bold new storyline was devised to revitalise the series and in an unprecedented move, 40 complete scripts were discarded and rewritten. The Number 96 set was sealed off to non-essential personnel with a new storyline involving a mysterious figure planting bombs, with several false alarms. The dramatic storyline was intended to draw back viewers and to provide a mechanism to quickly write out several existing characters in a bid to freshen up the cast of characters and revamp the storylines. On the episode aired Friday 5 September 1975, a planted bomb exploded in the delicatessen, destroying it and the adjacent wine bar, which was crowded with customers. The sequence was filmed on a Saturday because the studio was empty, and real gelignite was used, resulting in the studio doors being blown off their hinges. The makers of the show made a bold move, killing off several long-running cast favourites, which were revealed on the front page of newspapers on Monday 8 September 1975. They included Les (Gordon McDougall), Aldo and Roma Godolfus (Johnny Lockwood and Philippa Baker), and then revealing scheming Maggie Cameron (Bettina Welch) as the bomber and sending her off to prison. Maggie wanted to scare residents into moving so she could sell the building. Despite massive publicity, the bomb-blast storyline resulted in only a temporary boost to the program's ratings, but it did provide material for future storylines, particularly with the trial of Maggie Cameron. In October, Lucy and Alf Sutcliffe (played by original cast members Elisabeth Kirkby and James Elliott) were also written out of the series. New younger characters were added to the show, most of whom didn't last out the series. Two that did were teenage sisters Debbie and Jane Chester (Dina Mann and Suzanne Church). They became orphans when their parents were killed by a shark, in an obvious nod to the film Jaws. Other enduring characters among the high cast turnover of the later period were new blonde sex symbol Jaja Gibson (Anya Saleky), and Giovanni Lenzi (Harry Michaels), an exuberant Italian who worked in the deli. 1976 saw another whodunnit storyline with the Hooded Rapist, and there was now an increase in location shooting, including Moncur Street, Woollahra (outside the building used in the credits), local parks, Chinatown, and Luna Park. Series format The first episode began with an exterior shot of the building with moving vans being unloaded while Herb and Dorrie are heard having an argument. Each subsequent episode began with an exterior shot of the building while audio from the previous episode's final scene could be heard. The shot would zoom in on the apartment in which that scene occurred, or remain unchanged, as the show's title was displayed. The vision would then switch to the scene in question as a recap of the previous episode's cliffhanger. The series was broadcast as five half-hour episodes each week for its first four years. From the beginning of 1976 episodes were broadcast as two one-hour episodes each week in most areas. However, from an internal perspective episodes continued to be written and compiled in half-hour instalments. Film adaptation Number 96 was adapted into a feature film in 1974 and titled Number 96. The feature film opened with Vera being gang-raped by bikies just before the opening titles. When asked why he chose to start the movie like this, (David Sale) quipped "I wanted people to know they were in the right cinema." One of the film's major drawcards was being a full-colour production, unlike the series which was still broadcasting in monochrome. It had the same creative team and mostly the same cast as the series. Although it received mostly negative reviews, audiences lined up George Street to gain a seat on opening day. It earned nearly A$2.8 million on a A$100,000 budget, and was the most profitable Australian movie ever made at that time. It became the 5th highest grossing Australian movie of the 1970s. Film critics, unfamiliar with the TV series, were amazed that each character received a round of applause from the audience when they made their first appearance. Final night The final episode ended with a reunion curtain call of popular cast members past and present. A week after the airing of the final episode in Sydney, a televised public auction of props and costumes from the series was held in the grounds of Channel Ten. ==Cultural impact and reception==

Number 96 was rated number 9 in the 2005 television special 50 Years 50 Shows, which counted down Australia's greatest television programs. McKenzie Wark wrote in Celebrities, Culture and Cyberspace (published by Pluto Press, 1999): "Once, when I was a kid, I was walking down a suburban street at night, when I noticed a rhythmic flickering of light from inside the houses. Though screened from view by the drawn curtains, the lights from a row of separate houses were all pulsing in time, and then I heard the music and I knew everyone was watching the same show ... Number 96." Awards In addition to the four Logies won by cast member Pat McDonald during her run with the show, Number 96 won both the "Raw Prawn" award in 1976 for Worst Drama, and "Best Drama" Logies in 1974, 1975, and 1976. Actor Bunney Brooke won the "Best Actress" Logie Award for her work as Flo in 1975. The series cast became stars in Australia and had their own Number 96 passenger train, specially designed for cast and crew travel, which for the show's first few years they would take the train from Sydney to Melbourne for the annual TV Week Logie Awards in a silver multicarriaged train with the commissioner's carriage hooked up at the rear for VIPs. This train was specially organised by publicity director Tom Greer. The 16-hour overnight journey left from the centre of Sydney at 4:30 pm with a farewell party, complete with red carpet and jazz band in attendance; it featured whistle stops at country sidings and saw thousands of people turn out to see their favourite stars, before it arrived at Spencer Street station. These whistle stops were all beamed back by television stations and went live to air. The rail service of the time was keen to promote its overnight tourism packages, and for the journey, the train was christened as the Spirit of 96. imprint by Angus & Robertson. Some of these were credited to "Marina Campbell", a pseudonym of Anne Harrax. An original novel, 96 (Cover title: Number 96), was published by Stag in 1976. In 1975, the Number 96 Cookbook was released in Australia by publisher Pacific Magazines (Family Circle)]; it featured photographs and recipes from eight members of the cast. The series celebrated 1,000 episodes in 1976 with a compilation special, ''Number 96: And They Said It Wouldn't Last'', which reviewed the show's most famous story lines and recounted the exploits of its departed main characters. ''And They Said It Wouldn't Last'' was repeated at the start of 1977 with a new ending presented by Dina Mann. It is featured on the first DVD release, along with a new documentary that covered the show's final 200 episodes. International screenings Cast members were amazed to learn the show briefly screened overseas. Cast member Bettina Welch reported seeing it dubbed in Italy, but this was never confirmed. Despite a short late-night run in Toronto, Canada, on edgy network Citytv, the content was too explicit for any US and UK television network. An attempt to sell the show at Cannes TV Festival in 1975 by using a topless model backfired when British newspaper Daily Mirror reported it got "a swift 'No Entry' sign" from their broadcasters the BBC and ATV." American version In 1980, a short-lived US remake of the same name on NBC retained the comedy, but toned down the sexual elements of the series. The series was launched over three consecutive nights, from 10 to 12 December. US television and TV Guide promotions for the series used advertising hyperbole, suggesting that the series had been "banned in Australia". The nudity and racy content of the original series were not present in the remake; it probably would not have been allowed in the US due to censorship standards there, so the US version only hinted at the sexual content that had been on display in the original. The US version of Number 96 was quickly cancelled due to low ratings. The US show was finally aired in parts of Australia in 1986. ==Episodes==

From 4 February 1980, TEN-10 in Sydney commenced repeating the series at midnight Mondays through Thursdays, starting from episode 585, the first episode fully produced in colour. In 1994, Network Ten repeated the 1976 special ''And They Said It Wouldn't Last'' with a new introduction by Abigail. In November 1996, Network Ten screened a re-run of Number 96: The Movie. Though the complete run of colour episodes (585–1218) survive, the National Film and Sound Archive retains only 19 of the first 584 black-and-white episodes. The rest were lost when the show switched to colour, with the master tapes wiped by the network for re-use, or made into a "foyer display". The first three weeks (episodes 1–15), episodes 31–35 and two episodes from the 1974 black and white series (episodes 450 and 534) survive. With the exception of episodes 11, 12, 14, 15 and 534, all available black-and-white episodes have been released on DVD, along with Number 96: The Movie and the 1974 and 1975 episodes 649–712, 832–847. As of March 2022, 96 of 1218 episodes have been released in some form, with 560 episodes presumed lost. Home media ==DVD Collections==

Number 96: The Collectors Edition was released in a 2-disc set on Region 4 on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment. The 2-disc includes the full 1974 feature film version. Umbrella subsequently released three volumes of episodes across 4 discs each. Number 96: The Movie was also included the compilation Ozploitation: Volume 4 with five other Australian exploitation films. ==Streaming media==

Number 96 to be broadcast on streaming media, recognising its place in the history of Australian television. On 22 April 2025, it was announced that the series will be broadcast on Umbrella Entertainment's ad-supported streaming platform Brollie. All 35 surviving black and white episodes were available from 16 May 2025, with a special bridging episode explaining the major storylines to bring viewers up to date with the second half of the show, with five colour episodes to be dropped each Friday night from 30 May. Monday March 2, 2026 sees the return of the Number 96 TV series to Australian TV screens through Aussie Classics channel 414 on Binge and Foxtel. Series continues weekdays 2pm and weeknights replayed from 10pm. ==Streaming online==