| The Ferals | |
|---|---|
The original cast: Joe, Modigliana, Robbie, Rattus, Leonard, Derryn and Mixy. |
|
| Starring | Kylle Hogart Miguel Ayesa Brian Rooney Mal Heap Emma deVries David Collins Terry Ryan |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC TV Nickelodeon |
| Original run | 11 April 1994 – 26 June 1995 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Ferals is an Australian children's comedy television series created by Wendy Gray and Claire Henderson[1] and produced by the ABC. It ran from 1994 to 1995, and it featured a mixture of people and animal puppets known as the "Ferals." It was lauded for its irreverent humour and distinctive characters, some of which still feature today on ABC programming. Garth Frost was responsible for the puppet design.[1]
Contents |
The Ferals are an eclectic group of animals that live together in a backyard shed. There's a rat called Rattus, a feral cat called Modigliana, a rabbit called Mixy, and a feral dog called Derryn. The humans are two university students, and their landlord, who clash with each other and the Ferals. They include the uptight, neurotic landlord Joe who is determined to remove the ferals from his garden; the affable science student Leonard, and medical student Robbie, who attempt to shield the ferals from eviction, but are sometimes exasperated with their antics.
There were also the 'Bogans From The Bush' as Modigliana liked to call them, Keith, a koala and Kylie, a kangaroo. These two characters often clashed with the Ferals, thinking they were above them due to their status as native Australian animals. They were also quite nasal and whiney in their characteristics. Other characters included White Ants (Tina Bursill, Robert Hughes), Rock Wrangler (Tina Matthews) and Fat Cat (Taylor Owens)
30 episodes were produced:
| # | Title | Original Air Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "A Explosion of Talent" | 11th April 1994 |
| New odious Landlord Joe King moves in and now owns the Ferals' shed so they have to try and get in his good books so he won't throw them out. | ||
| 2 | "The Ghost of Ironbark Lill" | 18th April 1994 |
| An urban legend of a local ghost named "Ironbark Lill" may not be just a legend after all. Well not if Joe or the Ferals have anything to do with it. | ||
| 3 | "Couch Potatoes" | 25th April 1994 |
| The Ferals want a new television, but Joe won't give it to them, so they decide to have their own game show of "Pay The Price" where the stakes are that Joe gets the television if he loses but if he wins, the Ferals move out of the shed. | ||
| 4 | "Buried Treasure" | 2nd May 1994 |
| The Ferals find Buried Treasue that turns out to be only Chocolate Coins. Meanwhile Joe is hoping to sell his house. | ||
| 5 | "Wags to Riches" | 9th May 1994 |
| 6 | "Happy Birthday!" | 16th May 1994 |
| Joe makes the Ferals do chores to earn their keep for staying in the shed. Leonard's birthday is coming and Robbie decides to use Joe's house for a party while he's out, will it all go to plan? | ||
| 7 | "Fifteen Seconds of Fame" | 23rd May 1994 |
| The gang are trying to be noticed with their talents on television, Leonard and Robbie with their magic act and The Ferals with Modigliana's Country Western singing. | ||
| 8 | "Rock Horror" | 30th May 1994 |
| A living pet rock causes trouble for the Ferals. | ||
| 9 | "Modigliana" | 6th June 1994 |
| 10 | "Exam Fever" | 13th June 1994 |
| Dopey Derryn drinks an intelligence elixer that makes him extremely clever, much to everyone's amazement. | ||
| 11 | "Double Trouble" | 20th June 1994 |
| As if one Rattus wasn't trouble enough! Rattus and Joe's 'get-rich-quick' scheme goes awfully wrong — it's just as well that the Digital Duplicator has a reverse mode. | ||
| 12 | "The Rat in the Moon" | 27th June 1994 |
| Things go haywire, when the Ferals think aliens have invaded. | ||
| 13 | "True Romance" | 4th July 1994 |
| 14 | "April Fools" | 11th July 1994 |
| It's April Fools day and everyone is suspicious of each other's practical jokes. But Rattus has an even bigger joke planned for them. | ||
| 15 | "Seasons Greedings" | 18th July 1994 |
| It's Christmas and the Ferals are anxious to get their presents. Meanwhile Joe has made up a very special Christmas dinner that doesn't turn out to be as happy as he thought. | ||
| # | Title | Original Air Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Dentist" | 20th March 1995 |
| Rattus is entering a cheese-eating competition, but when he suffers from toothache, the Ferals must resort to various measures- culminating in having Mxy posing as Rattus- to keep the competition going due to Rattus's fear of the dentist. | ||
| 2 | "Man's Best Friend" | 27th March 1995 |
| The health inspector pays a surprise visit. Which can only means one thing - he has come to discover if any Feral animals are currently living on the property, which means trouble for Derryn. | ||
| 3 | "A Change is a Good as a Holiday" | 3rd April 1995 |
| Robbie goes away on a holiday. Wanting to have her flat to themselves for the Winter, the Ferals decide to trick Lenny into going away as well. The problem is - once they are gone - they totally trash the place. | ||
| 4 | "Home Truths" | 10th April 1995 |
| Robbie and Leonard lock up the Ferals' shed until they can pay to rebuild the damage caused to their flat. | ||
| 5 | "Rent A Pet" | 17th April 1995 |
| When Rattus borrows money from Joe in all the Ferals' names, they are all deep in debt and have to do several jobs to get the money back. Meanwhile Leonard creates a special Robot and Joe sees this as another get rich quick scheme. | ||
| 6 | "Let's Get Physical" | 24th April 1995 |
| 7 | "School's Out" | 1st May 1995 |
| The Ferals must pass an exam or else be sent to School. Luckily Robbie and Leonard are on hand to help them out... | ||
| 8 | "Rich and Infamous" | 8th May 1995 |
| Joe's won the lottery of a million dollars, so the Ferals, Robbie and Leonard use this to their advantage to buy stuff in his name, until they find out what he's really won and destroy Joe's new car. | ||
| 9 | "Feral TV" | 15th May 1995 |
| The Ferals decide to cheat to get on television. | ||
| 10 | "Mixy Mania" | 22nd May 1995 |
| Robbie has entered 'Totally Cool's' talent competition. But so has Mixy — and she's taped over Robbie's entry! When Mixy ends up winning the competition, the promise of stardom goes to her head, and sets feral against feral in the battle for the spotlight. | ||
| 11 | "Ratty Ratty Bang Bang!" | 29th May 1995 |
| Joe has a part time job in a Food warehouse — and he's bringing home the goodies! When it is discovered that a coin-sized terrorist bomb has been planted somewhere in the food, there's mayhem because Rattus is ticking...! | ||
| 12 | "Four Ferals and a Wedding" | 5th June 1995 |
| Joe falls in love, but his relationship is complicated by his attempts to keep the Ferals away from the bride | ||
| 13 | "Prime Suspect" | 12th June 1995 |
| After watching some strange goings on at Robbie and Leonard's flat, Mixy thinks that Robbie is a murderer. | ||
| 14 | "Joe's Army" | 19th June 1995 |
| To get back at the Ferals for stealing a turn in their car, Keith and Kylie take over their favourite rubbish tip. The Ferals turn to Joe (who is currently an army cadet in training) for help, but things get worse when he switches sides, kidnaps Mixy and Kylie steals Leonard's new invention: The Solar Neutronic Intergrated Force Field. | ||
| 15 | "Fossil Fools" | 26th June 1995 |
| When Derryn finds a dinosaur bone buried near the shed, the Ferals decide to open a dinosaur theme park with Joe as their partner. But Joe gets greedy and is determined to find more bones even if it means destroying their home and Robbie and Leonard's flat in the process. (Final Episode of the Series) | ||
Later in 1995 a five minute show called Feral TV was launched. The Ferals had been exploring the sewers, and had discovered the cable to a TV station. They started their own TV channel, calling it Feral TV, running under the TV boss Kerry, a loud gruff toad with an explosive temper[6], and his obsequious assistant the cockroach Rodney[7]. Kerry's character is modelled on the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer, who at the time, was the owner of Channel Nine. Keith from the original show also returned for this show.
Although few of the human actors went on to achieve successful television careers, some of the puppet characters continue to feature regularly in ABC programming. Mixy, in particular, was used as a host introducing the shows on the ABC Kids programming block, as well as having her own show and website [8]. Rattus and Modigliana were featured in the ABC School's education maths program, "Numbers Count". Also Modigliana went on to feature as co-host of the show Creature Features.[9]
1996 saw the publication of The Ferals Funtastic Fanbook by Garth Frost, Wendy Gray, David Witt and Tina Matthews.[10]