Skippy le kangourou

I remember watching this show on our cable TV back in 1969 (WPIX in New York, I think), and I was immediately hooked. Out of all the animal shows being made at that time--Gentle Ben, Lassie, Daktari--I liked this one the best of all.

It had a great ensemble cast, in addition to Skippy. Everyone in the cast did a great job, and it was fun to see them interact with each other in every episode.

And since I had just studied about Australia during the 1968-69 school year, the locales Down Under were also of interest to me. I have not seen the show since, and I know it had aired on Animal Planet some time ago. Seems to me that it's time to revisit this show!

This show, which revolves around an Australian bush kangaroo, is best described as Australia's "Gentle Ben" Television show. The show has the same story lines of a ranger, his son, their pet kangaroo, and the misadventures they get into. I like the show, as corny as it is, probably because it does remind me of other late 60's & early 70's adventure shows that I grew up with. If you like "Gentle Ben", "Flipper", "Lassie" and "Daktori!", you'll have fun with this Show.

As a kid growing up in West Australia in the late 60s this was one of the few TV shows I watched that was Australian. For the most part Aussie kids grew up watching American and British TV series and thinking that dolphins could talk, doctors could time-travel and birds flew south for the winter. All that changed when Skippy hopped into our lives and gave us Australian stories, Australian settings, Australian accents and Australian heroes. I had a Skippy cup, Skippy plate and insisted my Skippy Peanut Butter sandwiches and milk were served with them. We loved Skippy and were very proud when we discovered that the rest of the world loved Skippy too. The show was dubbed into 25 languages and was shown in 128 countries, something we Aussies didn't think possible for an Aussie TV show. We had thought that to be successful meant selling our TV shows to the American and British networks where our accent was believed to be a liability. At that time if an Aussie film or TV show made it to American audiences it was usually dubbed with American accented voices (Mad Max) or perceived as a British product. What Skippy demonstrated was that an Australian series could be successful beyond the American and British markets. Consequently Australian TV producers gained the confidence to produce more Aussie TV series knowing that they could sell them successfully to parts of the world where our strange accent wasn't an issue. Today the Aussie TV industry exports significantly more than it imports., particularly in children's programming. While Skippy is showing its age today, it's high production values, imaginative scripts and cultural integrity made it a quality product for its time. While it will always be a sentimental childhood favourite for most Aussies, it should also be remembered for its role as a catalyst for the establishment of a viable Australian TV & Film industry. It seems today that an Aussie accent is an asset in Hollywood and a talking kangaroo had more than a little to do with it.

I remember watching Skippy when I was little. It was in syndication here in the U.S. back in the late '60s and early '70s. Skippy was a kangaroo. There was one episode in which Mike Hammond had to dart a wild kangaroo to relocate it away from a populated area.

Sonny, Mike's son, didn't want him to shoot Skippy by mistake.

Mike's love interest in the show was Clarissa "Clancy" Merrick. I haven't seen the new series.

I enjoy a lot of the 60's & 70's family TV shows that are back on TV. Skippy is now shown on the KTV channel. I get it on Dish. I'm watching it right now; on a Sunday afternoon.

I like the outdoor setting of Skippy.

Typical bad guy gets his just dues at the end of the show...I love it.

Who cares if the 'click' noise is fake. It's kind of silly, but I guess they wanted to find a way to have Skippy 'communicate'.

We get to see other animals native to Australia, as well.

Need more fun, family shows on TV. Glad to see there a few new ones out now!