Those were the days in the 80's when you'd get home from school, switch on the TV and watch re-runs of Skippy then The Six Million Dollar Man back to back.
I had my 9th birthday party at the Warratah National park set in 1967. I had an aunt who worked for Leo Burnett Advertising and she made it possible. It was at that point, a year before it televised locally so we really had no idea of what was going on except they were making a TV show, in colour! That was the really big news.
The boys name is Sonny and his Dad is the head park ranger Matt Hammond, of course the handsome helichopper pilot Jerry 😊. I worked in the Disability sector, and I was working with a 63 year old client who might have been having some behaviour issues, but as soon as I put the skippy theme song on, she would immediately calm down and sing the words in her own way, and tap her thigh in contentment and joy to the song. It was amazing to see. 😊❤.
Hi Aunty Lee! I just commented how dad introduced us kids to Skippy when we were little… sorta like Little House on the Prairie 😊 I wasn’t expecting to see a comment in here from you too! Love you!! Xx
Skippy was a great show, we had thieves, animal poachers, fights on parade floats Clancy being kidnapped in a cave and everyone doing their own stunts. Including jumping from a helicopter into a moving speedboat. Lot's of action and quite intense for a afternoon kids tv show, but we all loved it...
I recall one episode where Skippy drove the speedboat after something happened to Sonny and Mark Hammond (both knocked out I think) and it may not be right but I do recall Skippy Flying the Helicopter as well. We use to play a game on drives called Matt Hammond - if you spotted a Ford Fairmont Wagon and called it out first you got 2 points - 1 point for the sedan. - Very Doubtful to see any of these cars nowadays. I recently watched the swagman episode - Miles Vincent Archer being mega rich and famous for his exploits leaves that life behind to live as a swagman or hobo as they would call them in the US. An old tramp, Trundle, looking for odd jobs, fascinates Sonny with tales of adventure. However, Matt Hammond believes the stories are figments of Trundle's imagination and considers it a bad association for Sonny. Trouble begins when the old swagman gives Sonny an expensive antique watch as a parting gift. Matt discovers the gift, asks the police to trace the owner - and discovers the Swagman's secret. Trundle turns out to be Miles Vincent Archer, the wealthy chairman of a vast corporation. Not the full episode The Swagman-S1 EO12 th-cam.com/video/qcj-QllGfFA/w-d-xo.html
Now you're getting back to my childhood. If anyone's interested, the park headquarters was at this location: 33° 40' 35.09" S 151° 10' 36.95" E (you can paste that straight into Google Maps).
Sad part is it was left to decay & volunteers stepped in to restore it as a museum. Not sure how far they went - Friends Of Skippy was the group's name.
Yep Skippy was on TV when I was a kid it was probably a bit like our version of Flipper....there were a lot of different Skippys used during the filming of the series. Every kid knew the words to the Skippy theme song and how to make that clicking sound..also blowing on a eucalyptus leaf to get it to whistle was an art. .Kangaroos dont actually talk like that but who cares they did then..
The Skippy theme song is iconic in Australia 😊 I watched Skippy re-runs as a kid in the mid to late 70s. I never realised how hot the Dad was 😂😂 The kid, Sonny, and his co-stars spoke a more posh version of Aussie English than most people in real life - and certainly more posh than the way we speak today.
Look, the "posh" speech was Australian English in the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s. I was told by my teachers (Catholic schools) to aim to talk like "an ABC News presenter". I have dutifully done so, but the ABC News presenters and everybody else DON'T speak like that any more - I'm constantly asked (in my 60s) where I England I came from... Skippy was great, and iconic of times past...
Hi Ryan ,from Sydney, Australia, I'm now 67 yrs old, I was still in primary school when this TV series launched in '66. This was a quality program with realistic scenarios all with a moral to every show & filmed in color within the HUGE Kuring-gai National Park in behind Sydney's glorious northern beaches. It also flanks the entrance of Hawkesbury-Nepean River system. Plus Sonny, (the boy) and his dad the chief park ranger's house, the garages, heli-pad in the show are all still in existence built on land on the literal other side of the fence around the park adding also to the show's authenticity. The rangers house/cars were mere 2 miles from the road entrance to the National Park & every show was filmed on location adding to the feel/quality of the show. The show looked even better when color TV launched 6 years later in 1972, I remember my little sister re-watching every show when in repeat mode, as it was played as an after-school program around 4.30 pm, when new it was shown in family prime slots in the evening it as a new show was just as keenly watched/viewed by adults of all ages, Gary Pankhurst (sonny) is my age , if alive he would be like 67 yrs old in 2023.
Lots of good memories hearing the theme song coming onto to tv and me racing in front of the tv to watch it. The father wasn’t a police officer, he was a park ranger. The boy starts the theme by blowing onto the side of a eucalyptus leaf.
Skippy was very popular around the world, and had a huge following in Japan. It was broadcast in 128 countries, and in the US was normally broadcast in weekend kids programing. It was a rare Western TV program allowed to be shown in the Soviet Union. It would be weird to hear the Australian characters dubbed into Russian, but that was one of dozens of languages the series was broadcast in. The TV show is the reason that Skippy is the default name for a kangaroo around the world. Reruns are still broadcast in several countries, and in Australia it is currently seen on 9Gem at 6:30am. It has had an amazingly long run for a kids show made between 1968 and 1970.
Loved this show as a kid. We are actually raising a Joey (agile wallaby), with the help of a vet nurse, at the moment. She’s about 4months old. Her mum was hit by a car and a passer by (a friend of ours) checked the corpse and found the Joey. We have had her for 2 months and she is growing so well. She now has fur and has doubled her weight. She is so funny.
That is great. I always check Roos who have been hit by cars. I have found 4 babies but sadly they were dead or too small to survive. I have a care box in the boot of my car with gloves and towels and a pillow case just in case I find a Joey.
The time they had Skippy run away and become a stripper was a classic. Can't say what Skippy did with a guy's pair of spectacles while she was dancing, but think 'marsupial'.
I nursed the guy that wrote Skippy. It was in aged care, so it was for a few years. The stories of how they laughed at the corny jokes and had so much fun writing it.
I grew up watching reruns of Skippy and funnily enough i grew up in the country and spent many hours happily playing in the scrub ( bush) and whenever i visited my grandparents etc ( spent a lot of time there) I would play just as hard in the scrub with our pet kangaroo ( also called Skippy) getting up to all sorts of adventures, then come in the house in the afternoon to watch Skippy.
Skippy aired around the time the American Flipper was on tv. My older brother had a Joey when we were kids in the late 1950’s. It’s mother had died and our Aunty sent it by air freight from Western Australia to us in Melbourne. After some time the Joey escaped the confines of our back yard and ended up in the Melbourne Zoo. Every time we visited the zoo it would only come to the front of the enclosure when my brother called it.
Skippy was our Lassie. I loved it when I was a little ankle biter. It was re-run often through the 70s and when I was growing up in the 80s. I can remember pretending to be the helicopter pilot in creche (pre-kinder daycare).
I'm OG enough to remember watching Skippy! "Skippy a friend ever true" was the line that you missed. Sonnny's Dad was a park ranger and they lived in a National Park.
Think of Skippy as being the Aussie equivalent of such US TV shows as Lassie, Gentle Ben and Fllpper - all of those were around in the same general era. Yeah, the series was done in color, although it'd be a while before Australia went in for color TV. Most of it was filmed in the Ku-Ring-Gai National park in Sydney's north, and a number of well-known TV Aussie actors of that time made an appearance in the show at one time or another. Actually, the Waratah Park Ranger Station, the centre of the show, is still there as a tourist spot.
@@robertwynne6451 Blame the spell-checker which, despite my best efforts, insists on American spelling for a number of things. and sometimes will not even allow posts unless things are "corrected".
I loved Skippy when I was a kid. Watched it all the time. Hearing that gum leaf whistle just brings back memories. I remember trying many times to whistle with a gum leaf and found it to be quite difficult to do. Also a pair of electrodes on the balls was the standard way to get animals to perform in those days.
That is so true, Ryan. TV shows were always talked about at school and work the next day after being broadcast the night before. Because we didn't have six million channels to choose from, everyone tended to watch the same things on the few channels we did have, so TV shows became topics of conversation. We would all talk about the characters and the stories in all the soap operas, sitcoms and the various kinds of dramas and if you missed an episode, someone would fill you in on all the details. Now with live streaming at your fingertips you can watch and re-watch a zillion movies on your smart phone but something is missing...oh yes, talking to other people...that's it.
I love Skippy. I used to watch it on TV when I was a child. I was born in the 70's. I have a DVD box set of it now. I played it when my nephews came over. The people in the brown uniforms were National Park Officers. They looked after the National Park. That boy whistling with the leaf was named Sonny, pronounced Sunny.
Nostalgia overload! I watched this in black and white because our family didn't get a colour tv until the late 70's. As kids we'd try to whistle like Sonny - fold a young gum leaf lengthwise, pierce it near the centre with your thumbnail, blow as hard as you can without causing it to rip - but we couldn't whistle very loud. Much later we'd find out both Sonny's whistle and Skippy's tch tch tch were made up television things. So disillusioned! My parents had audio of me reading out loud as a kid. I spoke with that same faintly British accent until I deliberately flattened my vowels and dropped my g's during my rebellious teens.
Still shown here in the very early hours of morning TV. I was a shift worker & watched it again as I dressed in my uniform - often drinking my first coffee before going off to save the world. Ken James (Mark) & Tony Bonner (Jerry) are still involved in media. Lisa Goddard (Clancy) returned to the UK & Matt Hammond (Ed Devereaux has since passed away & did a few bit parts in the 70's. Ken James was known for presenting a cooking show.
Thank you so much for posting this Ryan! It has brought back so many wonderful memories. I remember learning to whistle through a gum tree from watching Skippy when I was a kid. I hope you realise that when you played the intro, you had hundreds of Aussies singing away to "Skippy" whilst tapping their feet and chair jiving along. Hahahaha. That image alone brings a massive smile to my dial!
As a kid growing up in the 70’s my siblings and I loved this show. We spent many any hour practicing our eucalyptus leaf whistle, not ever quite as good as Sonny. I loved Ryan’s head bopping to the theme song smiling away. I was too. Still love the whip bird noise in the beginning.
I'm 69 years old. I just stumbled upon this interesting video. I've never heard of Skippy the Kangaroo. In 1968 I was 13 and living on an Air Force Base in Japan. I didn't watch much tv because 99% was in Japanese. The 60's were a great time to be a teenager. It looks like it was a very popular show.......similar to Timmy and Lassie and their many adventures. I love the British and Australian accents Thanks for sharing........Lee in California 🇺🇲 10,000 views in 2 days!!!
Hey Ryan you sure hit the nostalgia button here in Oz, man of us who grew up with black and white Skippy on the TV has a pet kangaroo named skippy, and watched every episode! As well as Flipper, Gentle Ben and Lassie of course. Great memories!
Skippy wasn't only big (pun intended) in Oz, it was popular with children in Canada, and the UK too. Even when my oldest two were kids in the early 80s, reruns of Skippy were a must-see for them, even in E Africa. Now, my youngesr grandsons in Queensland watch re-re-reruns! A true never ending story.
It's pretty much 100% guaranteed that every Aussie watching this was singing along with the Skippy Theme. The banjo is the sound I hear when I see a kangaroo jumping! Skippy was our Lassie, (although we had her too).
My wife and I would watch the show early evening time slot and enjoy it for what it was. We had a B&W TV as the colour ones didn’t arrive until about early 1970s . Then too expensive for us. As a 13 year old in the suburbs of Brisbane QLD Australia we had a young female Red Kangaroo, goes by the title of a Blue Flyer, as a pet. Hand reared and quite a tame pet.
I wasn't born when this originally aired but it's been rerun for decades. As late as 2013. Massive nostalgia hit for me. I'd be interested to see what the current generation would make of it.
Skippy came up a few years ago. My son was home and a few mates. They were about 20. My sister in law was there. My SIL and I were what's that Skip. Than what happened. Really Skip? My SIL was making Skippy sound. I was asking the questions. The kids were what are you on about. Looked at us like we were crack heads. Lol
I’m a 64 year old Aussie lady . We all just loved loved loved Skippy when we were kids . I was 8 years old in 1968 . We had a Tupperware Skippy plate too . My brother and I fought over turns to use it ! Clancy (the girl that was staying with them )was English but we embraced her too . She was interviewed the last few years and had fond memories of the show but she said that all the women were pushed into wearing short skirts all the time😐 Ps I thought Frank Thring was the ultimate villain on the show !
I'm an Aussie who lives near an estuary where the river meets the sea and dolphins do come into the river and play! :) And yes - I am old enough to have watched Skippy on tv after school. (Also used to eat Skippy peanut butter when in Indonesia - cost a fortune as imported from US!)
"The barn is on fire" Yes, Skippy had the same scene (multiple times) "What's that, Skip? The vicar fell down the well?" "What's that, Skip? Mrs Marsh is trapped by a landslide?" "What's that, Skip? There's a bushfire along the south ridge?"
Skippy was shown in over 100 countries around the world and was extremely popular so Ryan you may want to ask your parents if they watched the episodes in the US as children Pretty sure they may have 😀
I was born in 1966. Skippy was a whole family show with us kids and mum and dad and the repeats ran for years. Dad was a bushman and farmer. Dad would roll his eyes and Tsk at how ridiculous it was with skippy essentially being a ‘mcgyver’ solving crimes but you could tell he loved it. The only time we could get away with ‘shooshing’ dad for making noise during ‘our show’. There are a couple of tree leaf types that as kids we would practice with to make loud sounds to call to each other. None ever sounded like that whistle though 😂 Great memories
In about 1957 when tv first came to Aussie, my uncle would arrive in his flat back ute and load myself (3yrs), my siblings and other neighbourhood kids on the back and drive down the road to park in front of the corner shop which had the only tv (b&w)around, set up in the window. We loved it. The pay off for the shop owner was the drinks (6pence) and chips (3pence) that were bought for us. Can you imagine today a flat back ute with 10 kids on board driving down the street, lol. We weren't molly cuddled! Totally different and better world in my opinion.
That was HUGE. Skippys Dad was the ranger of the park, skippy lived freely in the park but was sort like a pet too and even went on a lead in some episodes. So much in our culture refers to Skippy.
I love the comedy show takes on skippy, they were fun as. I saw this in the 80s as a kid it was corny as anything but still good. I reckon everyone knows skippy lol. Next show to check out is,, Round the twist. 👍🙂
I loved skippy I'm 46 and remember watching what I think were reruns of this show throughout my childhood BTW Skippy was actually a wallaby (I'm pretty sure)
According to Wikipedia the series sold around the world, reportedly shown in 128 countries. It is still being shown in some countries, some 51 years after it was made.
G'day Ryan, mate I'm 66 year young and l watched Skippy when it came out in 1968 only in black and white as colour tv wasn't available untill 1972, l live in Northern Victoria and we only had 2 channels and TV started at 3 pm in the afternoon untill 10 pm, yes times were much better back then, cheers, Neil 🤠.
While the television at the time was monochrome, I wouldn't be surprised to find that it was recorded on film stock, thus colour. Many years ago, I heard about a show prop auction, and one of the items was Skippy's paws, those used for operating radios, helicopters, cars, and saluting as just seen. But this was the show I watched in my youth.
Skippy was filmed in colour. Colour television was switched on in Australia on the 1st of March 1975. Colour on Australian televisions looked better to the eye than that on US televisions. Australia adopted the PAL standard for broadcasting and the US chose NTSC. PAL (Phase Alternating Line) manages colour automatically and NTSC (National Television Standard Committee) receivers have manual tint colour correction and needed manual adjustments. We technicians called NTSC Not The Same Colour and PAL Perfect At Last.
I was a young kid back then and skippy was a show not to be missed. I’m watching reruns at the moment on Saturday mornings at 5.30am before I go to work 😂😂
I was born in the 70’s and as soon as I saw the notification for this I time travelled right back to my childhood and began singing “Skippyyyyyyyy, Skippyyyyyyy” 😂
That whistle Sonny does is what our family does when we need to find each other in a crowd, works great...heads pop up and we find each other every time 😂
You need to do the whole episode, you can break it up into three parts so you don't get copyright. Make sure its from 60s to 70s cause its nothing like it. There is also Blinkey Bill as well. And yes that's how we really were and that is how a lot of Australians still are. Its wholesome that is why it is still beautiful.
I loved this show when I was a kid. The kid's characters name was Sonny. It was always a joke - "What's that Skip? - you want me to come down to the where ever..." My cousin and I would try to do the leaf whistle and never could.
When I was a kid my grandfather bought us our first colour TV. He was sick of coming up to baby sit me and have to watch the football (Rugby League) in black and white. I remember being very annoyed because while they set it up I missed the end of the episode of Skippy I was watching.
It was filmed in color because it was shown around the world. It was very popular in the UK and Europe. This was 6 years before Australia had color TV.
I was born 1964 and i saw Skippy a lot when i was a child. But at that time there were also quite a lot other tv show with animals very popular like "Flipper" (a dolphin), Daktari (about a bush doctor with Judy the chimp and Clarence the cross-eyed lion). Then there was also a Tarzan TV show with of course a lot animal involved ..
Yes I watched this every afternoon in 1968 as a 10 year old. Waratah Park (skippy's home) on Sydney's north shore was a tourist attraction & picnic ground until it's closure in 2006
Thanks Ryan now I have the theme song stuck in my head 😂😂 oh the memories as a kids watching this on tv. Use to be able to do the whistle but can’t now. Oh and I love that you can hear the whip bird in background in the senses with sonny and skippy,such an iconic Australian sound in our bush. 🧐🙃🇦🇺
They used to rip though different Skippys on a regular basis. A shot of "Skippy" hoping down the road.... animal handler reaches into Potatoe sack, grabs another roo and gets it hopping down the road. Also a lot of Greek/Aussies used to refer to any person that was born in Australia as "Skips".
You caused a lump in my throat when you said "what a different time to be alive - a peaceful time, I think." Yes, I was there, and I 'do' miss it. And it 'was' good - in its own special way. I think American's might have had it too - in the fifties maybe.
I loved Skippy as a kid. It wasn’t until I was an adult when I saw a kangaroo paw bottle opener that I realised how Skippy “shook hands”. 😂 Also, the sexual tension between Clancy and Jerry the helicopter pilot was electric.
love your content bro, Scottish bloke immigrated to Australia in 1990. I worked in a Melbourne actors bar for 5 years and came across most of our legends of TV many times over. One very misty late summers night, a man entered the club and ordered a hot chocolate and a piece of cake. I seen his man child esque figure and his obvious child actor mentions, the most humble dude ever. It was Ken, the brother of the child featured here as cast in the show. Looking old and weathered but still trying to keep it together and remind people of who he was. Beautiful night of wine and reminiscing, followed by deep chats about what the meaning of it all is. GOod memories.
Australian actor Jack Thompson got one of his first roles on Skippy. Apparently, he played a photographer on one episode. It may have actually been his very first role.
Im old enough to remember this Ryan...lol! Altho I didnt get to see a lot, as I was 19 in 68, and just getting married....I remember it well tho....Your son would love that intro...Iconic like Lassie you mean!..Another iconic show we had in Australia, along with Flipper...
I was born in the early 80's and apparently I used to run to the tv when the theme song was played as a toddler. It took me a long time to try kangaroo meat as a result. I vaguely remember a reboot of some sort in the 90s as I remember watching that too.
I am 80 and my kids and I used to watch Skippy religiously. The theme song kind of gets into your head. lol.
I love that you are 80 and use lol in your posts.
I grew up on Skippy and now I'm never going to get that song out of my head. Thanks, Ryan.
😂 ha ha..know what you mean
Those were the days in the 80's when you'd get home from school, switch on the TV and watch re-runs of Skippy then The Six Million Dollar Man back to back.
80s? Try 60s 70s even better😂
Skippy could play the piano long before any TH-cam cat.
😂, yes 👍
😂 Skippy could do anything lol
Was handy with a screwdriver too 😅
I think even in one episode Skip flew the helicopter when Tony Bonner passed out from sun stroke 🤔
Absolute legend.
He could drive a ute, and a helicopter
Skippy is like Australia's answer to flipper or lassie in America.
or the littlest hobo in canada
Australia had Lassie and Flipper too!
@@Footballeditz-442 I know I'm Australian
I had my 9th birthday party at the Warratah National park set in 1967. I had an aunt who worked for Leo Burnett Advertising and she made it possible. It was at that point, a year before it televised locally so we really had no idea of what was going on except they were making a TV show, in colour! That was the really big news.
The boys name is Sonny and his Dad is the head park ranger Matt Hammond, of course the handsome helichopper pilot Jerry 😊. I worked in the Disability sector, and I was working with a 63 year old client who might have been having some behaviour issues, but as soon as I put the skippy theme song on, she would immediately calm down and sing the words in her own way, and tap her thigh in contentment and joy to the song. It was amazing to see. 😊❤.
Hi Aunty Lee!
I just commented how dad introduced us kids to Skippy when we were little… sorta like Little House on the Prairie 😊
I wasn’t expecting to see a comment in here from you too!
Love you!! Xx
@@victoriamanfield3711 good try, can't even spell my name correctly 😅🤦🏼♀️
Haha, Lea** oops 😅
@@victoriamanfield3711 whatevs 🙄
I remember years ago travelling in Europe when Aussies where often referred to as Skips in reference to this iconic show. 😂
Im 62 and used to watch this every day after school.
Fun fact: My Rainbow Lorikeet when I got him... was hopping around like a kangaroo so I named him Skippy after Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo
Skippy was a great show, we had thieves, animal poachers, fights on parade floats Clancy being kidnapped in a cave and everyone doing their own stunts. Including jumping from a helicopter into a moving speedboat. Lot's of action and quite intense for a afternoon kids tv show, but we all loved it...
I recall one episode where Skippy drove the speedboat after something happened to Sonny and Mark Hammond (both knocked out I think) and it may not be right but I do recall Skippy Flying the Helicopter as well.
We use to play a game on drives called Matt Hammond - if you spotted a Ford Fairmont Wagon and called it out first you got 2 points - 1 point for the sedan. - Very Doubtful to see any of these cars nowadays.
I recently watched the swagman episode - Miles Vincent Archer being mega rich and famous for his exploits leaves that life behind to live as a swagman or hobo as they would call them in the US.
An old tramp, Trundle, looking for odd jobs, fascinates Sonny with tales of adventure. However, Matt Hammond believes the stories are figments of Trundle's imagination and considers it a bad association for Sonny. Trouble begins when the old swagman gives Sonny an expensive antique watch as a parting gift. Matt discovers the gift, asks the police to trace the owner - and discovers the Swagman's secret. Trundle turns out to be Miles Vincent Archer, the wealthy chairman of a vast corporation.
Not the full episode
The Swagman-S1 EO12
th-cam.com/video/qcj-QllGfFA/w-d-xo.html
Now you're getting back to my childhood.
If anyone's interested, the park headquarters was at this location: 33° 40' 35.09" S 151° 10' 36.95" E
(you can paste that straight into Google Maps).
Sweet 👍
Sad part is it was left to decay & volunteers stepped in to restore it as a museum. Not sure how far they went - Friends Of Skippy was the group's name.
Yep Skippy was on TV when I was a kid it was probably a bit like our version of Flipper....there were a lot of different Skippys used during the filming of the series. Every kid knew the words to the Skippy theme song and how to make that clicking sound..also blowing on a eucalyptus leaf to get it to whistle was an art. .Kangaroos dont actually talk like that but who cares they did then..
The Skippy theme song is iconic in Australia 😊 I watched Skippy re-runs as a kid in the mid to late 70s. I never realised how hot the Dad was 😂😂 The kid, Sonny, and his co-stars spoke a more posh version of Aussie English than most people in real life - and certainly more posh than the way we speak today.
Skippy was played in 158 Countries
Look, the "posh" speech was Australian English in the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s. I was told by my teachers (Catholic schools) to aim to talk like "an ABC News presenter".
I have dutifully done so, but the ABC News presenters and everybody else DON'T speak like that any more - I'm constantly asked (in my 60s) where I England I came from...
Skippy was great, and iconic of times past...
I still have the 7" single on vinyl of the theme song. LOL!
I remember watching reruns in the 90s/00s
@@rorylyons277
So do I!
Might also be something to do with the type of education. Catholic secondary school girl here!
Hi Ryan ,from Sydney, Australia, I'm now 67 yrs old, I was still in primary school when this TV series launched in '66. This was a quality program with realistic scenarios all with a moral to every show & filmed in color within the HUGE Kuring-gai National Park in behind Sydney's glorious northern beaches. It also flanks the entrance of Hawkesbury-Nepean River system. Plus Sonny, (the boy) and his dad the chief park ranger's house, the garages, heli-pad in the show are all still in existence built on land on the literal other side of the fence around the park adding also to the show's authenticity. The rangers house/cars were mere 2 miles from the road entrance to the National Park & every show was filmed on location adding to the feel/quality of the show. The show looked even better when color TV launched 6 years later in 1972, I remember my little sister re-watching every show when in repeat mode, as it was played as an after-school program around 4.30 pm, when new it was shown in family prime slots in the evening it as a new show was just as keenly watched/viewed by adults of all ages, Gary Pankhurst (sonny) is my age , if alive he would be like 67 yrs old in 2023.
Lots of good memories hearing the theme song coming onto to tv and me racing in front of the tv to watch it. The father wasn’t a police officer, he was a park ranger. The boy starts the theme by blowing onto the side of a eucalyptus leaf.
I used to try and make leaves in musical instruments after seeing the show. I successfully did, but not with eucalyptus leaves.
Skippy was very popular around the world, and had a huge following in Japan. It was broadcast in 128 countries, and in the US was normally broadcast in weekend kids programing.
It was a rare Western TV program allowed to be shown in the Soviet Union. It would be weird to hear the Australian characters dubbed into Russian, but that was one of dozens of languages the series was broadcast in.
The TV show is the reason that Skippy is the default name for a kangaroo around the world.
Reruns are still broadcast in several countries, and in Australia it is currently seen on 9Gem at 6:30am. It has had an amazingly long run for a kids show made between 1968 and 1970.
Loved this show as a kid. We are actually raising a Joey (agile wallaby), with the help of a vet nurse, at the moment. She’s about 4months old. Her mum was hit by a car and a passer by (a friend of ours) checked the corpse and found the Joey. We have had her for 2 months and she is growing so well. She now has fur and has doubled her weight. She is so funny.
😊
It is wonderful how your friend, you and so many others assist in saving our wildlife.
That is great. I always check Roos who have been hit by cars. I have found 4 babies but sadly they were dead or too small to survive. I have a care box in the boot of my car with gloves and towels and a pillow case just in case I find a Joey.
An Australian skit comedy show called Fast Forward did hysterical send up os Skippy. Lots of clips on TH-cam. Totally takes the piss.😂
Yeah, I remember that too. Ohhhhhh Skiiiiiip. Hilarious.
Yes , times 10. Great times in Aussie Tv.
Omg, yes, so bloody funny 😅😅😅
The time they had Skippy run away and become a stripper was a classic. Can't say what Skippy did with a guy's pair of spectacles while she was dancing, but think 'marsupial'.
Every Aussie (of a certain age, lol) just sang along.
I nursed the guy that wrote Skippy. It was in aged care, so it was for a few years. The stories of how they laughed at the corny jokes and had so much fun writing it.
Not only do I remember it as a 60yo, I flew helicopters for a while because of this show.
I loved watching “Skippy” one of my favourite childhood memories
I grew up watching reruns of Skippy and funnily enough i grew up in the country and spent many hours happily playing in the scrub ( bush) and whenever i visited my grandparents etc ( spent a lot of time there) I would play just as hard in the scrub with our pet kangaroo ( also called Skippy) getting up to all sorts of adventures, then come in the house in the afternoon to watch Skippy.
Skippy aired around the time the American Flipper was on tv. My older brother had a Joey when we were kids in the late 1950’s. It’s mother had died and our Aunty sent it by air freight from Western Australia to us in Melbourne. After some time the Joey escaped the confines of our back yard and ended up in the Melbourne Zoo. Every time we visited the zoo it would only come to the front of the enclosure when my brother called it.
Yes I grew up watching this after I came home from my school, the good old days just says how old I am
Skippy was our Lassie. I loved it when I was a little ankle biter. It was re-run often through the 70s and when I was growing up in the 80s. I can remember pretending to be the helicopter pilot in creche (pre-kinder daycare).
I'm OG enough to remember watching Skippy! "Skippy a friend ever true" was the line that you missed.
Sonnny's Dad was a park ranger and they lived in a National Park.
Think of Skippy as being the Aussie equivalent of such US TV shows as Lassie, Gentle Ben and Fllpper - all of those were around in the same general era. Yeah, the series was done in color, although it'd be a while before Australia went in for color TV. Most of it was filmed in the Ku-Ring-Gai National park in Sydney's north, and a number of well-known TV Aussie actors of that time made an appearance in the show at one time or another.
Actually, the Waratah Park Ranger Station, the centre of the show, is still there as a tourist spot.
I bet Ryan hasn't seen any of those either!! Lol
Interesting that you are spelling colour the American way. (Color). You are now the centre of attention. Oops sorry, center for Americans.
@@robertwynne6451 Blame the spell-checker which, despite my best efforts, insists on American spelling for a number of things. and sometimes will not even allow posts unless things are "corrected".
I loved Skippy when I was a kid. Watched it all the time. Hearing that gum leaf whistle just brings back memories. I remember trying many times to whistle with a gum leaf and found it to be quite difficult to do. Also a pair of electrodes on the balls was the standard way to get animals to perform in those days.
Wasn't Skippy a girl ?🦘
@@Jon-cb3xy I think so
That is so true, Ryan. TV shows were always talked about at school and work the next day after being broadcast the night before. Because we didn't have six million channels to choose from, everyone tended to watch the same things on the few channels we did have, so TV shows became topics of conversation. We would all talk about the characters and the stories in all the soap operas, sitcoms and the various kinds of dramas and if you missed an episode, someone would fill you in on all the details. Now with live streaming at your fingertips you can watch and re-watch a zillion movies on your smart phone but something is missing...oh yes, talking to other people...that's it.
I named my first dog Skippy in about 1971 or 2. As a kid I loved this show.
We had a Skippy dog too!
My next dog needs to be called Skippy!
I love Skippy. I used to watch it on TV when I was a child. I was born in the 70's. I have a DVD box set of it now. I played it when my nephews came over. The people in the brown uniforms were National Park Officers. They looked after the National Park. That boy whistling with the leaf was named Sonny, pronounced Sunny.
What a blast from the past! The young boys name is Sonny. The whistel is made with a gum leaf what great memories. thank you 😀😀😀
Nostalgia overload! I watched this in black and white because our family didn't get a colour tv until the late 70's. As kids we'd try to whistle like Sonny - fold a young gum leaf lengthwise, pierce it near the centre with your thumbnail, blow as hard as you can without causing it to rip - but we couldn't whistle very loud. Much later we'd find out both Sonny's whistle and Skippy's tch tch tch were made up television things. So disillusioned!
My parents had audio of me reading out loud as a kid. I spoke with that same faintly British accent until I deliberately flattened my vowels and dropped my g's during my rebellious teens.
Still shown here in the very early hours of morning TV. I was a shift worker & watched it again as I dressed in my uniform - often drinking my first coffee before going off to save the world. Ken James (Mark) & Tony Bonner (Jerry) are still involved in media. Lisa Goddard (Clancy) returned to the UK & Matt Hammond (Ed Devereaux has since passed away & did a few bit parts in the 70's. Ken James was known for presenting a cooking show.
Thank you so much for posting this Ryan! It has brought back so many wonderful memories. I remember learning to whistle through a gum tree from watching Skippy when I was a kid. I hope you realise that when you played the intro, you had hundreds of Aussies singing away to "Skippy" whilst tapping their feet and chair jiving along. Hahahaha. That image alone brings a massive smile to my dial!
As a kid growing up in the 70’s my siblings and I loved this show. We spent many any hour practicing our eucalyptus leaf whistle, not ever quite as good as Sonny. I loved Ryan’s head bopping to the theme song smiling away. I was too. Still love the whip bird noise in the beginning.
I'm 69 years old.
I just stumbled upon this interesting video.
I've never heard of Skippy the Kangaroo.
In 1968 I was 13 and living on an Air Force Base in Japan.
I didn't watch much tv because 99% was in Japanese.
The 60's were a great time to be a teenager.
It looks like it was a very popular show.......similar to
Timmy and Lassie and their many adventures.
I love the British and Australian accents
Thanks for sharing........Lee in California 🇺🇲
10,000 views in 2 days!!!
Hey Ryan you sure hit the nostalgia button here in Oz, man of us who grew up with black and white Skippy on the TV has a pet kangaroo named skippy, and watched every episode! As well as Flipper, Gentle Ben and Lassie of course. Great memories!
I’m 70 and I definitely remember my younger siblings loving this show. I was in high school at the time
The Skippy mech back in the day was wild. The kids lunch boxes in particular.
Skippy wasn't only big (pun intended) in Oz, it was popular with children in Canada, and the UK too. Even when my oldest two were kids in the early 80s, reruns of Skippy were a must-see for them, even in E Africa. Now, my youngesr grandsons in Queensland watch re-re-reruns! A true never ending story.
It's pretty much 100% guaranteed that every Aussie watching this was singing along with the Skippy Theme. The banjo is the sound I hear when I see a kangaroo jumping! Skippy was our Lassie, (although we had her too).
My wife and I would watch the show early evening time slot and enjoy it for what it was. We had a B&W TV as the colour ones didn’t arrive until about early 1970s . Then too expensive for us. As a 13 year old in the suburbs of Brisbane QLD Australia we had a young female Red Kangaroo, goes by the title of a Blue Flyer, as a pet. Hand reared and quite a tame pet.
I wasn't born when this originally aired but it's been rerun for decades. As late as 2013. Massive nostalgia hit for me. I'd be interested to see what the current generation would make of it.
Skippy came up a few years ago. My son was home and a few mates. They were about 20. My sister in law was there. My SIL and I were what's that Skip. Than what happened. Really Skip? My SIL was making Skippy sound. I was asking the questions. The kids were what are you on about. Looked at us like we were crack heads. Lol
I’m a 64 year old Aussie lady . We all just loved loved loved Skippy when we were kids . I was 8 years old in 1968 . We had a Tupperware Skippy plate too . My brother and I fought over turns to use it !
Clancy (the girl that was staying with them )was English but we embraced her too . She was interviewed the last few years and had fond memories of the show but she said that all the women were pushed into wearing short skirts all the time😐
Ps I thought Frank Thring was the ultimate villain on the show !
What’s that Skip, there’s 3 people fallen in a well? One has a red t-shirt with a number 5 on the back!
I had a Skippy dinner plate as a kid, wouldn't eat off anything else 🤣 Skippy - Skippy and the Nuclear Bomb is a utube must see lol
Still got my Skippy plates, one square and one round, a skippy bowl and a cup. My treasures
I'm an Aussie who lives near an estuary where the river meets the sea and dolphins do come into the river and play! :) And yes - I am old enough to have watched Skippy on tv after school. (Also used to eat Skippy peanut butter when in Indonesia - cost a fortune as imported from US!)
"The barn is on fire"
Yes, Skippy had the same scene (multiple times) "What's that, Skip? The vicar fell down the well?" "What's that, Skip? Mrs Marsh is trapped by a landslide?" "What's that, Skip? There's a bushfire along the south ridge?"
Skippy was shown in over 100 countries around the world and was extremely popular so Ryan you may want to ask your parents if they watched the episodes in the US as children
Pretty sure they may have 😀
I was born in 1966. Skippy was a whole family show with us kids and mum and dad and the repeats ran for years.
Dad was a bushman and farmer.
Dad would roll his eyes and Tsk at how ridiculous it was with skippy essentially being a ‘mcgyver’ solving crimes but you could tell he loved it.
The only time we could get away with ‘shooshing’ dad for making noise during ‘our show’.
There are a couple of tree leaf types that as kids we would practice with to make loud sounds to call to each other. None ever sounded like that whistle though 😂
Great memories
My friend had a baby joey that used to follow her around the house. He slept in a sheepskin coat hanging off the door. So cute.
We would RUN home from school to watch Skippy. Loved it.
Australia went to colour TV in 1975, so all those Skippy shows we would have seen them in B&W when we were kids.
I think it was made in colour in the hope of selling it overseas.
That was great seeing Skippy again. Thanks mate.
In about 1957 when tv first came to Aussie, my uncle would arrive in his flat back ute and load myself (3yrs), my siblings and other neighbourhood kids on the back and drive down the road to park in front of the corner shop which had the only tv (b&w)around, set up in the window. We loved it. The pay off for the shop owner was the drinks (6pence) and chips (3pence) that were bought for us. Can you imagine today a flat back ute with 10 kids on board driving down the street, lol. We weren't molly cuddled! Totally different and better world in my opinion.
the BEST PART of myyyyyy day was hearing the SKIPPY tune , running in and sitting on my bean bag ...........oh boy it was Amazing
That was HUGE. Skippys Dad was the ranger of the park, skippy lived freely in the park but was sort like a pet too and even went on a lead in some episodes. So much in our culture refers to Skippy.
I love the comedy show takes on skippy, they were fun as. I saw this in the 80s as a kid it was corny as anything but still good.
I reckon everyone knows skippy lol.
Next show to check out is,, Round the twist. 👍🙂
I grew up with Skippy. Iconic show that brings back happy memories
I loved skippy I'm 46 and remember watching what I think were reruns of this show throughout my childhood BTW Skippy was actually a wallaby (I'm pretty sure)
According to Wikipedia the series sold around the world, reportedly shown in 128 countries. It is still being shown in some countries, some 51 years after it was made.
Omg you brought back so many childhood memories for me❤❤❤
Skippy was also on AmericanTV at the time. Yes there was colour TV in the 60's. The world was way more eloquent back then compared to now!
Australia had colour TV for the first time in 1975. The series was filmed in colour and broadcast in colour in the US long before we did.
This took me back 55 years. Loved this show.
G'day Ryan, mate I'm 66 year young and l watched Skippy when it came out in 1968 only in black and white as colour tv wasn't available untill 1972, l live in Northern Victoria and we only had 2 channels and TV started at 3 pm in the afternoon untill 10 pm, yes times were much better back then, cheers, Neil 🤠.
While the television at the time was monochrome, I wouldn't be surprised to find that it was recorded on film stock, thus colour.
Many years ago, I heard about a show prop auction, and one of the items was Skippy's paws, those used for operating radios, helicopters, cars, and saluting as just seen.
But this was the show I watched in my youth.
Skippy was filmed in colour. Colour television was switched on in Australia on the 1st of March 1975. Colour on Australian televisions looked better to the eye than that on US televisions. Australia adopted the PAL standard for broadcasting and the US chose NTSC. PAL (Phase Alternating Line) manages colour automatically and NTSC (National Television Standard Committee) receivers have manual tint colour correction and needed manual adjustments. We technicians called NTSC Not The Same Colour and PAL Perfect At Last.
I was a young kid back then and skippy was a show not to be missed. I’m watching reruns at the moment on Saturday mornings at 5.30am before I go to work 😂😂
I was born in the 70’s and as soon as I saw the notification for this I time travelled right back to my childhood and began singing “Skippyyyyyyyy, Skippyyyyyyy” 😂
Every Australian kid grew up watching this
That whistle Sonny does is what our family does when we need to find each other in a crowd, works great...heads pop up and we find each other every time 😂
You need to do the whole episode, you can break it up into three parts so you don't get copyright. Make sure its from 60s to 70s cause its nothing like it. There is also Blinkey Bill as well. And yes that's how we really were and that is how a lot of Australians still are. Its wholesome that is why it is still beautiful.
I loved this show when I was a kid. The kid's characters name was Sonny. It was always a joke - "What's that Skip? - you want me to come down to the where ever..." My cousin and I would try to do the leaf whistle and never could.
When I was a kid my grandfather bought us our first colour TV. He was sick of coming up to baby sit me and have to watch the football (Rugby League) in black and white. I remember being very annoyed because while they set it up I missed the end of the episode of Skippy I was watching.
I was a member of the Skippy fan club and remember getting my ranger badge etc. with the newsletter.😊
It was filmed in color because it was shown around the world. It was very popular in the UK and Europe. This was 6 years before Australia had color TV.
❤ this reaction. Watched Skippy as a kid, as well as Lassie and Flipper from your neck of the woods. Ah nostalgia.
I was born 1964 and i saw Skippy a lot when i was a child. But at that time there were also quite a lot other tv show with animals very popular like "Flipper" (a dolphin), Daktari (about a bush doctor with Judy the chimp and Clarence the cross-eyed lion). Then there was also a Tarzan TV show with of course a lot animal involved ..
Yes I watched this every afternoon in 1968 as a 10 year old. Waratah Park (skippy's home) on Sydney's north shore was a tourist attraction & picnic ground until it's closure in 2006
Thanks Ryan now I have the theme song stuck in my head 😂😂 oh the memories as a kids watching this on tv. Use to be able to do the whistle but can’t now. Oh and I love that you can hear the whip bird in background in the senses with sonny and skippy,such an iconic Australian sound in our bush. 🧐🙃🇦🇺
Yes, the Eastern Whipbird, lovely
I was 10 years old when this came out it was a great show
They used to rip though different Skippys on a regular basis. A shot of "Skippy" hoping down the road.... animal handler reaches into Potatoe sack, grabs another roo and gets it hopping down the road.
Also a lot of Greek/Aussies used to refer to any person that was born in Australia as "Skips".
This was one of my favorite shows in my childhood.
How cool ! Can’t remember if I saw the movie but I am going to try and find it on DVD. Thanks Ryan, you always keep me up to date with Aussie stuff
Haha, I used to run home from School to watch Skippy! Loved this show when I was a kid!
I'm a kiwi and even we grew up loving Skippy the bush Kangaroo 🦘
You caused a lump in my throat when you said "what a different time to be alive - a peaceful time, I think." Yes, I was there, and I 'do' miss it. And it 'was' good - in its own special way. I think American's might have had it too - in the fifties maybe.
I loved Skippy as a kid. It wasn’t until I was an adult when I saw a kangaroo paw bottle opener that I realised how Skippy “shook hands”. 😂
Also, the sexual tension between Clancy and Jerry the helicopter pilot was electric.
Even us Brits know who Skippy the Bush Kangaroo is.
Yep, I grew up watching Skippy, was one of my favourite shows.
love your content bro, Scottish bloke immigrated to Australia in 1990. I worked in a Melbourne actors bar for 5 years and came across most of our legends of TV many times over. One very misty late summers night, a man entered the club and ordered a hot chocolate and a piece of cake. I seen his man child esque figure and his obvious child actor mentions, the most humble dude ever. It was Ken, the brother of the child featured here as cast in the show. Looking old and weathered but still trying to keep it together and remind people of who he was. Beautiful night of wine and reminiscing, followed by deep chats about what the meaning of it all is. GOod memories.
We grew up in the 80’s but skippy was still a popular rerun tv show for us kids . Nostalgia indeed . Sort of Aussie answer to Lassie
Australian actor Jack Thompson got one of his first roles on Skippy. Apparently, he played a photographer on one episode. It may have actually been his very first role.
Loved this show growing up and hearing the skippy theme song brought back childhood memories
OMG I LOVED Skippy. I had the skippy plate and cup. The was nothing more Aussie then eating Vegemite on toast while wanting skippy
Im old enough to remember this Ryan...lol! Altho I didnt get to see a lot, as I was 19 in 68, and just getting married....I remember it well tho....Your son would love that intro...Iconic like Lassie you mean!..Another iconic show we had in Australia, along with Flipper...
I was born in the early 80's and apparently I used to run to the tv when the theme song was played as a toddler. It took me a long time to try kangaroo meat as a result. I vaguely remember a reboot of some sort in the 90s as I remember watching that too.
Skippy re-runs are still shown on TV in the early morning, I watch it while getting ready for work (and I'm 63yo😂)