Skippy

1 9 6 6 - 1 9 6 9 (Australia)
91 x 25 minute episodes

Making very good use of the Australian bush landscape (and yes, it really does look like that!) Skippy used to bound through the Waratah National Park in Sydney with his adoring owner, Sonny Hammond (son of the park ranger) to an irritating banjo-driven theme song! 

Stories related the duo's adventures as they helped to protect the game reserve from smugglers, rustlers and escaped convicts. There were tearful moments whenever Skippy was ill or the victim of a villainous plot. The eponymous marsupial was very, very intelligent. 

A typical exchange between Skippy and Sonny went like this:

Sonny: (looking worried) What is it Skip?

Skippy: A funny clicking sound like someone tutting

Sonny: What kind of accident, Skip?

Skippy: The tutting sound again

Sonny: Better run and tell dad to get help, Skip

Skippy: More bloody tutting!

Sonny: Oh alright then Skip. You go and get the helicopter - I'll wait here.

Other characters were Matt Hammond (Sonny's Dad, the park ranger), his brother Mark, macho helicopter Pilot, Jerry King and the long-legged, long-haired blonde sexy chick, Clarissa "Clancy" Merrick (The Hammond's love slave) played by Liza Goddard.

My family moved to Australia in 1974 and one of the first places I visited was Waratah Park (it's a real national park) where I saw the TV sets and a very ordinary looking kangaroo which was supposed to be Skippy (must be about 90 years old by now!). 

I sense the Skippy on display at the park is an impostor (a bit like the legend of The Phantom where the title is passed on from generation to generation).

TRIVIA NOTE
In 1970, vandals tried to kill the real Skippy at Waratah Park but failed.

NB: Clancy wasn't really the Hammond's love slave, just a friend of the family (but it doesn't hurt to fantasise, does it?).