Micro Macro

1 9 7 8 (Australia)
12 x 30 minute episodes

Noel Ferrier compered this weekly visual quiz game show – described as “Mastermind for slow learners” – on ABC-TV (Australia) from Thursday 5 October 1978.

Panellists Carol Raye and Jimmy Hannan were joined each week by two celebrity guests who then competed to identify images flashed on the screen in unusual ways: Images could be close-up views of common objects from odd angles, jigsaw type fragmentations of a photograph of a well-known person, or spot the missing object tests.

Guests included Chelsea Brown, Shirley Strachan from Skyhooks, Jacki Weaver, Kate Fitzpatrick, Lynda Stoner, model Maggi Eckardt, cricketer Tony Greig, Jeanne Little, John Ewart, Ron Barassi, Bernard King, Dita Cobb, Diana Fisher, Peter Wherrett, Jill Forster, Barry Creyton and Jack Thompson.

Each week a member of the studio audience participated with the chance of winning prizes ranging from a colour television or a video recorder to a hot water bottle or a chocolate bar.

Based on a top European show, Micro Macro was produced at ABC TV’s Sydney studios by Jacqui Culliten.

The show was much-criticised and rated so poorly in the 8 pm Thursday night slot that it was shifted to 6.30 pm on Mondays from 27 November. The final episode aired on Monday 18 December.

Noel Ferrier later labelled the show “an all-time classic disaster”, adding “every time I went on camera I knew how people felt on the Titanic 20 minutes before it went down”.