I already feel a deep sadness that January is over!

I have suggested to rage that they should play Countdown and Retro ABC shows and Retro video's on the last Saturday of each month. And every other week the programmer's and there specials e.t.c.

Does anyone else not think that this is a FAB idea?

It isn't fair that us Retro heads have to wait 48 weeks every year, sob!

Of course rage still need programmer's and specials, otherwise rage wouldn't be rage in it's own right.

Anyone else who likes my idea, back me up... PLEASE!

I simple can't wait 48 weeks, I am literally a Countdown addict. Forget drugs and drinks!!!

Sexy also agrees....lets get behind this idea everyone..

Thank you, even if we have to get names, emails and phone numbers. We MUST try!!!

It seems bizarre to me that the ABC have another channel at their disposal and a mountain of classic archival tv shows in the vaults and they don't use either of them very well!!!!

This is the case for all of the free to air stations - they have tons of classic stuff they never air - never even after midnight!

We must we viewers put up with infomercial and evengelical stuff early in the morning??

I remember as a kid watching B & W eps of Matlock Police on Ch 10 early in the morning during the 80s - even Ch 7 aired old 1930's Flash Gordon eps during the early morning cartoon show!!!

Now they don't show anything before 2000!!! Weird

I would LOVE to see old eps of shows like Matlock Police or Homicide! Recently WIN were showing Crawford classics but they should be on Nine. The US revere their tv history while we consign ours to obscurity.

But to be fair Seven are now airing Sons & Daughters & A Country Practice & last year Seven aired a '70s show I'd never seen or heard of called Young Ramsay and it was fantastic. So many classics are just sitting in the vaults being ignored

Hopefully with the new digital channels we may get some of these classics perhaps even Sweet & Sour

Yeah fingers crossed for sure!!

It's weird - not only do tv stations not show any classics but they aren't even released onto dvd - why not?? In the case of Homicide, etc, it surely can't be a music issue so what's the reason?

I'm certain there's a great demand for some classic Oz tv shows on dvd.

Next year there'll be another 5 Saturdays in January, so Rage have no excuse not to have all of them 'Retro'. Till then I'll just rewatch the ones I do have - which after a decade and a half is a fair bit!!!

Yes, I too feel the pain...and to cap it off, today is my first day back at work. I hate February's! Everything goes back to normal. Another 48 weeks is painful, so we must make our voices heard/be a nuisance (lol) on the rage guestbook.

I heard on the radio this morning that the government hasn't yet ruled out an ABC/SBS merger. Here's hoping rage doesn't get affected. Cause if it does, you know what that could mean? But with all the extra channels coming in this year, hopefully it will be a win for us, rather than a loss. Heres hoping.

ABC2 is just full of children's programs and repeats of ABC1 shows shown earlier !!

What is the ABC/SBS merger all about, please explain? hehehe...

Oh, I was recording all the SOns and Daughter's episodes. Now that the tennis is over, is it back?

Is it on HD 70 again during the day oir back every Thursday night?

A fellow S & D viewer as well Jason? I'm impressed!

The last few weeks the **** tennis has pre-empted the show - I'd often tape it when it was supposed to be shown and get the tennis -arrgh!!

Now that's its over it should be back at its normal timeslot hopefully.

Both of the dvd releases have been good, but I'm hopeful that the entire series gets released.

The print quality of the ones Ch 7 show are pretty dire - they've aged very badly.

On that note - I did notice that the Sherbert special looked even better than the 1981 ep shown later - weird.

Oh indeed yes, I LUUUURVE Sons & Daughter's. It's to die for, literally!

Yes, some episodes do look a bit tortured with S&D, but I don't mind. I watched it heaps in the 80s and get so sentimental when it is on... sigh!

Least all Prisoner episodes are on DVD, my UTTER FAV!

Yes,the 1981 Countdown episode, did you notice the blcak line on the side of the screen on SHOCK, BUCKS FIZZ and other video clips?,,, Peter Framton looked liek hell, then again the song was hell from him as well as the HORROR of REO Speedwagon.

I telly ou, America in the Early 80s had SUCH BAD music, so poor and boring compared to the British and OZ scence!

Same thing happened with A Country Practice..but even worse the episodes are aired in 2 parters and I think 7 just skipped part 1 one night and went to part 2 the next..not happy!

Sons & Daughters is great but I'm kind of over it a little..what i wish they would repeat is The Restless Years THE best oz soap ever! It was rerun a couple of times in the '80s but nothing since then.

I know this is off the subject re: Countdown, but still....

The Restless Years apparently will be released onto dvd soon so I hear - with selected eps rather than the entire series. Renee Geyer's theme tune was great.

The reason why every ep of Prisoner is on dvd was the massive fan campaign to make it happen - if only
S & D would be that way!

About Ch 7 airing it - I'm not sure if it was the same format for elsewhere but I remember in Adelaide they showed the 1 hr editions on Monday and Tuesdays.

From memory the show went from an hr from 1983 onwards. I wish Ch 7 would show these version rather than the half hr ones.

The hour versions were great - a short pre-title remember of what happened previously, then the titles, and then a whole hour of ************* All of that got you in the mood for what was to come - something I think gets lost in the half hr versions.

Plus I wish Ch 7 would show S & D every night rather than just once a week.

At this rate it'll be 10 years until Rowena Wallace changes into Belinda Giblin!!!!

I'm with ya Jason and just thought you should know I've made a plea to James Reyne on his website to try and get his brother David to convince the ABC to release "Sweet And Sour" on DVD.
It worked for "Prisoner"(with help from Val Lehman)-why not "Sweet And Sour"?
After all,it it weren't for this show-David wouldn't've won the Best New Talent Logie,let alone have a long and successful TV career

Why, is David holding the release of Sweet & Sour?

Thank goodness Prisoner is on DVD, even though I am NOWHERE near collecting the whole set, as I can NOT afford that case with all the episodes that is like $2000!

The Prisoner box set is massive and very expensive! I wish they had a bit more extras on the dvds though or at the very least an extra exploring why on earth they did a 'Prisoner in Concert' show in 1980 !!!

It would have been great had the Prisoner stage show come here - particularly the musical version starring Lilly Savage - that would have been hilarious.

It's interesting to note that Prisoner is the only Aussie show I can think of that has been repeated quite often on both Ch 10 and Foxtel over the years. Again I ask why isn't it shown at midnight or something? It's the perfect late night cult show to watch for sure.

As for Sweet and Sour - that was a good show I remember that one very well.

I would assume it hasn't come to dvd due to music licencing issues - somehow I doubt David Reyne has much clout in whether it gets released or not!

Re: Sons and Daughters - I was amazed when I watched some of the eps on the official dvd releases. Some eps which I almost knew off by heart had moments in them that Ch 7 didn't broadcast first time around.

It should be noted that the current repeats are the complete versions rather than the ones aired during the early 90's which for some reason were heavily edited.

"The Restless Years apparently will be released onto dvd soon so I hear - with selected eps rather than the entire series. Renee Geyer's theme tune was great."

Where did you hear this?

I heard the same thing from Umbrella DVD about six months back. They told me they were considering it but then scrapped it for whatever reason If this does come true I'll be in heaven!

And A Country Practice has also had a complete series release albeit they are only up to season 5 or 6.

Re S&D being on once a week..it's nuts..when 7 first started showing them in 2006 iirc they were five times a week & i would tape them and watch all five in a row on the weekend.

Yeah you don't have to tell me twice Gary - I'd rather S & D be on all the time!!! Preferably in the 1 hr versions.

I'm not sure who decided to split them up into half hrs, but it was the wrong decision. Hopefully the original master tapes of the hour long versions are still around somewhere.

As for The Restless Years - well I heard that one on one of the audio commentaries for either S & D or the E Street one featuring Andrew Mecardo.

I think he mentioned that and Class of 74 as being next cab on the rank for release

Of course in dvd world anything can change!!! But I hope The Restless Years does come soon as I was always a fan of June Salter as the long suffering Miss McKenzie!

Yeh I'm not getting my hopes up,I did before and had them dashed.

Class of '74 will snap that one up too.

What I'd like to see with The Restless Years short of a complete series release is..2 DVDs first one milestone eps ,first one,mariages,deaths etc & on the other something similar to the #96 DVD with a complete long running storyline..there was a serial killer one that would be ideal.

Hey Hey is another sadly neglected show on DVD. Would love complete eps of this.

I can easily imagine a compilation dvd of The Restless Years, it worked for The Young Doctors, etc.

The No. 96 dvds are pretty good - I especially liked the first one with the film and a few docos on the show.

It'd be great if The Box got similar treatment too - the film version of The Box followed by some eps would make a great double pack.

It amazes me that we have this rich backlog of classic Aussie soaps and yet Foxtel hardly show them -they don't even show Neighbours on it!!!

I guess we should be thankful they're getting a dvd release instead of being ignored.

As for Hey Hey on dvd...well I doubt complete eps would ever happen due to music licencing issues, but I can see snippets of it being made available - aren't there some Red Faces dvds around the place? I also know the final ep is on dvd, not sure if its a complete version though.

I wonder if rage are going to play the Friday Edition's of Countdown from 1982 and Flipside from 1983? 2010 should be the year we get a fully aired episode of the Factory.

That's another thing isn't it?

How many Flipsides were made? That's a whole retro season just there for sure.

I'd love to see those and the Meldrum Tapes as well.

I think I must have been the only one in the Rage forums who liked watching The Factory segments.

I thought it was a bright and breezy show and I certainly prefer that than Recovery!!!

Words cannot express how awful Recovery was and the highlights package shown recently just confirmed my thoughts.

I must admit I didn't mind Hitscene either - although again I think I was in the minority. Dick Williams makes me laugh everytime I see him, he was such a square!

Yeh Patrick there are some best of DVDs of Hey Hey but it's not the same. Your probably right though we'll never see it on DVD in complete form though Nine could air it on the HD channels.

Yes Nine could air it on a HD channel and most definately SHOULD, but I reckon they won't considering their lack of respect for A. the viewers and B. old tv shows.

If I had my way every HD channel would have a fair mix of old/new shows or at least 1 dedicated channel.

We need to preserve what we have left and get them onto digital format.

I just cannot believe Foxtel insists on showing mostly reality tv rubbish and lots of old American shows. Where is the local culture? I'm sure most Aussies want to see some of the old classic local programes.

Sounds like I'm whining about everything today - but I don't understand why the American and British channels respect their old shows and not Australia.

But back to Hey Hey - I think Daryl will be hosting some nostalgia specials on it this year from what I've read.

That's why he left Dancing With the Stars - so he could go back to Ch 9 and hosts those specials.

Hey Hey wasn't really my scene to be honest - although my sister once appeared with Kylie Minogue on one ep playing the drums on Some Kind of Bliss back in 1998. Sis said that Kylie was a 'charming little pixie'!

Each to their own though - I do hope Ch 9 sees some sense and put on some old Hey Hey's for the many fans I do know are out there for it - like many many other classic shows.

Don't get too excited about all these extra digital channels. They are advertising 15 channels but we already have 10 of them. We are only getting an extra channel from each of the networks, with ch 10 committing theirs entirely to sport and ABC3 will be a 24 hour kids channel from what i hear. ABC2 is our best bet for Countdown etc. I'm a huge U2 fan but how many times have they shown the Live From Chicago 2005 concert. Planet Rock Profiles, London Live are all repeats as well so they may as well show something we actually wanna see

I would love the Countdown Friday request shows!

Some of them are SUCH gems... With The Factory I liked it and didn't back in 1988.

I mean, in a way over 3 hrs you would see a lot of broad stuff. So there would be some things I like. They got better in mid 1988 and later 1988. Early 1988 was a tad crap I think. Though i like bits of The Factory and they playes some GREAT clips, which I want again!... I would rather the time be saved for Countdown and Countdown Friday AND Rock Arena...

Yes, there are some crap Rock Arena's BUT the Rock Arena's that are great, really are GREAT!!!

That's great news about Dazza hosting some Hey Hey specials..

Geez some of the old shows from 70s/80s bring back some memories..lol. S and D is just plain awful but I have watched it on a few occasions. Number 96 haha yeh didnt mind that one. I confess I watch old eps of Skyways, Division 4 and a Country Practice lol late at night..

What? TV plays Skyways?!?!?! WOW ...; tell me more!

And Sons & Daughter'sis NOTY awful thanks! argh.... hehe

I could be wrong..but Skyways could be part of the Crawford Classics on WIN..i know Division 4 is. It's so annoying that Nine don't do this as well but we must have ER & Guthy Renker

WIN may have done a package deal with Crawfords in airing their shows.

I've found it odd that Crawfords haven't released many of their programmes onto dvd - hopefully this'll be corrected soon.

I'm glad No. 96 has been released onto dvd - a very camp show but very groundbreaking as well.

I was aghast when I found out what Ch 10 did to the first 2 years of the show - probably one of the worst cases of cultural vandalism I've ever heard - apart from the sad destruction of early Countdowns of course.

I guess its good we've got some eps to see instead of none, but it's always better having the whole show than part of it.

um yes Skyways is on Win Tv regional Qld on Crawford classix...Early hours Thursday mornings. I had never seen this show before now..lol Gaynor Martin Wheatly is so beautiful..wonder what she saw in Glenn Wheatly??

hahaha Number 96 lol..I remember the storylines: The knicker Snipper; The Pantyhose Murderer; The BomB..lol classic. A few eps were actually shown on TV1 Austar a few years. pmsl

Yeah the new No. 96 dvd is great - all about the Pantyhose Strangler. Hopefully the Mad Bomber storyline will be released next.

I recall reading many years ago about Ch 10 wanting to do a remake of it - glad they didn't as it would have been rubbish most likely.

Although we did get a remake of sorts with Melrose Place - complete with mad bomber!!!

So what did ch10 do? I'm guessing they chopped offending scenes out of old Number 96 episodes? If so that is crazy.

They did something far worse I'm afraid.

As I understand it this happened about 75 or 76. Ch 10 were having some party celebrating themselves or something.

The party planners decided it would be a 'good idea' to design the foyer with reels of film/videotape to represent the party's theme.

So they then promptly went into the Ch 10 archives and pulled out almost every single B & W ep of No. 96 - its first 2 years - and unspooled the film for decoration!!!

After the party was over they promptly burnt them - an absolute tragedy.

That's the main reason why on the No. 96 doco special there aren't many B & W clips - the whole Abigail Black Mass sequence is gone forever. Only about 5 B & W eps survive with all of the colour ones still existing and in the National Film and Sound Archive.

Thanks Ch 10 - for nothing!!!

Wow that's truly bizarre

What the ABC did with Countdown was unforgivable but at least there was a reason!

Yes well it seems that only Grundys and Crawfords have their entire Australian classics complete in the archives.

It appears anything made 'in house' by a TV network was fair game in terms of getting rid of tapes, etc

But still it would seem odd that Crawfords have yet to release some of their output onto dvd - Grundy have happily been doing it for years now - with Prisoner being a massive dvd seller.

There is a market out there, so why not exploit it??

Maybe Channel 9 would like to put the repeat/repeats of Division 4 on Monday nights at 8.30pm by up against Desperate Housewives in a couple of months this year or next year when I got to get rid of this American TV show.

There would be next to no chance of Ch 9 repeating any B & W show in prime time at all!

Even though I'd love to see it of course - would be far better than yet another reality show.

Still, I'd love it if any of the free to air stations showed some classics after midnight - my HDD would be in overdrive!!!

I do remember Ch 9 showing old eps of Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip a few years back - so they can, given a chance, show some old shows.

Maybe with any luck Freeview will present us with a nostalgia channel? Or at the very least show something prior to 1990??

From the ABC's POV, I think the most feasible scenario would be to play episodes on ABC2, on Foxtel.

That way, the Rage people would be able to do their thing uninterrupted (seems they're on a hiding to nothing no matter what Countdowns they play anyway ) and at least on ABC2 we'd get them without all the crap VH1 put onscreen during their shows.

The new digital channels haven't been used very well at all.

There seems to be a great reluctance to embrace them fully and yes ABC 2 should definately have some classic shows on it.

The ABC has a massive vault of stuff just sitting there, so why not use them??

ABC2 could easily accomodate 1 or 2 eps per day - or at the very least 2 eps a week.

Once a year is never enough for Countdown fans like me - especially when there are nearly 200 eps that still haven't been aired.

At this rate it'll be 2050 before every single Countdown ep has been shown!!

Agree there is less then zero chance of 9 or any other channel playing old b/w shows in prime time.

And 77 Sunset Strip was on 9? Dash it i missed that one! Would have watched it for sure.

Homicide is out on DVD but you have to order it online @ Crawfords DVD website and there are 3 volumes of it on DVD which are-
1. Episode 1-26
2.Episode 27-52
3.Episode 53-78(just released in June)