1 9 7 5 – 1 9 7 9 (Australia)
“Evenin’ viewers”. This was Paul Hogan in the days before he became Mick “Crocodile” Dundee, met Linda wotshername with the plastic face and silicon tits and dumped poor old Narelle in the fibro house at Auburn . . .
Paul Hogan may not have invented the Australian Ocker image but he certainly embodied it.
The former Sydney Harbour Bridge rigger who made his debut on New Faces came to fame via a regular spot on A Current Affair, a series of specials for Channel 7 and then his own show.
The shows also featured fantastic work by Hoges’ business partner John Cornell as drongo sidekick Strop – who also got to marry his Hogan Show co-star, the spunk of the seventies, Delvene Delaney, in real life.
Hogan characters like Leo Wanker, the incompetent magician The Great Luigi, and Donger still make me laugh.
In later years Hoges did films like Flipper which brought new meaning to the word “sad”. He used to do TV ads for ciggies you know – and he will certainly fry in Hell eternally for making the world think that Australians call prawns “shrimps”.
Hoges always claimed his New Faces debut consisted of nothing more than “hurling a few knives about and doing a bit of a tap dance”.
But he did it with such Ocker nonchalance that the audience were in stitches. In the grand final, he was beaten to first place by a 15-year-old cellist.
Paul Hogan
John Cornell
Delvene Delaney
Andrew Harwood
Sue McIntosh
Marguerite Frewin
Roger Stephen
Graham Mathrick
Marion Edward
John Blackman
