Couldn't find a thread for this groundbreaking show.

Courier Express, 21 April 1974

AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION> ALMOST ANYTHING GOES by Patricia Angly.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, is a country which, until recently banned the sale of Playboy magazine and Portnoy's Complaint, TVviewers are having a field day watching one of-the-most rutty-sex-ridden half-hour programs in existence. It's called 96, the number of an apartment building, and it details the lives and loves of some 16 inhabitants there. In the past 18 months the program has developed into a national phenomenon, saved a TV channel from near bankruptcy, and become the subject of heavy debate in Parliament.

Some 4 million Australians-one third of the nation-watch the program, which is telecast at 8:30 p.m., and apparently identify with its characters. One of them is a homosexual lawyer. Two are Hungarian migrants. A fourth is the caretaker, or "conserge" as she calls herself, who keeps abreast of the problems of her neighbors. And what problems: insanity, lesbianism, murder, rape, incest, alcoholism and religious fanaticism. According to the show's producer, Robert Huber, an American who used to work in educational TV in Ohio and California, "The problems we deal with are normal and average."

"I think," he declares, "ours is one of the most moral shows I've ever been associated with, Evil never triumphs. We only show nudity when the occasion demands it. Characters in 96 take baths because people do bathe and they do continue conversations with their husbands or wives while in the tub."

"We are able," Huber elaborates, "to take up. causes and comment on life through our program. Take homosexuality. In Australia it was looked upon In with a great deal of disgust in comparison to other countries. We present our homosexual as a very normal person leading a very normal life. He's one of our favorite characters. He gets a tremendous amount of mail, especially from girls. They are obviously aware he is homosexul,, but accept him quite readily.

Despite an enormous public relations buildup including free T-shirts, a Sydney-to-Melbourne train-run, and a Number 96 photo album of the stars, not all the reaction to the show has been favorable.

EYE ON PRURIENCE

From the start of the series the Australian Broadcasting Control Board, the federal authority responsible for "good taste" on the Australian tube, has been keeping its eye on the more "prurient" aspects of 96. The board did not appreciate one scene in which a husband is indiscreetly fondling his pregnant wife. Although the control board here has some basic rules, such as no sex on the screen before 8:30 p.m., it has no explicit guidelines.

Miles Wright, chairman of the board, views the astounding success of 96 as an overreaction to the period when Australia severely censored its books and films. Other Australian TV producers are of course jumping on the same sex bandwagon. Channel 10, the originators of 96, whose owners include NBC, follows 96 on Tuesday and Thursday nights with a program called The Box .This series exarnines the innermost workings of a TV station. Its first nude scene, of a young lady getting out of bed, wandering around, and then bedding down again, was deleted by the control board, because as Wright explained, "there was no dialogue, so we didn't see any dramatic merit in it." Distressed as some factions of the TV audience purport to be, many viewers concede that 96 is habit-forming. Some even compare it to the once popular American soap opera, Peyton Place, which in comparisonis a sedate tea party. A few weeks ago one viewer wrote the editor of a weekly magazine about the trend in Australian TV and said: "Let us not despair, sir, in all our degeneracy. Comfort, if not salvation, lies in the fact that in these times of renewed national, - spirit, there's nothing that unites people like bad taste.

Edited May 9May 9 by Paul Raven

Thanks @Paul Raven

I find this show fascinating - unfortunately many of the available episodes aren't as compelling as those which were wiped, but the history is still very interesting to read up on. I am hoping more of those first few hundred episodes are found someday.

There were a number of episodes on Youtube but they were taken down.

Brollie, a free streaming service, has been uploading episodes - they are up to 899. A few hundred to go. They also have, in the 1973 section, a bridging episode with tons and tons of clips from the lost period, showing just how button-pushing the storylines were (including very ugly racism alongside the sexual antics).

I am hoping they will eventually upload the last months of the show, which, due to falling ratings, tried to return to the more ribald old days, with full nudity (even some rare male frontal nudity), and a very controversial Nazi biker gang story which the actor who played the gay lawyer Don warned them would get the show canceled (and it did). This period also had a beloved character being gunned down in his nightclub.

https://watch.brollie.com.au/apps/845/tv-shows/tv-shows/number-96

They also have Number 96: The Movie.

On 5/12/2026 at 11:50 AM, DRW50 said:

Thanks @Paul Raven

Brollie, a free streaming service, has been uploading episodes - they are up to 899. A few hundred to go. They also have, in the 1973 section, a bridging episode with tons and tons of clips from the lost period, showing just how button-pushing the storylines were (including very ugly racism alongside the sexual antics).

I am hoping they will eventually upload the last months of the show, which, due to falling ratings, tried to return to the more ribald old days, with full nudity (even some rare male frontal nudity), and a very controversial Nazi biker gang story which the actor who played the gay lawyer Don warned them would get the show canceled (and it did).

Funnily enough, the video thumbnails of the Number 96 episodes I've downloaded are all frames of the title animation opening up to form a 96. The majority of them stop at the point where it looks like a swastika. I didn't realize this was foreshadowing. :-)

Still grabbing the Number 96 episodes Brollie uploads and backing them up on my IA page. Up to episode 870 as of this week. At this rate of five episodes a week, it's going to take a while to get to 1,218.

9 minutes ago, Search For Yesterday said:

Funnily enough, the video thumbnails of the Number 96 episodes I've downloaded are all frames of the title animation opening up to form a 96. The majority of them stop at the point where it looks like a swastika. I didn't realize this was foreshadowing. :-)

Still grabbing the Number 96 episodes Brollie uploads and backing them up on my IA page. Up to episode 870 as of this week. At this rate of five episodes a week, it's going to take a while to get to 1,218.

Thank you! I am hoping they keep uploading long enough to get to those last months, which were very much trying to revert to the early days of the show, only even coarser, apparently (enough to drive away the creator and the woman who played Don's aunt [she was no longer acting on the show but was working on scripts/stories]).

I really wish more of the early days could be found. Do you know if they have ever spoken about what was found? There are some moments in the bridging episode which are not in the 1000th episode special, including a shocking scene where a self-loathing Don has gone cruising and the father of some young man he hit on follows him home and knocks the hell out of him.

That rough edge is what hooks me more on the early episodes. I was absolutely shocked that the opening episodes had a new arrival so disgusted by his full-term pregnant wife not wanting to have sex that he bed the shopkeeper's daughter. And another scene where Alf grabs Vera, groping and harassing, as Vera and his wife Lucille just pass it off as no big deal. (it's even odder to watch knowing Vera is repeatedly raped through the show's run)

By color the show is much cozier and a little too comedy-focused. It's watchable, but I have to admit one of the main reasons I get through is all the guys in their tight trousers (or less...).

There was an episode where Don told his female law partner that he's homosexual, and he has his damn shirt half-open, chest hair on show. I know that was the style at the time but I kept having to remind myself he wasn't trying to hit on her.

(I think the guy who played Don must have had a contract about never being in his underwear - they saved that for Dudley...).

Edited 50 minutes ago50 min by DRW50

@Search For Yesterday @Paul Raven I forgot to post this but it's some excerpts of a Number 96 book circa 1973 or 1974, with some comments from the actors about their characters. The mention of Don having relationships with women before coming out (typical of the era) makes me wonder if they would have given him a kid if the show had gone on longer. I also didn't realize Vera was a prostitute. Some of her backstory sounds more interesting than her material onscreen.

https://televisionau.com/2012/03/number-96-in-their-own-words.html

I put this in the Tristan Rogers thread but last year someone found a short clip of a missing episode.

Elizabeth Kirkby (Lucy Sutcliffe) passed away recently at 105. What a life she led. The oldest PHD graduate in Australia.

https://www.skynews.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity-life/true-legend-of-aussie-tv-beloved-actress-and-star-of-iconic-soap-number-96-dies-aged-105/news-story/d382272760466b7f655352a609eb0b3d

Edited 23 minutes ago23 min by DRW50

Don on the left and Simon (John Orscik)

Edited 11 minutes ago11 min by Paul Raven

Here's an episode of The Evil Touch Elaine Lee (Vera) was in. She's good in a sad part.

4 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Don on the left and Simon (John Orscik)

That movie has some lost media as they filmed a kiss. Probably lost for good, but I hope not.

In an interview Joe Hesham said he kissed him but not Dudley. Given the many years I'm not surprised he didn't remember but he did kiss some of his last love interests on the show. He also said he and Dudley were never seen in bed together - that's not true either, although the moments are extremely brief and not romantic (he doesn't have a proper bed scene until another man in the final episodes of the show - as a sign of no one watching the end of Number 96, that guy, in spite of playing a cult leader, human trafficker, and evil bisexual/homosexual, a few years later went on to be a beloved good guy on the long-running soap A Country Practice).