The Outsiders

Yeah great cult TV series. Great atmosphere, top script and good performances make this a class A candidate for DVD release.

This is a seminal tour de force of Australian TV history and has that unforgettable groovy period piece soundtrack with Doug Parkinson's gravel and phlegm voice spewing 70's Australiana all over your cathode ray box as a amazingly long camera zoom out reveals the religion of the open road in all its Antipodean glory. This is a memento from another and not too distant era, and has the proud stamp of the land mighty Down Under from start to finish in all its raw freedom and gritty grandeur.

Come on ABC! Get with the program and release this cool 70's cult baby for all to enjoy - or re-enjoy if you're lucky enough to have lived the dream at the time.

Watched this when it was first screened and then missed it when it disappeared of British screens. It showed a different side of Old Australia that we need to see more of. Good juxtaposition of old hand and young turk. Then the realism of the hard out back was fantastic. It was sadly missed. This show was a cold look at the old way of looking at Australia. Hard living and hard working. The young idealist clashing with the old practical head. Real Politicka fighting with the young upstarts of New Labour. To add modern political vernacular.

This show was the first of its type that I came across that did not try to do a tourist job on Australia. It was a great showing of the realistic

come documentary realistic type of show. Some good films were out at the time doing a similar job. It would be great to see more of this type of TV come from Australia for it has been sadly missing this last twenty years. for all we have been fed is the soap pulp of varying quality.

21 year old Peter Jarrett (Sascha Hehn) is expected to tow the line and follow his father Harry (Ray Barrett) into the family business but Peter is more interested in learning about his grandfather Charlie Cole (Andrew Keir) who had a falling out with Harry some years ago. An argument between Peter and his father ensues resulting in Peter taking an EH Holden Ute from his father's car yard and setting off in search of his grandfather.

Peter eventually finds his grandfather and the two travel around Australia picking up whatever work they can as they go, working as anything from shearing roustabouts to local politician! The Outsiders is excellent escapist entertainment for anyone who ever dreamed of just jumping in a car and going wherever the road may take them. It is full of rich Australian outback scenery and attitudes with a character reminiscent of an Australia which might be depicted by the likes of Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson, had they lived and written in the 1970's.

The series features appearances from John Jarrett, David Gulpilil, and Tom Oliver amongst others. It comprises just 13 episodes which originally aired during the 3 months from 9 November 1976 to 1 February 1977. If the ABC had of persisted with this series and promoted it better, I have no doubt it would now be a cult classic.

Rich kid Pete Jarrett is bored with his comfortable existence and wants to know the meaning of life and on hand to help him is his grandfather Charlie (played by Andrew Keir) along with his Holden Ute which takes them both for adventures all around the Australian outback...

It was a mainstay of British afternoon TV in the seventies and the one thing I loved about it as a kid was the soundtrack and the end credits (loved the programme I must say...) where it started with the moving wheels of the ute and it would pan away as it became smaller and smaller and all you would see in this great, big, hot, dry, immense country and the glaring sun... and I was like - give me some of that!

Never got round to it though - wish they would bring this out on DVD too.

I agree, it was an excellent series, and was one of the first joint projects I am aware of that the Australian Broadcasting Commission (now Corporation) with a German film company. I was fortunate enough to do a similar type of journey with my grandfather in the late 80's, and take him on a return journey to Darwin, where he served during WWII. I then returned to the outback to continue that dream. The Outsiders was an example of fine Australian drama produced by the ABC at the time, and stood out for its contemporary look at the outback when others were continuing to concentrate on period drama. I suppose that sums up much of the Australian psyche really, those in the cities dream of being the old time drover...and still think that many of us in the outback are like that...eh.