Australia

The Chaser’s War on Everything

Round the Twist was 4 seasons of straight bangers

Bluey is a parenting program cleverly disguised as a kids' program. It's my favourite show on TV at the moment.

Anyone remember water rats? Peak 90's crime of the week show with as much drama off the set as on.

• The Curiosity Show
• Skippy
• Ask the Leyland Brothers

Let the Blood Run Free

A pisstake of A Country Practice. Comedic gold adapted to TV after an improv theatrical run.

A phone-in Choose Your Own Adventure style narrative from show to show, was cutting edge interactivity in the 90s.

Greatest Aussie show ever (yes, I know Big Gig, D-Gen, Late Show and DAAS were a thing).

Do yourself a favour and search out some episodes on your favourite video services.

(* I saw Peter Rowsthorn in Fremantle on the street, and I was too slow to shout out a "W W W W Warren")

Ones I already have:

• Acropolis Now
• Bush Tucker Man
• Kingswood Country (missing 15 eps)
• Mother and Son (the original, not the shithouse remake)
• Rake
• The Hollowmen (only have shitty DVD rips, would love something better)

Ones I want, but haven't started looking for:

• Stingers
• The Late Show
• Hey Hey
• Full Frontal
• Fast Forward
• Comedy Company
• The Big Gig
• Good News Week
• Front Line
• Russell Coight's All Aussie Adventures (I have the 2018 eps - not the early 2000s ones)
• All Together Now

Ones I enjoyed, but am on the fence about committing storage space to:

• Kath and Kim
• Caron's Law
• The Sullivans
• Blue Heelers
• Rafferty's Rules
• Cop Shop

Rake is excellent, and pretty grounded in real events, boy eats universe is new, and they're probably cultural relevance to some of the dozens of reality and daytime/morning shows out there, and the chaser for the same reason. I also think a lot of kids' stuff is worth archiving - some because it's great, others because it's bizarre, others because it's a cultural touchstone that'll almost certainly be lost - round the twist, Liftoff, Aggro, cheez TV, ship to shore, ocean girl, the ferals... I'm showing my age.

I think the ABC have some kind of archive that's probably a great start for home grown content.

The Big Gig

I liked watching A*mazing as a kid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A*mazing

There's a bunch of kids game shows that are very difficult if not impossible to find these days.

In case you weren't aware "The Archive" runs a pretty substantial repository of Australian TV shows. r/DownUnderTv has instructions on how to get access.

The one about a big city lawyer going to a small seaside town. Sea Change?

The one about a big city ~~lawyer~~ heart surgeon going to work in a small hospital in the outback. Heart-something?

The one about a big city lawyer going insane. Rake.

The one about a quirky Melbourne OB/GNY and her quirky family.

The one that had great promise, but was cancelled after one season. Oh, there are 100 of those.

Mr Inbetween. First season is gold.

The girl from tomorrow. I see it's on Stan now.

Love is a four letter word.

I was going to suggest Plasmo, but it turns out some mad lad has already upscaled it to 4K! Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2U98Joe6Hs

Anyone remember Secret Valley? At one point my family was planning on moving to a largish property in/near bushland and me and my brothers had drawn up detailed blueprints for a fortified base complete with treetop platforms connected by rope swings, pitfall traps and catapults, inspired by the show.

The Henderson Kids.

Soup Opera and Trapdoor

I remember loving the show Good Guys, Bad Guys when I was a teenager. Occasionally look for it on the torrents but never found it.

From a Pom:

I liked Rake .

Prisoner Cell Block H was cult here too .

Then, Angry Boys, Chris Lilleys comedy.

Um, Under Belly about Tony Mockba was good I think .

Any Ashes cricket where we didn’t lose 5-0

Alexander Bunyip's Billabong! !

Before Agro there was a semi-neurotic bunyip named Alexander.

Where they dreamt up sketches like "The Muffler Bird"

Off the wall and Aussie as.

Ready Steady Wiggle!

I watched a lot of crap. I didn't realise it was crap at the time, I just didn't know any better. In the 80's/early 90's I was watching:

• A Country Practice
• Early Home & Away
• Flying doctors
• Some show where Georgie Parker was a female firefighter (Gasp!).
• Some hospital show with Georgie Parker as the main character
• Comedy Company
• Hey Hey its Saturday
• Its a Knockout
• Hey, Dad (This one has been tainted now it turned out that the Dad was not wholesome at all)

As to what to actually preserve, some of those shows likely haven't aged well. The Paul Hogan Show was great, but a product of its time. I'm sure it would never be allowed on the air today. Same with Number 96 (not that I was supposed to be watching that one).

While these are the answer to your question - what were my favourite shows at the time, I wouldn't nominate any of them for preservation.

I loved The Ferals, Mulligrubs and Take Off as a kid. So many cool and imaginative things.

Honorable mentions are Big Square Eye, Beyond 2000 and Hey, Hey, it's Saturday.

Recent show, 'Pine Gap.' US/Australian electronic intelligence monitoring station. Political drama, and interpersonal drama. Supposedly getting a second season.

If you ever find Elly & Jools, hit me tf up.