Number 96 (TV Series) - Series Evolution

Series Evolution

Number 96 was Australia's highest rating program for 1973 and 1974. The series was shot on videotape initially in black-and-white but switching to color in late 1974. Unfortunately, many black and white episodes are now lost, falling victim to the wiping of videotapes for re-use, which was the official Channel Ten policy at the time.

The series began taping in colour in late 1974. This period also saw the series shift its emphasis from sexual situations and drama to focus more on comedy, however by mid 1975 ratings had gone into decline so a bold new storyline was concocted in the hope of revitalising the series. The Mad Bomber storyline, in August–September 1975, came in the wake of news from periodical TV Week that the ratings for Number 96 had dropped to just half what they had been at the beginning of 1974. In an unprecedented move, 40 complete scripts were discarded and rewritten, while the Number 96 set was sealed off to non-essential personnel. The new storyline involved a mysterious figure planting a time bomb in Number 96, following a series of warnings and 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 fresh up the cast of characters and revamp the storylines.

On 5 September 1975, a bomb exploded in the delicatessen, destroying it and the adjacent wine bar which was crowded with customers. The makers of the show made a bold move, killing several long running cast favourites, including Les, and Aldo and Roma Godolfus (Johnny Lockwood and Philippa Baker), and then revealing schemer Maggie Cameron as the bomber and sending her off to prison (she never planned for the bomb to kill anyone and merely wanted to scare residents into moving to facilitate a sale of the building). However, despite the publicity and major changes it brought, the bomb-blast storyline resulted in only a temporary boost to the program's ratings figures.

By October two more central figures - Alf and Lucy Sutcliffe (played by original cast members James Elliott and Elisabeth Kirkby) - were 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 orphaned teenage sisters Debbie and Jane Chester (Dina Mann and Suzanne Church). Other enduring characters amongst the high cast turnover of the later period were the new blond sex-symbol Jaja Gibson (Anya Saleky), and Giovanni Lenzi (Harry Michaels), an exuberant Italian who worked in the deli.

A later whodunit storyline was the Hooded Rapist in May 1976. Numerous episodes around the time of the 1000th episode (June 1976) saw an increase in location shooting, including Moncur Street, Woollahra (outside the building used in the credits), local parks, Chinatown, and even Luna Park.

The final year of Number 96 featured an increased emphasis on younger characters and the reintroduction of sexual situations and nudity. The show's final months in 1977 included a range of shock storylines including the exploits of a group of Nazi bikers and a psychopathic blackmailer.

Another bold move in the show's final months saw Number 96 feature what was publicised as Australian television's first full frontal nude scene when new character Miss Hemingway (Deborah Gray) made the first of several unveilings in April 1977. Although an earlier scene showing brief and distant full-frontal nudity appeared in the debut episode of Matlock Police in February 1971 while in Number 96 in late 1976 a bit-part nurse fleeing Dudley's bedroom had revealed a full frontal nude flash, this was the first time the nudity was shown front and centre in protracted scenes. Other bedroom farce comedy sequences of the period featured increasing levels of male and female semi-nudity, and some other instances of full frontal female nudity. Meanwhile, a scene where Jane Chester becomes a prostitute and is asked to whip her male client, new Number 96 resident Toby Buxton (Malcolm Thompson) gave viewers a brief glimpse of full frontal male nudity.

These changes to the series were made to combat falling viewing figures. However, they were not a success, and in July 1977 the series was cancelled due to declining ratings at which point, with 1218 episodes, it held the record as Australia's longest running drama serial. Long-running characters Dorrie and Herb Evans, Flo Patterson, Don Finlayson, Arnold Feather, and Reg and Edie MacDonald, all continued in the series to the end.