The Mavis Bramston Show

The Mavis Bramston Show
Starring	Carol Raye Hazel Phillips Barbara Angell Reg Livermore Noeline Brown Barry Creyton Maggie Dence Bryan Davies Miriam Karlin June Salter Gordon Chater Ronnie Stevens Ron Frazer
Country of origin	Australia
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	Seven Network
Original release	1964 – 1968

The Mavis Bramston Show was a weekly Australian television satirical sketch comedy revue series which aired on the Seven Network from 1964 to 1968. Inspired by the British TV satirical revue TV shows of the period (notably That Was The Week That Was), "Mavis Bramston" was the first successful venture in this genre on Australian TV. At its peak it was one of the most popular Australian TV programs of its era and it propelled many of the 'classic' cast to national stardom in Australia, including June Salter, Barry Creyton, Noeline Brown, Gordon Chater, Ron Frazer and Carol Raye, who devised the series.

The impact of The Mavis Bramston Show in Australia in the mid-1960s was heightened because of its unique place in the history of the Australian television industry. After its inception in 1956, Australian television broadcasting had rapidly become dominated by the socio-economic influence of the United States and (to a lesser extent) of the United Kingdom. By the early 1960s at least 80% of Australian TV programming was sourced from the USA and American TV series were consistently the top-rating shows. In 1963 the Vincent Report on the Australian media found that 97% of drama broadcast on Australian TV between 1956 and 1963 was American-made. The few programmes that were made in Australia were usually low-cost copies of proven American talk-variety or quiz show formats.

Because of the absence of government-mandated local content regulations, Australian TV producers faced enormous challenges in trying to compete against imported American and British programs, which benefited from high budgets, an international talent pool and huge economies of scale, thanks to their large domestic audiences and established worldwide distribution networks. These advantages were further enhanced by the fact that American producers and networks offered Australian channels attractive discount rates on bundled programming.

Despite the overwhelming dominance of imported programming, local production gradually increased in the mid-1960s for several reasons—the licensing of a third network in major cities (which ultimately became the TEN Network), the introduction of videotape technology (which permitted pre-recording and editing, and reduced production costs) and the enforcement of local production quotas on TV advertising, which helped to foster a local skill-base.

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