Шоу Мэвис Брамстон: Австралийская сатирическая комедия

Australian TV sketch comedy series

The Mavis Bramston Show was a weekly Australian television satirical sketch comedy revue series which aired on the Seven Network from 1964 to 1968. Mavis was created, written, and co produced by Carol Raye, who also starred in it and was inspired by the British TV satirical revue TV shows of the period, most notably That Was The Week That Was and Not Only But Also. The series was the first successful venture in this genre on Australian television. At its peak it was one of the most popular, albeit controversial, Australian TV programs of its time and it propelled many of the "classic" cast to national stardom, including its three original stars: Raye (who was already a major star in England as a film star), British expatriate comedian Gordon Chater, and Barry Creyton, as well as the series mascot portrayed by Maggie Dence. The few programmes that were made locally were usually low cost copies of either proven American talk variety or quiz show formats. The absence of government mandated local content regulations meant Australian TV producers faced enormous challenges in trying to compete against imported American (and to a lesser extent 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 Network 10), 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. Mavis Bramston grew out of the recent local theatrical tradition of topical satirical revue—most notably the popular revues staged at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre in the 1950s and 1960s but it was also strongly influenced by the British satire boom and especially by the contemporary British TV satirical comedy series That Was The Week That Was and Not Only But Also.

The in joke of the series was that the title character "face" and mascot of the series only ever appeared in the opening credits, however she would tour as the character making public appearances. Barbara Wyndon and Al Thomas guest starred in some episodes. Among the crew was a young production assistant, Peter Weir, who went on to become one of Australia's best known and most successful film directors.

There are several versions of the source of the ironic joke behind the show's title. The most frequently quoted account is that it derived from an Australian theatrical expression. The nickname "Mavis Bramstons" mocked a phenomenon common at that time on the Australian stage. In the years after World War II, overseas actors (many of whom who were considered second rate or well past their best) were often imported to star in local productions, even though there were local performers available who were as good or better than their overseas counterparts. One of the most famous examples of this trend was the "discovery" of actress and singer Jill Perryman; while understudying the much loved Evie Hayes for the lead role in a 1953 production of the musical Call Me Madam, Perryman was able to make her critical breakthrough after Evie Hayes was sidelined by illness. Hayes and Perryman became great friends. Hayes later appeared as Perryman's mother in Funny Girl. The stock persona of an imported second rate actress became the central conceit of the series. The opening scene of each episode showed "Mavis", now brought to life as a parodic character, arriving at Sydney airport to be greeted by the waiting press; the irony was that although the show was called The Mavis Bramston Show, this was the only scene in which she appeared. Noeline Brown played the eponymous Mavis in the pilot and the first five shows. Maggie Dence, however became the "face" of the series; she regularly featured in press articles and on magazine covers and was widely employed by the show's sponsor, Ampol, making well attended promotional appearances all over the country.

Mavis was an immediate success in New South Wales and this was replicated when it was broadcast nationally from early 1965. It created a media sensation and at its peak it became the highest rating Australian TV series ever made up to that time, pulling in unprecedented 59% of the viewing audience. Capping its ratings success, the series won the 1965 Logie Award for "Best New Show". The popularity of The Mavis Bramston Show quickly became the stuff of legend – it is said that Qantas pilots tried to re arrange their schedules to be home on Wednesdays for the weekly broadcast, and in the national capital Canberra local businesses reputedly contacted Seven, asking them to reschedule the show, because it clashed with late night shopping and revenues were falling as a result of its popularity. When the show went national Carol Raye quickly found that juggling performance and production with the demands of raising a young family were becoming too much, so Seven agreed to recruit a co producer; on Gordon Chater's suggestion they hired Michael Plant, who had started out writing scripts for radio star Grace Gibson before moving to Los Angeles, where he worked in film and TV. He was also an experienced journalist, which assisted with the topical nature of the show's humour. The Mavis Bramston Show was really interesting because you got to play something different every week. I did my impressions. I did Marlene and I did Marilyn it was such an original show at the time. And because it was all satirical and it was about the political scene of the time. I played the part of a schoolgirl every week to Barry Creyton's father and said, 'Daddy, why does the Prime Minister do so and so?' And he'd explain, you know. It would be that sort of stuff. At the end of the year Gordon Chater announced that he was leaving the series. To replace him, the cast was augmented by imported British actor Ronnie Stevens and Australian actor comedian Ron Frazer, who soon became a national star himself. Chater was subsequently recruited for a new comedy series, My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? which premiered in February 1967 and quickly became the most popular and successful Australian sitcom of the era.

Unlike many contemporary Australian TV shows, a significant portion of The Mavis Bramston Show has survived to the present. The collection database of the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra indicates that the Archive holds copies of most of the episodes made between 1964 and 1966. However the database shows no copies of any program from the 1967 series, which are presumably now lost and only compilations of highlights from the 1968 series, suggesting that the full original program tapes from that series are also lost. These losses might be explained by contemporary changes in Australian broadcasting and production practices. The 1964–66 episodes of Mavis were evidently broadcast live and most survive on 16mm film, since it was the practice in the early 1960s for the major commercial channels in Sydney and Melbourne to record telecine film transfers of these shows for distribution to regional and interstate TV stations. By 1967, however, most independent producers and Australian TV stations were using videotape but (as in the UK and the USA) a high proportion of videotaped Australian programming from the 1960s and 1970s was subsequently erased or otherwise disposed of.