Woobinda (Animal Doctor)
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | Woobinda |
| Original title | Woobinda (Animal Doctor) |
| Country of production | Australia |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1968-1969 |
| Production company |
NLT Productions, Ajax Films and Fremantle International for Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Nine Network |
| length | 25 minutes |
| Episodes | 39 in 2 seasons |
| genre | Animal film |
| idea | Malcolm Hulke |
| production | Roger Mirams |
| music | Bob Gibson, Frank Marcy |
| First broadcast | June 2, 1969 (Australia) on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) |
| German-language first broadcast |
January 4th 1970 on in the evening program ("Hessisches Werbefernsehen") of the Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) |
| occupation | |
| |
Woobinda (Animal Doctor) is an Australian television series about a widowed veterinarian who lives and works in New South Wales and has many adventures with family members and employees. The television series, which is aimed at all age groups, is very similar to the US series Daktari . It was first broadcast on German television in 1970.
production
Woobinda (Animal Doctor) was originally created on just 26 episodes, all shot in 1968. Then in 1969 it was decided to produce 13 more episodes. One of the reasons was that it was possible to sell such series abroad up to 39 episodes. Among the buyers were England, Ireland, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Canada and even Romania, the first country behind the iron curtain to buy an Australian television production. The pilot episode was produced in February 1968 under the working title "Animal Doctor". In April the series was renamed "Woobinda (Animal Doctor)". Woobinda is the Aboriginal word for "The man who heals". And in general, the well-being of the native people of Australia was taken into account almost for the first time on Australian television.
The television series is a co-production of German television with the Australian television stations ABC and Nine Network . First, the ABC received the right to first broadcast the 26 episodes, then it should be allowed to repeat by Nine Network. The latter received the first broadcast right for the second season, followed by the repetitions of the ABC. Now it was the case that the ABC first broadcast all 39 episodes, beginning on June 3, 1969, and repeated them in 1970. All subsequent repetitions from 1971 onwards were done by Nine Network.
In Germany, the series was first broadcast on April 8, 1970 on Hessischer Werbefernsehen in the early evening program (starting with the second episode). A few months later, the broadcaster Free Berlin and other state broadcasters followed on similar broadcasting slots. The sequence of the series was never kept to all of them and the episodes were broadcast in a jumbled manner. They were also adjusted in time to the program schedule of the previous evening and the originally 30-minute episodes were shortened by five minutes each.
content
The series is very similar to the successful American television series Daktari (1966 to 1969). In Woobinda (Animal Doctor) the veterinarian Dr. Stevens, called Woobinda, in the Australian bush in the fictional town of Gotten's Creek in New South Wales . His 18-year-old daughter Tiggy and the indigenous adopted son Kevin live with him . The young German veterinarian Peter Fischer supports the Woobinda at work.
reception
The journalists Michael Reufsteck and Stefan Niggemeier describe Woobinda as “Daktari in Australian” and recognize in it what is tried and tested, such as the mix of “cute animals”, ruthless people and overwhelming landscape shots.
The main character's assistant is a German veterinarian who wants to gain experience so that he can later open his own practice. The character is a concession to the German financiers and was embodied by the trained actor Lutz Hochstraate . Hochstraate traveled to Australia specifically for this purpose.
“The producers were looking for a German actor to play the part of Peter Fischer and my agent got a request. I was already well known on German television, but working in Woobinda and in Australia was no less challenging for me. "
It took Lutz Hochstraate a while to get used to the easy way Australians approach issues ("easy-going Aussie style of doing things"). He saw great differences to the tense German way of working. Things would be organized less tightly in Australia. He says that such a film would be a disaster in Europe because e.g. For example, in the Australian way of working, scripts are only handed out one day before the shooting date and the result is still good. Hochstraate then synchronized itself.
As a result, there were a large number of books, mainly on the German market, which wrote down or continued the idea from the episodes.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Classic Australian TV: Woobinda
- ↑ Michael Reufsteck and Stefan Niggemeier: Das Fernsehlexikon: Everything over 7000 programs from Ally McBeal to the ZDF hit parade, 2005. ISBN 978-3-44230-124-9
- ^ TV Times (Australian television magazine, now TV-Week ) of October 1, 1969
- ^ TV Times, December 18, 1968
Web links
- Woobinda in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Information on Classic Australian TV
- List of episodes on Fernsehserien.de
- Woobinda (Animal Doctor) on Australian Television