Recovery (TV series)

Recovery was a music and youth oriented television series that was broadcast by ABC TV in Australia. The show was aired each Saturday morning from 9am to 12pm, following the overnight video clip program, Rage, and was broadcast from April 20, 1996, to April 29, 2000. Recovery was produced "live to air" from ABC's Ripponlea studios in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Each episode featured a mix of live performances, music videos, other youth relevant pop culture segments and comedy sketches.

As a result of many attempts by ABC TV to cut production costs, Recovery would dramatically change its format at least three times until it was finally cancelled in April 2000. Set originally in a house where the presenters "lived" together, the show then became live music oriented, moving to a studio and broadcast live in front of an audience. The show then moved back to the house format with more music clips shown than live performances, eventually ending the live music segments. During its final months on air, Recovery switched its focus entirely on to electronic music, omitting the host segments entirely. Recovery often made references to Monkey. Recovery's audience favoured the series to such a degree that they began airing Monkey regularly during their show. When Recovery was put on hiatus during the non ratings season, it was replaced with three hours of Monkey.

Shortly after the show's cancellation, Lewis, Sampson and Perry returned to appear in The 10:30 Slot. The show was similar in format to Recovery, with a more adult oriented approach. The show ran from 1999 until 2000. In 2006, jtv was launched as a successor programme; however, Rage has re broadcast episodes of Recovery each year, since early 2004, to make up for the lack of video clips from the ABC at that time.

In November 2016, a special 2CD/2DVD box set was released, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show. It features over 100 live performances, as well as archival photos, and written recollections from the cast, producers, and bands who performed on the program.

In 1997 ABC Music released Recovery (Hits From The Back Door), a CD compiling songs recorded between 1996 and 1997 on the Recovery TV series. This was followed by a similar compilation in 1999 titled Recovery: Ready For Transmission which featured liner notes by The Enforcer. A Recovery Magazine was launched in 1998, and was sub edited by Angus Sampson. The magazine was published monthly until its closure in 2000 after 25 issues.