The International Face of Australian Television

Abstract

Australian television has always been part of an international cultural system. Programming, personnel, material resources, ideas and knowledge are among the elements that, historically, have moved between an audiovisual space, both here and elsewhere. Media executive Reg Grundy has been an important figure in this system. Over nearly 40 years, he built a television empire of considerable international significance. After sketching out this career, the article proceeds to outlines three moments in his company's development. The first occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s when it imported and remade many successful television game shows from the United States. A second occasion occurred in the mid-1970s when Reg Grundy Enterprises imported a small team from the United Kingdom who were highly experienced in the production of daily drama serials. The third moment happened in the very early 1990s, when Grundy World Wide began adapting drama serials that it had originally devised and produced in Australia to be remade elsewhere. These three occasions were important points where the national met the international. Collectively, they highlight not only the outwardlooking dimension of Australian television, but the need for home-based media historians to make such a perception central to their investigations of a pre 'media globalisation' past.