Johnson & Friends

1 9 9 0 – 1 9 9 5 (Australia)
78 x 10 minute episodes

This early-morning TV show was produced by Film Australia, broadcast on Australia’s ABC Television network, and aimed at pre-schoolers.

Episodes featured the adventures of Johnson, a cuddly but courageous stuffed pink elephant and his friends – Alfred, the gruff and leaky green hot water bottle, McDuff the cheeky multicoloured concertina who had a tendency to panic, Diesel the noisy red dump truck (number plate: TOY 123), Squeaky the shy but indomitable toy robot and Victoria the gracious dinosaur.

They all lived amongst the clutter in Michael’s bedroom (except Victoria, the dinosaur who lived in Michael’s sister Melissa’s bedroom) and shared their adventures while Michael was out or asleep.

Developed under the guidance of the Centre for Early Childhood Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney, the series was written “with a sensitivity towards current preschool development philosophies,” which was a pompous way of saying that the stories were ideologically sound, environmentally friendly, socially aware and user safe.

The life-sized characters performed in a gigantic set carefully designed to scale create the illusion of a real child’s bedroom.

Narrator
Paul Bertram
Johnson
Garry Scale
Jonathon Hendry
Arky Michael
Alfred
Peter Browne
McDuff
Katrina Sedgwick
Dra McKay
Diesel
Doug Scroope
Matthew Chamberlain
Bruce Wedderburn
Squeaky
Sarah Boddy
Kristen Lyons
Emily Lumbers
Victoria
Deborah Kennedy
Leighton Young
Elisabeth Easther