ARVO/Alexander’s Afternoon/The Alexander Bunyip Show/Alexander Bunyip’s Billabong

1 9 7 9 – 1 9 8 8 (Australia)

Alexander Bunyip first appeared on Australian television in 1979 in a weekday afternoon programme called ARVO (which stood for ‘Alexander’s Recycled Visual Offerings’) on the ABC. His human friend was Ron Blanchard.

The magazine-style programme linked two hours of children’s television including imported shows like Sesame Street, Basil Brush, Eagle of the Ninth, A Traveller In Time, The Clifton House Mystery, The Canal Children, Metal Mickey and the locally-produced Play School and Mr Squiggle.

1980 brought a change of title to Alexander’s Afternoon.

The title of the show subsequently changed to The Alexander Bunyip Show (1981) and Alexander Bunyip’s Billabong (1982 – 1988) but the format remained fundamentally unchanged.

The character of Alexander Bunyip – played in the series by former Flashez host Mike Meade – was based on a series of books by Michael Salmon.

The series was filmed at the ABC’s Gore Hill studios in Sydney.