Talk:Prisoner (TV series)

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Contents 1 Coral Drouyn 2 school screenings!!?? 3 Merge proposal (Captain Marvellous) 4 Bad Girls is not a Prisoner spin-off 5 Article revamp 6 Bold removal 7 PLEASE NOTE 8 Clean-up 9 Helicopter prison escapes

[edit] Coral Drouyn

It was a ground breaking soap/drama for sure. The woman behind most of the stories was Coral Drouyn. She has always championed 'alternative' rights - including the first gay kiss on tv in Pacific Drive. She has a writers' web site at www.thedramaqueen.net for those interested in the story behind the stories.

[edit] school screenings!!??

The following claim in regards to the (1985) episodes featuring Nicki Lennox is made of the page:

The episodes in which she was featured were shown at schools throughout Australia to discourage teenagers from turning to crime.

Seems pretty unlikely given Prisoner was rated "Adults Only" in the ratings systems in use at that time. Seems even more unlikely given all the teachers who had been taunted with cries of "Vingar Tits" after this show started! Any references for this bit of trivia? MinorEdit 02:13, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

• It's listed in the On The Inside book by Burke I think. Essexmutant 09:16, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

If that's true (I haven't checked) then it proves nothing as that book is considered a joke amongst Prisoner fans due to the alarmingly high number of glaring errors it contains... characters are described using totally the wrong name, incidents and storylines are ascribed to the wrong character entirely, and basic facts are wrong through the book. I'm glad someone seems to now have removed the above claim. Asa01 03:49, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

I can concur on that point - the Burke book is widely regarded as containing many factual errors. (60.225.92.88 23:57, 31 March 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Merge proposal (Captain Marvellous)

Is Captain Marvelous a real-life fictitious character.... umm... you know what I mean? (^_^) Does the Captain exist in "real life" comic books, or was he just created for Prisoner:Cell Block H? If the latter, redirect; if he has a separate (fictional) existence, don't. Fourohfour 10:41, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

I have to say I'm flabbergasted Captain Marvellous has an entry. It's such a peripheral reference in the series that it's barely worthy of inclusion on the Prisoner page. For some reason I also recall it was actually Captain Courageous - making the entry not only barely relevant, but inaccurate to begin with. Does someone have a copy of the Merle Jones episodes to check? Oh, which means I agree with merge (or even delete) (60.225.92.88 23:57, 31 March 2006 (UTC))

And to answer your question, no Captain Marvellous/Courageous was/is not a real comic book character. It was occasionally referenced because the character in question (Merle Jones) was mentally retarded and read a lot of comic books. When not making little sense, she was usually seen in the background throwing her fists in the air shouting "pow" and "zam". Seriously. (60.225.92.88 00:10, 1 April 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Bad Girls is not a Prisoner spin-off

The article contains this reference under spin-offs: In 1999, a new British women's prison drama was created, entitled Bad Girls. As of 2006 it is still in production.

Bad Girls is not a spin-off of Prisoner, it's just another show about a women's prison. Unless someone wants to mount a case to retain it, I might delete it from the article. It has no more significant a connection to prisoner than any other dramatic work set in a women's prison (e.g. Within These Walls). (60.225.92.88 00:02, 1 April 2006 (UTC))

As a fan of both series, there are huge storyline similarities between the two. This may or may not be a sympton of TV drama writing or indeed the women's prison genre as a whole, but watching the first season of both series, there are very close correlations in plot.

Similarities do not make it a spin-off. Amongst TV shows and especially soaps, many are similar to other shows. Asa01 07:27, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article revamp

I've just rewritten the article to make it a more substantial piece. The character descriptions have been given their own pages and Prisoner now has its own category. Thanks. Ben King 02:50, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

The revamp looks great. I think it meets the criteria for a good article, and I've listed it as such. -- Longhair 08:33, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

I love it. It looks great. Keep it up, Ben! How good would it be if it got to be a Featured article? -- Shazza 02:52, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bold removal

REMOVED: "a more likely antedecendant is the controversial 1970s Australian soap opera Number 96, which had also aired on Network Ten and had dealt frankly with such taboo issues as homosexuality, rape and drug addiction. It was also an outrageously sensationalist show, featuring frequent nudity, murders (at one point the programme wiped out half the cast in a bomb explosion for an end of year cliffhanger) and a character called the “Phantom Knicker Snipper”. "

Prisoner and 96 don't have that much in common. Yes 96 was sensational, and it did influence Australian soaps in the 1970s - like Class of '74, The Box, and The Restless Years which all to varying degrees replicated 96 situations and storylines. 74 and The Box had the sex angle, The Box also had lots of nudity, while The Restless Years had a couple of 96 style murder mysteries and serial killer plotlines. In comparison Prisoner was much less like 96, and had more in common with Aust crime drama series like Cop Shop. Indeed Prisoner began two years after 96 had been axed due to plummetting ratings. Also, 96 never wiped-out half the cast in a bomb blast - only four characters died from a regular cast of over 15 people - and the bomb was not an end-of-year cliffhanger but occurred in early September 1975. 96 had no "Phantom Knicker Snipper", the term "Knicker Snipper" was used in the press but not in the show itself. Asa01 20:10, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] PLEASE NOTE

As the original author of the article revamp, I am removing my content. I do not support Wikipedia due to a disagreement with its draconian policies and no longer wish my original text to be featured on a public site. Please have the courtesy to respect the wishes of the original author. If you wish to expand and rewrite the article, please do so using your own text. Thank you.

I do not support Wikipedia and have now indicated my wishes. As far as I am concerned, Wikipedia is stealing my material. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ben King (talk • contribs).

That's funny. The article revamp material seems to be largely based on the text written by me many years ago on my own website Aussie Soap Archive: detailed Prisoner overview, so funny that the self-proclaimed "original author" now wants it removed. It is not a direct cut and paste of the text, and it has been fully reworded and some new ideas added, but much of the content and the general ideas seem pretty similar to my original web page. Asa01 21:39, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure what these "draconian policies" are, but in any case once you have published your work under a particular licence you can't retroactively retract it... it's "out there" under the GFDL. --Dave Beta 11:36, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Clean-up

This article is a mess. This is what needs doing:

• inline citations need adding.
• the plot/storyline needs to be rewritten to make it more encyclopedic. It is well-written, but the many editorial asides and comments are inappropriate to Wikipedia because they violate WP:NOR.
  • Perhaps we can have several daughte articles for different years, such as As the World Turns.
• I'm unsure, really, that the emphasis on transmission dates is relevant. As a fan, I find it interesting and useful, but I'm not sure if it belongs here.
• Do we need to specify which episodes were on the DVDs?
• There's little about the theme song.

After we've addressed these points, we should submit it to peer review. If people disagree with these points, then we'll go to peer review now. The JPS^{talk to me} 11:53, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Helicopter prison escapes

I would like to list the Marie Winter helicopter escape in the section of Helicopter prison escapes which deals with such incidents that have been portrayed in fiction. However, I am not sure where to find a reference for this other than in this article. I have commented on the escape on the article's talk page and wondered whether someone could add it for me.

Done. The JPS^{talk to me} 21:29, 23 February 2007 (UTC)